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First MMO - What do you suggest?

A

aki

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Mar 2, 2004
688
0
Japan
Ok so I've decided I'm ready to bite the bullet and actually give a modern MMO a try. I need something for the SC2 downtime :p.

I was hoping for some advice on what would be good to try.

Couple of things:

- I have limited free time. It has to be something I can still enjoy without having the time to grind. Also, while I'm not against paying in principle, it would have to be worth the money even if I'm playing only a little.

- I enjoy RPGs of the story-laden variety. I'm not against "action games" but I would be more interested in an MMO as a vehicle for roleplay. If that still exists any more.

I've considered WoW, I've never played it before but I have access to a free trial so I thought I could give it a look. I get the impression though the way it has developed, it isn't so enjoyable for new players? And it doesn't seem to have anything to do with RP. ?

I've also thought about the free version of Dungeons & Dragons online. I like the free part. Oh and the part about it being free is good to. Anyone play it?

Open to any suggestions!

Thanks.
 
Run away screaming! Spend your time / life / talents on something that'll pay off over time!

Anything but an MMO!
 
Wow was the only one to keep me interested long-term, because you can play completely casually without relying on anyone to help you, and the gameplay was fun.

Try the free trial of a few games, and ideally find a friend to start with you, that makes it more fun.
 
World of Warcraft, but monitor your time 'cause it's something that you can totally lose while playing this game.
Like put an alarm clock next to your 'puter and set it for how long you want to play.
 
WoW has a storyline that draws upon 15+ years of WarCraft lore. You have to pay attention and look for it, and not just speed-level through the game. It also has a new expansion coming out around the holiday season that will bring an influx of new players. WoW is fairly friendly toward casual play.

Final Fantasy XI Online has as much story as any single-player FF game, complete with massive cutscenes and walls of story text. Even though it's had many improvements, it's still a painfully hardcore time-sink of a game.

Final Fantasy XIV is shaping up to be much more accessible for casual play, and will supposedly be very much story driven like XI. It should be out in September if I'm not mistaken.

I haven't kept up on the devlopment of Guild Wars 2, but I believe it is coming soon. The original GW is still fun and is great for casual play, and has no monthly fee as well.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming next spring and is be a full single-player story style experience set in an MMO. I'm very much looking forward to this game.
 
DoFoT9 said:
im chiming in, id like to get into something good too :)
Click to expand...

Hehe oh well I've just decided I'll install WoW and see if the magic strikes. Otherwise I will go D&D. Let me know where you end up and/or see you in WoW.

(Incidentally, is WoW regionlocked like SC2?)

I loved KotOR I and wanted to love II, wonder if the MMO would be any good.
 
theLimit said:
WoW has a storyline that draws upon 15+ years of WarCraft lore. You have to pay attention and look for it, and not just speed-level through the game. It also has a new expansion coming out around the holiday season that will bring an influx of new players. WoW is fairly friendly toward casual play.

Final Fantasy XI Online has as much story as any single-player FF game, complete with massive cutscenes and walls of story text. Even though it's had many improvements, it's still a painfully hardcore time-sink of a game.

Final Fantasy XIV is shaping up to be much more accessible for casual play, and will supposedly be very much story driven like XI. It should be out in September if I'm not mistaken.

I haven't kept up on the devlopment of Guild Wars 2, but I believe it is coming soon. The original GW is still fun and is great for casual play, and has no monthly fee as well.

Star Wars: The Old Republic is coming next spring and is be a full single-player story style experience set in an MMO. I'm very much looking forward to this game.
Click to expand...

I second all of this.

I've been playing MMO's since FFXI came out (2003ish?) and have played all of the major releases. I love story drive RPG's and this is just hard to find in an MMO, especially the newer ones.

FFXI did this very well, but it is pointless to hop into this game all these years later. Even when there werent 3 or 4 expansions it took at least a year to get to end game in FFXI. There are players who have been playing since release and haven't seen everything in the game.

Also, with Final Fantasy 14 Online releasing next month, the already small player base in XI will get even smaller.

FF14 is shaping up to be an AMAZING MMO, definitely of the next generation caliber. I would dabble in DDO and trial a bunch of the mmos already out until FF14 comes out (September 22).

In my opinion the only MMO's worth a damn are:

Vanguard: Huge world, very open, AMAZING community. That being said, it is a small community and there isn't much dev support behind the game right now.

Darkfall Online: I like supporting indie dev teams, and this game is as indie as they come. Very open world, city building, no levels, free for all full loot pvp, player run economy etc. It is a very small dev team so changes come slow and there are some big problems in the game, but they work very hard and the community is dedicated.

Everquest 2: About to go free to play, its worth a shot. Cool lore, lots of classes.

DDO: Probably the best F2P game out right now, but it gets very repetitive.

LotRO: Also going F2P soon.

As far as WoW, It has gone downhill fast, a 7 year old could get to end game in a month. There is no reason to group, and the quests are SO dull.

Again, you are better off dabbling in free trials and F2P titles until the next batch of big games is released: Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2, The Old Republic.
 
The only ones that have ever kept me interested (as I have a similar play style, just not that much time I want to sink into a game at once) are WoW and EVE. WoW is better for casual play, but EVE is, in my opinion, a better game overall. However, WoW is just easier for me to get into and play for 20 minutes at a time.
 
Had a look at WoW, I can see why it can become a time-sink; but it is a role-playing desert. Absolutely lifeless.

I appreciate everyone's thoughts, all very interesting, esp. as they relate to what ones are casual-friendly or relatively available to newcomers.

One thing I am interested in particularly though is roleplaying. Can anyone comment on the above-mentioned or other MMO options in terms of that in particular? I mean player/interaction/conversation driven plot/fun, in addition to precoded quests and tasks and whatnots.

Thanks again for all the suggestions!

Progress Report: Tried WoW for an afternoon, probably going to uninstall quickly. I don't think it's actually the MMO I want (for above reasons); but I also think I would become addicted if I played out the 10 Trial days. Danger Will Robinson. Now installing the D&D Online client (free account).
 
The entire Vanguard community, though small, is full of role players and most people love to group all day long : ) Some of the realest people on there.

LotRO has a lot of roler players on the brandy wine server.
 
WoW, and they've made it a lot more noob friendly with tuts and earlier access to things. Leveling should be a breeze, no need to grind much, just do quests and do dungeon finder. It's a great game, only MMO I'm still into although I haven't subbed since April.
 
If you want to role play and don't mind the outdated graphics, Avlis might be for you. It uses the Neverwinter Nights engine and is free once you've purchased Neverwinter Nights. Everybody in the game roleplays. That's why they are there.
 
Although somewhat more action oriented, you might consider City of Heroes. it is very casual, solo/team friendly, has possibly the most supportive community of any MMO, and it's very easy to consume in 20-30 minute chunks if you are time constrained.
 
City of Heroes / City of Villains might be a bit old, but dang, its still a really fun game :) They have an officially supported Mac port.

I also really like Star Trek Online. Its very simple, but light and fun... no need to get into super heavy or hard or time consuming things. Many of the story arcs are very good if you like Trek stuff. I made a wrapper for it using Wineskin, and it runs pretty dang good... no Windows needed.

neither of these are free... but they have free trials. I've yet to find any free MMO that doesn't suck.
 
Huntn said:
Were you on a roleplaying server?
Click to expand...

Well when I started it up, it did give me the option to filter the servers(? not sure terminology) for PvP Normal or RP (from memory), and I tried the RP filter many times in various different ways but the only ones that were listed, whatever region I chose, were Normal or PvP.

Did I just look on a bad day? I had presumed all the RP servers had died. Not true?
 
aki said:
Ok so I've decided I'm ready to bite the bullet and actually give a modern MMO a try. I need something for the SC2 downtime :p.

I was hoping for some advice on what would be good to try.

Couple of things:

- I have limited free time. It has to be something I can still enjoy without having the time to grind. Also, while I'm not against paying in principle, it would have to be worth the money even if I'm playing only a little.

- I enjoy RPGs of the story-laden variety. I'm not against "action games" but I would be more interested in an MMO as a vehicle for roleplay. If that still exists any more.

I've considered WoW, I've never played it before but I have access to a free trial so I thought I could give it a look. I get the impression though the way it has developed, it isn't so enjoyable for new players? And it doesn't seem to have anything to do with RP. ?

I've also thought about the free version of Dungeons & Dragons online. I like the free part. Oh and the part about it being free is good to. Anyone play it?

Open to any suggestions!

Thanks.
Click to expand...

EverQuest (the first one). Best game ever released imo. I played that game for longer than I care to admit and it still beats the crap out of modern MMOs.
 
aki said:
Well when I started it up, it did give me the option to filter the servers(? not sure terminology) for PvP Normal or RP (from memory), and I tried the RP filter many times in various different ways but the only ones that were listed, whatever region I chose, were Normal or PvP.

Did I just look on a bad day? I had presumed all the RP servers had died. Not true?
Click to expand...

What is your region? Unless something drastic has changed with WoW, RP servers should still be there.
 
Did you find Dungeons and Dragons Online full of "Role Playing"?

I never thought they really had this aspect of the game emphasized.
But recently, I DL'ed it and played my old level 7 trial character. I heard that they changed it a bit since 3 years ago so I was curious what they did to it and how they made it F2P. I'm not sure if you have to really P2P it in order to get a great experience (other than buffs and limited resets), but so far, from what I've seen, the graphics are pretty cool in the wilderness areas, but the monster movements still look arkward. But it still reminded me of playing Diablo 2...where you would like run into an instance with a party and run around hack and slash style to clear it and pop open chests. Only thing is that DDO has more instances (even the wilderness is an instance) and you have a common area where you get quests. The only thing that seems sort of interesting is the "clipping" where you can like block mobs in a doorway or something I guess. There seems to be no PVP other than a room in the "tavern" where you can duke it out with random players who enter it.
 
I always roleplay in-character in MMOs, I just prefer it that way. I found that many people in EQ and EQ2 did as well, or at least appreciated it when I did. I haven't played either in a couple of years. I'm glad to hear that EQ2 is going free, I may log in sometime.

I never found WoW players very friendly toward RP, or anything for that matter.
 
If you are more into the role playing aspect, why not try some BioWare RPGs that would equally consume your life :D

Agree with City of Heroes recommendation, its old and looks dated but still you can have fun in short bursts of gameplay. Plus I think it has one of the best character creation system.
 
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