I played WoW a bit after its initial release through the first couple xpacs. Getting the MMO itch again, but I know the WoW I grew up with doesn’t really exist anymore, so now I’m pretty out of touch.
For those of you playing / recently played an MMO, which one? How’s the community? How’s the lore? Gameplay in pve/pvp/rvr?
I recently got the urge to play WoW again, so I figured I’d cash in on the ‘free play til level 20’ thing and play on a Classic server. Except those are pay only. Decided I’d try retail since it was free and quit within an hour. I’ve been really loving Turtle WoW, however.
Awesome! All the advice I saw on the net was to try and run it via Steam (which ended up causing weird graphical glitches) but it ran great for me with just regular wine.
Already found a fun guild while I was running WC…let me know if you’re looking for one!
I’d recommend watching Josh Strife Heyes videos on MMOs, but if you want an overview, the biggest ones are WoW, FFXIV, and Guild Wars 2. I’d recommend the latter.
I keep going back to Star Trek Online for some star ship pew pew. I usually get a month or two in going back over the story arcs and participating in events until the constant event schedule makes me realize I’m trapped in the grind and not playing any other games. So I drop it to break free and play the rest of my game library. The community isn’t something I really interact with as pretty much all of the game content is playable solo or antisocial (the team content is easy enough you can just random queue and don’t really have to talk or strategize with them). It is overwhelmingly PvE (though PvP is technically in the game) and it has some fun lore if you are a Star Trek fan.
If you’re mainly interested in PVP or resource gathering, New World.
If you want better PVE, more interesting storylines and better more varied world design, Guild Wars 2.
Personally, I quit New World as a mainly PVE player after playing for around 30 hours. It was just too mind-numbing killing the same 5 mob types over and over even after getting to a new area. Even reading all the quest texts, I never got very interested in the world or (barely existant) storyline.
New World was such a huge letdown for me. Low level mobs respawning so fast you can’t even clear an area long enough to loot, empty world outside of endgame areas. etc.
I’ve also gotten into Guild Wars 2 recently and I’m a little addicted. The game just feels great: nice community, events are engaging, so much stuff to do but at the same time not demanding like games can be sometimes.
I’m biased because I’ve been playing it since launch, but I’ve also dabbled in the others and simply couldn’t justify a sub fee when
a) there are so many other games I’d like to play simultaneously and not feel guilty doing so b) there’s no gear treadmill! It really sucks in games like WoW where I want to check out the older content to get up to speed and just the zones were dead. Conversely, I’m doing map completion with my wife in GW2 and even the core maps had a bunch of people running around doing dynamic events and world bosses. The game feels so much more alive!
All the activity in every zone I visit really does just feel so great. There’s no better sign a game is alive and healthy. It was totally that which hooked me.
All the activity in every zone I visit really does just feel so great. There’s no better sign a game is alive and healthy. It was totally that which hooked me.
So true! It’s a game that really respects your time and there are always people around to help you if you get stuck.
Welcome to GW2, I genuinely hope you continue to enjoy your time here!
GW2 is my mmo home world. I started with wow but things changed when I realized Blizzard was always playing catch up with arenanet. There were a few months where blizzard made dragon riding easily accessible but once you hit max level the world content wasn’t as good and the retail community became more toxic and elitist than ever, so I switched back.
I started playing DC Universe Online again for the first time in a decade+ a few weeks ago. Forgot how much fun creating a super hero is. I’m on PC, which I guess has crossplay with playstation?
Player population is hit and miss. The cities are a tad empty, though there’s almost always other people doing the same mission as you. But if you go to a major hub, like GCPD or Watchtower central hub, tons of players, especially on like a Saturday night. Game’s definitely not dead, and chat is very active.
Character customization via the styles tab is endless, and by default it has transmog so your gear doesn’t have to affect your appearance if you don’t want.
I hear the f2p model gets predatory near end game but i’m not there yet so I can’t confirm. Either way, having fun so far.
I’ve been playing Final Fantasy 14 for about 3 years now and got my partner into it a year ago, we both highly recommend it even if it’s just to experience the main story.
The community tends to be pretty active, there’s a lot of roleplay as well as end-game raiders. The lore is the biggest reason to play imo, it’s a hundreds of hours long adventure that has made me laugh, cry, and feel genuine empathy for some of the characters I’ve met. PvP exists but it’s not super competitive. PvE on the other hand is split into dungeons, trials, and raids. Dungeons are classic MMO dungeons with trash mobs and a couple bosses, trials are just a big boss, and raid tiers are 4 separate boss fights with the last one having a 2nd phase. There’s also different difficulties of content, but you do the normal version first during the main story or side quests.
HorizonXI. It’s a classic Final Fantasy XI server.
I grew up playing XI and wanted to get back into it, but the retail server is a solo experience these days. Horizon has been incredible to relive my childhood on Horizon, and the community is amazing. It’s certainly not for everyone but I’m so glad to have it in my life.
I was lucky in that the ffxi US beta was my first dive into an MMO. And I think it’s one of the best games ever, but the harsh reality is that it’s hard and tedious, especially for folks who only have experience with super hand holdy MMOs like they mostly are today. If you can get into it, it can be like crack, but I really feel like most people won’t have the patience for it these days.
This isn’t me saying don’t try it. Try it for sure. Just be ready for a huge time sink. It doesn’t help you at all.
I absolutely agree. XI is hard and a huge time sync. I don’t think most gamers would enjoy it at all, and most of my enjoyment comes from nostalgia and the sense of community.
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