Looking to play a MMO...

[Chinchilla]

I've been out of the MMO market for about 2 years now and I've got that itch again.  What game would you guys recommend?

I was looking through the huge list of MMO's available and I'm not sure which to play.

I was thinking about either...

WoW
WAR
AoC
Cabal Online

I honestly am not sure though.  I used to play LOTRO and really really enjoyed it, but that account got taken from me by my damn ex-wife and I don't feel like starting over.  I'd rather start in a new game.  I've also played EQ2, DAoC, and countless others.

I'm just hoping to join a game where I can maybe play with some of you guys from here and we can team up.  Thank you for any/all suggestions!

[NiX]

We should all go back to playing UO on a free server to camp IDOCs at 2 AM.

[Malakili]

What kind of experience are you looking for?  I'd suggest EVE Online cause I think it is the best MMO on the market right now, but if you aren't in for a rough experience (that is worth it in the end), and just want something to mess around in, EVE probably isn't your best bet.

[Kirth]

I hear EVE Is real easy to pick up. 

[WindupAtheist]

I don't know what Cabal is, but I'd say WoW over the other two. /shrug

[Hindenburg]

I was thinking about

Cabal Online

What the fuck is wrong with you?

[Chinchilla]

I was thinking about

Cabal Online

What the fuck is wrong with you?

Is the game bad or something?

[Bzalthek]

Let x be a Korean Grinder. 
Therefore, x is a bad game.

The answer is yes.

If you haven't played WoW, give it a try.  It's always fun to level your first toon in most games.  At max level it depends on who you're guilded with.  The best advice is to find free trials and give them a try. 

[Soln]

depends what you want

PvP: Eve

PvE: WoW, LotRO, EQ2

everyone will give you different feedback on their communities

[Draegan]

Runes of Magic is a free WOW clone that has pretty good quality and there is no grind.

And it's free.

[damijin]

I just had a large group of friend reinstall AoC under claims that apparently a lot of issues from launch have been corrected. Most noteably, Necromancers lagging out everyone that can see them by having 10 pets summoned or something like that. But also bunches of those crap. I never played it, but I can report back in a few weeks if they're still playing it after that long.

I've personally been playing a Lineage 2 private server called Infinite L2 for the past week or so. I feel it's really really well done from a design perspective. Although I feel kind of bad about the fact that these private servers typically profit from donations for operating a game that they do not own the IP or copyrights to, Infinite L2 is so much of an improvement over the original L2, that in comparison to the rest of the hundreds of free servers, it probably deserves a little bit of that profit.

Its as close to a truly PvP MMO as you can get, probably what Fury should have been. The server has hour long 'events' where the entire server does battle for a territory. These are either team deathmatch, capture the flag, king of the hill, battlefield (capture and hold buildings in a city), or a castle siege. You gain xp and money for killing people in those events, and for doing the objectives. Whoever wins the event gets to do a 5 minute zombie minigame where you're all locked in a dungeon and one player starts as a zombie. If the zombie hits you, you turn into a zombie, until eventually everyone is zombified and it ends. You gain significant xp and adena in there, so its a real reward for winning the event.

L2 had notoriously huge death penalties, this server does not. Instead, it rewards players with bonus cash for going on killing sprees, giving an incentive to stay alive. But if you die, no penalty, you just lose your kill spree, so you have to start over at 0. I think thats a great incentive strategy without making death feel like an absolute kick to the balls. The longer you don't die, the more money you get.

Theres a small amount of PvE as well, and you start off high enough level to compete, but theres still a great deal of upward momentum to gain. You're a few levels away from the cap, and your gear is pretty basic. So theres a good feeling of progression and achievement, but it remains fairly casual. Frankly, if I ever wanted to make a PvP MMO in the future, I'd be taking a whole shit ton of queues from that private server.

[eldaec]

I present eldeac's expert review of the mmog landscape, good at any time since TWO THOUSAND AND FUCKING FOUR.

WoW : The mindless shiny diku mmog.
EVE : The serious business mmog.
CoH & Planetside : 2 weeks vacation twice a year.

Everything else : Shit.


Developers: it has been almost exactly FOUR FUCKING YEARS since this picture changed. Please be providing a game now.

http://forums.f13.net/index.php?topic=15443.0


If you want to play EQ but in 2009, play WoW. If you want something like UO, play EVE. If you just want to knock something about for a couple of weeks, play Planetside or CoH.

Don't listen to anyone who mentions anything else, they are just going off on a nerd riff about how something was new and shiny 5 months or years ago, this is fun for them and for most people watching, but is likely to lead to tears before bedtime if anyone takes it seriously.

[Rendakor]

I'm playing (probably too much) WoW, and enjoying it. The run to 80 is a lot of fun the first time, and if you like PVE there's plenty to do at the cap. Not a lot of f13ers on Andorhal though.

[Cheddar]

LoTRO seems to be the flavor of the month for a LOT of f13.

That Lineage server looks extremely interesting.  I always enjoyed L2, but the dick kicking grind inevitably makes me unsub.  I am tempted to sub again and try it out; maybe I will check out the free server and move over to a production server.

Keep us informed - I am willing to experiment with a new MMO or one I haven't tried in years!

[Venkman]

CoX. Apparently the grind has gotten easier.

Fusion Fall, because it's actually fun. But I put this in eldaec's two week vacation category.

You mentioned you'd played EQ2, but when was the last time you checked in on it? That has vastly improved as well.

Otherwise, there's always the MMO that is the chorus of rabble waiting for the Next Big Thing(tm).

[Hayduke]

I would stay away from WAR.  Far, far away.  At least until they bring out an Origins-esque server with a beta build of the game so it's less grindy .

WoW doesn't disappoint if that's the kind of game you're looking for (PvE).  I've only just started AoC so can't offer any real advice there, other than it's beautiful and combat is fun.

[palmer_eldritch]

I'd actually put WAR in the two weeks of fun category. Just do nothing but scenarios constantly, and it's quite fun. That's assuming there are enough people of your level on the server to start scenarios regularly.

[Ghambit]

How 'bout you wait until ChampO or Jumpgate comes out and get in on the ground floor of something new. 

[eldaec]

How 'bout you wait until ChampO or Jumpgate comes out and get in on the ground floor of something new. 

Good idea, that worked out really well for everyone who tried it over the last four years.

[Ghambit]

How 'bout you wait until ChampO or Jumpgate comes out and get in on the ground floor of something new. 

Good idea, that worked out really well for everyone who tried it over the last four years.

Whether it works out well or not is besides the point.  The OP may WANT something new rather than something old and crusty, yet tried and true.  MMOs are investments yes?  there are varying degrees of risk involved.  WoW and LoTRO are the least risky imo.  But they lack the flare of the brand-spanking new.

Overall, the best thing to do is get in on a beta or trial and then decide.

[Cheddar]

Lets try L2 production together!  I have a few characters with some cash if I recall.

[Nebu]

Want a well-crafted MMO with the standard, pve diku flair?  Go WoW, LotRO and then maybe EQ2.

Want pvp?  Eve

Want to log on for a few minutes and still do something fun and meaningful?  CoH is your game.  Fast and furious combat pace with a flair of personality.

Like crafting and being social?  Try A Tale in the Desert. 

(I agree with the sentements of almost everyone above and echo many of their opinions.)

[Phred]

Want a well-crafted MMO with the standard, pve diku flair?  Go WoW, LotRO and then maybe EQ2.

Want pvp?  Eve

Want to log on for a few minutes and still do something fun and meaningful?  CoH is your game.  Fast and furious combat pace with a flair of personality.

Like crafting and being social?  Try A Tale in the Desert. 

Or, if you really want to play with a lot of other F13 posters, then Eve is really your only choice atm. Every other MMO guild formed by F13 types is pretty well moribund while F13 keeps rolling in Eve.

[Mrbloodworth]

The LOTRO guild is doing just fine.

[Numtini]

If you haven't played in two years, I'd suggest COX, EQ2, or WoW because they can be played casually.

Eve, even if you want to do pvp, is not a game I ever found amenable to casual play. If you want to put in the time though, there's a lot there. I found that I'd rather read about it than play it though. I think it's worth everyone's time to play the tutorial and mess around a little. It's a stunning game.

[DLRiley]

LOl my prhrase the popular list.

Pve - WoW. EQ2 if you don't want to play with all your friends. Resub to LOTR once you discover your new interest in the mmo market is really powered by nostalgia.

PvP - None. Go to an arcade.

Sandbox economy sim with some PvP support - EvE. It takes a real long time to get anywhere important but once you invested the time and have the social connections you will be blabbering like all the other nerds. The rest of the world finds the game boring quite frankly.

2 weeks of lols? - CoH/V don't know why people mention Planet Side your going to spend 80% of those two weeks dicking around.

For everything else, there shit. Try AoC if you want to see how much bang for buck you can get out of your gaming rig. I rather direct you to maple story if you really want an mmo for the sake of playing an mmo. Most f2p mmo's will more than scratch that itch for something repetitive to do, 2 years out of the market means your no longer part of the target demographic of the games I listed above. Your closer to cynical and jaded (you probably don't know it yet) with a touch of nostalgia, than nerdy and won't miss 15 dollars a month.

[Cheddar]

Do not bother with Lineage 2.  After a few hours playing its definitely not for you.

[UnSub]

Get your free 14 day CoH/V trial here. There are some restrictions on trial accounts, but overall it will give you an idea of the game.

If you know someone with the AoC disks then you can install it and hopefully get a buddy key off someone.

I'm all for free trials.

[squirrel]

Runes of Magic is a free WOW clone that has pretty good quality and there is no grind.

And it's free.

I've played this a bit. it's not horrid, production quality is high, stability is good and it's got some good ideas (the dual classing is cool). That said it's free, but is RMT and you will end up spending $ if you want to play seriously. Still it's easily worth the download. Things like housing and mounts come early - get  a house at lvl 10.

Personally I'm playing LoTRO but I've given up on PvP and am there for the purty (dx10 machine) and the lore.

The LOTRO guild is doing just fine.

What he said.

[Slayerik]

I'm with Nix, freeshards FTW!

Hope things been goin well for ya Chin, other than your MMO hunt.

[Ragnoros]

I want to try Lineage 2 

Can anyone refer-a-friend me? Email is viewable in my profile.

Thanks Chedder.

[Kageru]

I play Eve by roleplaying someone on a safe and civilised planet reading conflicting reports from a far off war. It has the extra advantage of being subscription free. As far as I understand things this is about the only way to play Eve casually.

Unless you have specific needs WoW is never a bad place to start. Sure, it's somewhat distressing how completely it dominates the industry but there are reasons why. It's also allowed them to generate some fairly impressive content.

[Fordel]

Just to add to the echo chamber.


Play WoW. It'll run on anything, is the most accessible, most established and all around the best MMO to date, by a pretty fair margin.


LotRO is the clear runner up. It's not as smooth as WoW in terms of handling and combat, and it will push a computer pretty hard if you crank it up. (Also if your most secret desire is to smoke pipe weed in the shire all day, definitely your game)





If you're crazy, play EVE. Only crazy people play EVE, which is exactly how they like it, the EVE players (aka: crazy people). 

[FatuousTwat]

Something not brought up in this thread:

DAoC freeshards can be fun for a few days, if you are into DAoC (8v8 PvP). I'd suggest i50.

[eldaec]

Freeshards? Really?

Jesus Christ people, why don't you just go ahead tell him to download TinyMUD.