It's time for a break from the 360, thought I'd check out some of the MMO offerings. Anyone here play? I dont' mind paying a montly fee, but I'd rather not pay for the initial software download since I'm pretty picky about what I play. I've never played one before but strategy games on the XBOX are pretty fun for me. I'm more into the war strategy types. Fantasy isn't what I love but I'll play it if there are some interesting aspects to it. I'm more into merchant charaters. Anyone an MMOer?
Either Everquest or Guildwars. WoW is hyped but the game play gets very stale after a short while, IMO it is too simplified. It is a nice introduction to MMOs but you'll grow tired of it quickly. Everquest is old but well tested and I prefer it over all the others. You can get it with all expansions for $20 currently, and subscription is about $15 a month. The graphics are still fairly nice, the lore is excellent, you get a wide variety of pretty well balanced classes and races. Main problem starting new would be that it is so far developed but there is very good provision for new players still. Everquest 2 is a nice game but under populated. The graphics are beautiful, the gameplay is more like WoW but a little more complex. The lore is nice. You need a fairly recent PC to get the most out of it. Ultima Online is so old now that it has dated rather badly. Guildwars offers a unique experience in MMOs and is subscription free. You can even play through a lot of it solo if you so desire, so you don't have to spend ages looking for groups. I had a great time playing through the first game and the other releases can be bought as add ons or played individually. PSO (Phantasy Star Online) still suffers from script kiddy syndrome AFAIR. Shame, as that was a great console MMO back in the day. Too many kids, griefers and cheaters. I don't know anything about Final Fantasy XI (Online), but I hear good and bad things about it. Might be worth a try but as far as I have been able to find out there is no free trial to test it out (although as with most MMOs you get your first month's subscription for free.) Star Wars Galaxies is interesting and obviously a great license, but the gameplay mechanics are wrong and it doesn't make the most out of the SW universe sadly. Lineage 2 is a grind fest and sadistic in its treatment of players. I played it for about 5 months and have never gone back. Steer well clear. Vanguard is a nice game from the creators of Everquest. I haven't played that one but hear both good and bad things about it. I played Lord of the Rings Online Beta and it was terrible. Like SWG it messes up the opportunity to make the most of the license and I find the graphics ugly. It also suffers from terrible lag. Eve is an interesting sci-fi MMO, although not in the traditional sense. Think MMO Elite (if you ever played that space game). Worth a try, but beware of the time spent travelling from place to place (upwards of 20minutes sometimes!) You can find a lot of free trial offers at www.mmorpg.com together with reviews. I'd be happy to offer opinions or answer questions if you have them too, either here or in PM.
Oh god don't ask where I disappeared to as I could give you a list of who's who of MMO's. EVE Online was ok in a way but ti takes too long to progress due to being time-based and not grind-your-tits-off based, which means people who have been playing for years will always prawn noobs. It's also a bit too technical and a bit too clinical - they were the very things which appealed to me, but it just doesn't pull it off in a way to make it fun, atleast not in the first few months =/ Jumping through warp gates for hours on end is not that entertaining - think Freelancer but infinitely bigger and the pirates are players with infitely bigger ships to kill you with Probably the world's first Single-Player MMORPG.. lol World of Warcraft - I'd be back on that now if I could afford the £10 a month subscription... Lol! It was good fun and you can get to lvl 70 in a reasonable amount of time so long as you work at it. PvP is fun too, especially in the Battlegrounds, but there are too many character class imbalances which leaves some people way overpowered and others unable to do much against them. Overall it's a much more entertaining than any other MMORPG I've played and there are plenty of people on it so you can always get a group, but the chinese farmers pushing up prices have killed the in-game economy. Back at launch you could buy somehting for a few gold, these days prices on the in-game market have doubled, tripled, or some items grown exponentially which can make shopping hard, especially when you still only make the few paunuts per kill as you did when prices were low. PlanetSide -I haven't really played it for some time but back in 2003 at times it was some good fun, but when WoW came out it lost a lot of it's player base. Think FPS + driving + shooting ala battlefield, but you have to learn the skills to use different weapons and vehicles. I personally used to love being a stealthed hacker; I could hack doors and terminals and vehicles like a pro and was hard to spot, I never carried a gun because I used to knife people But then the nerf's came and the players left so I'm not really sure what's happened to it these days. Myself personally I wouldn't bother with anything like Everquest or Guild Wars, City of Heroes etc, they don't seem too appealing tbh.. I also wouldn't bother with any MMORPG based on a movie as they never live long enough to give you a decent reward for your efforts and they never capture the elements which made the movies great...
I've never actually played before, but I know I'm not interested in grinding anything out. I'm mostly looking for something to explore around in for an hour after I'm done working and before bed. I never got into WoW because I'm not much into the magical spell / fantasy thing. When I saw it that seemed to be what it was about. I'm not interested in fighting or killing, or at least not that much. I'm also not interested in building too much wealth or just obtaining things in general unless they open up the online world for me. I guess I'm not really willing to spend hours a day doing things that allow me to get more things since there's never really an end to that. No endless level chasing, etc. At this point I'm mostly interested in exploring and just seeing what can be done within the online world. I love strategy and SIMS games, Halo 2, driving, etc. I've never been too much of an adventure fan which is probably why I never looked at MMOs until now. But, I'm up for something new...so...
I'm not into Fantasy/Magic/Spells and shit either but as a game WoW is superior to many of the Sci Fi games, because it's not all clinical - it's fun I think if you don't fancy fighting or killing then WoW may not be for you, but then there may not be an MMO for you either, especially at an hour a day. If ypu're a part-timer that'swhere the EVE training system cones into it's own because training takes x amount of hours whether you are at the computer or not, so you can still level up when you're at work. Saying that htough it can be pretty boring an an hour can quickly evaporate going through a series of warp gates to your destination =/
I've played WoW off and on for the last 6 months or so. It has some fun, addicting gameplay but unless you're hardcore you'll get burned out. A casual gamer probably won't get past lvl 30 or so. Like Taucias said, it is a pretty simple game, so it's good for starting out. It's the best when playing with your friends, for sure. ps If Blizzard makes World of Starcraft, I'll cancel my WoW account in a heartbeat! A HEARTBEAT!!
I would personaly recommend Ragnarok Online Really loved the style of it.. it's the only MMO I've actually enjoyed playing (WOW was a real disappointment for me)
I don't believe there is a MMO bigger or more varied than Norrath (EQ world). Seriously. WoW is also fun to explore and the flying is pretty spectacular, I must say. If you're not planning to really delve too deeply into a MMO and just want the distraction then WoW is probably the solution for you. You could always progress onwards to other MMOs if you got into it of course. If you're not keen on the grind then Guildwars might be an ideal game for you. You can explore through the world and the maximum level (at least last time I played) is 20. The idea is that you explore the planet, discover new skills, weapons and armour, and then go to PvP (player vs. player) arenas with your guild. You don't have to do that though, and most of the world can be explored in groups of players or just yourself and AI bots. Exploring means lots of fighting, but it is entertaining in a console like way. If you're interested in making things and moving away from the typical MMO grind then some have specialisms in tradeskills. I had some fun in Everquest 2 making items and WoW also offers some fun stuff although not as many as it could do (again, it gets old fast). I'm a little biased towards EQ because it is my favourite, but the tradeskill stuff in that game is quite expansive and varied, and the item list available within the world (weapons, armour, potions etc) is huge! My advice is to look at some free trials (includes WoW), give them a go and see what you make of them all. It might be bewildering at first, but the epic scale and freedom you get in a MMO is part of the charm. Then there is Secondlife, which is the big thing at the moment. You can download it and pay a one off fee of something like $10 to set up an account, then continue for free indefinitely. You can also pay a subscription and that allows you to make money and buy land in the game if you decide you really dig it. It's a totally different experience to pretty much anything else available and worth a look if you're really after that distraction and are keen on making things and experimenting. Secondlife has a scripting and modelling tool that allows you to make interactive objects within the game world to pretty much anything your mind can conjure. I forgot about City of Heroes! That is very fun to start with, especially if you are a comic book fan. You create your own superhero or villian then either save people/combat monsters or create havoc. There is a free trial available on fileplanet I think. Again, a unique game in the MMO world.
I have to say I loved EVE Online, spent over 2 years on there, only left due to not having time to play once in 2 months. It's great, if you get past the first month you will find yourself waking up at 6am to change the skill you have training, or be waiting for downtime so you can get to the complex before anyone else. I loved the freedom of eve I miss it now, god damn you DJH
Eve does take a while to get into, but when you start doing pvp or missions in groups on ventrilo it gets to be good fun. DJH
