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?
Got that itch again recently too and after looking through what's currently popular decided to give EVE Online and Black Desert (on private server) a try
I like open world survival crafting games (loved Valheim) and prefer to play with others so am hoping these will work out
Also played some GW2 few months back for a while and I host a Minetest server for our kiddos where I dabble as well
The only mmo’s I ever really spent any significant time with were FFXI (on dial up for most of the time I spent with it so my experience wasn’t great) and GW2. not mentioning eve… we dont talk about that…
There was a free MMORPG called Planeshift (I played quite a lot in 2005 or so, it’s still around and being actively worked on) that was very elder scrolls inspired, I put a lot of time into in the past too but being a small free amateur project it didn’t have a lot of players.
I just don’t have the time or motivation to give modern MMOs the attention they really need to make progress, and I was very much a solo player at the time so progress was slow and hard.
I think if I was to pick up a new one it would be FF14, it has a balance of open gameplay and story which a lot of mmos ignore, it seems like a good community but as with all mmos they really dont want you to just drop in a play a couple of hours every second weekend, they want you to get in daily and stick to a routine, which I just cant commit to these days.
FF14 is actually a lot more forgiving of that more casual gameplay style. It’s very easy to gear up after a break for anything outside of Savage and Ultimate raiding (and even then, you can buy or craft the week 1 gear if you want to get into Savage), the dungeon roulette system makes it so it’s generally always possible to find people to complete content with, even if it’s older, and unless you want to get into housing there’s not really any penalty for say subbing for one month, taking a break afterwards and then coming back when you have time to play, outside of missing out on seasonal events (and generally any exclusives you get from those events get put on the cash shop the following year).
Also, FFXI player here as well, the ability for that game to run on low speed connections was frankly impressive for the time. I remember playing it using an infrared GPRS data connection on my laptop 😂 Sure it lagged a bit in city areas but the fact that it was still playable was a feat.
GW2 for the past 11 years, except for a stretch where I played ESO for a few months.
Community's mostly great. Cooperation between players is strongly fostered by the game's design (no kill or resource stealing, no competing for drops, etc), so players tend to get along in almost every PvE situation.
Lore is good, but not nearly as expanded upon as Warcraft's.
Gameplay is what makes it IMO. Skill effects and some gear skins can be a bit obnoxious, especially when you're in large groups for open world and World vs World, but it's still enjoyable. Don't play normal PvP, so can't comment on that.
I started with MMOs back in the MUD days, both on dial up BBSs and (eventually) on university servers. I will always remember the sysop who walked me through signing up for his BBS MUD while I was giving responses like “y” and “go north” because I thought he was just an infocom game and not an actual person. Twelve year old me was so embarrassed that I never went back. If you’re out there, sysop, or if you’re just someone who has tried their best to support online communities despite the best intentions of absolute idiots, I salute you.
I played EverQuest since it came out, stupidly choosing a ranger and studying fletching all very badly because I didn’t know about gaming the game mechanics and had read too many fantasy novels. I played a lot, mostly by myself, and didn’t get too far. I also tried EQ2 when it came out, and when Diablo 2 released I decided to experiment with gaming the trading market.
I was an early WoW adopter. I played through the level caps two or three times. I joined a more serious raiding guild when I hit 60 (instead of my old rpg guild) and cornered the market on cotton a couple of weeks in a row here and there. I eventually fell out of it - end game content turned into feeling like a job, where you had to study and rehearse in order to get past bosses, your loot dropping was like a 1 in 20 chance, and if you screwed up a single person could cause a group wipe. Honestly, it just got boring compared to being a level 8 warlock wandering around.
What is keeping me from trying new ones is that there’s a massive disadvantage in starting an MMO that’s already been going on for years and years. You can fire up Skyrim for the very first time this afternoon, and have the exact same experience (honestly, a much improved one) as if you fired it up on launch day. I can launch Baldur or Disco or Stray and just not have to worry about getting ganked other than what was already intended by the devs. There was a time in EverQuest where another player challenged me to 1v1 and finally talked me into trying it, then proceeded to beat the living shit out of me but then bandage me right before I died. He kept on doing it until I disconnected. As funny as that was in retrospect, it’s also a problem with MMOs in general.
I would love for there to be a new WoW - something that restored the magic of the game when you could solo or group up and both explore the world and feel progress. I’m still waiting.
I’m having the mmo itch but the thought of the riot mmo coming out in 3 to 5 years has me at bay for now. I did do a little ff with my girlfriend and enjoyed it but trial accounts are a bit too limited for my liking.
I’ve gone to playing Project 1999, an OG EverQuest emulator server.
It’s only up to velious and it’s as close to how the game was back then as you can get.
I don’t recommend it to people who never played EQ back in the day - games have changed far too much for this ancient game to be fun for most people who don’t have nostalgia for that era of gaming.
But sounds like you might, so I thought I’d suggest it to you.
Seconding Project 1999. I have played on and off (mostly off) since near the beginning. I wish I had more time to play it. It takes so long to make decent progress that it’s just not for me these days. I’ve thought about rolling a cleric so that I could maybe/hopefully get groups quickly and maybe then in 10 years I’ll be max level
Get this, you know how over time you get fatigue points and can only get rid of them by eating food items you’ve previously gathered? Well, when doing this one day last week my character nearly fucking died because of some race condition glitch where mid-swallow they tried to breathe for some unknown reason and because the devs, in their infinite fucking wisdom, decided that while there are two completely separate and incompatible systems for food and air, they must accessed via the same hole, but clearly not at the same time!
The mind boggles, I hope someone was fired for that blunder.
So what if WoW isn’t the same? It’s still a good game, and a new one at that. I don’t get the apprehension, unless you want to scratch the nostalgia itch, but I think it’s a waste of time, although WoW Classic is a thing. FFXIV is also pretty good if you can stomach anime designs and weird Japanese fantasy, personally I find it too unrelatable.
Yeah I played classic and I played retail and I prefer retail every day. Would I have called it a good mmo during legion/bfa/shadowlands? Fuck no, but with Dragonflight they’ve really pulled their shit together and made a very good experience and I am definitely looking forward to the Worldsoul Saga
This post spurred me to see if Rift were still a thing; apparently it is! I got in quite early when it was still unfinished and played it well after launch. They ended up doing a pretty big overhaul at some point and that's roughly when I got out as I didn't want to have to figure things out again. I may pick it back up. I have no idea what the playerbase (or the actual game these days) is like, though.
SWTOR has one of the most balefully hateful f2p systems I have ever seen in a mmo. Which was enough to make me not subscribe to the game while I was testing it out.
I don’t PVP so I can’t speak to that but the lore and PVE is solid. Gameplay is very classic MMO. The releases continue to be ranked and reviewed higher with each one that comes out. Players are strongly encouraged to help new players (sprouts) via the mentoring program. Community has been so good, very helpful, never seen anyone rage or get angry at a new person, or anyone for that matter. Very LGBTQ+ friendly. TONS of fun stuff to do on the side between chapters like glamour or housing for folks that want a chill experience or you can do savage raids or hunts for the more hardcore game play focused players. Me and a friend love to just run around to all the apartments and houses to check out everyone’s place from time to time. Some are really amazing. I’ll throw mine and my buddy’s apartment in that ring we put a lot of work in and did some really cool tricks to make the space feel bigger and more unique. Some people turn their houses into cafes or dance clubs, some require RPing when you visit some don’t. They are pretty fun to go to. From time to time they’ll have giveaways for gill or items at the parties.
BONUS: It’s totally free up to level 70 so you have plenty of time to figure out if the game is for you.
I’m not playing right now, taking a quick break but I’m in the NA server Sargatanas. The name is Obi-Bun Kenobi, I think I have the address to my place in my Adventurer Plate. I leave the apartment unlocked so people can use it for g-posing or just to have a nice place to hang. Come check it out sometime!
the pvp is pretty fun but suffers from not being a primary focus of the devs or the community and lacking basic things like a duo queue Balance and skills is entirely decoupled from pve which means there’s virtually no cross-value to doing both pvp and pve aside from unique cosmetics
WoW Ascension on the Area 52 server. This server is classless, you can pick any ability and talents you want. Plus there are mystic scrolls you can find in the world which when equipped (you can have 17 equipped at once, 1 legendary, 3 epic, then a bunch of blue or green) and these enchants completely change how abilities work to allow for you to make incredibly cool custom classes.
It’s a separate company, I don’t understand how they don’t get sued into oblivion, but they update the game all the time, it’s feature rich and has so much to explore. The website is ascension.gg. They also have an alpha server which cost money to get access to with 21 brand new classes, none of the old classes, new ability, new talents.
I went and set this up after seeing this comment. I will say, it’s wild and I’ve had a blast playing it. The community is awesome and I have no idea what I’m doing but that doesn’t seem to matter at all.
I’m so happy someone tried out Ascension based on my post! I’ve been playing around in there for a few months now, nothing hard core, just trying different specs or build ideas. At first it does feel very overwhelming, but they’ve made changes to the talents to sometimes make them a bit more agnostic or if the talent says “Increases Pet Damage” it’ll generally apply to any pet. That combined with the ability to search for any ability or talent based on keywords or phrases like “All Damage” to find talents to increase damage mitgation all combines to allow you to think up interesting specs and try building it your self.
The other thing I adore about this system is, in normal WoW, there has always been the meta, if you’re a fire mage and you want to raid you better be specced this one certain way or your trash. Well in Ascension, the options are so god damn wide open that no you could very well come up with unique build that is better then anyone has made before. Also people can’t see your spec in game, so there just isn’t that rigid expectation of choosing the “right” spec.
Also check out prestiging , it’s fun to loop back to level 1, level back up and earn rewards. Or prestige , and pick a Ironman challenge, where you get 1 life and need to accomplish a certain goal like, kill hogger before level 10 or you fail. I’m working on an Ironman Challenge called “King of the Jungle” where you get 1 life, and need to kill the final tiger boss in the Stranglethorn Vale big game hunt quest line before level 40!
Over all, it’s just a very well thought out and daring approach. On top of Ascension’s Area 52 server that I’m on (Free pick classless), there’s also the Thrall server which is also classless, but instead if free pick you get a selection of 3 or 4 abilities when you level and you try to assemble your build using those cards. I have some friends that positively love the draft server, but it isn’t my cup of tea.
I enjoyed classic wow through TBC but when wotlk dropped I lost interest. I just started on ascension wow area 52 a few days ago and it’s a really interesting spin on the classic experience. I’m enjoying it but I don’t think I’ll play it as seriously as I did for classic wow and classic TBC.
Really curious to try out this season of discovery thing though. I might resubscribe just to try it out.
The ones I’ve been playing on and off over the past few years are Guild Wars 2 and Lord of the Rings Online.
GW2 is a really nice game to just pick up and play without needing huge time investments. It has a fun gameplay loop and well designed zones to explore. Haven’t gotten around to playing the new expansion yet, but I hear it’s pretty good.
LOTRO is great for that traditional MMO experience. The community is very friendly and surprisingly active. It has a nice atmosphere. They are also frequently giving away the expansion packs, so you get a lot of content for free.
I second Lotto, as it’s really great with the more community-focused aspects of MMOs. On my server, you can always find a endgame raid or dungeon group. With the recently added scaled difficulty landscape settings, you can make the landscape content harder or easier for you. Unfortunately the game is aside from the endgame content most times a single player experience. Lower level content is mostly dead, except in between major expansions, when endgame content is not that much requested as the next expac is coming in soon.
LOTRO would absolutely be my jam but the server performance is absolutely horrendous and the UI desperately needs at least an update for its fonts. It’s a real shame.
Check out FF14. Great free trial option. Community is overwhelmingly good (though none is perfect). PvE is pretty damn good, especially once you get to late/end game. PvP is not the best (IMO) but it is very active if you do like it. Has a couple different modes including a 5v5 push the objective mode and a 24v24v24 objective capture mode. No RvR.
Kinda boring/typical MMO at first, but really picks up. With the free trial can play the base game and first two expansions for free, plus get the jobs (classes) from those (most of the ones in the game) up to level 70. Including crafting/gathering jobs. Can easily spend 1000+ hours just on the free trial if you choose to maximize it, but the expansions and sub are worth it IMO. And unlike WOW you van access all those classes on one character and switch with the press of a few buttons.
And the next expansion is summer of next year, so you do have time to catch up if you decide you want to get into it.
WoW, but with short and longer breaks. It’s a massive time sink, and I simply do not have the time that WoW demands in order to accomplish most of the things.
It can be an enjoyment, can be fun, can also cause you to burnt out so fast.
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