I've played Asheron's Call, Asheron's Call 2, EQ, and Anarchy Online. World of Warcraft is far superior to any MMORPG I have ever played. I don't exaggerate when I say there is not one that even comes close.
You will never run out of things to do in WoW. I would list off all the good points, but instead let me just direct you to the following websites:
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World of Warcraft is most certainly the best game for getting into MMORPG's. The interface is simple and there is a fair ammount of stuff to do in the game. I, however, managed to get bored after a couple months. I would not recommend that your first character be a paladin. While they don't die often, they also aren't very interesting.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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Which is my cue to link to The Noob. An excellent webcomic. Explore Clichequest, the Valley of the Grind!
Posts: 10645 | Registered: Jul 2004
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WoW was fun for me for a month or so and then it became repetitive and boring. None of the things I had really meant anything to me because they were easy to get. Keeping in mind that I leveled a couple people to just 35, none of the items or abilities I had were that unique or would be meaningfully different in five levels. The player base of WoW seems to consist of a large population of 12 year old d00ds.
I think WoW has some very cool elements to it. The world and the npcs are pretty neat. The classes are pretty well balanced. Leveling is quick(ish). There is a lot of visual flavor to the game. Still, I just found the game to not be for me.
That said, you are going to be paying for WoW to try it and play it. Before you do that, if you have broadband, download Runescape or Planeshift or Anarchy Online and play for free to test those games out. I am giving AO another try myself tonight.
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You'll be fine - MMORPG is the same as an FPS except character development is more detailed as opposed to an FPS where it tends to be nonexistent.
The major drawback to MMORPGs - the geeks who do nothing but play for days and days and then get their jollies by stepping on your character.
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It's more annoying when you've spent money on maintaining a subscription, only to get slapped down by a twit with nothing better to do than strike a virtual pose.
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If you do play WoW, make sure you get on a Normal or RPG server. The PvP servers just aren't worth it - and they are exactly as Storm Saxon described.
The Normal and RPG servers don't allow high levels to just squash you, unless you do something foolish like attack them first or attack a nonplayer character when one's nearby.
I took a hunter all the way to lvl 49, then got a little bored of him. So I took a shaman to level 24, and a warlock and mage to level 15... and I'm still leveling them. One's on a totally different continent, so entirely different quests. Plus the different professions and races thrown in.
Plenty to do, certainly. I'm a total addict.
Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I have several 20-30 characters in wow, and I got a paladin up to 40. I was playing a bi-weekly campaign with friends. I still burned out, and I'm about to cancel before the next month comes up. I played in beta, and since launch.
If you play, you should play with friends, or make friends that are going to play often, so you can do things with people...
That's all the advice I can really give.
Posts: 121 | Registered: Mar 2005
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What rav said is important. WoW is EASY to play by yourself. You don't NEED to have friends to do stuff all the time. But, that gets really repetative, really quick. Getting into a good guild helps, but try to avoid the little dinky ones that some level 20 d00d just started up.
Posts: 3003 | Registered: Oct 2004
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I run my guild, inherited it when the guild master got tired of it. I think that's a lot of the reason I'm still interested, because I have a core of people I've quested with and brought into the guild. Still, though, only one at the level of my primary character , and she doesn't play so much.
So, if anyone wants to make a character on the Bronzebeard server, you can look up Tichenor on the Horde side, and I can hook you up with a guild invite. Posts: 3960 | Registered: Jul 2001
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I've gone back to City of Heroes after playing WoW because it is so well polished, and a bunch of coworkers played. I'm not big into fantasy (though I don't mind), but I've found WoW to be a fairly bland fantasy world. I'm about 90% to the point of canceling. A side note: I really like the UI customizations in WoW. I knew I wasn't long to last in the game, however, when I looked forward more to the mods and less to the game itself.
City of Heroes, being a superhero game, was much more refreshing, and I think if you are coming from FPS-land, a better starter MMORPG. The fighting is more tactical than WoW, and soon (~a month) CoH will be getting arena PVP, which has gotten favorable previews.
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I would suggest playing NWN (Neverwinter Nights).
It's a really good game, and you only have to pay for the initial game (no monthy stuff). It's about $40 for the whole game in a store, but you can find it cheap on e-bay. In my opinion, it's better than WoW. (A lot of people left NWN for WoW, but a good bit of them actually came back.) There's a lot of servers to choose from, and you can pick from a lot of game/playing styles. The characters are really customizable, too.
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I have played a few MMORPGS. I have played A Tale in the Desert, City of Heroes, Dark Age of Camelot, World of Warcraft, Eve, Ultima Online, and I have looked closely at Everquest, Everquest 2, and some of the free MMORPGSs.
The best MMORPG is determined by what you are looking for in game play. For me, A Tale in the Desert (ATITD) was a nice departure from the others. It is original, has no fighting or leveling, and is completely engrossing. Orson Scott Card’s MMORG will be run off the same engine. I love it~too bad I don't have time to continue with it. I will look at the 2nd telling when it comes out.
However, that being said, I think BY FAR the best MMORPG is Dark Age of Camelot . It has the best replay.
Each server is divided into 3 countries (albion, midgard, hibernia). These countries are self contained and you can play a hibernian elf and never have to bother with the other two countries.
BUT, everyone in your Realm (country) gets small benefits depending on Keeps (castles) you control in battlegrounds. There is an incentive to participate in PVP--but that can only be done in the battlegrounds.
You are never in danger of being PKed unless you venture into the BGs, and even the battlegrounds are divided every 5 levels. My 27 Friar can PVP with levels 25-29 in the battlegrounds. Haveing three realms at odds with each other make good game play. The REAL battlegrounds are for level 49 and 50. At that point, the game becomes a whole new experience.
A lot of MMORPGs get old at level 50, with DAoC, the whole game play and objectives changes. For a lot of players, the game doesn’t start until level 50.
The characters are well balanced. I prefer to play alone and not do PVP, but when I have done it, it was a blast. Grouping is set up really nice with in-group chat features and group-to-group chat features---for when multiple groups of 8 storms keeps.
Other games PVP is set up by server or with no real realm benefits. Having to decide between the pvp server and the other servers are a turn off for me. Even when I can choose to pvp within a server (through guild wars or by flaggin my character), it seems not to integrate with the game as well as DAoC.
As with any MMORG, I get sick of it and stop playing, but unlike all the others (with the exception of ATITD), I keep coming back to play more.
NOTE: WoW if fun, smooth, slick, and has lots of eyecandy, but it gets old fast. Plus, there is not enough detail in character creation to hold my interest.
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I wash just putting links into my post when I noticed that A Tale in the Desert has started it's second telling. If you go to the homepage, you can download the game for free. That is right, you never buy the game, you just download it and try it for a month. If you like it, then you can start paying the monthly fee.
I know what I am doing tonight!
Posts: 2445 | Registered: Oct 2004
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quote: I would suggest playing NWN (Neverwinter Nights).
It's a really good game, and you only have to pay for the initial game (no monthy stuff). It's about $40 for the whole game in a store, but you can find it cheap on e-bay. In my opinion, it's better than WoW. (A lot of people left NWN for WoW, but a good bit of them actually came back.) There's a lot of servers to choose from, and you can pick from a lot of game/playing styles. The characters are really customizable, too.
As it happens, I actually have this game already and my Hubby has the expansions for it as well. I was addicted to the single player aspect for a while, but I never had the courage to go "live" so to speak.
Posts: 115 | Registered: Nov 2004
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I can only comment on the ones I've played:
NWN multiplayer: If you love tabletop RPGs, NWN is the only thing that comes remotely close (and actually is very close.) And it doesn't cost money. But it's not a real MMORPG, even though there are a few "persistent world" settings that are kind of MMORPG-like. Go to neverwinterconnections.com and look into playing in a one-shot, if you've already got the game and play single-player (warning: a lot of the games require all expansions.)
City of Heroes: Also excellent. No PvP combat, so you don't have the high level player killer problem. I've been playing for about 3 weeks now, and still haven't gotten bored--I've only seen about a quarter of the map and none of my characters are above level 12. It does also feel a bit more FPS-like than NWN. And it's modern superheroes instead of medeival fantasy, which is a plus for me.
Posts: 170 | Registered: Mar 2001
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I don't really play NWN single player, I went straight to online. And I love it. If you want to try it out online, a good server is Redemption Mud, under PW Action. You don't have to have expantions to play, but you won't be able to get to some areas.
Posts: 4174 | Registered: Sep 2003
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I've played UO, EQ, DAOC, SWG, COH, and now EQ2 to high level and "uberness". I have not played WoW, though I have heard both good and bad things about it.
The best MMORPG depends on what you want to do.
If you want Player vs Environment I would go EQ2.
If you want to be a Tradeskiller, go SWG.
If you want PVP, there is no choice other than Dark Age of Camelot.
DAOC and SWG you will level quickly in whatever you choose to do. The draw on both of them is the PVP. DAOC does that in spades (see lem's post) and SWG is... weaker.
However SWG has the best tradeskills I have ever seen in an MMORPG. (this paragraph is as it was when I quit. There have been many patches since then.) Everything deteriorates so you always have a market. You can sell offline on the bazaar or in your personal shop in your house. You can make: drugs (for healers), Harvesters, guild halls, houses, factories, weapons, armor, food, spice (illegal drugs), droids, and more. Everything you make requires harvested resources. Every resource has a name and a set of qualities. Your recipe calls for a specific type of resource(s) with emphasis on specific qualities. This will effect the quality of your final product. Resources shift every week or so. I had more fun running my business than I did mass murdering the guild in the town next to mine.
And of course, if you just want to play against the computer you can do the infinate grind that is EQ2. It's what I'm playing now and it's not bad. Just don't play an enchanter. We're gimped beyond belief.
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