OK. I'm gonna try to be as objective as possible and give you a rundown of the current MMO situation.
As of 2017 there are 6 MMOs that are still going strong:
- FFXIV
- Elder Scrolls Online(ESO)
- WoW
- SWTOR
- Guild Wars 2
- Black Desert Online
I'm gonna also talk about other MMOs such as Tera and Secret World because they're both notable in different ways.
Gameplay:
Games with the standard, hotkey based, WoW-style gameplay:
None of these games do anything interesting or innovative with the moment to moment gameplay. Outside of a raid you can play these games in your sleep.
Games with hybrid action/hotkey gameplay:
These games still have a hotkey bar, but mix things up by adding the abilitiy to dodge enemy attacks and/or manually aim your own attacks. ESO is notable here because it allows you to play in first person mode and swing your weapon/block/bash in realtime, independent of hotkeys or cooldowns(like an Elder Scrolls game).
Games with true third-person action combat gameplay ala Devil May Cry:
These games are almost completely divorced from hotkey/cooldown based combat. They are the most innovative gameplay-wise.
Narrative:
Games that have a strong focus on narrative:
- Secret World
- SWTOR
- FFXIV
This is the only place I'm gonna do a numbered list. If you like Stranger Things, Stephen King, or Urban horror/paranormal stuff then Secret World is for you. It is, by far, the best narrative in MMOs.
In SWTOR each class has a unique, Bioware-style branching story with dialogue wheels and light/dark side choices. There are also companions you recruit with stories of their own and romance options. Just like a Bioware game. Some of these class stories are excellent, some of them are boring. Sadly the expansions get rid of class stories and companions entirely.
FFXIV is only game in this list that puts a heavy emphasis on story with less than favorable results. The voice acting is horrendous. Everyone sounds bland and bored. It's so bad that they replaced almost all the voice actors in the first expansion. Quite a few of the main characters are boring and in on notable instance, downright unlikable. Again this was acknowledged and fixed in the first expansion where they gave these characters new arcs/motivations and changes of heart. The story of the base game is also full of filler quests. An imminent threat approaches, but the people who know the secret to defeating it will only tell you if you do hours worth of errands for them in a seaside resort.
The most egregious problems with FFXIV's narrative is limited to the base game. Things get markedly better with each expansion.
Games with a largely overlooked narrative element:
Both these games have voice acting and story. But, no one really talks about them. In my experience, GW2's story is largely forgettable. ESO actually has a pretty decent story. You can talk to random npcs and go through a dialogue tree. Its a weaker Elder Scrolls game but its still mostly an Elder Scrolls game.
Games indifferent to narrative:
- WoW
- Black Desert Online
- Tera
BDO and Tera have actual bad stories. I haven't played much of these games but everyone I've talked to had nothing but bad things to say. WoW is WoW. 90% of the story is delivered through quest text. If you have the patience to read through all that you'll find what amounts to a Saturday morning cartoon.
*Sidenote: Both BDO and Tera are Korean MMOs and as such are extremely grind focused.
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