Best/Favorite MMORPG?

[rmoxon]

So The Old Republic is an amazing game and its really got me interested in the genre as a whole.

Im not really clued up at all though so I'm just wondering what do people think are the MMORPG's that are actually worth investing time in?

[Sane]

If you've never played it I'll definitely recommend WoW.

A lot of people will dismiss it for various reasons, some of them justified, but I can honestly say that levelling up my first character in WoW was one of the best gaming experiences I've had. If you don't look stuff up in guides and such and simply set out to explore the massive world and soak up the atmosphere, gradually building your character, it's amazing.

When you reach the level cap you could try raiding. But unless you can deal with the frustration of playing with random people or the stress of joining a raiding guild it's not something I really recommend. Maybe if you can make friends on the game or bring in people you know you can start your own guild and see how far you can progress. In my experience that's the most fun and rewarding way to do raids, but it can get very taxing in terms of time you have to spend on the game and it can destroy the best friendships...

I played WoW for 2 years and after that I was really sick of it, but I'll never forget the first year. And let's be honest, how many games can give you a full year of fun?

[MisterBubbles]

Well i was, and still am a huge Guild Wars fan, spent far too much time in it and i had a serious addiction, but it was fantastic at the time, never played WoW dont like the cartoony graphics and such, and now Guild Wars 2 is in closed beta i think it will blow WoW and TOR out of the water when it gets released. If you want to try another pay to play then i suggest giving Rift a go, or another free to play D&D online.

[rmoxon]

Thanks for the replies.

I gave both WOW and D&D online a try.

D&D online seems quite fun but the comical voice acting almost ruined the entire experience for me, plus I think the strange narrator person will eventually do my head in, can you turn him off?

WOW was good, it seemed alot more open than TOR and amazingly it probabaly has better graphics too (if you can accept that they are cartoony), but the combat isnt half as exciting and I didnt feel as involved with the questing either. I think I might stick with it at least until I hit the the level cap in the free version and then decide.

Having said that, Rift does look really good though so I might just end up buying that.... unless anyone has any other suggestions?

[Sane]

I don't know much about Rift, but I did see this the other day on Zavvi should you want to buy it.

[rmoxon]

Fantastic!

Thanks alot, ordered it. Cant go wrong at that price.

[dataDave]

WoW. Purely for PvP combat. Nothing beats high-rated 3v3.

...not then ('07-'08) anyway, the game has gone to **** now for both PvP and PvE.

When you reach the level cap you could try raiding. But unless you can deal with the frustration of playing with random people or the stress of joining a raiding guild it's not something I really recommend. Maybe if you can make friends on the game or bring in people you know you can start your own guild and see how far you can progress. In my experience that's the most fun and rewarding way to do raids, but it can get very taxing in terms of time you have to spend on the game and it can destroy the best friendships...

I had several real life friends who were running a semi-successful raiding guild so they trusted me enough in that after reading up on particular bosses they could invite me along in my PvP gear without any problems. I was also included in their DKP structure. If I wanted to qualify for one of the other raiding guilds I would have had to have dumped my PvP playing as they don't like you doing both.

That elitism used to piss me off. If you were decent at PvP, PvE was a walk in the park. Maybe they are frightened of that.

But anyway, I have lots of great memories of the leveling up phase - especially as I was taking my time and participating in the Battlegrounds at various caps along the way (lvl, 29/39/49 etc.).

-----

FFXI was really nice too. No PvP there but the story (once you get to it) and locations/music/items were amazing. I'd have stuck with it if it wasn't for WoW PvP.

[MisterBubbles]

D&D online is meant to be about suspense and drawing you into your character, to me its old school RP, but you are really playing a role and the narrator is bringing you into the world with his narration, maybe cause no other MMO does this Rmoxon that you find this unsettling, but to me i find it perfect, but i was use to playing D&D in my younger years, have a DM talking and telling you what was going on.

[rmoxon]

So I got RIFT, seems like a fantastic games. I like it more than WOW.

In truth, for thoughts that are interested but haven't played it, It seems a lot like wow, I mean a REALLY like it, but there are three things that set it apart.

The soul system, is basically skill trees, each of the four classes in the game has several skill trees to unlock and you can use any combination of up to three of them to create a character that's unique to how you want to play, seems like its going to be a lot of fun experimenting with it.

Theres also the Rifts, which are basically random instances where you are suddenly invaded by enemies due to tears in the space time continuum or something crazy like that.

The final reason why it's more exciting than WOW for me are the graphics, it's an absolubtley beautiful game, stunning in fact considering what's going on in it.

Overall I'm really glad I got it, it's even kept me off the Old Republic for a bit. So thanks to the people that recommended it.

[eastyy]

i have played dc univerese/WOW and lord of the rings online and to me they all have similaritys in the way you level up gain items quests and combat i guess they dont stray to far

funny thing is if a single player rpg had the same type of game play/combat they would probably be pretty rubbish but its the whole playing with other people thats the real hook

may try the new star wars game at some point but i wanted to know that if there are any mmorpg games that have more indepth combat ? i did see a korean game that i thought the combat looked very fun bayonetta style juggles etc think its in beta for a western release

[rmoxon]

i have played dc univerese/WOW and lord of the rings online and to me they all have similaritys in the way you level up gain items quests and combat i guess they dont stray to far

funny thing is if a single player rpg had the same type of game play/combat they would probably be pretty rubbish but its the whole playing with other people thats the real hook

may try the new star wars game at some point but i wanted to know that if there are any mmorpg games that have more indepth combat ? i did see a korean game that i thought the combat looked very fun bayonetta style juggles etc think its in beta for a western release

The combat in The Old Republic is pretty good I think. It still uses the same template but it's a lot more dynamic and fun than the combat in any of the games you mentioned. A huge part of why the old republic is so good is becuase it actually works as a single player game as much as an online one. It's pretty much just like every other Bioware game you have ever played, which means its great, basically.

[Tobal]

Not a recommendation, but it a different flavour of game going back to the pre-days of the easy-mode WoW, which no matter how SE try to get Final Fantasy 11 closer to WoW, its roots are clearly stuck in past(which can be seen a a good thing by some)and recently thanks to the the original game director coming back from messing up FF14, as come to restore balance to remove the toys the playerbase got in his absence and make it so you need 6+ people again to get endgame events done.

Still has very unique features in the 1 account = 1 Character which can play all 20 jobs any time along with a sub job to complement the skills of the main and no real PVP(is there but its not good and the FF base just isn't in to it). And as Mentioned by Dave is has a strong story, better than anything SE has done since FF10 and great art/music even for a 10 year old game running on a PS2 engine(and some of the best songs SE have done in ages)... and the recent animations they created for the current 'last' weaponskills shame every other MMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oH7PY6YjMSY

[rmoxon]

Is FF XI not wrth playing anymorew then? I take it its still better than XIV though?

Also, whats APB like?

[Decider-VT]

Seconding Guild Wars. I definitely preferred it to WoW, which ended up boring me to tears with fetch quests before I gave up just after level 30. Guild Wars gave me more of a sense of my action affecting the world, due to the game primarily consisting of instanced areas- global catastrophes, wars and other narrative elements seemed to be influenced by my participation, rather than reading some lore off a few statues. I also preferred the look of the game, and the ability to recruit henchmen and heroes was very welcome as it meant that I didn't have to rely on other people to progress.

[rmoxon]

I tried the free Version of Guild Wars, but my character had the most ridculous running animation in any game I have ever seen. I couldnt play it without constantly laughing at it. I know its only a little thing but there are so many of these games, and they all seem so massive, I guiess Im looking for excuses not to play them all.

It didnt seem quite as fun as Rift is anyway, although I may have to check out Guild Wars 2 whenever it is released.

Whats City of Heroes like BTW?, I played the DC Universe online beta but got bored with it pretty quickly, is City of Heroes better or worse?