The Next Big MMO? [Archive] - MacRumors Forums

Huntn

Apr 28, 2009, 06:57 PM

I've been so happy playing WoW for the last 5 months, I've not thought much about the future of MMOs. When I was taking a break from WoW, I regularly visited MMORPG.com (http://www.mmorpg.com/).

Is there anything out there announced and in development that anyone is excited about?

For years I was interested in Hero's Journey (http://www.play.net/hj/) which was purported to have some innovative concepts, but today I went to the HJ forum at MMORPG.com and the two top threads were "HJ is Not VaporWare" and "HJ is Officially Over." :) Does not look like much has changed there except recent reports of "massive layoffs" at Simutronics. You definitely would not want to be holding your breath for this title. I'm also wondering about Blizzard's next MMO, but started a separate thread for that subject.

PurpleCliff

Apr 29, 2009, 05:23 AM

I don't think I will play any MMO before BioWare's Star Wars: The Old Republic! I'm so excited!
It uses the Hero Engine - like Hero's Journey. It's looking great so far! :D

Reaver

Apr 29, 2009, 06:17 AM

I am kinda looking forward to the new starwars MMO myself

Yaboze

Apr 29, 2009, 08:55 AM

IMHO, it is Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

Some key reasons (which some may see as bad things) :)

It's from Bioware. Bioware is a great company and has been wanting to make a MMO for years. This is their first, which could be a problem, but on another note, everyone said the same about Blizzard and they are doing fine.

It's Star Wars. SWG had it's moments but is considered a failure. It's still kicking but people have been clamoring for a good Star Wars MMO. This could be it.

It's not Fantasy. Most MMO's are fantasy based, this will be a nice change.

Friendly requirements. It's meant to run on average PC's, similar to WoW, where you don't need a SLI Cray based rig to run it.

For Mac users, the only bad thing will be that there will be no native version, at least, nothing was mentioned. Bioware does make Mac games, but usually another dev team makes it. We'll see.

Huntn

Apr 29, 2009, 09:49 AM

For Mac users, the only bad thing will be that there will be no native version, at least, nothing was mentioned. Bioware does make Mac games, but usually another dev team makes it. We'll see.

When it comes to a MMO, I don't see a viable situation for two companies to be involved, one updating the native PC version and one updating the Mac version, but really I don't know. I'm so grateful that someone at Blizzard, (a company with Mac roots) made the commitment to stay Mac native over the many years of excellent titles. It would be really interesting to know how many Mac subscribers WoW has.

In a Star Wars MMO, I'd be curious to know if there is space combat to go along with planetary exploration and is it going to be innovative or will it feel like you've been there before with the standard kill and collect and escort quests.

Blizzard's latestest WoW expansion shows some outstanding innovation with instanced spaces that a number of non-partied players, but players who have reached the same progression point, can find themselves in. (I'm thinking of the Death Knight starter area for example).

masterofbuckets

Apr 29, 2009, 04:24 PM

Yeah unless the developer starts developing its game with Mac in mind from the start, it is very difficult for them to make it happen.

So, they port it or give it to someone else to do it. They don't normally have the time/money/resources/patience/drive to do it.

Pressure

Apr 29, 2009, 04:33 PM

Project Offset (http://www.projectoffset.com) looks really nice.

Huntn

Apr 29, 2009, 06:10 PM

Huntn

Apr 29, 2009, 06:12 PM

Project Offset (http://www.projectoffset.com) looks really nice.

Really nice concept art but based on the site content, it looks like this project is in the very early stages?

motoxpress

Apr 29, 2009, 10:01 PM

Blizzard's next MMO as long as it is scifi :)

There is Champions Online that is currently in beta. It is a super hero MMO that looks better visually than CoH. However, I am also thinking the new SW mmo has good potential. I think the world is ready for a new genre. Fantasy is played out.

-mx

FRKT

Apr 30, 2009, 01:27 AM

Blizzard and they are doing fine.

What, "fine"? It's pretty much the most successful game of all time! *

* Financially, that is.

Fake Hipster

Apr 30, 2009, 10:15 AM

When it comes to a MMO, I don't see a viable situation for two companies to be involved, one updating the native PC version and one updating the Mac version, but really I don't know. I'm so grateful that someone at Blizzard, (a company with Mac roots) made the commitment to stay Mac native over the many years of excellent titles. It would be really interesting to know how many Mac subscribers WoW has.

In a Star Wars MMO, I'd be curious to know if there is space combat to go along with planetary exploration and is it going to be innovative or will it feel like you've been there before with the standard kill and collect and escort quests.

Blizzard's latestest WoW expansion shows some outstanding innovation with instanced spaces that a number of non-partied players, but players who have reached the same progression point, can find themselves in. (I'm thinking of the Death Knight starter area for example).

Seriously, I would have given Warhammer a shot, but I didn't even have the option of giving them my money. Their loss.

Signal-11

Apr 30, 2009, 11:33 AM

It's gonna be a long while before any game displaces WoW on the MMO throne. CS 1.6 was only dethroned a few months ago as the king of the FPSs by CS:S and some trackers say that it's still more popular. That's for an action game with arguably much smaller social component than WoW.

chrono1081

Apr 30, 2009, 11:47 AM

I dont let myself play MMO's anymore....:'( I love them so much though!

Signal-11

Apr 30, 2009, 12:06 PM

Yeah, me neither. I discovered some time ago that I can't be a casual MMO gamer.

Huntn

Apr 30, 2009, 12:28 PM

My first MMO was Planetside (PC Sci-Fi PVP shooter). I loved the PVP in that game for a 18 months until I hit the wall. What struck me about WoW, (my first fantasy RPG), when I first started, many moons ago was how comfortable the environment was and how easy it was to get started. I've not gotten that feeling in any of the other WoW wannabees I've tried since.

masterofbuckets

Apr 30, 2009, 03:46 PM

Exactly my point, I don't think porting a MMO works. :)

City of Heroes was a good port actually, granted its an old one graphically but still, its nice to have a similar performing game on windows and mac.

Lets hope more MMOs come to Mac. Atleast with porting, we get a chance to play them without restarting into bootcamp.

At the end of the day, I don't give a crap whether its native or uses wine, if it performs well, thats all I care about.

Huntn

Apr 30, 2009, 07:34 PM

City of Heroes was a good port actually, granted its an old one graphically but still, its nice to have a similar performing game on windows and mac.

Lets hope more MMOs come to Mac. Atleast with porting, we get a chance to play them without restarting into bootcamp.

At the end of the day, I don't give a crap whether its native or uses wine, if it performs well, thats all I care about.

Admittedly I don't know much about it. So they had one company running the PC side and handling updates, and handing the Mac updates off to a separate company? Interesting.

rasmasyean

May 4, 2009, 10:30 PM

IMHO, it is Bioware's Star Wars: The Old Republic.

That's sound decent. But lets hope it's not like a LoTRO MMO. That was a pretty lame MMO. They tried too much "story-telling". Just nice graphics and you had to be a real fan to stand that game after a while, imho.

The problem is that everyone is gonna want to be a light-sider. They have to address that otherwise it will blow bubbles.

itommyboy

May 4, 2009, 10:50 PM

Come onnnnnn Top Gun Online! I'm Iceman! :D

mim

May 5, 2009, 06:24 AM

Huntn

May 5, 2009, 07:40 AM

You guys hanging out for sci-fi should have a look at Eve Online.

http://www.eveonline.com/

It's great, and the Mac client works very well.

Edit: I should note that I have a few 'Buddy Passes' left - these give you a free 21 day trial. If you're interested give me an email at alex dot matovic at gmail dot com.

I just don't think flying around in space full time will do it for me. I've always wanted planetary exploration. Maybe you could clarify a couple of Eve rumors:

1) Steep learning curve.

2) Brutal death sentence. (my understanding there are ways to mitigate death and not lose your stuff?).

Huntn

May 5, 2009, 07:47 AM

That's sound decent. But lets hope it's not like a LoTRO MMO. That was a pretty lame MMO. They tried too much "story-telling". Just nice graphics and you had to be a real fan to stand that game after a while, imho.

The problem is that everyone is gonna want to be a light-sider. They have to address that otherwise it will blow bubbles.

Keep in mind I'm a corrupted WoW player, but I really saw nothing really different/superior about LOTRO as compared to WoW and at the starter levels the quests were pretty much the same as in WoW. Might as well play the best MMO. The LOTRO story line seems less significant or special when a server has thousands doing the same quests. And I thought at least one of the classes (Minstrel (http://lotro.mmorpgedge.com/articles/2/1/Lotro-Classes-Overview/Page1.html#minstrel)) where you attack a mob by singing them to death was a bit silly. Maybe at the higher levels they would be impressive but not at the beginning.

masterofbuckets

May 5, 2009, 09:47 AM

Admittedly I don't know much about it. So they had one company running the PC side and handling updates, and handing the Mac updates off to a separate company? Interesting.

City of Heroes is developed by Paragon Studios ( NCSoft is the publisher ).

They hired TransGaming to do the Mac port. I guess they did everything Mac related and gave it to NCSoft for release.

Mackilroy

May 5, 2009, 12:13 PM

I just don't think flying around in space full time will do it for me. I've always wanted planetary exploration. Maybe you could clarify a couple of Eve rumors:

1) Steep learning curve.

2) Brutal death sentence. (my understanding there are ways to mitigate death and not lose your stuff?).

1. It's more of a learning cliff...

2. It's not brutal, but it isn't forgiving like WoW. Besides, if you're a part of a corp they'll usually have some sort of policy worked out to replace whatever you lose in battles, though that's only in 0.0 space, not in Empire.

spencecb

May 13, 2009, 04:44 PM

Blizzard is developing a new MMO, but it is a completely new franchise. I read about it on Ars' website.

I think Star Trek: Online has the potential to be pretty big/popular, especially with the success of the new film. Looks cool!

voyagerd

May 13, 2009, 07:20 PM

I'm really looking forward to Star Trek online. I played EVE for awhile, but I love Star Trek ship games.

Huntn

May 14, 2009, 06:57 PM

Blizzard is developing a new MMO, but it is a completely new franchise. I read about it on Ars' website.

Has the setting been leaked? :)

I think Star Trek: Online has the potential to be pretty big/popular, especially with the success of the new film. Looks cool!

Great film, but will it be a great MMO? Is there planet exploration there? A primarily PVP game? I could see that, lots of conflict in space.

Tsubame

May 14, 2009, 07:15 PM

Dragonforce

May 15, 2009, 02:25 AM

IMO the "next big" is Aion.
I'm currently playing the chinese full version, its really good.
Great graphics / visuals, awesome musical score and gameplay.
You should take a look at it at www.aiononline.com

The US / EU release should be in Fall 2009

artomes

May 15, 2009, 11:06 AM

I've actually been dabbling at the thoughts of going back to FFXI, the Crossover Games folks have managed to get it working reliably well under Crossover, so no longer any need to reboot into windows (Or even have a windows partition) to run it. Basically all I was waiting for.

Now I just have to figure out if I have the time for that :P

I would love to go back to FFXI but i quit about 2 years ago i had a 75 rdm/brd/sam. If i could get all my characters back i would jump on it in a heart beat.

spencecb

May 15, 2009, 11:12 AM

Has the setting been leaked? :)

Great film, but will it be a great MMO? Is there planet exploration there? A primarily PVP game? I could see that, lots of conflict in space.

The setting has not been leaked, no. At least nothing I have read. Should be interesting to say the least.

If you google Star Trek: Online, you can find their official website and view a trailer of the game. It looks like there will be planetary exploration, but from what it sounds like, the primary part of the game will take place in space. Evan if it only has short lived success, it looks really cool!

Huntn

May 15, 2009, 11:40 AM

If you google Star Trek: Online, you can find their official website and view a trailer of the game.

Startrekonline (http://www.startrekonline.com/videos)- I played the "Game Play" Trailer, looked interesting but did not sell me yet. I'm wondering how they control the numbers of space ships and how special is it to become Captain and what it takes to make Star Ship Captain, and then when you blow up, do they just hand you another? :) Just thinking out loud.

Nermal

May 16, 2009, 01:38 AM

The setting has not been leaked, no. At least nothing I have read. Should be interesting to say the least.

I suspect that something will be announced at Blizzcon (in August).

Tsubame

May 16, 2009, 08:57 PM

I would love to go back to FFXI but i quit about 2 years ago i had a 75 rdm/brd/sam. If i could get all my characters back i would jump on it in a heart beat.

Keep your eye out, they sometimes have a Return to Vana'Diel campaign where you can indeed get your character back. As long as you didn't delete when you deactivated, they should still be there.

rasmasyean

May 29, 2009, 03:24 PM

1. It's more of a learning cliff...

2. It's not brutal, but it isn't forgiving like WoW. Besides, if you're a part of a corp they'll usually have some sort of policy worked out to replace whatever you lose in battles, though that's only in 0.0 space, not in Empire.

Here's a pretty neat video showing some PVP action. Don't worry, if you don't really know what's going on, nobody really does unless you're the guy playing in the video! :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GcwG3ABl9Qw

As you can see, even though EVE has pretty cool graphics they say, the only time you realy get to see it is if you're not really fighting. Otherwise, it's basically using a sort of tactical overlay type of interface where you can barely see anything other than blips and statuses basically. :p

But as for the brutal death sentence, it's really up to you. You can select what you loose to a certain extent because it's almost like loosing all your items when you die. But if your team wins, you can get some random ones back from your "wreckage". So you can use "expensive" or "cheap" items determining your own death penalty. If you want to be more poweful at the moment, normally you use more expensive items. But by no means is it always advantageous to use the highest costing items. You can kill a player / group that is sporting 10x more expensive items than your team is just by what your present items allow you to do synergystically compared to the other guys. Most people use "generic" items because you will lose it eventually. There are some "rare" (somewhat equivalent to "elite" in wow) but only the richest (and luckiest) players have those and only use them for special occasions or just collect them.

But you don't really have to fight. You can carebare your way through the game and be really rich too and afford the giant ships and stuff. And then fight when you feel like it. There are a lot of "crafters" and "crafting guilds" in the game as well. Crafters always have something to do because everything can be lost and either looted by a victor or some random passerby or sinked back into the game. And there are "pirate guilds" that often try to blow them up and steal their stuff. lol

And there is no "universal Auction House" throughout the game. Everything has to be physically transported to various areas of the universe. And this is also where pirate guilds make most of their money trying to jack a transport or convoy. And if they blow something up, I think like half the cargo sinks back into the game. But they can demand a "ransom" after pinning you or work out some deal to for a "win-win" situation if you can put it that way. hehe Or they can just let you give them your ship and promise not to kill you (where you loose enhancements called implants and have to pay for a "clone") ... and have some other dude maybe waiting for you in your escape pod at the other end and kill you for fun anyway. LOL

And here's a good carebare video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cATMbcZy_E

RoninXI

May 31, 2009, 08:01 PM

Eve learning cliff ?!?! ohh you mean this :P

http://go-dl1.eve-files.com/media/0803/LearningCurve.jpg

rasmasyean

May 31, 2009, 09:14 PM

And here's what happens when you can't take a learning cliff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns9oAGnK9CU

:D

k2spitfire88

Jun 1, 2009, 08:53 AM

Has the setting been leaked? :)

Great film, but will it be a great MMO? Is there planet exploration there? A primarily PVP game? I could see that, lots of conflict in space.

I believe it is PVP and PVC. You run your own ship, and are called captain, regardless of rank, in keeping with naval tradition. It is space and planet combat, so it goes both ways. It looks pretty sweet. Only downside is their is no Mac version planned. :(

Huntn

Jun 2, 2009, 03:23 PM

Eve learning cliff ?!?! ohh you mean this :P

LOL, great pic with the little hanging stick figures and all! :)

And here's what happens when you can't take a learning cliff...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ns9oAGnK9CU

:D

I listened to about 3 min of that to get the gist. ;) That a very good reason why playing PVP takes the right temperament and it helps if don't mind being ganked and/or stomped to pieces on a regular basis. I've also heard in Eve, when you get de-stroyed, you can be looted? But there is insurance to get your ship back? (wipes brow) I think I like hanging out with the Care Bears. It's more fun! :D
I started WoW on a PVP server. It really does interfer with PVE questing if you have any interest in that. Once in retail I switched to a "normal" i.e. "easy" servers.

rasmasyean

Jun 2, 2009, 05:41 PM

LOL, great pic with the little hanging stick figures and all! :)

I listened to about 3 min of that to get the gist. ;) That a very good reason why playing PVP takes the right temperament and it helps if don't mind being ganked and/or stomped to pieces on a regular basis. I've also heard in Eve, when you get de-stroyed, you can be looted? But there is insurance to get your ship back? (wipes brow) I think I like hanging out with the Care Bears. It's more fun! :D
I started WoW on a PVP server. It really does interfer with PVE questing if you have any interest in that. Once in retail I switched to a "normal" i.e. "easy" servers.

Yeah, in EVE, your ship turns into a wreck where anyone can loot a random 50% (I think) of the items that didn’t get “destroyed”.
The wreck can also be “salvaged” (similar to disenchanted) yielding reagents to make other things (but they are normally worth a small fraction of the total).
The insurance covers the “base value” of the ship only…but of course you have to pay for insurance.
However, for advance ships that take a lot of rare materials to make, the market value is often a lot more than the game’s base value.
If your escape pod gets destroyed, you lose any “implants” (similar to enchants, but to your body) and you have to buy a clone to preserve your skills (which is similar to XP, but it takes real time to advance rather than grinding). For example, whether you log in 1 hour per week or 40 hours per week, your character can be potentially at the same skill level. Of course the later case makes it easier to afford the skills (unless you buy your currency).

The harshest penalty (which doesn’t happen to a lot of ppl) is if you don’t buy an updated clone, you will lose a small percentage of your skill accumulation randomly when you die. It’s not so bad if you’re a lowbie and you can lose like 1 hour of skills. But if your character is aged, you can lose like days. But by that time, you don’t forget to get a clone. But mistakes do happen. :)

There's only one server in EVE and it's a PVP one. :)

There are many ways to play the game. But PVP can destroy a lot of money. The good part is that often there are guilds that want pvpers and will supply you equipment to lose. Powerful ones have established “territory” where they mine moons and asteroids and “grind” on powerful mobs and have guild factories where they produce equipment...some of which they give you…and some they sell to you at a discounted price…and some they sell to outsiders at full price. With this comes the “defense” of the territory where they also need players for.

Huntn

Jun 2, 2009, 06:32 PM

[FONT=Calibri]There's only one server in EVE and it's a PVP one. :)

There are many ways to play the game. But PVP can destroy a lot of money. The good part is that often there are guilds that want pvpers and will supply you equipment to lose. Powerful ones have established “territory” where they mine moons and asteroids and “grind” on powerful mobs and have guild factories where they produce equipment...some of which they give you…and some they sell to you at a discounted price…and some they sell to outsiders at full price. With this comes the “defense” of the territory where they also need players for.

Does Eve have PVE servers? Or servers were PVP is somewhat controlled? I played Planetside for over 18 months which was a great PVP environment and I had a great time! The difference was that you don't have so much to lose when you die and there were no PVE quests to get in the way of fighting other players. :D

rasmasyean

Jun 2, 2009, 08:18 PM

Does Eve have PVE servers? Or servers were PVP is somewhat controlled? I played Planetside for over 18 months which was a great PVP environment and I had a great time! The difference was that you don't have so much to lose when you die and there were no PVE quests to get in the way of fighting other players. :D

There’s only one sever in EVE (or cluster actually), but everyone plays on the same universe / realm / space / galaxy.

There are “safe zones” where “police” will annihilate an aggressor (unless players are at war). War is a declaration (that requires upkeep which is normally paid by the guild leader(s)) between groups of players and allows you to kill each other on sight without police intervention. There are ways to aggress each other without police interventions as well to do something like a “duel”.

You can still attack a player and destroy his/her ship and pod before police destroy you and your friends however. This “suicide gank” is done in the first video I linked above. This is normally done to trade a smaller loss on your part for a potential bigger loss on the target and/or net gain from cargo which a non-aggressor will loot when the battle is over. However, once the “ninja” loots, he becomes a valid target to the victim’s guild/alliance for like 15 minutes, so he has to take care not to run into them while stashing the goods. Some people would do this at a larger loss just to kill like a “guild master” or some important player just to log it on a kill site. :D This is where a web app allows you to upload data on each other’s kills to “keep track of score” so to speak…and flame each other in forums too! :rolleyes:

eXan

Jun 3, 2009, 01:42 AM

The Old Republic.

And you HAVE to see this (http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/deceived-cinematic-trailer?sourceid=ea3719) trailer for this game! O__O

rasmasyean

Jun 3, 2009, 03:56 AM

The Old Republic.

And you HAVE to see this (http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/deceived-cinematic-trailer?sourceid=ea3719) trailer for this game! O__O

HD version from E3
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l6IAoPAjzpw

Huntn

Jun 3, 2009, 10:44 AM

The Old Republic.

And you HAVE to see this (http://www.swtor.com/media/trailers/deceived-cinematic-trailer?sourceid=ea3719) trailer for this game! O__O

Incredible movie but what you see in the movie does not always add up in the game itself. Fingers crossed it does as I have good vibes regarding Bioware. :) Makes me wonder how we as gamers will fit into the overall story.

Huntn

Oct 20, 2009, 05:00 PM

rasmasyean

Oct 20, 2009, 05:11 PM

Does anyone think Aion (http://na.aiononline.com/) is a contender? A hardcore Wow friend of mine just started it so I'll get a report soon.

Right now my impression is a mmo is a mmo, and Wow is at the top of the heap. If you jut burned out on one, I'm wondering what new and exciting adventure another can really offer? I'm not sure I'm done with WoW yet. I'm taking a short break, but I still acknowledge it's the best I've played out of about 7 MMOs.

Scores are good. Not great. It doesn’t look like it has initial traction compared to how WoW started. LOTRO started with similar ratings and a lot of hype and that flopped. But you never know. EVE started as some projected loser, but now you see those flashy FLASH spaceship banners all over. Is it just me (perhaps from profile targeted advertisements), or does anyone else notice more and more EVE banners pop up at random sites. Or maybe they have an ambition campaign leading up to the EVE console FPS MMO integration.

PurpleCliff

Oct 20, 2009, 09:17 PM

Does anyone think Aion (http://na.aiononline.com/) is a contender? A hardcore Wow friend of mine just started it so I'll get a report soon.

Right now my impression is a mmo is a mmo, and Wow is at the top of the heap. If you jut burned out on one, I'm wondering what new and exciting adventure another can really offer? I'm not sure I'm done with WoW yet. I'm taking a short break, but I still acknowledge it's the best I've played out of about 7 MMOs.

5 Reasons why Aion can take WoW (http://www.collegenews.com/index.php?/article/5_reasons_why_aion_will_steal_subscribers_from_world_of_warcraft_082520091234633/)- I'll believe it when I see it. :)

I'm playing Aion now. It's good, but not brilliant. A lot of grind. But I still haven't reached level 25, when all the PvP begins.
I can see myself playing it on and off until Star Wars: The Old Republic or at least StarCraft II. ;)

macfan881

Oct 20, 2009, 09:49 PM

I'M looking forward to DC Universe I hear it will probally be ftp if thats true thats another go ahead and it will be a cross server with ps3/pc wich will be fun. My main MMO though is Old Republic.

Huntn

Oct 22, 2009, 09:25 PM

Scores are good. Not great. It doesn’t look like it has initial traction compared to how WoW started. LOTRO started with similar ratings and a lot of hype and that flopped. But you never know. EVE started as some projected loser, but now you see those flashy FLASH spaceship banners all over. Is it just me (perhaps from profile targeted advertisements), or does anyone else notice more and more EVE banners pop up at random sites. Or maybe they have an ambition campaign leading up to the EVE console FPS MMO integration.

Thanks for the report!

It really sounds like a MMO is a MMO, but I'm currently on the jaded side. I'm probably repeating myself, but I've come to realize that when a MMO becomes too much work, and that everything you achieve exists only as long as the game lasts, that it is not in my best interests to work to hard too hard in a game. I absolutely love the environments that WoW has created. It is breath taking flying over amazing landscapes watching the critters and other players doing their thing. But I've reached a point, as I did 2 years ago, that I realize the WoW world is terribly shallow. Repetition brings on the feeling. I start yearning for a world with more depth. Who know when such an artificial world will be created? But if someone was to do it, would not surprise me if it was Blizzard. I'll try to stop whining now. :)

Huntn

Oct 22, 2009, 09:26 PM

I'm playing Aion now. It's good, but not brilliant. A lot of grind. But I still haven't reached level 25, when all the PvP begins.
I can see myself playing it on and off until Star Wars: The Old Republic or at least StarCraft II. ;)

Star Wars might be an option. What Kotaku KNows so far (http://kotaku.com/5066929/star-wars-the-old-republic--what-we-know-so-far).

rasmasyean

Oct 22, 2009, 11:40 PM

Thanks for the report!

It really sounds like a MMO is a MMO, but I'm currently on the jaded side. I'm probably repeating myself, but I've come to realize that when a MMO becomes too much work, and that everything you achieve exists only as long as the game lasts, that it is not in my best interests to work to hard too hard in a game. I absolutely love the environments that WoW has created. It is breath taking flying over amazing landscapes watching the critters and other players doing their thing. But I've reached a point, as I did 2 years ago, that I realize the world is terribly shallow. I start yearning for a world with more depth. Who know when such an artificial world will be created? But if someone was to do it, would not surprise me if it was Blizzard. I'll try to stop whining now. :)

I think WoW has realized they need to add some more drastic changes if they want to keep the subscriber base rolling in. So in the Cataclysm expansion next year, they are revamping the entire world via some “geological event” in hopes to bring back a lot of repeat subscribers I suppose. And you can fly everywhere. They said they were going to up the graphics engine as well to meet advancement of hardware. Perhaps they are going to do what EVE did with a "premium client" option where it has DX10 graphics and such? Dunno.

OTOY is a cloud graphics engine effort to bring a realistic world to MMOing. You can see some clips in Youtube. Their model revolves around streaming HD video to you while computing all the graphics on their end. They are also computing more realistic physics.

Star Wars seems like a super carebear game to me so far. I suppose if that’s the case it would have a pretty good appeal to saga lovers and RPers but it doesn’t look like they are putting a lot of effort into PVP aspects of it. It has a KOTOR like combat system but I’m not sure how that will play into end-game “raiding” since that type of play seems to drive a lot of other MMOs. And what's disappointing is that their web site sucks. You'd think that a "game designer" at this level would have a much better web page to spread propaganda at least. But it's pretty B-rated.

Rampant.A.I.

Oct 23, 2009, 04:00 AM

rasmasyean

Oct 23, 2009, 07:24 AM

Losing all of your quest rewards every single time you die is pretty much the definition of Brutal.

Unless, you're thinking in Hardcore terms like Diablo where you die, and you lose the toon.

Nah, it isn’t exactly as you describe it. It’s more akin to loosing vendor items.
For the most part, you can replace everything you lost via use of currency. You just have to make sure you don’t lose what you can’t afford to replace so you don’t get set back too far.

The exception is if you use and lose really rare valuable items that aren’t really easy to come across. In this case you just have to be extra careful about the situations in which you use them in. And as long as you have the currency, you can still find someone who might be willing to sell it to you.

You can think of everything you use as a consumable. And even some single use items costs more than some ships.

voyagerd

Oct 23, 2009, 05:31 PM

The Star Trek Online Beta started yesterday.

Huntn

Oct 24, 2009, 10:18 PM

I think WoW has realized they need to add some more drastic changes if they want to keep the subscriber base rolling in. So in the Cataclysm expansion next year, they are revamping the entire world via some “geological event” in hopes to bring back a lot of repeat subscribers I suppose. And you can fly everywhere. They said they were going to up the graphics engine as well to meet advancement of hardware. Perhaps they are going to do what EVE did with a "premium client" option where it has DX10 graphics and such? Dunno.

OTOY is a cloud graphics engine effort to bring a realistic world to MMOing. You can see some clips in Youtube. Their model revolves around streaming HD video to you while computing all the graphics on their end. They are also computing more realistic physics.

Star Wars seems like a super carebear game to me so far. I suppose if that’s the case it would have a pretty good appeal to saga lovers and RPers but it doesn’t look like they are putting a lot of effort into PVP aspects of it. It has a KOTOR like combat system but I’m not sure how that will play into end-game “raiding” since that type of play seems to drive a lot of other MMOs. And what's disappointing is that their web site sucks. You'd think that a "game designer" at this level would have a much better web page to spread propaganda at least. But it's pretty B-rated.

I appreciate the perspective! These days, "end game" is sounding more and more like a dirty word. ;)

Losing all of your quest rewards every single time you die is pretty much the definition of Brutal.

Unless, you're thinking in Hardcore terms like Diablo where you die, and you lose the toon.

I really can't imagine playing under either condition.

The Star Trek Online Beta started yesterday.

StarWars or StarTrek, hmmm.

rasmasyean

Oct 25, 2009, 05:42 AM

I appreciate the perspective! These days, "end game" is sounding more and more like a dirty word. ;)

Well, speaking of “end-game” and EVE…

Some people consider end-game as fighting and doing things in “contested zones” so to speak. If you get into a corp early on, you can basically jump directly into this activity without doing any “quests” at all. Other than the training ones that is (which is recommended since it’s not obvious how to play). There are always roles for lowbies flying lowbie ships (which are the most expendable) so many corps would gladly provide them for free and be glad to have an extra hand. You can even participate in advance stuff like seiging a station to a certain extent.

And as you are doing these activities, you don’t really have to worry about XP because there is none. Advancement and skilling is based on time (which can be augmented by in game items but that’s not necessary). So you can theoretically not even play at all other than character maintenance and be able to fly big ships later on. How you get the money for it is another story… ;) Incidentally, you can buy it legitimately by RL purchasing Game Time Codes and trading it for in-game currency in the forums. Such a scam from CCP…lol But I’m sure they make a killing from this mechanic.

Huntn

Oct 25, 2009, 07:16 PM

The Star Trek Online Beta started yesterday.

Quick question if you care to answer- is STO mostly space exploration or does it have a healthy amount of planetary exploration? I mean if you tried to have real planet sized questing spaces (planets), it would be a huge overhead of development. If I was to guess, planet exploration will be focused on limited objectives in a limited space.

Away teams- can the be accomplished solo or do you need a bunch of real players grouped?

Well, speaking of “end-game” and EVE…
Thanks again. Eve does not sound like my cup of tea. Getting killed and having your ship looted, well...

sysiphus

Oct 28, 2009, 03:21 PM

A cooler mechanic of EVE is that if you earn enough ingame money (ISK), you can actually buy timecodes with it...thus never having to pay monthly fees. A pretty sweet deal. I've got a friend whose been playing for about a year and a half and never paid a cent past buying the initial timecard to activate his account.

waffle911

Oct 28, 2009, 05:27 PM

Xavier

Oct 28, 2009, 07:23 PM

World of Starcraft

(that would be pretty flipping sweet!)

rasmasyean

Oct 28, 2009, 11:09 PM

Ah, Eve... I remember the "good ol' days" (back when Titans were first introduced and none had yet been fully built) when we didn't have a "warp to within 0m" option in our context menu, or a "dock" button that warped you to a station and docked for you automatically. We used to have to do that s*** MANUALLY. UPHILL. BOTH WAYS. THROUGH 10 FT OF SNOW. The learning curve back then was Mt. Everest only covered in slick ice instead of snow. And the tutorial was seriously 6 hours long. I'm not even joking. Now? The tutorial and beginner missions combined take no more than an hour or two. And there's a new Epic Story Arc to help new players gain some steam and experience and make some money after the tutorials so they don't have to go begging for handouts to get anywhere rather than actually work for their Kredits.

Haha, I do remember joining the game and reading some old hint “bookmark a point X km past gate in direction of approach for your next warp you wind up near the gate…” and I was like …WTF is this strat supposed to do?

But even when I first played, after doing the tutorial, I still barely had any clue what to do next. Lol Its like these guys had no idea how to write acclamation training gameplay.

Even as they automate the tedious parts of the game a bit more, they did add a lot more things into the game to complicate your equipment choices and play style a bit more than before. So I’d say it’s still a learning cliff. And since there aren’t any “classes” in EVE and you can basically play any imaginable “class” (given enough subscription time), there are just WAY to many choices and decisions to make with added items.

Fly this ship setup as a tank.
Fly this one for a light-tank / buffer.
Fly this one for a back-up healer / minor-debuffer / DPS / blah.
Fly this one as a custom plz pwm me magnet… (my favorite! :p)

ddrueckhammer

Oct 29, 2009, 01:10 AM

Is nobody else interested in Final Fantasy XIV? Admittedly, I've only ever played Everquest and WoW and never played Final Fantasy XI (so I don't understand the hate for that one) but the TGS trailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-final-fantasy/56512) looked cool to me.

The Bioware Star Wars one looks cool but I'm not that big on the Star Wars universe.

Now a Harry Potter MMO is just screaming to be made IMO. Can you imagine getting sorted into a house based on a personality quiz your first year and then progressing in skills and alignment through quests/adventure/classes at Hogwarts until adulthood where you would be either part of the Order of the Phoenix, Death Eaters, or neutral in the end game... Being Slytherin wouldn't necessarily make you evil just more self serving and ambitious...

Huntn

Nov 2, 2009, 06:49 PM

Is nobody else interested in Final Fantasy XIV? Admittedly, I've only ever played Everquest and WoW and never played Final Fantasy XI (so I don't understand the hate for that one) but the TGS trailer (http://www.gametrailers.com/video/tgs-09-final-fantasy/56512) looked cool to me.

I've heard above average grind in the FF MMOs. Don't know if that is true.

Now a Harry Potter MMO is just screaming to be made IMO. Can you imagine getting sorted into a house based on a personality quiz your first year and then progressing in skills and alignment through quests/adventure/classes at Hogwarts until adulthood where you would be either part of the Order of the Phoenix, Death Eaters, or neutral in the end game... Being Slytherin wouldn't necessarily make you evil just more self serving and ambitious...

Seems like that would be difficult to pull off with servers that hold a couple thousand peeps.

Tralmek

Nov 3, 2009, 12:41 PM

Losing all of your quest rewards every single time you die is pretty much the definition of Brutal.

Unless, you're thinking in Hardcore terms like Diablo where you die, and you lose the toon.

It's not as bad a death penalty in EVE as it might sound. Most of your items will be kept in station cargo bays, so you definitely won't lose everything you have upon your ship getting destroyed. If your ship is lost to an NPC, chances are you can go out in another ship with a group of friends to kill off the NPC and then loot your own ship. This allows you to recover much of the contents of your ship. If you are "podded" by another player (that is, the capsule you eject in is also destroyed--something NPCs can't do) you will clone to a station. This causes you to lose any implants you had, and it is possible to lose trained skillpoints if you didn't have a clone of an appropriate level.

Essentially, if you keep your clone up to date with your skillpoints and your ships insured, you're not going to lose much upon death in EVE.

rasmasyean

Nov 4, 2009, 08:45 AM

It's not as bad a death penalty in EVE as it might sound. Most of your items will be kept in station cargo bays, so you definitely won't lose everything you have upon your ship getting destroyed. If your ship is lost to an NPC, chances are you can go out in another ship with a group of friends to kill off the NPC and then loot your own ship. This allows you to recover much of the contents of your ship. If you are "podded" by another player (that is, the capsule you eject in is also destroyed--something NPCs can't do) you will clone to a station. This causes you to lose any implants you had, and it is possible to lose trained skillpoints if you didn't have a clone of an appropriate level.

Essentially, if you keep your clone up to date with your skillpoints and your ships insured, you're not going to lose much upon death in EVE.

However, the exception is when you sport “rare” items where you will not be able to insure the total “market” cost of replacing it.

But theoretically, you can equip “sufficiently” and lose very little upon death such that you can sustain continuous play in the same level ship with little income. If you want a bit more power (in the same level ship), then you risk losing more…which actually sort of balances the game in such a way that super veterans have ever smaller advantages and if they choose to use those super veteran equipment, they will be set back much further than a noob loosing noob assets.

But the real advantage of being a veteran (other than player skill…ummm...theoretically hehe) is that you would have cross-trained. To make an analogy, you would be able to play a warrior or mage or priest or rogue, etc. (and even merchant) depending on which ships and items you can equip. Or even hybrids. Some will work situationally, some will be retarded anytime/anywhere. ;)

Ultimately, the game is not really about the items you have. It’s about the money you have and can make. No one really “inspects” each other to see what elite gear you are wearing. There was actually a corp I was in that sold ships so cheap that blowing it up was a small profit when getting the insurance. I mean, not to the point where one would do that as an income strategy, but as you can imagine, it becomes your choice in other equipment you will lose. But then when you are “grinding” you get so much usable items and money that you can start trading for others as well as buy other ships from the corp or players.

Oh, and if you want a 21-day trial, you can PM me your email.

Tralmek

Nov 4, 2009, 09:34 AM

Ultimately, the game is not really about the items you have. It’s about the money you have and can make.

Very true.

Huntn

Nov 10, 2009, 04:29 PM

musouchop on Aion:
Aion is a nice fresh piece of meat for me to sink my teeth into. I have only played a few brief sessions on bootcamp borrowing my friends account (hard to get him off the game so I can go on! haha). The character customization offered in Aion is a really nice touch. I played for 30 minutes alone modeling my character to what I wanted him to look like.

The UI isn't as customizable as WoWs (yet?)... which is a drawback for me. I have so many addons on WoW that it is almost a different game. haha. The combat style is pretty similar, I think. The environments are very nicely designed and is really the most drastic change from WoW.

Aside from this, I feel the real changes will be apparent once I start flying. If and when I ever get to play again. If I do decide to get my own Aion account, I will have to quit WoW. Not doling out 30$ a month between the two games.

What do you primarily do in WoW's end game? And from a game-play standpoint, why don't you have a been there done that feeling in Aion?
Thanks! :)

rasmasyean

Nov 10, 2009, 05:23 PM

A little bit off-topic, but bioware has released Dragon Age (RPG). It looks pretty decent so if you like Bioware, the makers of KOTOR, maybe you might like this in the interrim until TOR.:)

And here's a pretty decent site that seems to have good functional structure imo. It says it's a Free mmo site, but it lists all sorts of mmos.
http://www.onrpg.com/

kroeks

Nov 11, 2009, 05:52 AM

The next big thing is defenetly going to be Guild Wars 2.
I really really can't wait!

Huntn

Nov 11, 2009, 11:37 AM

The next big thing is defenetly going to be Guild Wars 2.
I really really can't wait!

Last I heard that is going to have a monthly subscription. I'll tell you what I did not like about the original GWs as far as MMOs go- invisible walls, no jumping, no accidental falling to your death, and 100% instanced questing space.

My impression is that it could be pretty good if you had dedicated parties, people you partied with on a regular basis. For a comparison, in WoW, 30% of the time I would meet people out in the wilds by chance and group with them on the fly as necessity dictated. Could not do that in GW. I wonder if any of that will change with GW2?

mousouchop

Nov 11, 2009, 11:42 AM

mousouchop on Aion:

What do you primarily do in WoW's end game? And from a game-play standpoint, why don't you have a been there done that feeling in Aion?
Thanks! :)

Well, in endgame WoW:BC, I raided pretty heavily. Did many 20 man raids... I quit the game for a year before/around the time LK came out, and just picked it up again a few months back. I just got a new main toon to 80, but haven't been in any raids in LK yet. I haven't played in over a month due to heavy school work.

Aion's single player has a very familiar feeling. I cannot attest to the group dynamics though as I have never done more than solo in the game. I honestly am no expert on Aion as I have barely played, you may get a better opinion of it from someone who has done more than just getting their toes wet. haha. :P

aioncoming

Nov 19, 2009, 04:03 AM

Blizzard's next MMO as long as it is scifi

rekhyt

Nov 19, 2009, 04:33 AM

Last I heard that is going to have a monthly subscription. I'll tell you what I did not like about the original GWs as far as MMOs go- invisible walls, no jumping, no accidental falling to your death, and 100% instanced questing space.

My impression is that it could be pretty good if you had dedicated parties, people you partied with on a regular basis. For a comparison, in WoW, 30% of the time I would meet people out in the wilds by chance and group with them on the fly as necessity dictated. Could not do that in GW. I wonder if any of that will change with GW2?

Probably going to be the first "real" MMO I will join. Real as in like on-par to Eve Online, WoW, etc.

Captain Planet

Nov 19, 2009, 07:34 AM

rasmasyean

Nov 19, 2009, 05:01 PM

If you're a Star Wars fan... or even if you aren't so much, I believe The Old Republic will be amazing. Also, this won't be an MMO per say, but I think Diablo III deserves to be mentioned especially if you've play the previous ones.

No doubt Diablo 3 will have it’s sales run as with any Blizzard title. But I have a feeling that the Diablo/Rogue class of game has had its run. It doesn’t really seem to fit in with modern standards in multiplayer RPG’s. I think they are trying real hard to give a new twist to an old concept. I don’t see D3 as a title that will live up to its previous reputation.

Huntn

Nov 19, 2009, 05:05 PM

Star Wars seems like a super carebear game to me so far. I suppose if that’s the case it would have a pretty good appeal to saga lovers and RPers but it doesn’t look like they are putting a lot of effort into PVP aspects of it. It has a KOTOR like combat system but I’m not sure how that will play into end-game “raiding” since that type of play seems to drive a lot of other MMOs.

I'm trying to imagine exactly what the SWTOR end game would consist of?

PowerGamerX

Nov 19, 2009, 05:09 PM

rasmasyean

Nov 19, 2009, 05:10 PM

I'm trying to imagine exactly what the SWTOR end game would consist of?

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=star+wars+old+republic+gameplay&page=&utm_source=opensearch

rasmasyean

Nov 19, 2009, 05:15 PM

Last I heard that is going to have a monthly subscription. I'll tell you what I did not like about the original GWs as far as MMOs go- invisible walls, no jumping, no accidental falling to your death, and 100% instanced questing space.

My impression is that it could be pretty good if you had dedicated parties, people you partied with on a regular basis. For a comparison, in WoW, 30% of the time I would meet people out in the wilds by chance and group with them on the fly as necessity dictated. Could not do that in GW. I wonder if any of that will change with GW2?

Well the pay to play model seems to make games good at least. It's always better to pay to play something that works right and has good "maintenance" than to waste your time beta testing with a million kids who only play because they don't have a credit card. :p

Huntn

Nov 21, 2009, 10:35 AM

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=star+wars+old+republic+gameplay&page=&utm_source=opensearch

I would not call that the end game...more like intro. ;)

rasmasyean

Nov 21, 2009, 12:34 PM

I think the only game that I've played that even comes close to WoW is EVE Online, which is amazing. I've invested enough hours in WoW though that I don't feel like switching to EVE. Although EVE is more my kind of game, WoW is still very fun (especially battlegrounds :cool:)
Yeah. Blizzard has a way to keeping you playing and try to reach that ever moving goal. EVE has its “veterans” as well. It seems that these are the only real full MMOs that emerged successful in this age. Most others have been dwindled a lot by WoW even to the point where they offer it for free with some other mode of funding. If they have to do that, it must mean they lost a lot of subscribers but just don’t want to outright abandon their users.

DDO is one sad story. You’d figure that DND is the original and should make an example of the genre. Now they became free and reduced much of their servers.

rasmasyean

Nov 29, 2009, 06:44 PM

5$ for EVE Online special at Steam if interested.
Not sure how long it will last.

http://store.steampowered.com/app/8500/

Huntn

Feb 2, 2010, 07:40 PM

rasmasyean

Feb 2, 2010, 09:03 PM

You probably know I burned out on WoW in Nov09. I've been having a good time with Dragon Age and just got hold of Mass Effect 2 but I've been missing online questing. No, I can't go back to WoW, very much been there done that. However after perusing a recent PCGamer, I'd like to ask has anyone played:

Runes of Magic or Dungeons and Dragons Online, both now offering free play. Does anyone here consider these games worth messing with on a very casual basis?

If you have personal knowledge, how solo friendly are they?
Are they all instanced questing space or a mix of public and instanced space? I believe D&DO is all instanced questing space not sure.
Invisible walls like Guild Wars?

Other MMOs mentioned were WoW, Aion, Champions Online, Age of Conan, Lord of the Rings Online and Fallen Earth. I tried LOTRO in beta and it under whelmed me. Maybe it's improved. AOC got trashed during it's early days. My addicted Wow friend told me Aion was so-so (can I trust her judgment?) ;)

I have to admit I'm a little excited about StarWars Online because I read you can fill up your party with A.I. team members. Although I'm not adverse to having real people in my parties, having a group at your disposal seems attractive.

DDO *puke*. At least the last time I tried it it was all instance based. Barely anyone was around to play with because that’s how much it sucked. Look up Wikipedia for the history. They shrunk and shrunk and eventually became free because no one wanted to pay for it. It reminded me of a 3D Diablo really…but behind it’s times for the MMO age.

I tried LoTRO after beta and it didn’t change all that much. It’s like WoW…but NOT!

Just wait for Old Republic of WoW Cataclysm where they are going to revamp the whole world or some crap.

Or just try EVE and see if that suits you. It’s a different pace that other MMO’s. You can get like a 14 day trial or something or if you want, PM me and I can invite you to a 21 day one. I haven’t played in a while, but last time I checked they just had a revamp in graphics and stuff among other things.

Huntn

Feb 3, 2010, 08:42 AM

DDO *puke*. At least the last time I tried it it was all instance based. Barely anyone was around to play with because that’s how much it sucked. Look up Wikipedia for the history. They shrunk and shrunk and eventually became free because no one wanted to pay for it. It reminded me of a 3D Diablo really…but behind it’s times for the MMO age.

I tried LoTRO after beta and it didn’t change all that much. It’s like WoW…but NOT!

Just wait for Old Republic of WoW Cataclysm where they are going to revamp the whole world or some crap.

Or just try EVE and see if that suits you. It’s a different pace that other MMO’s. You can get like a 14 day trial or something or if you want, PM me and I can invite you to a 21 day one. I haven’t played in a while, but last time I checked they just had a revamp in graphics and stuff among other things.

Thanks much for the offer. Let me ponder Eve. The real problem I foresee with something like D&D or Runes of Magic is that I'll find them inferior to WoW and then where will I be? :)

rasmasyean

Feb 3, 2010, 11:56 AM

Thanks much for the offer. Let me ponder Eve. The real problem I foresee with something like D&D or Runes of Magic is that I'll find them inferior to WoW and then where will I be? :)

Yeah I think WoW kinda spoils you. After WoW, for many ppl, you don't look at other MMO's in the same way. It's sort of like a standard.

I'm like that too. Most other games seem kinda dull ater WoW. So even thought I spend a lot of time during WoW...I'm not as interested in other games so it's sort of like a time saver. LOL So I waste my time on other things instead...like Forums :p

Abyssgh0st

Feb 8, 2010, 12:44 AM

rasmasyean

Feb 8, 2010, 10:28 AM

I'm not sure anything will beat WoW in the next 5 years.

I'd really like to get into WoW, I just don't like starting fresh in a game where millions are better than me.. I just don't really know where to start.

Cataclysm Expansion will revamp the world. Many veterans and return players are going to start new characters. This time there's not just like a new class or whatever. It's whole new content and storyline. I think graphics too.

Also, in any WoW expansion comes the total nerf of whatever used to be uber. Hence, even the few really uber characters will have only a small lead...because going up the ladder from the top is a steep climb for a small (often specialized) gain. Blizzard is good at making ppl grind forever just to achieve a moving goal for only one of several paths.

That said, the overwhelming majority of players aren't the super uber anyway. Those are just the people who make these videos and "advertise themselves" a lot. So you can still play now and enjoy it while experiencing the content and storyline before they destroy it forever. If you are into fantasy (with a humorous twist sometimes), WoW's PVE experience is actually pretty good...and the environments are very creative and the music is orchestrated and makes it really immersive. And they fixed the grind routine a bit by making lower levels XP gain faster.

Also, I think they may add servers from time to time. So you can also snoop arround to find the inside on which servers are newer with less of a saturated economy, etc. Or if you like, go to an old popoulated one and hope your computer can handle the 10,000 ppl Ironforge area, etc. ;)

Huntn

Feb 8, 2010, 11:01 AM

I'm not sure anything will beat WoW in the next 5 years.

I'd really like to get into WoW, I just don't like starting fresh in a game where millions are better than me.. I just don't really know where to start.

If you start now, you could get a taste of the WoW world that we all love before it gets stood on it's head with the next expansion. :)

I would not worry about millions being better than you. Based on my prejudices, I would suggest if you try it, you pick a PVE (player vs environment) server. The reason being is if you want to quest, you don't want other players killing you, although I do admit some like the extra challenge of playing on PVP servers where the gloves are off regarding player vs player combat. Who cares if it messes up your quests? ;) Even on a PVE server, you can fight other players, but it's when you want to by either flagging yourself for PVP or jumping into Battlegrounds.

If you are not familiar with MMOs, the game starts you out very gently in a starter area, a different area for each race, sending you off to do simple kill and collect quests against mobs who are not that dangerous giving you a chance to figure out the mechanics of combat with minimal jeopardy. You'll be working your way through quests and quest chains and even now you'll run across other new people or experience people who have started new characters. When I played I ended up with seven active characters. You don't have to do that, you can just focus on one. A tip- when you party with someone designated as a friend, your xp (experience points) is increased and Blizzard a while back accelerated overall xp below level 60 so your character will rise through the levels at an accelerated rate as compared to when the game first started.

Although I love Night Elves and have played mostly Alliance characters, based on what I saw the last time I played Nov08-Nov09, for Alliance, the human or dwarf starter areas were the best because they are in central more populated areas. Even so the Night Elf starter area located on a giant tree off the coast of Kalimdor (called Teldrissil) is magical, I still love it. And if you love that, after completing the area, you can move over to Dark Shore, another North Woods magical setting. The good thing is that even if you start as an elf, and want to get to more populated areas, it's very easy now to get from Teldrissil to Darkshore and over to Storm Wind City near the human starter area or take the tram from Storm Wind down to Iron Forge to get to the Dwarf/Gnome starter areas and continue questing there. The quests regardless of where they are located can be done by any race or class.

Word of caution- don't become an addict. Easy to say, right? ;) When I was playing, I would put in somewhere between 6-20 hours a week.

Even though I'm not currently playing, I still have the most fond of memories of this game. Every time I see screenshots of my favorite zones, I feel a longing to play it again. Any other questions, feel free to ask. :D

Comment to other WoW players- I remember when I first started playing (in beta) I remember thinking these are incredible zones! And what has amazed me is that with each new expansion, incredible new zones just keep coming! Yes, you can have issues with game mechanics. I don't like animals that run on tracks, the stagnant nature of the world (which has been addressed in a small way with scripted events), and I don't like the end game routine, but the overall atmosphere in WoW is the perfect fantasy escape if you want a world to explore. I guess I'm just an unrepetant fanboy... :)

niuniu

Feb 8, 2010, 11:08 AM

Dragonforce

Feb 8, 2010, 11:16 AM

Final Fantasy 14 ! I played FFXI for 5 years and I can't wait for 14 (playing the closed beta right now)

akm3

Feb 8, 2010, 11:29 AM

I played Ultima heavily, Everquest heavily, and WoW heavily. Loved them all in their own ways.

But I've finally found the *best* MMRPG (not 'O') ever. It's called 'second job' and it gives me tons of extra $$$.

It's a bit repetitive, but the graphics are *AWESOME*

Huntn

Feb 8, 2010, 11:31 AM

Really big MMOs are going to be Biowares SW's MMO. The IP is massive, it can fail, as we saw how Mythic destroyed a concrete RPG IP, but Bioware really are innovators, albeit this isn't really their field. My vote would be on it being a huge success with players staying in on it for years opposed to months.

I'm not a SW fan so I'll avoid it.

GW2, that's the big one. Expect it in 2011. 4 mill subs in their first game which was f2p, this will go a more trad route attracting p2p players but without the sub model. It's going to be something else, truly.

Then there's the wildcard, 40K MMO.. jury's out until the big reveal later this year.

I've got my eye on SW. The problem I see with a game like this is you start out with a pristine lore environment, and then you populate it with a bunch of human players. The atmostphere just has to suffer! ;)

Regarding GW2 it will be interested to see how it does as a subscription MMO. I never liked 100% instanced questing space, invisible walls, and not being able to jump or fall to my death! ;)

ARF900

Feb 8, 2010, 11:37 AM

I refuse to play MMOs anymore, I mean I still play online games like MW2, but I was never a WoW player. Runescape and Battledawn took about a year of my life each.

rasmasyean

Feb 8, 2010, 12:32 PM

I've got my eye on SW. The problem I see with a game like this is you start out with a pristine lore environment, and then you populate it with a bunch of human players. The atmostphere just has to suffer! ;)

WoW has RPPVE and RPPVP servers that are supposed to be "pristine lore" too. But most of the RP tends to be reserved in guilds and such. It doesn't work that well because unless there is some type of "enforcement", people aren't all that fanatical about lore anyway. And for many who are, eventually it gets old to be like that constantly. Not to mention that many people won't know what the heck you are trying to really say if you're speaking Old English all the time. LOL I remeber some interesting interaction in RP servers, but overall, it's more "normal" than "pristine lore".

Huntn

Feb 8, 2010, 12:38 PM

WoW has RPPVE and RPPVP servers that are supposed to be "pristine lore" too. But most of the RP tends to be reserved in guilds and such. It doesn't work that well because unless there is some type of "enforcement", people aren't all that fanatical about lore anyway. And for many who are, eventually it gets old to be like that constantly. Not to mention that many people won't know what the heck you are trying to really say if you're speaking Old English all the time. LOL I remeber some interesting interaction in RP servers, but overall, it's more "normal" than "pristine lore".

I was just focused on SWs. I admit it's a problem across all MMOs. :)

niuniu

Feb 8, 2010, 01:04 PM

Here's a look at TERA.. I haven't read the the whole thread and came in late, so apologies if it's been posted already.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S_OZTSj41WU&feature=player_embedded

rasmasyean

Feb 8, 2010, 01:13 PM

Here's the site. It's Korean. But they don't have a NA date.

http://www.tera-online.com/

Block

Feb 8, 2010, 03:21 PM

WoW has RPPVE and RPPVP servers that are supposed to be "pristine lore" too. But most of the RP tends to be reserved in guilds and such. It doesn't work that well because unless there is some type of "enforcement", people aren't all that fanatical about lore anyway. And for many who are, eventually it gets old to be like that constantly. Not to mention that many people won't know what the heck you are trying to really say if you're speaking Old English all the time. LOL I remeber some interesting interaction in RP servers, but overall, it's more "normal" than "pristine lore".

With the exception of Moon Guard. Now that's a hardcore RP server.

rasmasyean

Feb 8, 2010, 05:22 PM

GW2, that's the big one. Expect it in 2011. 4 mill subs in their first game which was f2p, this will go a more trad route attracting p2p players but without the sub model. It's going to be something else, truly.

What the heck does 4 mil subs mean in a f2p game? Honestly, I've never heard anyone I know played that game. Either that or it just never comes up in conversation. But WoW somehow creaps into convo once in a while.

kreidel

Feb 8, 2010, 06:27 PM

niuniu

Feb 8, 2010, 06:33 PM

What the heck does 4 mil subs mean in a f2p game? Honestly, I've never heard anyone I know played that game. Either that or it just never comes up in conversation. But WoW somehow creaps into convo once in a while.

It's massive for a new dev team and their first game. In the West. It wasn't subs, but players as it's f2p. Each expansion, although pegged as a game on it's own, was full priced however. Do you know kaixin? Nope you don't. But that doesn't mean it isn't massive. How many boxes did Warhammer get, one of the strongest RPG IPs out there? 4 mill? Nope. And GW was an original IP.

So yeah, GW is The success story out there.

I'm not a GW guy, or a WoW guys or w/e. I play all MMOs when I can, so I'm speaking objectively on the numbers.

Huntn

Feb 9, 2010, 04:18 PM

It's massive for a new dev team and their first game. In the West. It wasn't subs, but players as it's f2p. Each expansion, although pegged as a game on it's own, was full priced however. Do you know kaixin? Nope you don't. But that doesn't mean it isn't massive. How many boxes did Warhammer get, one of the strongest RPG IPs out there? 4 mill? Nope. And GW was an original IP.

So yeah, GW is The success story out there.

I'm not a GW guy, or a WoW guys or w/e. I play all MMOs when I can, so I'm speaking objectively on the numbers.

I agree that GW is a success based on subscription numbers, but I tried it and thought it was inferior to WoW. You get what you pay for? ;)

Seriously I think for dedicated parties it could be ok, but I don't like 100% instanced questing space which is counter immersive imo because part of the appeal of a MMO, what makes it seem real is the chance of running into other players in the countryside, which can't happen in GW.

Now, the in-development GW might be better along with it's subscription as long as it is not 100% instanced questing space.

TSE

Feb 9, 2010, 07:35 PM

An MMO on the iPad sounds ridiculously awesome. :D

rasmasyean

Feb 9, 2010, 10:55 PM

An MMO on the iPad sounds ridiculously awesome. :D

No it doesn't. It would be like those cheezy MMO's. World of FarmVille Online. If you want ot play a real MMO on a pad, you'll have to get one of those HP's or Acers. :p

Huntn

Feb 9, 2010, 10:55 PM

An MMO on the iPad sounds ridiculously awesome. :D

Unless you've heard something I have not, Apple's ipad feature (http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/) page says nada about games. You basically need something that supports Shaders 3 these days.

thejadedmonkey

Feb 9, 2010, 11:31 PM

I think torchlight the mmo will be the next big thing. free to play, coming out in a few years will mean many people will try it, and also bored with WoW.

SingaporeStu

Feb 10, 2010, 12:53 AM

Hasn't anyone tried EVE Online?

jsol92

Feb 10, 2010, 09:54 AM

RUNESCAPE!!

/sarcasm

rasmasyean

Feb 10, 2010, 10:44 AM

Hasn't anyone tried EVE Online?

Quite a few have if you look at the older posts. Been telling Huntn to try it but he's a weenie. :D

Huntn

Feb 10, 2010, 11:13 AM

Quite a few have if you look at the older posts. Been telling Huntn to try it but he's a weenie. :D

Extra long...:p

I've got this mental block about riding around in a space ship collecting stuff, battling others, and getting my ship wiped out and starting from scratch, as what I want to do in a MMO. I realize "starting from scratch" is an exaggeration. Just said it to be annoying! I did that in Terminus and on Steam recently (on another game of which the name eludes me) solo and while it was ok, it did not hold my attention long term.

BTW, is the Mac Eve client good, as good in performance as the pc client?

Dagless

Feb 10, 2010, 12:58 PM

Hasn't anyone tried EVE Online?

Guh, yea. I didn't find it enjoyable at all, was like an ungracious hark back to early 90's space exploration gaming.
I think "the next big MMO" is going to have to be accessible and enjoyable to most. I could see a Torchlight MMO being quite successful given how visually similar it is to WoW and the gameplay (at least of the original) is straightforward, deep and enjoyable.

lixuelai

Feb 10, 2010, 01:06 PM

I ditched Aion and am playing DDO. I am liking DDO because all my rl friends play together. When we played Aion everybody just solo grinded. Aion PVP was kinda crappy as well, it was only fun playing assassins and ganking in Asmo-land (or Elyos-land). Sold my 44 Templar for a good amount of $$$ though.

Anyway I like DDO precisely because it is like Diablo. Dungeon running is a lot of fun when the party members are your rl friends that you can talk to.

Huntn

Feb 10, 2010, 01:08 PM

I completely disagree.

Can you extrapolate? Thanks.

I could see a Torchlight MMO being quite successful given how visually similar it is to WoW and the gameplay (at least of the original) is straightforward, deep and enjoyable.

Torchlight is more like Diablo than WoW. There are no outdoor areas to speak of, all dungeons if I'm thinking of the right game.

Anyway I like DDO precisely because it is like Diablo. Dungeon running is a lot of fun when the party members are your rl friends that you can talk to.

I can see that. Same reason GWs could be fun with a dedicated party.

rasmasyean

Feb 10, 2010, 04:09 PM

Extra long...:p

I've got this mental block about riding around in a space ship collecting stuff, battling others, and getting my ship wiped out and starting from scratch, as what I want to do in a MMO. I realize "starting from scratch" is an exaggeration. Just said it to be annoying! I did that in Terminus and on Steam recently (on another game of which the name eludes me) solo and while it was ok, it did not hold my attention long term.

BTW, is the Mac Eve client good, as good in performance as the pc client?

It's not THAT bad. You just have to be more thoughful about what you spend and can afford to lose. You can loose very little and still have fun. It's not like you don't loose anythnig in WoW. Not talking about repairing armor either. I don't know about you but I found it pretty annoying to make some long axe runs from the graveyard and repeating spawns. Spending time is a loss too. It just has a lot more deph than most other MMO's and there's less "guidance" by the game. After a while everything gets boring no matter how good it is. This game is just a little different from the standard fantasy RPG MMO.

Nothing is better than the PC. Especially since you can add all these upgrades to it and DX10 (which EVE has). But if that doesn't matter that much to you, EVE doesn't allow interfacing like WoW. So it's not like you're going to miss out on that many add-ons. 3rd party desktop based utilities are another story of course, but that's always a Mac problem since less ppl use it.

TSE

Feb 10, 2010, 06:34 PM

No it doesn't. It would be like those cheezy MMO's. World of FarmVille Online. If you want ot play a real MMO on a pad, you'll have to get one of those HP's or Acers. :p

That's the thing though, with the iPad, a whole new type of "MMO" could come out, something that we can't really assume now... As long as the graphics of the iPad support half decent graphics in a game, it has possibilities.

Huntn

Feb 10, 2010, 07:38 PM

Nothing is better than the PC. Especially since you can add all these upgrades to it and DX10 (which EVE has). But if that doesn't matter that much to you, EVE doesn't allow interfacing like WoW. So it's not like you're going to miss out on that many add-ons. 3rd party desktop based utilities are another story of course, but that's always a Mac problem since less ppl use it.

Mac version is on the same server as the PC version? Or I should say all the servers are linked? Thanks.

rasmasyean

Feb 10, 2010, 09:14 PM

Mac version is on the same server as the PC version? Or I should say all the servers are linked? Thanks.

There's only one "server"....which is a bunch of linked computers, yes.

There's a Chinese server I think, but you can't play on it. They don't want us corrupting their people.

SingaporeStu

Feb 10, 2010, 10:11 PM

Mac version is on the same server as the PC version? Or I should say all the servers are linked? Thanks.

The interface is the same. In the days when the Mac client was still new, there were many complaints about stability & such, since it was actually running on a Cider translation layer (I think it still is? I'm not entirely sure).

In any case, I use both Mac & Win client on my MacBook white (early 2009), and I see no discernible difference on it between the two, either in terms of speed, stability, graphics rendering, etc. I end up playing on the Mac client a lot more nowadays.

As for the steep learning cliff, well if you're the kind of player that prefers the instant-gratification type of game, WoW or similar is probably better for you. If you REALLY wanna play Eve, be prepared to get married to this game.
You can forget about ever hanging out with your buddies or having sex again... Your woman will probably leave you once you start playing Eve. The level of involvement needed is insane.

As for starting from scratch when you get podded, you really need to join a better corp.

Huntn

Feb 11, 2010, 09:29 AM

The interface is the same. In the days when the Mac client was still new, there were many complaints about stability & such, since it was actually running on a Cider translation layer (I think it still is? I'm not entirely sure).

In any case, I use both Mac & Win client on my MacBook white (early 2009), and I see no discernible difference on it between the two, either in terms of speed, stability, graphics rendering, etc. I end up playing on the Mac client a lot more nowadays.

As for the steep learning cliff, well if you're the kind of player that prefers the instant-gratification type of game, WoW or similar is probably better for you. If you REALLY wanna play Eve, be prepared to get married to this game.
You can forget about ever hanging out with your buddies or having sex again... Your woman will probably leave you once you start playing Eve. The level of involvement needed is insane.

As for starting from scratch when you get podded, you really need to join a better corp.

Instead of "instant gratification", a better description would be "casual play". From this stanpoint the absolute best MMO game I've ever played is Planetside, pure PVP and I could log on twice a week and play for 3 hrs a pop and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. I think it's rare to get away with that for most MMOs. In WoW unless you were playing dedicated characters, with that kind of a schedule, all your friends would out level you.

The closest I've come to marrying a game and having my wife leave (;)) is WoW. Not the last time I played, but the first time I played I was logging about 20 hrs per week. From a rational logical stanpoint, I can tell you that is too much. I can't see that for a space combat game. Thanks for the input!

rasmasyean

Feb 11, 2010, 12:50 PM

Instead of "instant gratification", a better description would be "casual play". From this stanpoint the absolute best MMO game I've ever played is Planetside, pure PVP and I could log on twice a week and play for 3 hrs a pop and I never felt like I was missing out on anything. I think it's rare to get away with that for most MMOs. In WoW unless you were playing dedicated characters, with that kind of a schedule, all your friends would out level you.

The closest I've come to marrying a game and having my wife leave (;)) is WoW. Not the last time I played, but the first time I played I was logging about 20 hrs per week. From a rational logical stanpoint, I can tell you that is too much. I can't see that for a space combat game. Thanks for the input!

I told you guys Huntn's a weenie.

The first time I played WoW, this was my schedule (as I imagine most of the ppl I played with)...

Log onto WoW. Get booted off. Wait in a queue. Chat on Teamspeak about WoW.
Play until 3AM.
Go to work in a few hours.
Take lunch break for 1 hour in a phone room sleeping on the table.
Buy quick bite to eat at desk.
Play WoW after work until 3AM.
Weekend's aren't so hectic fortunately. It's just play WoW period.
;)

Fortunately no wife or girlfriend or anything like that. Because then I would have had to boot her and hurt her feelings. :p

Huntn

Feb 11, 2010, 12:57 PM

I told you guys Huntn's a weenie.

After reading your schedule, just replace "weenie" with "normal well adjusted married person". :p

Sandman1969

Feb 12, 2010, 04:40 PM

Huntn

Feb 13, 2010, 12:38 PM

Until the next big thing comes out, of which I don't see once on the horizon, I will be a WoWer, off and on.

Everytime I discuss WoW, I feel a pull. I've got WoW pics on my desktop that cycle, and they all give me special feelings. It's doubtful I'll go back, but I have no regrets for the fun times it offered. :)

Huntn

Feb 14, 2010, 08:17 AM

Based on what I've been reading here is my guess on the next big MMO to look forward to:
StarWars: The Old Republic (http://www.swtor.com/). According to PC Gamer:

"There are plenty of single player RPG fans who are put off by the level-grind, cookie-cutter quests and forced camaraderie of the ever-increasing number of MMOs, and these are the gamers BioWare seems to have had in mind when it designed it's first MMO, ST:TOR. It plays more like Dragon Age:Origins than WoW,complete with a huge, unique story-based campaign for each of the eight player classes and AI-driven companions that will accompany you on difficult quests if you don't want to party with teenagers (nothing against teenagers) or maniacs."

In WoW I partied about 25% of the time for routine questing. I've got my name on the beta list. Fingers crossed. :)

Sandman1969

Feb 14, 2010, 12:20 PM

The ability to have Bots group with you for quests sounds interesting.

90+% of my time now in WoW is Solo. I am working a new char up to 80, VERY slowly. I get on maybe 8 hours or so total a week, sometimes with week or so breaks, but I have fun going through the old areas as a Alliance.

Really looking forward to hitting Outlands on him. I have never played Alliance in the outlands. We switched to Horde when that came out. I wanted to play Horde before, but the wifee didn't like their looks. LoL.

Then BC came out and they have the Blood Elves.

Always played Hunter and Rogue. Having a blast playing a Pally now. Highest one I had before was in the 30s.

I will try the others out, but will be interesting if they can hold my attention. WoW has such depth to the story IMO. And it fullfills my casual play style.

I got SERIOUS MMO burnout while playing Everquest. I vowed I would never get that possessed with a game.

rasmasyean

Feb 14, 2010, 01:27 PM

I am a lot like Huntn. I have played several MMOs in the past. Played Meridian59 first, then moved onto Everquest, then tried Ultima Online. OMG the lag and bugginess when that started. Back to Everquest. Played that game a good many years. Had a lot of fun. But the grind was terrible.

Then when WoW came out, I was in the first Open Beta and was hooked from the getgo. Wifee and I both got into the game, which helps with keeping the wife problems with too much play at bay.

Then we both took a break, came back during Burning Crusade. This time however, neither of us were "TOO" addicted. Then we took another break and came back during WOTLK.

There have been gaps here and there. I have a PS3 with some games that I can't get into that much. I always go back to WoW. Casually, which is just fine by me.

Started an Alliance on a PvE server a few months back. Always played PvP. Still feel wierd at times not having to watch my back. Though I do like that aspect of the game.

WoW is simply the best game I have played and will continue to support it. Just not as fanatic as we were in the beginning. Two kids help in that department. But we both get a decent amount of play in.

Until the next big thing comes out, of which I don't see once on the horizon, I will be a WoWer, off and on.

Yeah, it really depends on the person’s preferred form of entertainment. In the end, mostly all of us need something to waste time on. And women are more and more getting into this class of entertainment…especially since they are making more and more non-testosterone-pumping killing games.

But too much of anything while you sacrifice responsibilities is no good, video game or not. Not many people think that wasting time watching TV is a “problem” because TV is mainstream so it’s not a “disease”. But if you ask me, I think TV is one of the biggest culprits in destroying personal productivity and achievement…much higher than video games. Although many people still think video game is for kids but TV is more “adult”.

The original “video game stigma” and “women disapproval” stem from the nerd stereotype. It’s mostly among American pop-culture and perhaps exaggerated by Hollywood to a certain extent. Originally, computers were used by “smart people”, and although lots of these people played the original amazing flashy lights creative programs, they were also the kids who the class hated because they answered all the teachers’ questions. And since on average, they grew up to be much more successful than the “football players” and other kids, mainstream ppl were still knocking these people, in the images of “corporate oppressors”, “warmongers”, “evil upper class”, etc. So Hollywood being a capitalistic entity itself, built on this mentality.

Anyways, “interactive entertainment” is reaching a lot of the “dumb people” more and more, courtesy of FaceBook…LOL! But even as we speak, firms are working toward content-delivery video games that attach right to your TV. The guy who invented Quicktime happens to be one of the major players. Onlive, Gaikai, OTOY, and whoever will jump on are claiming they will change the video game industry forever. No need for PC’s and consoles. Video games right over the internet in super ultra graphics directly from an attachment or over a browser...and perhaps your future cable box.

Browser console / PC games:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k-w56hQxmnY

Some graphics demos:
OTOY
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nydW9XUA5VQ

Second Life 2.0
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sxoUwdJQbrw

Huntn

Feb 14, 2010, 02:27 PM

But too much of anything while you sacrifice responsibilities is no good, video game or not. Not many people think that wasting time watching TV is a “problem” because TV is mainstream so it’s not a “disease”. But if you ask me, I think TV is one of the biggest culprits in destroying personal productivity and achievement…much higher than video games. Although many people still think video game is for kids but TV is more “adult”.

It's kinda funny that I said 20hr per week is to much for playing a video game. But I probably watch that much tv each week or more. Before computers and computer gaming came along I was one of those who rushed home to watch Dallas. Yes, I just dated myself. :p

Sandman1969

Feb 16, 2010, 02:01 PM

It's kinda funny that I said 20hr per week is to much for playing a video game. But I probably watch that much tv each week or more. Before computers and computer gaming came along I was one of those who rushed home to watch Dallas. Yes, I just dated myself. :p

LoL! Then it was all a DREAM! WTF! I remember all the build up of "Who Shot JR?" over that summer. Then it turned out to be a dream. L A Z Y !

Yeah I hear yah rasmasyean in regard to the stigma of gaming compared to the TV watching crowd. I only watch a few shows, and a couple movies on netflix a week. Though when I am on the puter, the TV there is usually on Food Network... or Family Guy... ;) My parents would ask "How can you play on the Computer so much?" Though they couldn't answer the same question about the TV.

Also, I love the folks that can't believe I pay around $14 a month for a game. Yet they don't mind going to the Movies regularly. I think $14 a month is cheap entertainment, and it allows the developer to continue developing and expanding the game. Blizzard has done great things with both expansions IMO.

Sparky9292

Feb 27, 2010, 12:28 PM

I love Second Life.

They even have a Mac Version. I love ALL features of Second Life.!

Huntn

Feb 27, 2010, 01:38 PM

I love Second Life.

They even have a Mac Version. I love ALL features of Second Life.!

Second Life is mostly a online social outlet. Last time I looked at the games there, they were not competitive with dedicated MMOs. It's hard to believe there are people (only a couple) who have grossed $1m in sales of virtual objects. :)

definitive

Feb 27, 2010, 03:53 PM

chill.

Feb 27, 2010, 09:21 PM

lol at second life: "ralph pls go"

diablo3 will probably be the next big exp grinding game, though i think many players are getting tired of such games (at least i am). you spend weeks or months leveling, then more time acquiring items, and then you start to pvp. in my opinion games like dota, heroes of newerth and league of legends are a better solution which takes much less time leveling, and goes straight to pvp. there's also competitive play, and large communities dedicated to these games.

i think diablo 3 will be much easier to max out and be more casual than a mmo because of its dungeon crawler nature. in diablo 2 you could max out in hours

the problem with dota-like games is the community. the community is horrible. because your allies can be a detriment to the team, it encourages flaming/bad manners. i really love dota, but i don't see it having a future because it is extremely spectator and newbie unfriendly. compare dota to something like tf2 is terms of newbie friendliness, and compare dota versus starcraft in spectating, and you see just how much it is lacking

the mmos that are on my radar are: star wars online, torchlight, and guild wars 2

diablo 3 is my most anticipated game, but you can't really categorize it as a mmo

Sambo110

Feb 27, 2010, 09:30 PM

Max out, as in highest level? Diablo 2 probably takes longer than WoW to get to max level.

chill.

Feb 28, 2010, 01:20 PM

Max out, as in highest level? Diablo 2 probably takes longer than WoW to get to max level.

max out as in "end game" i guess. in d2 before patch 1.10, you could hit end game (like level 80+) in hours and hit 99 in less than 24 hours. not sure about after 1.10, but it can't be longer to reach end game than 200+ hours can it?

Huntn

Mar 11, 2010, 11:16 AM

Instead of the next big MMO, here is PCGamer's list of the 12 top current MMOs. Don't know if they are ranked based on subscriber numbers. None of them currently appeal to me. Eve Online seems interesting, but not enough for me to install. Right now I'm waiting on Star Wars: The Old Republic.

1. WoW- well this is No.1 in subscriber base. (Mac Version)
2. Aion- reported high levels of grind.
3. Eve Online- space based. (Mac Version)
4. Fallen Earth
5. Everquest II- from the makers of the original successful MMO.
6. Wurm
7. Champions Online
8. Lord of the Rings Online- I played the beta, ehh.
9. Warhammer Online- dropping subcriptions and server consolidations.
10. City of Heroes
11. Dungeons and Dragons Online- mostly instanced questing space?
12. Age Of Conan- dropping subscriptions and server consolidations.

And here is MMORPG.com's (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm) giant list of all MMOs. Notice that most of them list "item mall" as a fee. That means that although there is no subscription, you must buy in game stuff to be competitive.

rasmasyean

Mar 12, 2010, 04:18 AM

Battlestar Galactica Online: Browser based MMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXDmFUpN-0I

Huntn

Mar 12, 2010, 10:01 AM

Battlestar Galactica Online: Browser based MMO.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXDmFUpN-0I

Wow browser based- Rhetorical questions: will it be fast and will it look good? Could this be the future of MMOs? No downloads is very attractive and I assume like Onlive you don't need the latest hardware to play such a game. Note, in the video link, mention of BGO does not appear in until about half way into it

Matti

Mar 12, 2010, 01:52 PM

Huntn

Mar 12, 2010, 02:23 PM

Got email from Blizzard giving me 10 free days of WoW to try Lich King, but didn't get sucked back in. Found the new stuff to be just "more of the same".

At times I miss MMOs, despite not really having enough time for such huge time sinks anymore. Really need something to come along that does something similar to the genre as what original WoW did, before I get sucked back into MMOs.

Bottom line you are right. When I came back after 2 years away from WoW, it was "just more of the same" in a new place. It's just that I missed it at that point. ;)

rasmasyean

Mar 14, 2010, 08:51 PM

Wow browser based- Rhetorical questions: will it be fast and will it look good? Could this be the future of MMOs? No downloads is very attractive and I assume like Onlive you don't need the latest hardware to play such a game. Note, in the video link, mention of BGO does not appear in until about half way into it

Yeah. Mac players rejoice! rofl.

If they can server you HD, and you have the bandwidth, they will. I'm sure there are step-downings like the nbcolympics. It's like an RPG so it's not action twitched based so these games are already kinda slow.

Curious query: Whats with the "Rhetorical questions:..."? You've been dreaming about HK droids in SWTOR? lol

rasmasyean

Mar 14, 2010, 09:06 PM

Second Life is mostly a online social outlet. Last time I looked at the games there, they were not competitive with dedicated MMOs. It's hard to believe there are people (only a couple) who have grossed $1m in sales of virtual objects. :)

Second Life is not just a game anymore. It’s becoming a sort of movement. There is serious business that goes on in there that involve real objects. Many major corporations have a presence in Second Life and “facilities” for marketing, and other business dealing.

Huntn

Mar 14, 2010, 09:58 PM

Second Life is not just a game anymore. It’s becoming a sort of movement. There is serious business that goes on in there that involve real objects. Many major corporations have a presence in Second Life and “facilities” for marketing, and other business dealing.

Thanks for clarifying. I did know that retail businesses were setting up store fronts within SL, just overlooked mentioning it.

rasmasyean

Mar 14, 2010, 10:19 PM

Thanks for clarifying. I did know that retail businesses were setting up store fronts within SL, just overlooked mentioning it.

I wasn't actually thinking of a "store" but perhaps there are many of those too. Think like IBM...the Defense Industry...etc.

http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/

If you think $15 / month is a lot for a game...hows this?
SL Enterprise Beta - Pricing Starts at $55,000 USD
http://work.secondlife.com/en-US/products/

lol

maelstromr

Mar 22, 2010, 03:19 PM

1. It's more of a learning cliff...

2. It's not brutal, but it isn't forgiving like WoW. Besides, if you're a part of a corp they'll usually have some sort of policy worked out to replace whatever you lose in battles, though that's only in 0.0 space, not in Empire.

1. HUGE Grand Canyon like cliff.

2. Yes, but it is actually a really great thing IMO. After you get started it's not hard to make back lost $$, and if you are paying attention you never lose what counts - skills points (a little like xp, build over time to improve your abilities). The benefit is that the Epic weapon hoarders are more rare, and you get a certain "real" feel to interactions. People have something to lose, so they act more economically. Camping has to be done intelligently. Being a jerk thief/annoyance/etc will cause you to lose something when people get wise to it and gang up on you.

On the other hand, it basically makes corporation membership an absolute necessity to really enjoy.

rasmasyean

Mar 23, 2010, 12:15 AM

On the other hand, it basically makes corporation membership an absolute necessity to really enjoy.

Not true. I know some people who are in a tiny "friends corp" of like 2 or 3 ppl who do things like camp wormholes and farm it. And there are soloists who ferry cargo to trade, manufacture goods to sell, and play the arbitrage game to make tons of more money than most corp pawns.

It all depends on what you want to do to blow off some steam in space. You can even have multiple accounts and play them at the same time by yourself. I mean, you always see these massive slow cargo ships floating arround on auto-pilot. It's prolly some dude AFK / alt-tabed / dual screened or on another account fighting while ferrying raw materials / arbitraged opportunites / resupply equipment / contract shipping / whatever else someone thought of to do that many people never imagined.

Huntn

May 6, 2010, 09:18 AM

Stotka

May 6, 2010, 04:59 PM

Ive been playing WOW a long time and it gets boring everytime. Its simpler with every patch and dull. Recently i deleted it and will not return especially with cataclysm around the corner.

For me TERA will be nice because of the non autolock on creeps.

And i think a lot of people will opt for APB.

the down side to both of these games is that there will be no Mac client :(

Huntn

May 7, 2010, 09:30 AM

Ive been playing WOW a long time and it gets boring everytime. Its simpler with every patch and dull. Recently i deleted it and will not return especially with cataclysm around the corner.

I'm pretty confident I'm done with WoW although I admit to special feelings for it.

For me TERA will be nice because of the non autolock on creeps.

What does that mean? I did read this Tera (http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/game/477/feature/4085) article at MMORPG.com. When I think of oriental MMO, based on reading, I think grind, even more grind than WoW, although I've never played an oriental MMO. Is that accurate?

Dragonforce

May 7, 2010, 02:41 PM

Like I said earlier in this thread - the next big thing is FFXIV :)

rasmasyean

May 7, 2010, 05:46 PM

I assume Eve players know all about the Council of Stellar Management, a group that meets every 6 months to decide where the game (Eve) should go. Most intriguing is that his council includes 9 player reps that are elected by other players and they are flown to Iceland to meet and in some cases scream at the developers. Apparently this council has real developmental weight.

Good report in the June 2010 of PCGamer, p56 about this process. It makes Eve sound like an interesting place to play. This virtual space seems to be a good example of anarchy with lots of drama- bank heists, infiltrating corporations to wholesale pilfer them, the story of Goonfleet, a huge corporation (player guild) whose leader goes off on a real life vacation but forgets to set up fund transfers for property holdings and as a result, they loose most of their property. The owner loots whats left and skedaddles to another part of the galaxy. It all most tempts me to try it out. But my logical side says "another huge time sink". ;)

They are adding a "planetary" expansion arround the corner. Maybe it's to step forward toward the XBox FPS companion.

Actually, depending on how you play, a EVE can be a large part a "background game". If they don't already have dual monitor setups by now, many people get an extra monitor to play this game a little more easily in this fashion...so you don't have to constantly switch, etc. And others who sport 2 (or more) accounts pretty much run clients in the background and switch to them. It doesn't always require a great deal of attention like WoW. Even in PVE, I used to run a setup that is nearly "hands-off". You just fly there, do some aggro, and setup and leave it...maybe switch in every few minutes to see if it's finished.

Some of it can be done "socially" too, where you basically do some activity that requires a lot of "waiting", and then when someone says "OMG! Enemy inbound!", then you run to battle stations...hehe. But often you have to hear someones voice going on about random topics if it's not "fleet commander babble", so that can be a "time sink" if you consider hanging out with online ppl a waste of time. But if you can ignore what they say, you can concentrate on something else. One thing about EVE is that there can be a lot of "chatroom babble" that goes on. Almost like an intergalatic CB radio. lol And there are just some ppl who just loooove to talk. omg... :p

Of course, as others have mentioned, it's a big step to take into the game before you're comfortable because the amount of details are pretty much unmatched.

rasmasyean

May 7, 2010, 05:49 PM

Like I said earlier in this thread - the next big thing is FFXIV :)

I wouldn't count on it. I'm pretty sure WoW Cataclysm will be the next big thing. It's going to be a pretty big revamp so I'm sure many returning players as well as new players will try that, especially since more and more ppl are getting into online games. There's also a Warcraft Movie comming abouts sometime in the future too. Maybe the release date will be near? I dunno.

Hackint0sh

May 7, 2010, 06:00 PM

I dont let myself play MMO's anymore....:'( I love them so much though!

This.

Dragonforce

May 7, 2010, 06:27 PM

I wouldn't count on it. I'm pretty sure WoW Cataclysm will be the next big thing. It's going to be a pretty big revamp so I'm sure many returning players as well as new players will try that, especially since more and more ppl are getting into online games. There's also a Warcraft Movie comming abouts sometime in the future too. Maybe the release date will be near? I dunno.

I pity those people still playing that ancient POS... :p

rasmasyean

May 7, 2010, 07:32 PM

I pity those people still playing that ancient POS... :p

I personally haven't played it in years myself. But I think one has to aprreciate the fact that many people still play that "ancient POS" with good reason. To doubt that this MMO was truly ahead of it's time and hit the right marks (and will do so again) will simply be giving into your personal biases. You don't see ppl lining up around the block overnight (sometimes in constumes) to buy a copy of FF when it first comes out do you? WoW releases are a media event...which very few video games match. Especially niche classes like MMO's.

Huntn

May 8, 2010, 08:46 AM

I personally haven't played it in years myself. But I think one has to aprreciate the fact that many people still play that "ancient POS" with good reason. To doubt that this MMO was truly ahead of it's time and hit the right marks (and will do so again) will simply be giving into your personal biases. You don't see ppl lining up around the block overnight (sometimes in constumes) to buy a copy of FF when it first comes out do you? WoW releases are a media event...which very few video games match. Especially niche classes like MMO's.

+3

WoW is the best. Subscriptions numbers bear this out. Could it be better? Hell yes. ;) Do the "ancient" graphics bother me? Not in the least. So what does that say about the game? I'd say other factors take precedence. (Btw, I'm WoW retired.) :)

Dragonforce

May 8, 2010, 10:09 AM

+3

WoW is the best. Subscriptions numbers bear this out. Could it be better? Hell yes. ;) Do the "ancient" graphics bother me? Not in the least. So what does that say about the game? I'd say other factors take precedence. (Btw, I'm WoW retired.) :)

Its definitely not the best. Its the MMO most people play. No idea why. They're all Lemmings. Their friend plays > he recommends because he's addicted > new guy starts playing. Like a disease spreading.

It the same thing with Windows. Does it make it the best just because millions of people use it ? No. A little group called Mac users use something called OS X, and a few smart people even use Linux. But they get pointed and laughed at by the Lemmings.

People are stuck with WoW - because it was their first MMO. They don't want to give up all their glory and virtual friends and try another game. Blizzard keeps milking them. Its kinda like Apples ad from 1984 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8). Someone has to wake those freaks up.

rasmasyean

May 8, 2010, 12:23 PM

Its definitely not the best. Its the MMO most people play. No idea why. They're all Lemmings. Their friend plays > he recommends because he's addicted > new guy starts playing. Like a disease spreading.

It the same thing with Windows. Does it make it the best just because millions of people use it ? No. A little group called Mac users use something called OS X, and a few smart people even use Linux. But they get pointed and laughed at by the Lemmings.

People are stuck with WoW - because it was their first MMO. They don't want to give up all their glory and virtual friends and try another game. Blizzard keeps milking them. Its kinda like Apples ad from 1984 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OYecfV3ubP8). Someone has to wake those freaks up.

Well, it’s just like anything. Someone likes (or is addicted…because s/he likes) recommends friends to play…and then they also like. I mean, do you always continue with something your friend recommended just because they did? Not I. It’s not a disease, just because you are a news statistic who lost GF / Wife / Kids / dog… :p That’s just a few ppl in the whole population.

And besides DX10 (which most gamers have heard of)...out like 3+ years already, Windows is dominant because it’s the best general business OS STILL by far. If you want to tell this to all the pro CS, Engineering, MBA "lemmings" who started this fad, be my guess. From there it spread to the homes. It’s not because of lemmings. Linux sucks period for anything other than servers. Don’t even try to argue this. The Linux taking over the market prophecy has been predicted since inception. The OMG! Linux opportunity in cheap axe netbooks that can't run anything! Yay for Linux! Wait...they are mostly Windows XP...the 9 year old OS. Oh well...Linux on Phones! Which can run even less! Yay for Android...but that's not a "computer" is it?

Many of the ppl who play WoW religiously are ppl who have played SWG, FF, EQ, and all those. Many others play because their friends are there…but someone there is having fun so they like it and the ppl who stay like it too. Though Blizzard has talent in “hooking you”, that’s not to say that other games don’t attempt to do the same thing. To think otherwise is just delusional.

Huntn

May 8, 2010, 06:20 PM

Its definitely not the best. Its the MMO most people play. No idea why. They're all Lemmings. Their friend plays > he recommends because he's addicted > new guy starts playing. Like a disease spreading.

I disagree with your assessment. Ultimately if you are not having fun, you are not going to stick with a game. And as Ras said, a good many of these people including myself, have tried many other MMOs and ended coming back to WoW. I've played 6 MMOs, some in beta, some in retail and none of them measured up to the standard set by WoW. Yes, it's an opinion that I'm sure many disagree with, but if you measure success by participation, WoW wins. If it makes you feel better, it's not the best for everyone. :)

jaysinnva

May 8, 2010, 07:53 PM

Like I said earlier in this thread - the next big thing is FFXIV :)

I think I may give this one a shot, it looks good so far. I tried XI, but couldn't get into it years ago. Now that I've been playing WoW, I feel a bit more comfortable with the whole MMO thing.

Huntn

Feb 20, 2011, 09:32 AM

I've resurrected this thread. Deal with it! :p What is YOUR next big MMO going to be? It does not have to be on the Mac either.

As of 20Feb11, mine is going to be Star Wars: The Old Republic (http://www.swtor.com/). In my history of MMOs, the first was Planetside (scifi), played for 18 months, which I chose over Star Wars Galaxies (thank God), then World of Warcraft (fantasy), which I played for 2.5 years with a break in the middle. I need a change of pace and am moving back to scifi. There is enough I've read that leads me to believe, TOR could be good, then again ya never know. Anyway I have my fingers crossed. Any game I play for over 1 year is a success in my book. :)

Patmian212

Feb 22, 2011, 10:04 PM

I've resurrected this thread. Deal with it! :p What is YOUR next big MMO going to be? I does not have to be on the Mac either.

As of 20Feb11, mine is going to be Star Wars: The Old Republic (http://www.swtor.com/). In my history of MMOs, the first was Planetside (scifi), played for 18 months, which I chose over Star Wars Galaxies (thank God), then World of Warcraft (fantasy), which I played for 2.5 years with a break in the middle. I need a change of pace and am moving back to scifi. There is enough I've read that leads me to believe, TOR could be good, then again ya never know. Anyway I have my fingers crossed. Any game I play for over 1 year is a success in my book. :)

I am dying for a new MMO myself and this looks great. . . When is it coming out do you think? Probably wont have a mac version right?

Patmian212

Feb 22, 2011, 10:05 PM

Oh and on a sidenote. . . Ive been hankering for an MMO set in a post-apocalyptic setting. . . Kinda like Fallout meets Mad Max, I see there is one already out(the name escapes me) but it doesnt look all that great. . .

juliancs

Feb 23, 2011, 02:24 PM

Pre-ordered Rift and can't wait to get into it!

Huntn

Feb 23, 2011, 05:17 PM

I am dying for a new MMO myself and this looks great. . . When is it coming out do you think? Probably wont have a mac version right?

Last I heard was Fall 2011. I don't think there will be a Mac native version. :( I'll be boot camping it. :) Plan on upgrading my MBP soon, before Fall anyway.

Pre-ordered Rift and can't wait to get into it!

I was thinking Rift was all ready out. I must of heard beta players talking. Hope it works for ya!

vincenz

Feb 23, 2011, 05:24 PM

I think a lot of people will still be playing wow even 10 years from now. Its a blizzard game after all.

Liquorpuki

Feb 23, 2011, 06:16 PM

My first MMO was Anarchy Online which I loved. Played a ton of them since then and most of them sucked. Last MMO I tried was DC Online and I got bored in 2 weeks. Been playing WOW on and off since release and I haven't run into anything better.

The only games I'm curious about are Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Secret World. I played SWG and even though it was buggy as hell, I enjoyed it until Sony ruined the game. Wondering how this new one will hold up. Secret World is from Funcom, and if they can put out something on the level of Anarchy Online, it'll be worth it.

Patmian212

Feb 23, 2011, 09:26 PM

My main gripe with WoW is the world is completely static, nothing you do changes the game world at all, its all a grind to get better equipment, there is no satisfaction apart from having a new shiny sword or what not. I love the atmosphere, detail and easter-eggs but every time I play it I cant help but feel, meh, whats the point, im just gonna kill things and bring back X amount of skins or carcasses to an NPC to get some XP and maybe something shiny to put on. . . MEH. . .

Huntn

Feb 23, 2011, 11:02 PM

The only games I'm curious about are Star Wars: The Old Republic and the Secret World.

Hopefully SW:TOR will delight.

My main gripe with WoW is the world is completely static, nothing you do changes the game world at all, its all a grind to get better equipment, there is no satisfaction apart from having a new shiny sword or what not. I love the atmosphere, detail and easter-eggs but every time I play it I cant help but feel, meh, whats the point, im just gonna kill things and bring back X amount of skins or carcasses to an NPC to get some XP and maybe something shiny to put on. . . MEH. . .

Welcome to most MMOs. :) Dynamic worlds are few and far between (if any). I lose it at the end game usually. I like exploration, I don't like the concept of 'daily dungeons' although I do like that they were relatively quick in WoW.

Patmian212

Feb 23, 2011, 11:24 PM

Hopefully SW:TOR will delight.

Welcome to most MMOs. :) Dynamic worlds are few and far between (if any). I lose it at the end game usually. I like exploration, I don't like the concept of 'daily dungeons' although I do like that they were relatively quick inn WoW.

Someone needs to get on that lol. . .

Liquorpuki

Feb 24, 2011, 01:38 AM

Welcome to most MMOs. :) Dynamic worlds are few and far between (if any). I lose it at the end game usually. I like exploration, I don't like the concept of 'daily dungeons' although I do like that they were relatively quick inn WoW.

I don't know if you played SWG but that game (before Sony wrecked it) was actually a pretty deep MMO with a totally wider scope than anything out right now, except for maybe Second Life. The developer's name was Ralph Koster and he also worked on Ultima Online. His vision for these MMORPG's was a self-sufficient virtual community - you could fight, socialize, run a business, etc. You actually had classes in that game that didn't do any fighting at all and just played music all day. Crafting was ridiculous - you could actually craft stuff like factories that would get built on plots of land in the game and become part of the landscape. AI was way more advanced as well. The only bad thing about it was SWG wasn't finished when it was released and was buggy as hell and it was never remedied.

WOW came along and simplified everything by removing everything except the fighting. But the game was so polished it worked and made a ton of money. So now every game that gets released tries to be like WOW. And a lot of them, like DC Online, for lack of money or resources, are just more simplified versions of WOW. Meanwhile the older MMORPG's were actually deeper and more ambitious. If an SWG type game with an ambitious scope ever came out again, that I'd be eager to play. But WOW totally put a lid on the vision of what these games could be which is a shame because Devs are just making cookie cutter MMO's right now with maybe a license attached to it.

Huntn

Feb 24, 2011, 12:11 PM

I don't know if you played SWG but that game (before Sony wrecked it) was actually a pretty deep MMO with a totally wider scope than anything out right now, except for maybe Second Life. The developer's name was Ralph Koster and he also worked on Ultima Online. His vision for these MMORPG's was a self-sufficient virtual community - you could fight, socialize, run a business, etc. You actually had classes in that game that didn't do any fighting at all and just played music all day. Crafting was ridiculous - you could actually craft stuff like factories that would get built on plots of land in the game and become part of the landscape. AI was way more advanced as well. The only bad thing about it was SWG wasn't finished when it was released and was buggy as hell and it was never remedied.

WOW came along and simplified everything by removing everything except the fighting. But the game was so polished it worked and made a ton of money. So now every game that gets released tries to be like WOW. And a lot of them, like DC Online, for lack of money or resources, are just more simplified versions of WOW. Meanwhile the older MMORPG's were actually deeper and more ambitious. If an SWG type game with an ambitious scope ever came out again, that I'd be eager to play. But WOW totally put a lid on the vision of what these games could be which is a shame because Devs are just making cookie cutter MMO's right now with maybe a license attached to it.

Everything you said sounded good except trying to compare a MMORPG like WoW with Second Life, a social hangout site. :)

Liquorpuki

Feb 24, 2011, 12:34 PM

Everything you said sounded good except trying to compare a MMORPG like WoW with Second Life, a social hangout site. :)

lol... do you remember the Sims Online? Pretty much the same thing. I remember back when it was a big deal for an MMORPG to have player housing and virtual world elements. Now none of them have it.

I think WOW's success just redefined the MMORPG to a more limited scope - no housing, simpler crafting and economy, crappy creature AI, simpler skill trees, less classes, etc - nothing but a level grind where you just raid or pvp in the end. And the crappy thing is it's the best MMO out right now. Its success made the genre regress.

Huntn

Feb 24, 2011, 08:05 PM

lol... do you remember the Sims Online? Pretty much the same thing. I remember back when it was a big deal for an MMORPG to have player housing and virtual world elements. Now none of them have it.

I think WOW's success just redefined the MMORPG to a more limited scope - no housing, simpler crafting and economy, crappy creature AI, simpler skill trees, less classes, etc - nothing but a level grind where you just raid or pvp in the end. And the crappy thing is it's the best MMO out right now. Its success made the genre regress.

I agree there is lots of grind and it's a static world (WoW) as others have all ready mentioned many times. Regarding SW:TOR I am concerned about the end game, keeping my fingers crossed they surprise me somehow.

presidente

Feb 25, 2011, 10:39 AM

Welcome to most MMOs. :) Dynamic worlds are few and far between (if any). I lose it at the end game usually. I like exploration, I don't like the concept of 'daily dungeons' although I do like that they were relatively quick in WoW.

Yes - this is exactly what draws me towards MMO's as a genre (great potential for exploration and storytelling) and what turns me away (everyone rushing through the game to get to 'end game' content').

From upcoming MMO's i've checked out, SWTOR and Guild Wars 2 look like they could fit the bill. As for Rift, I played through the beta but it seems to cater for those focused on 'end-game'. Story-telling in quests is pretty unengaing, and the environment is nothing you havn't seen before. Combat mechanics, character customisation and graphics get it high marks though, if that's what you're after.

Huntn

Feb 26, 2011, 12:20 AM

Yes - this is exactly what draws me towards MMO's as a genre (great potential for exploration and storytelling) and what turns me away (everyone rushing through the game to get to 'end game' content').

From upcoming MMO's i've checked out, SWTOR and Guild Wars 2 look like they could fit the bill. As for Rift, I played through the beta but it seems to cater for those focused on 'end-game'. Story-telling in quests is pretty unengaing, and the environment is nothing you havn't seen before. Combat mechanics, character customisation and graphics get it high marks though, if that's what you're after.

Thanks for the Rift info. This is more or less what I've heard, except players get to fight few/hordes of MOBs emerging from rifts, maybe something like Oblivion Gates? Except in Oblivion they would just hang out around the gate if you left them alone. :)

Looking for any updates on impressions of Rift. I've been holding out for SWTOR, (which is still showing as a Q2 release which I doubt) but I read the PCGamer Rift Launch article and it seems interesting and different than WoW. Are all the servers PVP?

Can anyone describe the Rift end game? Thanks.

SlickShoes

Mar 29, 2011, 09:09 AM

Looking for any updates on impressions of Rift. I've been holding out for SWTOR, (which is still showing as a Q2 release which I doubt) but I read the PCGamer Rift Launch article and it seems interesting and different than WoW. Are all the servers PVP?

Can anyone describe the Rift end game? Thanks.

I played Rift for around 3 weeks, at first i did really enjoy it, and just logged on as soon as i could. The zones look nice, the talents/class system is very good but in the end it all just felt too samey to me.

In the first zone up to level 22 everyone was fighting rifts and invasions but as soon as i hit the next zone everyone was questing, rifts would just stay there with one or two guys fighting them and the awesome feel of the game just drained for me. I ended up questing and running dungeons and just sort of wishing i was just playing WoW since i was doing the same things as there but with less content.

It is a good game, very polished for an MMO release but it is very similar to what is already out there. If you havent played an MMO for years or you want something you can kill an hour or two a day in I would say go ahead. If you currently play WoW or have recently played it Rift is not really worth it, you would be as well going back to WoW in my opinion.

I ended up playing it for around 30 hours which i think is fair value for money for the 29.99 i payed for the game so im not too bothered about quitting it, but in my opinion its not really worth subbing to long term yet.

End game is the same as WoW really, there are expert (heroic) dungeons and raids. Crafting and gathering, levelling alts.

There is PvP but its pretty unblananced and gets quite repetitive after a short while especially if you have already played your fair share of WoW battlegrounds.

Huntn

Mar 29, 2011, 10:36 PM

I played Rift for around 3 weeks, at first i did really enjoy it, and just logged on as soon as i could. The zones look nice, the talents/class system is very good but in the end it all just felt too samey to me.

In the first zone up to level 22 everyone was fighting rifts and invasions but as soon as i hit the next zone everyone was questing, rifts would just stay there with one or two guys fighting them and the awesome feel of the game just drained for me. I ended up questing and running dungeons and just sort of wishing i was just playing WoW since i was doing the same things as there but with less content.

It is a good game, very polished for an MMO release but it is very similar to what is already out there. If you havent played an MMO for years or you want something you can kill an hour or two a day in I would say go ahead. If you currently play WoW or have recently played it Rift is not really worth it, you would be as well going back to WoW in my opinion.

I ended up playing it for around 30 hours which i think is fair value for money for the 29.99 i payed for the game so im not too bothered about quitting it, but in my opinion its not really worth subbing to long term yet.

End game is the same as WoW really, there are expert (heroic) dungeons and raids. Crafting and gathering, levelling alts.

There is PvP but its pretty unblananced and gets quite repetitive after a short while especially if you have already played your fair share of WoW battlegrounds.

Thanks for the info! You know while I consider Wow the best MMO I've ever played, I've sworn never to play it again so right now I'm unlikely to jump back into a very similar fantasy setting even with rifts. Star Wars, fingers crossed! ;)

SlickShoes

Mar 30, 2011, 04:46 AM

Thanks for the info! You know while I consider Wow the bets MMO I've ever played, I've sworn never to play it again so right now I'm unlikely to jump back into a very similar fantasy setting even with rifts. Star Wars, fingers crossed! ;)

I am looking forward to Star Wars too, even if the gameplay is somewhat similar to WoW a vastly different type of setting can really change how the game feels.

I played Star Wars Galaxies back in 2005 and really loved it, the vastness of the world too and just that universe was a great setting for a game.

I am currently on my 4th month of being away from WoW and see less reasons to go back, i played it for around 3 years. My biggest problem now is finding games to fill the void, i tend to play things heavily for a week then get fed up with them and move on now, i think i got used to that never ending treadmill that WoW had too much.

Huntn

Mar 30, 2011, 03:33 PM

I am looking forward to Star Wars too, even if the gameplay is somewhat similar to WoW a vastly different type of setting can really change how the game feels.

I played Star Wars Galaxies back in 2005 and really loved it, the vastness of the world too and just that universe was a great setting for a game.

I am currently on my 4th month of being away from WoW and see less reasons to go back, i played it for around 3 years. My biggest problem now is finding games to fill the void, i tend to play things heavily for a week then get fed up with them and move on now, i think i got used to that never ending treadmill that WoW had too much.

My choice was Planetside or Galaxies. I played Planetside for 18 months and had a blast until I crashed with it. It was perfect from the standpoint that you never got left behind. It was all team based PVP. I could play twice a week for a few hours and be perfectly satisfied. The first time I sensed the being left behind feeling was in quest based WoW. Since I have picked up guitar, I am playing a lot less games than I used to.

aerring

Mar 31, 2011, 02:44 AM

allods.

it's the best wowternative i've ever seen, and loads of fun.

SlickShoes

Mar 31, 2011, 04:43 AM

allods.

it's the best wowternative i've ever seen, and loads of fun.

and its free! never tried it myself!

BornAgainMac

Mar 31, 2011, 06:04 AM

Err0xx

Mar 31, 2011, 07:44 AM

My vote is for TERA. Looks like an awesome game IMO. Animations looks amazing in combat/skills and it actually requires player skill, instead of pounding away on an action bar again and again and again.

Huntn

Apr 1, 2011, 04:13 PM

I dislike the WOW genre but the MMO implementation is the best. I am glad I never got hooked. I stopped before it got out of control. I will stay away from DC Online or Star Trek because I know I won't be able to put it down.

So you are still considering SW:The Old Republic? ;)

SWTOR is going to be my next MMO. I've watched some SWTOR videos and seen a few SWTOR links and it looks like SWTOR will be using what I consider to be traditional class roles- tank, healer, damage, etc. I know that WoW over the years has varied tradional roles to some extent. For example when Paladins first came out, they were not tanks, and when I quit WoW they were. So...

*Has this class role structure always been a part of MMORPGs?
*Does this class role structure and 'aggro' characteristics of mobs exist because of A.I. limitations?
*What does the future hold?

Just because a big armored character attacks a mob and gets it's attention, why wouldn't it break off and attack a lesser armored foe? There is something about what I saw in WoW that seemed very formulaic. I'm wondering if this is how combat must be in a game with A.I. limitations- what do you think?

Huntn

Apr 16, 2011, 08:15 PM

Ok, this will not qualify as the next big MMO, but anyone here familiar with Ryzom? I tried out the starter area years ago and what impressed me was the environment, exotic alien, and I was impressed with the A.I. of the animals, their herding characteristics and how they would react to you if you investigated them. Anyway I was browsing the Mac App Store and there it is. And it is free to check out until you reach a skill level of 125, then it is $11 a month (or less if months bulk purchased). What is cool about this is that it used to be PC only and now it runs on the Mac. I'm just wondering how active it currently is and wondering if it would be worth my while to go back and give it a second chance? Anyone playing?

What I remember was the critique that it did not have well developed quests and the higher levels were mostly pvp, but I could be remembering it wrong. See bunches of Ryzom Images Here (http://www.google.com/search?q=ryzom+images&hl=en&client=firefox-a&hs=KQH&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&prmd=ivns&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=pT6qTd-oMafc0QGAoajLAw&ved=0CBcQsAQ&biw=1162&bih=698).

Ryzom.com (http://www.ryzom.com/en/)
Thanks!

doh123

Apr 16, 2011, 09:41 PM

I started playing some Champions Online since it went free... and its actually really fun.... works fine with Wineskin too, no Windows needed.

yellow

May 20, 2011, 08:01 AM

Whilst I am back on the LoTRO pipe.. I am eagerly awaiting the release of "Warhammer 40K: Dark Millennium"!

Huntn

Jul 16, 2011, 09:04 PM

Anyone mulling over the prospect of Planetside 2 (http://www.planetside2.com/)? I played the original for a year and had a great time with it before burning out. Maybe it's time for round 2 (when it comes out)...

http://images.fragland.net/screenshots/2238/2.jpg

Huntn

Aug 31, 2011, 09:46 AM

The next big MMO most likely will be StarWars: The Old Republic and/or could it be Guild Wars 2?

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/images/10/aug/gw6.jpg

Escaping the Grind in Guild Wars 2 (http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/05/18/guild-wars-2-quests/)

rasmasyean

Sep 18, 2011, 12:09 AM

Mr.C

Sep 18, 2011, 05:15 AM

I'm by far no expert on MMO's including MMORPG's. That said I had a chance to play all be it briefly both Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic at Gamescom and I was impressed by both. There were a number of other MMO's there whose names I can't remember and it seems there is a resurgence in the genre.

I think the next big thing especially amongst the lesser known ones is a free to play model with micro transactions a way for them to make money. In my opinion as good as WOW is it is overrated.

I think a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be a much more enjoyable experience especially as it's a " universe" as well as the characters within are something people can relate to.

Warm5er

Sep 18, 2011, 05:35 AM

I am thinking of going back to playing wow again. The last time i played was 6 years ago and it was really fun. I think if wow open up a new server with no bot and lots of new player, it will do great because it has excellent story line, huge(world map) and the graphic is pretty powerful considering it only gave my MBP i72.2ghz a bit of a lag on full spec. Also i think and hope the next expansion of wow will bring a new graphic, game play experience and story line to the game. Cause i just hate to see a good game get rusted through time. For me the best game ever was star craft 1 and starcraft 2 still hasn't beat it yet.

Huntn

Sep 18, 2011, 08:27 AM

I wouldn't hold my breath on GW2.

SWTOR looks too PVEish focused to become the next big MMO. And you know how this will turn out. Light siders outnumber Dark-siders 10-1. Any game that will be as "big" as WoW has to have a mix of PVE and PVP gamers as well as a pretty balanced gameplay. I'm not sure how "Star Wars" will be able to accomplish this type of thing with it's history.

I would bet that the "next big MMO" after WoW would be something that is based on cloud gaming. It would be some form of ultra graphics, ultra large world, ultra inventory, and not so simple cookie cutter interaction...all in the likes of something no one has ever seen before. Since this will take such immense processing power, there's no practical way to introducing this type of game to a large audience other than via some type of cloud servers that feed simple video like OnLive, GaiKai, OTOY, and whoever is in the works.

Basically all of these games are faced with giving the player (for all intents and purposes) the same game mechanics, any experienced MMO player has seen before. I have a hard time imagining something new in this regard. You have story, quest types, environment, combat plus combat visuals. The easiest thing to change is the story, environment and visuals. The other aspects feel very much like been there done that and depending on individual tolerance at some point the been-there-done-that feeling will return.

I'm by far no expert on MMO's including MMORPG's. That said I had a chance to play all be it briefly both Guild Wars 2 and Star Wars: The Old Republic at Gamescom and I was impressed by both. There were a number of other MMO's there whose names I can't remember and it seems there is a resurgence in the genre.

I think the next big thing especially amongst the lesser known ones is a free to play model with micro transactions a way for them to make money. In my opinion as good as WOW is it is overrated.

I think a game like Star Wars: The Old Republic is going to be a much more enjoyable experience especially as it's a " universe" as well as the characters within are something people can relate to.

I think the problem with SWTOR could be living up to the expectations.

I am thinking of going back to playing wow again. The last time i played was 6 years ago and it was really fun. I think if wow open up a new server with no bot and lots of new player, it will do great because it has excellent story line, huge(world map) and the graphic is pretty powerful considering it only gave my MBP i72.2ghz a bit of a lag on full spec. Also i think and hope the next expansion of wow will bring a new graphic, game play experience and story line to the game. Cause i just hate to see a good game get rusted through time. For me the best game ever was star craft 1 and starcraft 2 still hasn't beat it yet.

Do you think Blizzard would do that?
Going back and playing WoW could be a lot of fun. I did it (took a 2 year break, then went back and played for a year), had fun, but now I'm done. The real problem is that based on established game mechanics, now I might have a hard time with any MMORPG. It is- been there done that. However, I do think that a sandbox world like WoW with enlarged zones could just be the ticket. Most of my interest in MMORPGs is world exploration with entertainment along the way. Although Wow (as most MMORPGS are) is a game of repetition, exploring new areas is enough to keep it interesting. It is around the end game, repeating the same dungeons over and over just to snag new gear is the beginning of the end for me.

Just played with the Rift Trial this last week, and it really did nothing for me. In a previous post I mentioned GW2, but who knows? As of now, I'm thinking Planetside 2, a strictly PVP MMO (which I also played before) has the best chance of grabbing my long term attention...

Mr.C

Sep 18, 2011, 10:28 AM

I think the problem with SWTOR could be living up to the expectations.

I can't speak for that as I was only able to or should I say allowed to play it for about 15 minutes. From what I played of it I was reminded of WOW in the Star Wars universe. Graphically it seemed to be on par with WOW. I think if it can deliver on story and character development as well as well as good execution of game play it will do well. Whether it will be as successful as WOW remains to be seen.

Kissaragi

Sep 18, 2011, 01:18 PM

The next really big mmo will probably be wow2

SlickShoes

Sep 18, 2011, 04:16 PM

Some people really are expecting SW:TOR to be the second coming. I haven't played an MMO since December last year and I am dying on that new MMO feeling again!

My next one will be Star Wars and that will be me settling there for the next few years. I am expecting to to have the functionality of WoW but with a better storyline/single player experience and a nice Sci Fi setting. I am just sick of fantasy game after fantasy game. Anything that isnt Fantasy is either totally half baked or EVE online which is way to big a time sink for me to jump into now.

macthismacthat

Sep 18, 2011, 04:25 PM

The next really big mmo will probably be wow2

You beat us all....must be proud on your comment.Oh,and btw it is called "TITAN-project"(your wow2)

Regards.

aCondor

Sep 18, 2011, 08:12 PM

EVE Online is a great MMO. Caters towards adults, though. No 12-year olds in this game :)

rasmasyean

Sep 19, 2011, 05:36 AM

EVE Online is a great MMO. Caters towards adults, though. No 12-year olds in this game :)

EVE Online can never be a "big MMO" though. It's way too complicated and involved for most ppl. Most ppl who aren't really into games (or just 12 y/o) would just get frustrated really soon and quit. I think they HAVE made it more beginner friendly since, but it's still a little hard-core (if not THE most hard-core MMO presently).

But the last 2 years, it was actually voted MMORPG.com Game of the Year 2009 and 2010 beating WoW.

rasmasyean

Sep 19, 2011, 06:00 AM

Basically all of these games are faced with giving the player (for all intents and purposes) the same game mechanics, any experienced MMO player has seen before. I have a hard time imagining something new in this regard. You have story, quest types, environment, combat plus combat visuals. The easiest thing to change is the story, environment and visuals. The other aspects feel very much like been there done that and depending on individual tolerance at some point the been-there-done-that feeling will return.

So far, based on limits of bandwidth and PC power, it's hard to really have a persistent world that's truly affected by players. With clouds, you remove those limitations to a great extent when you don't rely on "client updates" and "massive mobile/character objects". For example, in EVE Online, the game doesn't really work good when it's 200 vs 200.

So not only do you remove the restriction of "amount of players / monsters running around"...you also get to change the world for everyone without real-time patching.

e.g. If playing a WWII game and artillery is hitting the ground...ALL of the live players can see the new craters of various sizes and jump into them for cover from machine guns. You can even erect a (non-cookie-cutter) customized base somewhere random and it will stay there until damaged/destroyed...by realistic physics. And anyone coming near the base for the first time (or during the damaging) will not "lag" with some type of massive structure/crater/fire/body-parts location coming over the internet.

Aesthetically, you can have near limitless character customizations. When your shoulder is dirty from falling on the ground...everyone sees that...until you bring it to the cleaners. The models will only be limited by how much time/money the devs want to spend because none of it is stored on your PC. On this idea, a "1 GB WoW Major update" could be a 100 GB 1 hr downtime at 3AM. Theoretically, the players could update the world by "100GB" every single day!

Kissaragi

Sep 19, 2011, 01:02 PM

Does EVE allow you to walk around the space stations yet? Know they were planning on doing that

SlickShoes

Sep 19, 2011, 05:13 PM

Does EVE allow you to walk around the space stations yet? Know they were planning on doing that

When i tried it a few months ago you could walk around your ship when you were docked but that was about it, the character didnt control very well either.

Sankersizzle

Sep 19, 2011, 05:19 PM

Fallout Online? I'm so stoked for that.

rasmasyean

Sep 19, 2011, 07:20 PM

When i tried it a few months ago you could walk around your ship when you were docked but that was about it, the character didnt control very well either.

It's point-n-click movement. And you can only walk. It's supposed to be a phased upgrade. Your "quarters" is supposed to be the first part of it. They also added some non-functional "cash shop fashion items" as well. My guess is that they are preparing for the FPS game that integrates with the ship game. This is when you will be able to "meet" other XBox players, etc.

aCondor

Sep 19, 2011, 08:19 PM

It's point-n-click movement. And you can only walk. It's supposed to be a phased upgrade. Your "quarters" is supposed to be the first part of it. They also added some non-functional "cash shop fashion items" as well. My guess is that they are preparing for the FPS game that integrates with the ship game. This is when you will be able to "meet" other XBox players, etc.

Yea, apparently the goal is to integrate the MMO EVE Online with a separate FPS game named Dust 514.

Factions within EVE Online will be able to directly influence the action on the ground in Dust 514 by purchasing or building structures or weaponry.

Sounds like a true definition of MMO, but certainly will be difficult to pull off without major hurdles.

rasmasyean

Sep 19, 2011, 09:00 PM

Yea, apparently the goal is to integrate the MMO EVE Online with a separate FPS game named Dust 514.

Factions within EVE Online will be able to directly influence the action on the ground in Dust 514 by purchasing or building structures or weaponry.

Sounds like a true definition of MMO, but certainly will be difficult to pull off without major hurdles.

Yeah, the new "Planetary Interaction" will likely play part in it as well. Maybe FPS players can battle for the ground stuff or something like that and you can recruit each other to help do your bidding and take over "territory". It sounds more fun to do something like this than just have some space ships bombard colonies from afar. Maybe it will even have "monsters" to clear every once in a while to keep the peak resource output in colonies in some sort of PVE aspect too. Who knows?

SlickShoes

Sep 20, 2011, 03:22 AM

Yea, apparently the goal is to integrate the MMO EVE Online with a separate FPS game named Dust 514.

Factions within EVE Online will be able to directly influence the action on the ground in Dust 514 by purchasing or building structures or weaponry.

Sounds like a true definition of MMO, but certainly will be difficult to pull off without major hurdles.

Yeah, DUST 514 will be PC and PS3 exclusive from what they said at E3. It sounds really interesting and I would play DUST.

Just to clarify I wasn't slating EVE earlier, i just think the game is way to vast and time consuming for someone like me at this point. From what I played it was a good game but I just can't invest the time a game like this deserves.

rasmasyean

Sep 20, 2011, 04:39 AM

Yeah, DUST 514 will be PC and PS3 exclusive from what they said at E3. It sounds really interesting and I would play DUST.

Just to clarify I wasn't slating EVE earlier, i just think the game is way to vast and time consuming for someone like me at this point. From what I played it was a good game but I just can't invest the time a game like this deserves.

From what I remember, you don't exactly HAVE to like get real involved with everything. If you are able to just find a guild that will help you out and get you into the basics, you can do "useful jobs" with just an entry level ship or even one that takes a short time to learn how to fly. Some guilds will be happy to have "an extra gun" and will give some low level ships for free if you join them in whatever they are into. Especially those who PVP, because they know ppl will lose ships. It just seems real hard at first because alone you have to like "save up" for the 2nd, then 3rd level ships, but in a corp that has "territory" where they extract resources and make crap...those are like pocket change. For example, a 3rd level ship (cruiser) is like 5 mill or something like that. But many corp members sport 1 bill+ ships (carrier / dreanought / fancy battleships). Which often are upgraded with another 1 bill too. Not to mention "implants" witch are like "sockets gems" for your head. And when it gets blown away...POOF!!! :p

Huntn

Sep 20, 2011, 09:28 AM

So far, based on limits of bandwidth and PC power, it's hard to really have a persistent world that's truly affected by players. With clouds, you remove those limitations to a great extent when you don't rely on "client updates" and "massive mobile/character objects". For example, in EVE Online, the game doesn't really work good when it's 200 vs 200.

So not only do you remove the restriction of "amount of players / monsters running around"...you also get to change the world for everyone without real-time patching.

e.g. If playing a WWII game and artillery is hitting the ground...ALL of the live players can see the new craters of various sizes and jump into them for cover from machine guns. You can even erect a (non-cookie-cutter) customized base somewhere random and it will stay there until damaged/destroyed...by realistic physics. And anyone coming near the base for the first time (or during the damaging) will not "lag" with some type of massive structure/crater/fire/body-parts location coming over the internet.

Aesthetically, you can have near limitless character customizations. When your shoulder is dirty from falling on the ground...everyone sees that...until you bring it to the cleaners. The models will only be limited by how much time/money the devs want to spend because none of it is stored on your PC. On this idea, a "1 GB WoW Major update" could be a 100 GB 1 hr downtime at 3AM. Theoretically, the players could update the world by "100GB" every single day!

Holy ****! And we are all ready worried about data caps... ;)

sinser

Sep 20, 2011, 11:08 AM

It will take a long, long time...but I'm pretty sure that the next BIG mmo will be called Titan and released by an obscure company called Blizzard.

Huntn

Sep 20, 2011, 11:39 AM

It will take a long, long time...but I'm pretty sure that the next BIG mmo will be called Titan and released by an obscure company called Blizzard.

Of course I'm interested, but it will depend on the setting and type of game. Looking forward to the first screen shots. And remember, it's only 2+Years away, if 4th quarter 2013 is accurate. :)

Blizzard Titan, The MMO That Will Eclipse World of Warcraft (http://www.gamesradar.com/blizzard-titan-mmo-will-eclipse-world-of-warcraft/).

Huntn

Sep 21, 2011, 01:01 PM

Curious if any WoW players here also have played Runes of Magic? If so, how do they compare?

Thanks!

Huntn

Oct 5, 2011, 11:22 AM

Recently PCGamer had an article regarding the top 10 free* MMOs. Lord of the Rings Online was one of them and one I played during beta. I quit playing it because I was still in my WoW infatuation stage and I thought a class (minstrel) that sings its opponents to death was just plain silly. :) I'm actually thinking about going back and giving this a shot... Anyone playing? I mean it looks so pretty.

Rivendell:
http://www.lotrolife.com/img/quests/fan_screenshots/lotro_rivendell_2.jpg
Wildlife:
http://kittenslitter.files.wordpress.com/2007/02/lotro-wildlife.jpg

Age of Conan, another free MMO*, looks interesting.

http://www.cheats-area.com/news/img/1200.jpg

http://furiousfanboys.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/age-of-conan.jpg

*free of monthly subscription costs. These games typically include charges for additional content or gear/items.

Rift was a bust...

PCGamer Top Free MMOs* Sept 2011:
*LOTRO
*Global Agenda
*Dungeons & Dragons Online
*Anarchy Online
*APB
*Everquest II
*Champions Online
*Hellgate:London
*City of Heroes
*Age of Conan

If you are mulling over free MMO trials, (vs free MMOs) take a gander at this mmohuts.com link (http://mmohuts.com/free-trials). LOTRO is free to play initially, no trial involved.

macthismacthat

Oct 5, 2011, 01:29 PM

Curious if any WoW players here also have played Runes of Magic? If so, how do they compare?

Thanks!
I played it for a short time and it feels like unfinished product. The concept is the same as WoW but the graphics and the interaction are very poor.

Liquorpuki

Oct 5, 2011, 01:53 PM

Age of Conan, another free MMO*, looks interesting.

I played this at release. The one thing that was cool was the combat system. But outside of the starting zone, the game wasn't finished. I remember the whole starting zone had voice recorded dialogue and then once I left, everyone stopped talking.

*Anarchy Online

First MMORPG I ever played and probably one of the best. Looked awesome in 2000. In 2011 it looks butt ugly and servers are empty. They were supposed to do a graphical update but it never happened. It also has remnants of the older generation of MMORPG's, where if you wipe before you level, your xp gets reset back to 0 and you just wasted 2 hours.

*City of Heroes

Played this too along with COV. Polished for what it was, but pretty one dimensional, even compared to games like WOW. Character creation was pretty diverse though.

Huntn

Oct 5, 2011, 02:30 PM

Thanks guys for the replies. I'm thinking I have nothing to loose by checking out LOTRO besides the download time. Regarding RIFT, it did not click for me, very underwhelming environment.

SlickShoes

Oct 5, 2011, 05:55 PM

Thanks guys for the replies. I'm thinking I have nothing to loose by checking out LOTRO besides the download time. Regarding RIFT, it did not click for me, very underwhelming environment.

I played LOTRO at release for a couple of months. I didnt really have a system that could properly handle it at the time though.

The minstrel healing class is great i loved playing tunes for heals. Also the game has an actual music system in it which is pretty neat.

The world is nice and the game is fun but I'm not sure how limited the free model is or how much grinding it involves. I would choose LOTRO over Age of Conan any day of the week though. I just can't get into older games, i feel like ive missed so much when i join up later, I want something fresh and new I can join at the start.

Huntn

Oct 9, 2011, 12:17 PM

I played LOTRO at release for a couple of months. I didnt really have a system that could properly handle it at the time though.

The minstrel healing class is great i loved playing tunes for heals. Also the game has an actual music system in it which is pretty neat.

The world is nice and the game is fun but I'm not sure how limited the free model is or how much grinding it involves. I would choose LOTRO over Age of Conan any day of the week though. I just can't get into older games, i feel like ive missed so much when i join up later, I want something fresh and new I can join at the start.

When I think about most of the WoW starter zones, I see very special places where everything, especially the environment clicks in a way I find very appealing. I'm all most tempted to go back and run another character through Teldressil. :D Lately I've looked at (and played) other MMOs and they are not clicking for me, but when I stumbled across the LOTRO screen shots, it seems very reminiscent of a WoW kind of environment, not for the purpose of reliving WoW, but of offering an environment I find compelling to explore. And my opinion is that if a game is going to grab me, it should grab me upfront, not be something that will eventually grow on me. I should have LOTRO running in a couple of days and am sure I'll comment on it. ;)

rasmasyean

Oct 9, 2011, 04:56 PM

Oh... I just did some reading about the new (relatively) feature in EVE Online, "Planetary Interaction".

It's seems like it can be done on a casual basis. It resembles "Farmville" in a way where you build some structures and every so often you go to your "colonies" and click on things to queue up some resource production. It has some tiers and branches where you can "route" your production chain depending on what you want to make (planet-type dependant widgets)...to give it some variety. Then whenever you want to sell your crap, you find a suitable space station somewhere and haul it there to place in the local market. Or you can put up a "hauling contract" and one of the in-game "logistics guilds" or free-lancers will move your cargo for a fee.

It seems to cater to some relaxing casual "login-and-maintain" type of play...or just something to do in between main activities. Though I imagine you can really get into it and make a lot of money if you maintain some big colonies and search for really valuable minerals. And I'm sure some big alliances find valuable planets in hostile space which makes some expensive craft items and fuels and stuff like that.

Huntn

Oct 9, 2011, 05:41 PM

rasmasyean

Oct 9, 2011, 06:09 PM

Is this all space ships or can you interact with other tunes like in space stations? (I forget)

Not yet. It is rumored that the colonies will be part of the DUST FPS game mechanics. But for now, you only get a top view from space. I think you have to carry an initial structure to the planet and plop it down, and then build some crap around it. Afterward, depending on the skills you trained, you can manage it from some distance away. But to pick up the products, you have to fly a spaceship with a cargo bay there to get it.

Munchyhammer

Oct 14, 2011, 09:19 AM

doh123

Oct 14, 2011, 02:48 PM

Just quit WoW as it wasn't a lasting experience and moved on to City of Heroes, it went free recently so I gave it another go (Tried the two week trial last year). Within a day I had subbed, the superhero concept grabs me and the character creation is the most diverse I've ever seen in ANY game. It's varied pricing options makes it even easier to subscribe in an affordable manner, too.

I didn't know it went free...

I played that game from original beta on for a few years, it was always a great game. If it has a free version now, I might have to check it out again, I haven't played it for like 2 years now.

sinser

Oct 14, 2011, 04:27 PM

I didn't know it went free...

I played that game from original beta on for a few years, it was always a great game. If it has a free version now, I might have to check it out again, I haven't played it for like 2 years now.

Interesting. Downloading the COH installer right now.

rasmasyean

Oct 14, 2011, 07:33 PM

I didn't know it went free...

I played that game from original beta on for a few years, it was always a great game. If it has a free version now, I might have to check it out again, I haven't played it for like 2 years now.

Yet another casualty in the wake of meg-giant WoW...:p

doh123

Oct 14, 2011, 10:44 PM

Yet another casualty in the wake of meg-giant WoW...:p

not me... tried WoW two different times, and barely played a week each time... never could stand that game. I don't think CoH had much competition with WoW.... just too different of games.

I like CO and CoH... in some ways one is better than the other, but I still cannot decide which i like more.

ArthurWellsley

Oct 15, 2011, 09:17 AM

Come onnnnnn Top Gun Online! I'm Iceman! :D

http://worldofplanes.ru/en/

and to the OP if your burnt out of WoW as an interim nice MMO to play try;

http://worldoftanks.eu/?sid=T%3DTWdJGRTgwLAHE7PWNzKGs4yhqb4IzgAR%21P%3DxGQyG1bG6i6czS-eNB4A7Z695yCx02QS3j6xJ8WVZQBtW7wf6s3IPbHqgwwc1Qf2JTphQc30X4fyyJdfp1qj-mAJuTFXycG1TQSzUNplLPqoL5Ly2mlMhLh4Intpfx7U

rasmasyean

Oct 15, 2011, 08:07 PM

not me... tried WoW two different times, and barely played a week each time... never could stand that game. I don't think CoH had much competition with WoW.... just too different of games.

I like CO and CoH... in some ways one is better than the other, but I still cannot decide which i like more.

I'm talking about the "Free MMO's" as a "casualty".

rasmasyean

Oct 16, 2011, 01:48 AM

I found a pretty cool vid of some EVE Online end-game PVE.
It would be equivalent of the "WoW Raid". :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvNwJUlWgno

Huntn

Oct 17, 2011, 07:54 PM

I found a pretty cool vid of some EVE Online end-game PVE.
It would be equivalent of the "WoW Raid". :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvNwJUlWgno

I found it hard to follow although it was visually impressive. I also found This is Eve2 (http://youtu.be/hl6z24Ca_N8) video which was impressive as I imagine my butt being kicked all over the universe. ;)

rasmasyean

Oct 18, 2011, 01:26 AM

I found it hard to follow although it was visually impressive. I also found This is Eve2 (http://youtu.be/hl6z24Ca_N8) video which was impressive as I imagine my butt being kicked all over the universe. ;)

The "This is EVE2" video looks like it was made with the old graphics. Unless the producer turned it down because of weak computer or something.

But yeah, unless you've played a little the interface is a little complicated. Too many tables and windows and crosshairs. But once you get used to it, it's not as cluttered as some WoW add-on interfaces I've seen where your character is surrounding by like 100 boxes and bars. :)

Much of the "difficulty" ppl talk about in EVE is actually in the initial setup of your ships. It takes a lot of knowledge and memory to really understand the mechanics. And you add on top of that the fact that depending on the age of your character, you have "trained" certain time-based "trees", and then you can perform different roles...thus you have to learn that. Like Healer, Tank, DPS, Buff, etc. Which is really needed in end-game. But then you have different approaches like where each ship can heal sort of, while doing moderate DPS. And when grouped together, they all heal the aggroed and adjust DPS accordingly....which works on certain fights.

As for getting butt kicked, in reality, the vast majority of ppl hang out in the "safe part" of the universe. That's where most of the action happens, like commerce and "quests" and grinding. It's my guess that over 50% at least are not at War with another faction and 75% just hang out in the safe areas. Unfortunately, the "contested areas" (the biggest) are not really that crowded and in some areas, you can litterally stay there for hours and no one passes through. But the trick is, whatever loot you get needs to be brought back to the safe area where it's easiest to sell unless you joined a Faction and can use it in their territory. So since many ppl do this, some players try to intercept you at choke points to blow you up and take what doesn't get destroyed...disable your ship and randsom you...disable your ship and tell you to dump your cargo...or just blow you up because they think it's funny without carring about money. ;)

SlickShoes

Oct 18, 2011, 06:28 AM

The "This is EVE2" video looks like it was made with the old graphics. Unless the producer turned it down because of weak computer or something.

But yeah, unless you've played a little the interface is a little complicated. Too many tables and windows and crosshairs. But once you get used to it, it's not as cluttered as some WoW add-on interfaces I've seen where your character is surrounding by like 100 boxes and bars. :)

Much of the "difficulty" ppl talk about in EVE is actually in the initial setup of your ships. It takes a lot of knowledge and memory to really understand the mechanics. And you add on top of that the fact that depending on the age of your character, you have "trained" certain time-based "trees", and then you can perform different roles...thus you have to learn that. Like Healer, Tank, DPS, Buff, etc. Which is really needed in end-game. But then you have different approaches like where each ship can heal sort of, while doing moderate DPS. And when grouped together, they all heal the aggroed and adjust DPS accordingly....which works on certain fights.

As for getting butt kicked, in reality, the vast majority of ppl hang out in the "safe part" of the universe. That's where most of the action happens, like commerce and "quests" and grinding. It's my guess that over 50% at least are not at War with another faction and 75% just hang out in the safe areas. Unfortunately, the "contested areas" (the biggest) are not really that crowded and in some areas, you can litterally stay there for hours and no one passes through. But the trick is, whatever loot you get needs to be brought back to the safe area where it's easiest to sell unless you joined a Faction and can use it in their territory. So since many ppl do this, some players try to intercept you at choke points to blow you up and take what doesn't get destroyed...disable your ship and randsom you...disable your ship and tell you to dump your cargo...or just blow you up because they think it's funny without carring about money. ;)

I tried again recently and still could not get past the "scanning" part of the noobs tutorial, I am placing scanning globe things all over and trying to zero in on a location, I find the first location no problem but the second is impossible, I spent literally hours, I failed miserably. Everything else I tried was fine but I guess if I can't work out how to scan properly I am going to be useless at the full game?

Huntn

Oct 18, 2011, 09:06 AM

To compare my recent MMO experience, the Rift trial was a total bust.

Although I participated in the original LOTRO beta (and dropped it for retail), I'm giving LOTRO (free) a second chance and while I'm in its early stages, it's not doing much for me.

As previously mentioned, I've updated my WoW client which is much improved in that you don't have to install 50 patches and established a free WoW account (free for first 20 levels) linked to my original WoW account. It's very enjoyable and reminiscent to run around the starter zones, especially the Night Elf zone (it's still incredibly atmospheric, just love it) but the starter zones have been somewhat gutted quest wise as you level rapidly. I'm not seeing myself going back to WoW on any kind of a serious basis.

As of right now, there is a possibility I'll jump into SWTOR retail and fiddle with it until Planetside 2 emerges next year. Even Planetside is a repeat for me.

Eve Online is a different sort of animal. The odds are slim I'll venture in. Most likely if I want PVP, it will be Planetside2.

some-dude

Oct 18, 2011, 10:43 AM

Huntn

Oct 18, 2011, 11:00 AM

My first MMO was Guild Wars, and in a lot of ways I found it superior to WOW. I beat that one awhile ago and found the end game content lacking. What was good however was the expansions.... however I've been waiting for GW2 to be release for what seems like forever....

I played EVE for awhile and really liked it. Where EVE fell apart for me was the guild concept. I found it really difficult to find a guild that I was into, and the game isn't all that interesting when played solo. I like that they were trying to make it near 100% player generated missions/content, but that concept only works if you can manage to find the players who are willing to put in that sort of effort to play with.

The issue with WOW is that there's no real storyline to it. Maybe it makes sense to people who've been playing since Vanilla, but for someone like me who only started playing WOW earlier this year the plot is pretty much non-existent or really screwed up. Like, why as a Blood Elf do I have to complete a Forsaken quest arc to level up? Or why does half the world is in some sort of awkward Lich King story line when the Lich King was defeated and yet after a few months of playing there's been almost zero mention of Deathwing?

I liked the way Guild Wars handled instancing. With WOW your character exists in a world that never changes regardless of character actions, whereas Guild Wars has various parallel worlds that you progress through as you complete major plot items. It's nice because a major boss doesn't respawn 30 seconds after you defeat him... in your world he's now dead forever. It gives you a sense of accomplishment that WOW totally lacks.

With WOW I just keep grinding for the sake of grinding. I rarely read quest stories anymore because regardless of what I do it has no real effect on the world around me. I'm hoping that as I approach level 85 and can access some of the end game content that things will start to make more sense. At the moment it seems like a game world with a lot of potential with a story line that's currently broken.

Rant over...

Some interesting points in your post. It is a tradeoff. A static world where the same game experience is guaranteed for every player and you can fight a boss encounter multiple times or a dynamic changing world where boss encounters are one time only. It's complicated. You could see that if a dynamic world changed to an end state based on the most advanced players, that the new players would not the same chance to enjoy the content. And that if all the space is instanced, you'd be locked into experiencing the world with just your group versus a living breathing world with a community of players running about the countryside. :)

You may not realize it, but the appeal of WoW to hard core players are the end game raid instances, where it can take you months to figure out how to take down a boss. That is the advantage of an instanced space. However, it's not my thing, it's too much work and commitment to put into a game. I'd rather have more of a dynamic world, with casual fights, but could still include instanced boss encounters like Wow does (not the dynamic world, but the instanced spaces) for eash, moderate, and hardcore players. Wow even has instances that scale depending on the size of the group and difficulty level you desire. This is impressive.

I specifically disliked Guild Wars because all of the questing space was instanced. I like the ability to run into other players out in the world, which you could not in GWs. IMO, that is a hit on a realistic immersive world.

But what were you saying about a parallel world where when you killed the boss he was dead forever? Does that mean in GWs when you enter the instance which is the entire world or a section of the world, that if you had killed a boss, but went back to help a friend, the boss would still be dead? If I'm understanding your correctly, in essence you could only do a boss encounter once and only include players in your party who had not all ready defeated the boss?

some-dude

Oct 18, 2011, 11:32 AM

But what were you saying about a parallel world where when you killed the boss he was dead forever? Does that mean in GWs when you enter the instance which is the entire world or a section of the world, that if you had killed a boss, but went back to help a friend, the boss would still be dead? If I'm understanding your correctly, in essence you could only do a boss encounter once and only include players in your party who had not all ready defeated the boss?

You're asking me to dig pretty far back in my memory, so I may not be 100% accurate in this.

What I mean by parallel worlds is that once you trigger certain plot events you now exist in a slightly different version of the world than other characters. An example of this is in Nightfall. Once the Nightfall event is triggered the entire world changes into one in perpetual night. So far as I can figure out you still exist in the same world as other toons, but in the world they see on their display it is still daytime while on your display it is one of perpetual night. It gives a sense of purpose as the nightfall is a punishment for your failure in an earlier quest.

To answer your other question, so far as I know you can't "go back" and help someone defeat a boss that you've already defeated. In your world that boss is dead and the plot has progressed, so you can only link up with characters that are on the same leg of the plot line you are on. In this regard the world isn't as open-ended as the world in WOW... but WOW achieves it's open-ended-ness by simply never changing regardless of what you do.

In a way it makes GW's gameplay more like the Death Knight starting plot. As you progress through the Scarlet Enclave plot line Havenshire is burned, the Scarlet Dawn is at first pushed back and then defeated, and although bosses do respawn within the instance once you progress onto the next leg of the plot those bosses disappear. I really liked the DK starting plot, but once it was completed I became just another Horde Blood Elf and was directed to the Outlands to go complete some clumsy quests where I'm not sure if the Alliance is my friend or enemy, the outcome of earlier quests have no bearing on later quests and I'm fighting remnants of the Burning Legion in a world that's totally oblivious to the return of Deathwing...

I do agree with you that I like the open, non-instanced concept of WOW... but it would be cool if they could find a middle ground where your actions seemed like they actually produced results. There are cases where this does happen as part of a major story line within a zone... but once the story line is complete the zone reverts back to the way it was before you started the story line.

That said, I'll continue to grind for the end game raiding. I'm really hoping it's all it's cracked up to be.

Huntn

Oct 18, 2011, 12:05 PM

That said, I'll continue to grind for the end game raiding. I'm really hoping it's all it's cracked up to be.

Thanks for the response! The Death Knight starter area is the perfect example of WoW pushing the story through instanced (phased) space.

That will be up to your motivation and perception of "fun". ;) I think the quest chains are good if you like paying attention to the story or even if you don't. The last time I played WoW was during the WotLK expansion. I liked the 5 player dungeons. You could occupy much of your time repeating them and they were challenging enough for me, although some kicked my arse. But with them as with the much more difficult 25-40 player raids, how many times can you repeat them and remain engaged? Every game I've played, the longest I've lasted is about 12-18 months before I hit the wall. The longest I've played any game was WoW, 18 months the first time, 12 months the second time.

Liquorpuki

Oct 18, 2011, 12:11 PM

What I mean by parallel worlds is that once you trigger certain plot events you now exist in a slightly different version of the world than other characters. An example of this is in Nightfall. Once the Nightfall event is triggered the entire world changes into one in perpetual night. So far as I can figure out you still exist in the same world as other toons, but in the world they see on their display it is still daytime while on your display it is one of perpetual night. It gives a sense of purpose as the nightfall is a punishment for your failure in an earlier quest.

.....

In a way it makes GW's gameplay more like the Death Knight starting plot. As you progress through the Scarlet Enclave plot line Havenshire is burned, the Scarlet Dawn is at first pushed back and then defeated, and although bosses do respawn within the instance once you progress onto the next leg of the plot those bosses disappear. I really liked the DK starting plot, but once it was completed I became just another Horde Blood Elf and was directed to the Outlands to go complete some clumsy quests where I'm not sure if the Alliance is my friend or enemy, the outcome of earlier quests have no bearing on later quests and I'm fighting remnants of the Burning Legion in a world that's totally oblivious to the return of Deathwing...

In WOW they call this "phasing." There's more of this at the higher levels but it's limited.

Back when I played AO, the developers would actually schedule in-game events to push the plot. The in-game events would have developers logging into the game as NPC's and acting out a script. The first one I saw had some type of procession through a city for some major NPC I can't remember. During the procession, some random player shot and killed the NPC, which wasn't supposed to happen. The devs ended up incorporating this into the plot and having the police or whatever arrest the player. Pretty funny

some-dude

Oct 18, 2011, 12:44 PM

Thanks for the response!

That will be up to your motivation and perception of "fun". ;) I think the quest chains are good if you like paying attention to the story or even if you don't. The last time I played WoW was during the WotLK expansion. I liked the 5 player dungeons. You could occupy much of your time repeating them and they were challenging enough for me, although some kicked my arse. But with them as with the much more difficult 25-40 player raids, how many times can you repeat them and remain engaged? Every game I've played, the longest I've lasted is about 12-18 months before I hit the wall. The longest I've played any game was WoW, 18 months the first time, 12 months the second time.

Yeah, GW didn't have that raiding concept. In some ways you could consider every instance a raid, although they topped out at 8 man and the game's NPC party mechanic destroyed the social aspect as you could solo every instance with your own party of NPCs rather than having to team up with other players.

WOW has it's own low level flaw in that it encourages characters to go solo to complete quests faster.... a team of two on a gathering quest will have to gather/kill twice as much before they can complete the quest than if they did it on their own.

Both games have their good and bad points... Kind of makes me wish they would team up and learn from each other.

rasmasyean

Oct 18, 2011, 12:50 PM

I tried again recently and still could not get past the "scanning" part of the noobs tutorial, I am placing scanning globe things all over and trying to zero in on a location, I find the first location no problem but the second is impossible, I spent literally hours, I failed miserably. Everything else I tried was fine but I guess if I can't work out how to scan properly I am going to be useless at the full game?

You must've chose some profession tutorial like "Exploration" or something. It was a while ago when I did the tutorial, but I think I did industry and it was easy enough to make stuff and sell and mining was really simple...but boring as hell...which I did mostly AFK. :P And I also ventured into missions to do some fighting, which was hard...until someone helped me with some tips.

Anyways, to answer your question, I actually didn't do any of that scanning stuff until way later when I quit and came back to the game to play a little bit for some "expansion" if I remeber. But it was really weird at first, but there's a youtube tutorial that prolly describes it better than in-game stuff. I didn't know what I was doing either and brought some ppl into a wormhole some dude had coordinates for and we couldn't get out because I didn't have the right scanning items. LOL That is...until some dude who lived in the wormhole scanned US down and tried to kill us, but then felt sorry for us because we were such noobs and gave us some good probes and website on how to use them. So then I fine my first exit wormhole in about an hour or two...but it's to deep Russian territory (who were ruthless). And I was trying find a safer wormhole for a while, but then my friends got frustrated and decided to exit the wormhole. Well, they got blow up trying to get back...but that was one of the funnest sessions I had. :P I mean, now I can find most things in a couple of minutes but it took some practice. And you need to use the shift and alt keys to make it easier.

But so, nah...you don't really need to explore in the beginning unless you really want that profession. But if you want to find the most expensive items later, you will need to find (or have a teammate find) these spawn bases which have escalating fights to a boss. And if you want to go into wormholes, you need it too, unless you're with someone who has it...and doesn't get killed. You also need to be real good at it if you're into scouting out other ppl to try to kill them. Unless you're freind does that role once again. But one popular thing some noobs do is scan down dead unlooted mobs that questers leave behind ( I think it has a hour or something) and make some easy money. In populated solar systems, you might get "free loot" where some ppl don't bother looting or do this thing called "salvaging" where you use an item to extract craft mats from destroyed ships. And this can be loot from more valuable ships that you would not be able to kill yet.

Huntn

Oct 18, 2011, 01:05 PM

Yeah, GW didn't have that raiding concept. In some ways you could consider every instance a raid, although they topped out at 8 man and the game's NPC party mechanic destroyed the social aspect as you could solo every instance with your own party of NPCs rather than having to team up with other players.

WOW has it's own low level flaw in that it encourages characters to go solo to complete quests faster.... a team of two on a gathering quest will have to gather/kill twice as much before they can complete the quest than if they did it on their own.

Both games have their good and bad points... Kind of makes me wish they would team up and learn from each other.

As I recall, for WoW kill and/or collect quests, you get credit for a joint kill, but you do have to gather your own allotment of items.

SlickShoes

Oct 18, 2011, 02:06 PM

You must've chose some profession tutorial like "Exploration" or something. It was a while ago when I did the tutorial, but I think I did industry and it was easy enough to make stuff and sell and mining was really simple...but boring as hell...which I did mostly AFK. :P And I also ventured into missions to do some fighting, which was hard...until someone helped me with some tips.

Anyways, to answer your question, I actually didn't do any of that scanning stuff until way later when I quit and came back to the game to play a little bit for some "expansion" if I remeber. But it was really weird at first, but there's a youtube tutorial that prolly describes it better than in-game stuff. I didn't know what I was doing either and brought some ppl into a wormhole some dude had coordinates for and we couldn't get out because I didn't have the right scanning items. LOL That is...until some dude who lived in the wormhole scanned US down and tried to kill us, but then felt sorry for us because we were such noobs and gave us some good probes and website on how to use them. So then I fine my first exit wormhole in about an hour or two...but it's to deep Russian territory (who were ruthless). And I was trying find a safer wormhole for a while, but then my friends got frustrated and decided to exit the wormhole. Well, they got blow up trying to get back...but that was one of the funnest sessions I had. :P I mean, now I can find most things in a couple of minutes but it took some practice. And you need to use the shift and alt keys to make it easier.

But so, nah...you don't really need to explore in the beginning unless you really want that profession. But if you want to find the most expensive items later, you will need to find (or have a teammate find) these spawn bases which have escalating fights to a boss. And if you want to go into wormholes, you need it too, unless you're with someone who has it...and doesn't get killed. You also need to be real good at it if you're into scouting out other ppl to try to kill them. Unless you're freind does that role once again. But one popular thing some noobs do is scan down dead unlooted mobs that questers leave behind ( I think it has a hour or something) and make some easy money. In populated solar systems, you might get "free loot" where some ppl don't bother looting or do this thing called "salvaging" where you use an item to extract craft mats from destroyed ships. And this can be loot from more valuable ships that you would not be able to kill yet.

Sad thing was I was following a youtube video exact, they were finding it and I wasn't it was so frustrating.

I did try to do ALL the tutorials for every profession because I wanted to do all of them, I thought that you had to have a grasp of everything or you were gimped.

It seems it was maybe something I should have just bypassed and come back to later when I had mastered a few other things.

If star wars doesn't pan out for me I will move over to EVE but its too close to release of that now to jump into EVE for me!

some-dude

Oct 18, 2011, 03:56 PM

As I recall, for WoW kill and/or collect quests, you get credit for a joint kill, but you do have to gather your own allotment of items.

You're right, but a lot of times you're on parallel quests to the same area, so while you're trying to kill 8 mobs for one NPC you're also trying to collect 5 items for another. In the end it takes longer than it would've taken to do it solo.

The real advantage to grouping is being able to challenge harder objectives, but the difficulty at lower levels are so well scaled to soloing there's no real incentive to do it. I've done it a few times to defeat an elite, but as soon as it's dead the group disbands and everyone goes their own ways.

I guess that's the catch... make it too hard and noobs won't play long enough to develop into hardcore players... make it too easy and hardcore players will find it boring. I feel a little stuck... I'm past the noob content, but not advanced enough to discover the harder content (that I really hope is coming).

androiphone

Oct 18, 2011, 04:12 PM

well Star Trek Online is becoming free2play (http://www.startrekonline.com/f2p) very soon so I will be playing that, I don't play any MMOs (more an FPS person), but I played the ST:O beta and enjoyed it so am going to start playing it again when it comes f2p.

rasmasyean

Oct 18, 2011, 06:21 PM

Sad thing was I was following a youtube video exact, they were finding it and I wasn't it was so frustrating.

I did try to do ALL the tutorials for every profession because I wanted to do all of them, I thought that you had to have a grasp of everything or you were gimped.

It seems it was maybe something I should have just bypassed and come back to later when I had mastered a few other things.

If star wars doesn't pan out for me I will move over to EVE but its too close to release of that now to jump into EVE for me!

Did you try the overlap 5 probes (in plus formation) one like this? When you get more skills, you can use 8, but many ppl say they just use 7 in octahedral formation, with one in the center. Though I used to just use 4 (in square formation) and it was fine for most stuff.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=heYfTA00Idg

I did a search and thought you might have hit an older video. They changed it some couple of years ago. Or they added new content that requires many more probes or something, i dunno. It's supposed to be that overlapping radius increase the strength or some crap like that. I never figured out the "science" from the scifi aspect of it.