hey guys what are some of the best mmorpgs out there currently?
best mmorpgs?
The best MMO is World of Warcraft. There are great MMO's that do not cost as much money, but every time I am playing something else, I find myself missing the polish of WOW.
Depends on your tastes. Do you want a persistent world, or are you simply looking for an game you can play with other people? Do you want direct controls or gameplay to be based around skills on hot bars? Do you want a PvP focus or a PvE focus? Do you want a monthly fee? Do you want a game that requires being in some form of guild for success or one where you can be a loner and still see all the content?
I can go on, but you get the picture. While I'd say WoW is far from the best out there (I'd color it as borderline good), it certainly is the most accessible, giving you a broad degree of competently made content that should help you narrow down the answers to some of the above questions.
The tried and true answer is World of Warcraft. More content than you'll get anywhere else by far.
I wonder if there's some resource that's actually compared content in MMOs. I'm sure you're right, with all of the expansions, that WoW is probably the biggest, but it's interesting* to consider the amount of stuff to do in a game like that vs. the intended amount of play time needed to level to the end game content. Considering that WoW had far less actual content years ago, but since they've streamlined the grind so much, maybe even more content gets passed over despite there being more to do.
Not really a judgement of the game, more of just a scholarly curiosity. I'm sure Blizzard has people working on this all the time. I'd love to see their undoubtedly crazy "(questing x grind)/loot drops + PvP to the power of Raids" formula.
* (okay, probably not actually interesting)
If pop-fantasy in WoW makes you sick like it does for me, and EVE is too intimidating, I'd totally check out Anarchy Online. I might hold off until they put out the graphics update they're working on (which has taken forever, but is in beta-testing now so hopefully comes soon). AO has the best community of any game I've seen, and a ton of depth in the items, equipment and stats. It feels really good when you can barely squeeze on that rifle that's 50 levels higher than you -- something most modern mmo's have gotten rid of by just requiring level instead of stats to equip something.
And if you're sick of the combat in most mmo's, give TERA a try. Despite all it's weirdness, it has by far the most fun moment-to-moment combat of any mmo i've played.
World of Warcraft is so archaic now it's a shame it has the most content, but that is true- it does.
That being said there are still some things of interest in other MMOs.
The Old Republic online isn't bad. The game play is pretty standard MMO fair but the stories are pretty interesting.
Neverwinter is a new free to play MMO. It doesn't cost anything to play it. The combat is real time, meaning click and you swing a sword or cast a spell, and I have found the story lines to be fun to get through. Like Old republic all the dialogue is spoken and the combat feels pretty powerful. Its the first MMO I've played where sword and board is actually pretty bad ass. Since it's free it has more restrictions unless you pay for stuff (for instance you only have 2 character slots) so don't waste a lot of time on a character type you aren't enjoying. Other than that though I do recommend checking it out. It's actually pretty good.
The secret world is alright. I haven't played it in a while but if I recall the combat in that was real time, and it's a modern day setting so it's something different from other MMOs as it's setting focuses more on modern day horror type things. Like the occult, werewolves, vampires, ghosts, freaky children of the corn type stuff, and other things that use a modern day type setting. If you're looking for something that isn't the typical fantasy setting like most MMOs The secret world is actually pretty good.
Those are the best ones I can think of. In my opinion World of Warcraft, while having the most content because millions of people continue to play it, isn't actually the best. If some of these other MMOs had WoW's popularity they'd actually be better. Neverwinter might get there if it gets enough cash flow to keep producing new content. It has a decent amount already, and the user created quests aren't bad, but I can see it going limp at end game if they cant make expansions.
@nhoj_sllew said:
EVE
fuck wow
As someone that loves EVE and plays a lot of it, EVE is pretty bad as an actual game.
I enjoyed leveling and questing in Guild Wars 2 way more than I did in WoW. However, I much preferred the endgame and PVP in WoW. Depends on what you're interested in, I guess.
I started looking at Blade and Soul recently. It looks fucking rad, but the devs were completely silent about its western release for most of last year. Although it came out recently in China, or at least entered open beta.
I'm guessing NCSoft is waiting for WildStar to come out before they start pushing another MMO, especially with a WoW expansion and Elder Scrolls MMO on the way.
I enjoyed leveling and questing in Guild Wars 2 way more than I did in WoW. However, I much preferred the endgame and PVP in WoW. Depends on what you're interested in, I guess.
Yeah, I enjoyed leveling in Guild Wars 2, but I HATE what they've been doing with the game over the last year. Instead of adding permanent content, they keep releasing temporary stuff. The story completely stagnates, and there's practically no form of progression once you hit the level cap. My friends and I often just call it 'Grind Wars 2', because unlike other games, it's so much more transparent here.
But yeah, for the first few months, Guild Wars 2 is fantastic. It's when you hit the cap that you realize there's not much else going for it.
Ultima Online was my favorite ever but WoW was great the first 5 years or so (just so tired of it now). This genre definitely needs some innovation and devs need to throw most of the WoW formula out the window.
I had an amazing time with Vanilla WOW. Not sure how the game is today but I bet you can find something else to fill your itch. I really don't know the genre outside wow but hear real good things about Guild Wars 2.
Off the top of my head,
- WoW
- Eve
- Vindictus (grindy as fuck, but puts other MMO combat to shame)
- TERA (also grindy as fuck and the combat is veryhit or miss when going from class to class. Personally, I felt like some classes played like complete shit while others had their moments of fun.)
- Rift (pretty much WoW except f2p. It's the good f2p though and not the shitty, rip-you-off f2p. Quality game, but nothing too special. Has a ton of content. Class system is fun.)
- FFXIV (Doesn't really do anything new if you've played games like WoW, but it oozes an amount production quality that makes other MMOs look laughable in comparison.)
- Guild Wars 2 (Some people like it. I think it's painfully average in every way and if it wasn't called "Guild Wars 2" then absolutely no one would give a shit about it. Just my opinion though and it's probably worth a try at least.)
@random45: I never really understood those complaints about Guild Wars. There's little in the way of vertical progression so some people find there's little to do, but that only really applies if all you care about is seeing stats increase. There's not really anything to actually grind for here besides cosmetics and achievements and if that's all you're doing, you've missed the point of the game. The temporary content can be a pain, but if you're looking for something to keep you occupied it does mean there's new content to play through every two weeks.. although this has admittedly varied in quality pretty radically over the past year, the devs do at least seemed to have learned what worked and what didn't and are promising some big changes for this year.
It's not a game for everyone, but I'd say it's worth a shot. If you're sick of MMO's being nothing but grinding for higher and higher stats, GW2 is a refreshing change.
@random45: I never really understood those complaints about Guild Wars. There's little in the way of vertical progression so some people find there's little to do, but that only really applies if all you care about is seeing stats increase. There's not really anything to actually grind for here besides cosmetics and achievements and if that's all you're doing, you've missed the point of the game. The temporary content can be a pain, but if you're looking for something to keep you occupied it does mean there's new content to play through every two weeks.. although this has admittedly varied in quality pretty radically over the past year, the devs do at least seemed to have learned what worked and what didn't and are promising some big changes for this year.
It's not a game for everyone, but I'd say it's worth a shot. If you're sick of MMO's being nothing but grinding for higher and higher stats, GW2 is a refreshing change.
There's a LOT more to grind for other than cosmetic changes - the Ascended armor and weapons are all a HUGE grind fest that are a big stat increase for armor, and the legendary weapons are nothing BUT grinding for months for karma, badges, materials, and dungeon tokens. Sure, you don't HAVE to grind, but the game grows very stale quickly. The story is only interesting one time though, and then after that you'll be picking out holes in it left and right (not to mention the story is painfully stupid at times). I wish they'd do BIG patches like WoW does instead, because generally the content provided every two weeks is very small, and can usually be beaten or completely explored in a few hours - or they make a painfully difficult boss or dungeon that requires huge amounts of coordination that no one does pass the first few weeks.
The game's not necessarily bad, but it could be a lot better.
I have tried Age of Conan, DCUO, Dragon Nest, Dungeons and Dragons Online, Everquest, Everquest 2, Final Fantasy 11, Final Fantasy 14, Neverwinter, Rift, Runescape, The Secret World, Star Wars The Old Republic, Terra, Vindicus, Warhammer and World of Warcraft and I'm certain I forgot a few. I always find myself going back to World of Warcraft.
World of Warcraft is the best traditional one out there, but I think just not playing an mmorpg at all is the way to go. It's just a huge time investment for an experience that is really only occasionally fun. Eve might be an exception I guess. Seems to be the only big mmorpg out there that isn't similar to WOW.
I'd recommend Final Fantasy XIV over almost anything else, it looks, great, sounds great and has a multitude of easy to use control schemes (mouse + keyboard, controller or a mix of those). It has a pretty decent story and this is being added to every few months rather than the usual yearly update, game modes are varied and if you own a couple of devices the chances are you can play the same account on them all. Its also one of the few mmos out there that allows you to make progress regardless of your daily time allowance, if you only have an hour you can still make some headway and thanks to a pretty decent matchmaking system you can get a party even if you dont have a guild.
The game also benefits new users from being fairly new itself, you dont have to worry about missing over 10 years worth of story, its all new and unfolding right there infront of you as you play. Thats not to say its perfect, but its a lot of fun, has no microtransactions and has a level of polish you will not see anywhere else, if you have a decent spec pc or a ps4 you will be able to appreciate it all the more.
If you are not a fan of Final Fantasy or dont want to pay for an mmo, you could do worse than Neverwinter, Star Trek Online, DC Universe Online or Tera. Neverwinter is the most traditional of the lot but is unfortunately littered with microtransactions, you can of course get everything ingame without paying but you will grind like crazy to get them. Star Trek Online is one of the more unique games allowing you to control a landing party and your own starship with the whole of the Star Trek franchise to play with. DCUO is an action mmo which i still dont know if i like because its good, or because its set in the comics i love. Tera is an Eastern take on western rpg ideas and is another goregous looking game with a massive fully realised world, well worth a look if you are open to the asthetic.
I think half the fun of a MMO is who you play with. I've played WoW for nearly a decade so naturally I know a lot of WoW players and will always have more fun playing with them than I would playing a game alone even if the game itself was better. So if you have any friends playing a MMO I'd recommend joining them.
Guild Wars 2 was the only MMO that I even got close to getting fully addicted to (as in I played it for more than a month with the previous record being held by WoW at 1 week).... still didn't finish the main story line though
DCUO
- Free to download on PC
- Has controller support (which is honestly the better way to play it)
- Free 2 Play ( You have to buy the expansions or you can get a membership and then the expansions are free)
- Fun as hell to play
I used to love DCUO but its more Pay2Win from my perspective...Quit last year I don't like what they did with that game at all
DCUO
- Free to download on PC
- Has controller support (which is honestly the better way to play it)
- Free 2 Play ( You have to buy the expansions or you can get a membership and then the expansions are free)
- Fun as hell to play
I used to love DCUO but its more Pay2Win from my perspective...Quit last year I don't like what they did with that game at all
I quit over 2 years ago. Where I live now I can't play MMOs. Didn't know they changed their business model so drastically. That's too bad. :(
DCUO
- Free to download on PC
- Has controller support (which is honestly the better way to play it)
- Free 2 Play ( You have to buy the expansions or you can get a membership and then the expansions are free)
- Fun as hell to play
I used to love DCUO but its more Pay2Win from my perspective...Quit last year I don't like what they did with that game at all
I quit over 2 years ago. Where I live now I can't play MMOs. Didn't know they changed their business model so drastically. That's too bad. :(
Why'd you move?
EVE
fuck wow
@cornbredx: I really dug The Secret World too!
Though unfortunately I tried logging in yesterday and it seems like the community is nearly dead... But I agree it's a really cool setting.
Neat mystery-based questlines that actually require sleuthing are brilliant as well.
Kind of a Supernatural vibe to some of it.
I've been really craving an MMO recently but there isn't a ton that is grabbing me like the older days.
DCUO, WoW, and FFXIV are probably your best bets for solid MMO-ing until Elder Scrolls is out, I reckon.
I am to the point where I hate WoW. I played it from beta up until 2 weeks into Cata and then I took a break until Panderia and then stopped playing that about 4 months after launch. That being said the only real answer is World of Warcraft. There are plenty of good MMOs out there, if that genre is your bag, but WoW has the most polish and content for your time. I don't regret all the time I put into it and my wife really likes it (she's only played for about 3 years) but I seriously doubt I will ever go back to it.
That being said the only real answer is World of Warcraft. There are plenty of good MMOs out there, if that genre is your bag, but WoW has the most polish and content for your time.
I don't think it's that easy, it all depends on what you want to get out of the game. Is it just doing raids with other people? Exploring and taking part in an online world? Doing story stuff? It seems like WOW is great for people who are into raiding, PVP and stuff like that, I'm not into that stuff at all, and the world they have it all set in is not compelling in the least to me, neither are the story quests, which just seem to boil down to Epic Movie style pop culture referential humor.
When it comes a coherent and interesting world I'd think FFXIV or Everquest are probably where it's at, on the story front it's probably SWTOR or FFXIV, and when it comes to player agency it'd probably be EVE or The Secret World (in pretty different ways). But then most people would probably have preferences when it comes to setting as well - whatever the quality of the rest of the game is, not everybody is into the kind of fantasy world that FFXIV presents, or Star Wars or something like that.
@fisk0: I would disagree and I would offer my "casual" gamer wife as proof. She does plenty of content and exploring on her own. She's into the crafting stuff just as a thing to do, she's into getting achievements, she's into story stuff with the Trolls (her favorite race), and other stuff. There are story things, they just don't make up the bulk of the content. I would argue that many of those MMOs you listed aren't exactly friendly to casual players, especially EQ. SWTOR is just a single player game bloated by the mmo mold. I think there's a reason why 7-8 million + people still have active WoW accounts.
I used to get aggravated with my wife when we were dating because she really liked Runescape; it hurt me as a gamer that she played that and I offered to pay for her WoW account for a really long time. She finally got into it about the time we got married and she's still active and when she doesn't do casual raiding (once a week, I think). Raiding isn't even a hardcore thing in WoW anymore with as simple and dumbed down as it is.
Just my opinion, obviously. I've tried to get into Rift, Eve, Defiance, SWTOR, DnDO, LotRO, Guild Wars 2, FFXI, and more and I still think WoW just offers a better overall experience for casual and hardcore gamers even if the formula is old, but as I stated I played from beta through to weeks into Cataclysm and I hardcore raided for years straight until I was burned out on it being a second job :p
I'd totally check out Anarchy Online. I might hold off until they put out the graphics update they're working on
Hah! Dude. Trust me. Forget all hopes of that graphics update ever coming out. They just like dangling that in front of their small userbase as something to look to the horizon for. I played AO when it was 7 years old (so... maybe like 5 or 6 years ago?) and back then every single month the graphics update was "almost here!" It might come out, but I certainly wouldn't wait for it. That being said, AO is my favorite MMO of all time, even with its depressingly empty cities with their empty shops and empty clubs. It has some really amazing depth. Too bad the people running it are too clueless to make the whole thing free-to-play; it'd really boost their user-base, at least temporarily.
...But it really is a completely unique MMO experience, and probably your preferred one if you hate the WoW art-style or formula and aren't willing to invest your life into EVE.
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