Monte's MMO Adventure

[Humanoid]

Was assuming free was a criterion here. Would be good if they were having one of their trial periods that they occasionally have, but nope, not on at the moment.

 

 

I don't really have much, for someone dipping their toes into MMOs it's really down to trying EVE plus a 'conventional' WoW-model MMO. But since WoW's trial is very, very limited, you can substitute something like Rift or, dare I say, SWTOR. Hell, maybe Tera is an option in that I hear it's probably the closest to GW2 in terms of more action-oriented play.

 

Actually, TESO's final beta period is this weekend, and it shouldn't be too hard to nab a key for that, it's probably the last chance to play it free for the next 6 months or so.

[Keyrock]

Tera has better combat that most MMOs (that's not saying all that much) and pretty graphics, but I couldn't personally get past the extremely creepy furry/loli fetish aspect of it.

[IndiraLightfoot]

 

Well I've just given Conan ten minutes and uninstalled it. I will now try another.

Hehe, made me laugh.

 

Such is the fate of most MMO's. Not that I've played many. For some reason I liked WoW when it first came out and played that (by my lonesome...) for a long time. Tried a few others, didn't like any of them. Like Keyrock I played NW:Online for some months but now don't care.

 

I tend to like the open-world MMO's for exploring and such, but after that ... so far it's felt like once you played one, there isn't any reason to play another. At best, they're fun in that Diablo-like way. And in terms of playing with random strangers on the 'net, I think I had more fun via Diablo2 group monster bashing then any "MMO" I've tried.

 

LadyCrimson summed up nicely my view on this, Monte! I tried LotR for a month, but got tired of it. I played GW1 and seized after two days. My absolutely best MMO experiences comes from dedicated servers for NWN 1-made D&D content. They were far superior to anything else since then, it's almost not funny anymore.

[213374U]

I suppose I'm looking for the fun of co-op with the combat of RPGs. I like, for example, Diablo MP and RTS games like CoH.

 

Yeah, that's where I'm at too. Problem I've found is that MMOs are time-based as opposed to skill-based, for the most part. So in my experience you will find yourself devoting most of the time to soul-crushingly repetitive tasks that are supposed to enhance your enjoyment of other parts of the game (gearing for endgame/raids, crafting) but then the actual gameplay isn't as "tight" and polished as in skill-based games. Of the MMOs I've played, the one that had the most fun and co-op oriented gameplay was DDO (I've heard also good things about LotRO, also by Turbine), but the extremely grindy crafting mechanics eventually drove me off. It's easy to get sucked in by the perpetual carrot-and-stick design of MMOs where the end reward is items or other in-game goodies, instead of the gameplay itself, but to me their biggest selling point is the general lack of drive towards development of games with a serious focus on co-op.

 

Be sure to wake me up if this changes.

[Monte Carlo]

^ I think you've nailed it. MMO aren't designed to be played. They're designed to be... worked on.

 

Mebbe there needs to be an MMO for people who don't really like MMOs. Must be a market out there for it.

[marelooke]

The MMO I enjoyed best was EverQuest 2, which I stopped playing because they kept streamlining it (read: WoW-ifying) (well I also had a lot of fun in World of Warcraft during The Burning Crusade, but after that expansion things kinda went downhill faster and faster)

 

EverQuest 2 had a nice skill system that left room for "fun skills" on top of all the must haves for an "optimal build" (and unlike in most MMOs what was "optimal" was often debatable), it had a huge world to explore with lots of old, dusty and forgotten corners you could re-discover and some dungeons that actually required puzzling to get through (loved the haunted mansion). They also had a nice system that allowed high level players to help out newer players while still getting experience out of it but without leaving them with all their high-level power, it even worked reasonably well.

 

Being able to use whatever gear you wanted as "appearance gear" was pretty darn cool as well and often a reason to go on some epic quest to obtain a certain good looking item. Of course, having your own house that you could decorate and stuff with trophies of victories past was also a very nice touch.

 

And you can play as a Fae (or an Evil Fae, can't remember their name though). C'mon!

 

The negatives for me were a very crappy game engine and total disinterest from SOE to actually maintain the game (read: buggy resource hog, compared to say, WoW) and the inability of paying subscribers to play in the F2P servers with access to everything the sub entitled us to (that killed it for me, since my friend didn't want to sub and I didn't want to ditch my guildies. The GMs being rude and unhelpful about it didn't help any either). The raids also sort of sucked since it was pretty much impossible to get the timing right on a lot of bosses without third party (paid) tools or lots of trial and error.

 

That said, as a mmoRPG it's still the best I've played and I've actually considered resubscribing now that it's supposedly out of the hands of SOE. I fear it will get killed by whatever new EQ game they're working on though, which will most likely be just another generic WoW clone with a few "oh wow" features they'll use as an excuse to claim "it's different" (Rift and TOR say "hi!")

 

 

I'm also a sort of EVE player, as in, I still have a sub running and occasionally do stuff but to actually really enjoy EVE takes quite a lot of time imho, time I currently do not have. But flying around and enjoying the sights doesn't get old.

[Keyrock]

I'm a bit intrigued by a game I stumbled across called Wander.  It's in beta, plus I think they're switching engines to CryEngine at the moment.  Anyhoo, it's billed as a non-combat, non-competitive, exploration-based MMO.  Exploration is my jam and I'm totally down for non-combat, as combat is often times (not always) the part of games I dislike the most.  I have no clue if it's any good, mind you.

Edited March 13, 2014 by Keyrock

[Serrano]

I suppose I'm looking for the fun of co-op with the combat of RPGs. I like, for example, Diablo MP and RTS games like CoH.

 

Path of Exile sounds closest to what you're looking for.It's only "sort of" an MMO but it does play like Diablo. Marvel Heroes is a similar model but when I played the beta the game just wasn't fun, perhaps it's been sufficiently polished since then though.

 

Have you ever heard of Planetside?

Edited March 13, 2014 by Serrano

[melkathi]

One of the reasons I like superhero MMOs, even though I hate superhero movies and find the comis boring, is that in the attempt to make people feel superheroy from the get go, there i an attempt to make even early abilities and normal gameplay heroicaly fun. It can mean that a lot of the challenge is taken out, but who needs challenge when you can send an enemy flying with one punch

[kirottu]

For Monte I would recommend World of Tanks. Taking world war era tanks to battle feels good man and it's free.

[Bester]

Tanks are moba, not mmo.

[tajerio]

The problem with MMOs, I've found, is that generally one has to play them with other people.  I don't mind teaming up with some dudes I don't know for a little CoD.  But I do mind teaming up with people I don't already know outside of the game to try and get through a dungeon or a raid.  And I don't have enough gaming RL friends to do that.

 

The other problem with MMOs is that optimization is king.  I don't mind being a total munchkin powergamer from time to time--but doing it as a matter of course is anathema to me.  And this relates closely to the first problem, because there's always some jerk who's got the best of everything and is using third-party programs to track his DPS and just sucks the fun right out of it.

Edited March 14, 2014 by tajerio

[Endrosz]

MC, as an avid MMO gamer who goes back to the time of text-only MUDs and such, I thought long and hard about an MMO worth your time. And then I remembered one game which is very unique among MMOs and in many ways reminiscent of classic party-based RPG: Atlantica Online.

 

It's FTP with microtransactions, but it's not that obnoxious that it's unplayable without spending real money. I have a friend who is a hardcore player on the highest level, and never spent a dime on it.

 

In Atlantica Online, although you create a character at the start, you control a party of increasing size. First it's 3, then it goes up by 1 every 10 levels, up to 9 at lvl 60, IIRC. The additional party members are called mercenaries, and there is a "storage" for them so you can experiment with different party combinations. The party members are set up using a 3x3 grid, and it matters where you put certain characters, both from an offensive and defensive perspective.

 

There are 30 (!!!) different classes, each has 3 skills on average. A special flavor of the class system is the "attack pattern" which some classes have as their own unique advantage (others have high base stats or buffs/debuffs or more than 3 skills). The Artilleryman, for example, attacks in a cross-shaped pattern, 5 enemy grid positions at the same time.

 

The enemies are also party-based, they use the same 3x3 grid for setup opposite your party's grid.

 

 

The battles in the game can get even bigger, since you can team up with 2 more players to form a Long Distance Party of 3. It's called Long Distance because you don't need to be close to each other to reap some benefits (XP bonus, loot bonus). But if you are, the battles grow accordingly, and you can participate in mind-blowing 20+ vs. 20+ battles. When you're done with the mobs on the grid before you, you can move on to attack the enemy grid next to your own, and the fellow party members can help you in the same way. Here's a screenie:

 

 

There are also boss battles designed for 3 players. Quite spectacular and frantic with all those abilities from the 20+ mercenaries flying around really fast.

 

The game features standardized fair PvP (a rare feaure in MMOs), which means that your gear doesn't matter, only the class and level of the characters. This is in addition to regular, bring-your-gear PvP.

 

The game world is a magical version of our own, it's something like Ars Magica, or the Secret World, etc. with the ages mixed up. So you get the ancient version of China, the railroad/Western age of the US, the late renaissance age of Europe tc. Most of the globe is available on the map, including my quaint little East European country of Hungary plus Transsylvania!

 

It is also a Korean, and as such, even more grindier than Western MMOs.  But I think it's fun for a while. I advise joining a guild ASAP, as guilds help you immensely with understanding and playing the game. There is an in-game advertising board where you can find a nice casual guild without powergameragers yelling at you.

[teknoman2]

after having played anarchy online, EVE, guild wars 1 and 2, conan, RF online and other mmos, i discovered that in the end they all leave me empty. after playing them for several weeks or months, at some point i start feeling that im just wasting my time (and money if they have a subscription)

[Monte Carlo]

Thanks Endrosz. It almost looks like the original Warcraft.

[Valsuelm]

The MMO market is a sad place these days. The majority of them are WoW clones, with WoW still being the best in regards to polish and end game content out there by far, even though it's a shadow of what it used to be. Blizzard effectively all but completely killed the fun and challenge in leveling years ago, so as Bester mentions above possibly the best MMO experience you'll find is on a private WoW server (though contrary to what he says Blizzard does forbid it, they just don't actively pursue shutting these things down) that is running either Vanilla or BC WoW.

 

Other notable considerations would be:

 

EvE Online is really it's own kind of MMO, and I salute it for that. It's definitely not for everyone though, and it's the most noob unfriendly MMO out there for sure. But it is worth checking out. This game along with WoW are the only MMOs really worth playing long term at this point in time in my opinion. The rest of them are too busy trying to be like WoW (though they all say they aren't. they really are). Both EvE and WoW require a subscription but they really are that much better than the others to justify having one.

 

SW:TOR for the story (leveling up in that game was fun, though I haven't played it since it went Free to Play so perhaps that's not the case anymore). The game is more a like a single player RPG though than an MMO. If you don't want to actually play and have to cooperate with other players much this is probably the MMO for you (unless of course you don't like Star Wars). Once you finish your class's story and reach end game though the content is pretty blah, and aside from the interesting story you get while leveling up this game is a WoW clone through and through.

 

Rift: is probably the best WoW clone out there. The end game has some well designed encounters and leveling up can be fun and challenging. The game lacks the polish that WoW has though, has a lot more 'grind', and has an even less compelling story than WoW does. It's an alternative to WoW, but except arguably in regards to graphics WoW beats it in every category.

 

Everything else I've seen is really just MMO noob central for the most part, and wannabes. Some of the others look pretty for sure, but lack the substance found in the above mentioned games.

 

MMOs aren't for everyone, and if you're going to get good in one you're going to have to invest some time. The best of them though can be fun on a level you won't find in any other video game genre.

Edited March 15, 2014 by Valsuelm

[Calax]

City of Heroes!

 

I miss that game....

 

Depending on your flavor of choice you could give Trek: Online a shot.

[HoonDing]

Vindictus is worth a try, it's the best Korean MMO.

[Hurlshort]

City of Heroes!

 

I miss that game....

 

Depending on your flavor of choice you could give Trek: Online a shot.

 

I gave it a try and realized I'm not much of a trekkie.

[ShadySands]

I'm a huge Trekkie but the game is just not that good

[LadyCrimson]

I like to watch and, sometimes, fun-nitpick Star Trek (OS/TNG anyway). I doubt I'd like to play a Star Trek video game.

[Hassat Hunter]

I would say TOR... then again, that's the only MMO that hold me.

Have Planetside 2 installed, but never played it yet.

 

Although I initially hated TOR, playing together with zbyl2 (also of TSLRCM) all the time made it so much better. Enemies killed much faster, less time healing, more progress in less time, 2 stories in once? Yup.

I wouldn't recommend it alone, but it's fun for the stories in co-op. The gameplay doesn't grate that much if done like that.

 

Also stealth to avoid combat, and simply running through groups of enemies...

Which is kinda anti-the way the game is meant to be played... but makes it so much more bearable in the end.

[ManifestedISO]

Are you prescient, Monte, or did you ring Irvine and ask for a tank MMO from Obsidian.    

[Humanoid]

Furthermore, a tank game WITH NO ROMANCES.

[Monte Carlo]

All we need now are some tunnels and I'll die of happiness.