I want a mmorpg !

[MasterPlan]

I've recently been playing alot of rpg's, and I want to play one online, I've been thinking of either, world of warcraft, final fantasy xi or ragnarok these 3 jumped out and appeal to me the most... I want a game thats easy to play, good battling system and lotsa fun

Questions I have about mmorpgs in question,

Is the battling system in FFXI stop and go turn based battling like in the console games? or is it the click click click kind like that of Diablo 2 also, what kinda systems do WoW and ragnarok use? Is there alot of trading, and jobs based stuff in all of these, or can you choose to do either or, i.e. be ULTIMATE WARRIOR MAN! or be a kind little trader who does nothing but trade?

Whats the community like in each? WoW is relitavely new, I know lots of people playing it which appeals to me, but the others appeal to me more because of how cool they look

thats all the questions I can think of for now, your opinions on these 3 and suggestions on any other mmorpg suggestions welcome !

-Rich

[Friction]

Hello!

I started with Final Fantasy 11 and to be honest I found it really hard going. I gave it a good go, but just found I could never really make any progress Also some areas are so large they take ages to traverse. Dying (which I found happened alot) really set you back - you lost exp and sometimes levels and I just really found it hard slog and a bit of a grind.

I've really started playing World of Warcraft and it's everything FF11 isn't! It's very easy to play, rewards come quickly and easily and I just find the whole thing much more enjoyable, not to mention accessable - especially to me who has very little online RPG experience!

I've played WoW almost non stop since I got it, at the weekend for exampleI think nothing of playing it all day! It's a brilliant game and IMO it's definately the main contender you should be looking at when making your choice.

Also I might be wrong in saying this, but because it's new, you will find many new people playing all around your level so you will have lots of opportunity to get involved with people and enjoy lots of quests. This can only be a good thing. I personally found the FF11 community very hard to break into - perhaps just the server I was on though?!

Anyhow I vote for WoW for you

HTH

[Leon Retro]

My Brother is really in to WOW at the moment and though it isn't perfect, it is a really nice experience.

Another MMO on the horizon is Guild Wars, which is supposed to be really user-friendly and has been designed to cut-away all the bad points of the genre. It will be hitting the uk at the end of April and is looking really good.

Guild Wars

[FelixofMars]

Yep, My friend is working on that so buy Guild Wars

I have acctually played the E3 beta, it was great fun and only ?17.99 if you preorder from play.com, Bargain. Best bit is most of it is done in a cunning way so they have got around having lots of servers and this means no monthly fees.

Mine is on pre-order... no freebies

[Kizzycrew]

I personally like FFXI. As long as you're on the right server, it doesn't take that long to get into, as people help you level to ten, where things get interesting.
Also, Rose online plays very much like Ragnarok but is in full 3d, and currently in open beta, so check that one out, too.

~~Kizzycrew

[Pij]

Out of interest is Guildwars like other mmg's where you level up or is it something different, like Planetside where its geared to fighting straight away?

I looked at there site but it doesnt have much info.

[Darwock]

I'm all for FFXI. It's completely and utterly EPIC. I'm approaching 12 months in, and I still feel like i've just scratched the surface.

Also it's probably best suited to what you describe as choosing to be nothing but a trader, because it has a well established (and controversial) economy system which some people exploit 24/7 by buying and selling, mining/fishing/harvesting for profit. Of course the theory is that the people doing this are selling the in-game money on for real life cash - after all whats the point in having lots of gil if you don't use it to go adventuring? Personally I have just started a little side-line of warping people back to their homepoints in exchange for a fee makes me feel like some kind of other-worldly taxi service lol.

The combat in FFXI is not similar to the other offline games - at least not on the surface. Monsters are free-roaming, attacks are carried out in real-time. However on closer examination it is very similar to the ATB system of previous FF games. Time between attacks is decided by a delay characteristic - also magic has a cool-off period so you can only cast certain spells a certain number of times. Limit breaks are present in a sense, because giving and receiving damage builds your tactical points which when 100% or above can be used to unleash a special attack.

When you get into the meat of the game the combat system becomes total genius in my opinion. It calls for total co-operation and tactics...

Obviously the FFXI community is enormous. There was one guy who was in my 1st ever party, and I still bump into him from time to time. I'd compare it to meeting someone you know when you go on holiday, cos there's just soooo many people on each server.

[VR46]

I only have experience of WoW, and being a noob to MMORPG's was a bit daunted, but 10 minutes into it, was well happy, user interface was very friendly, didn't have to remember 100 key combinations, friendly community and choice of fighting and quests etc, no harsh penalties if you die, don't know anyone who's been disappointed with WoW tbh, and the first month's sub is free

[MasterPlan]

I'm gonna give rag a good ragging tomorrow, they offer a 7 day trial... then if I dont like that, i'll decide on either wow of ffxi, or both :}

[Zanza]

If your looking for a serious long term gaming experience and you have alot of free time to put into it, you should definately try ffxi as its probably one of the best games ive ever played. Before I decided to quit so I could concentrate on uni, my playtime was around 6weeks (nearly 1500 hours) worth in just less than a year of playing. Its an extremely rewarding game and the obvious choice if your a fan of the final fantasy series, as your going to recognise alot of the series' ongoing traits.

On the other hand World of Warcraf is the MMORP of the moment and just as popular as FFXI. The game is going to be just as fun to play but its alot lighter and easier to get into and play in comparison to FFXI. FFXI Is absolutely rammed with content, jobs, skills, the possabilities are endless, and its ever growing!

Be carefull tho, I found FFXI exremely morish almost to the point of addiciton, sometimes my week would involve; wakeup, ffxi, sleep, wakeup, ffxi, sleep, wakeup.... (sometimes without the sleep bit tho).

[FelixofMars]

I am pretty sure you level up in Guild wars.

Out of interest is Guildwars like other mmg's where you level up or is it something different, like Planetside where its geared to fighting straight away?

I looked at there site but it doesnt have much info.

Oh and there are free beta keys for Matrix online today, if you want to demo it.

http://www.fileplanet.com/ - But they go like Hotcakes!