What are the good MMORPGs out there?
I’m getting the nagging need to throw myself into another pointless MMORPG again these days.
I’ve played SWG (both pre and post Combat Upgrade) and The Matrix Online, and what really bothered me about both of them (and what took away the fun factor for me) is that ultimately, they’re just hour-burning repetitive level-grinders.
You grind and grind and grind, and finally ding, get some fancy new toy ability, play with it for a day or so, then hit the ol’ treadmill once again…
I’m looking at WoW (60,000 players at a time can’t all be wrong!) and D&D Online (I like that there are only 10 levels) at this point…
What I’m NOT looking for is another repetitive level-grinder.
A 14 day trial would be worth bonus points, too.
Thoughts?
If you don’t mind the opinion of a total stranger, I’ll pipe up with my thoughts.
WoW is a decent game if you can get past the frustration of the Bit Torrent downloader and the server queues. I played it for about six months before my husband and I hit the level cap and got horribly bored. You level very quickly in the game and it doesn’t really feel like just grinding. On the down side, you level very quickly in the game. So quickly that even as a very casual player I managed to hit the level cap in six months. But if you don’t mind making alts, it’s a fun game. There’s a lot of humor used, which I enjoyed. And you can solo easily if that’s your preference.
Hubby and I are currently playing DDO. This is definitely not a game you can solo in. And honestly, if you’re a serious power gamer, you’re probably not going to enjoy it much. But I adore it. It’s almost all dungeon crawls (sort of a duh kind of thing to point out, but I’ve had people comment on it, so…) and you get your experience from completing quests rather than from individual mob kills. Well, for the most part, anyway. Occasionally you’ll get extra points for defeating a boss mob or something similar. But you don’t get points for every mob you kill. Grouping has been easy so far, and I’ve not found the need for the “perfect group” in order to complete a quest.
We also played EQII for a while and it was okay, but it just didn’t have the magic that the original EQ had. I will say that the character creation is second to none with all the choices you’re given. I probably had as much fun making my characters as I did actually playing them. Again, soloing is possible although you’ll miss a lot of quests if you don’t ever group. And the game world is so big that getting groups can sometimes be an issue with the population so spread out.
Good luck with your search! I hope you find one you enjoy. Life is just better with play time. *grin*
Actually, you’re not a total stranger…you’re a FOAF… 🙂
Me?
I’m *SO* not a power gamer…
I’ve been playing World War II Online (http://www.battlegroundeurope.com) off and on for going on 5 years now… One of the things I really like about it is that there ARE NO LEVELS… Yes, you can gain rank over time, and increased rank allows access to the latest and greatest equipment when it becomes available, but when you’re best off playing with an MG-42 machinegun (because you can’t shoot worth a crap, and need to make up for a lack of accuracy with sheer volume of fire to be able to hit anything), it really doesn’t matter if you could spawn a lowly Panzer II tank, or a King Tiger instead – you’d die pretty quickly in either one of them, so you stick with your trusty MG and the Shoe Leather Express…
So, a game with few levels and no (or minimal) grind to get the “Next Greatest Thing” works for me…
As for D&D Online requiring grouping…as I said below to Jess, “What Pen and Paper D&D Adventure didn’t start with “You and your party are in the local Tavern when…”
🙂
As for D&D Online requiring grouping…as I said below to Jess, “What Pen and Paper D&D Adventure didn’t start with “You and your party are in the local Tavern when…”
Exactly! And it’s really not at all hard to find a group. Well, it hasn’t been for me anyway, although that may be because I’m absolutely obsessed with playing healers. *grin*
On the other hand, my husband and I have yet to get a character higher than forty… but we have three or four or sixteen characters that we play. We LOVE WOW, and find it much more fun than back when we played EQ, and we played that for over four years.
I have not played DDO, but here is a review. To me, it sounds like I’ll just get together a group and actually play D&D, where there’s roleplaying, not just dungeon crawling.
I used to play City of Heroes, but it became a bit repetitive. Since it’s been out for a lot longer now, I suspect that the number of zones and quests in the game have changed that a lot. One of the big problems if you don’t have a ton of time is that certain archetypes (classes) don’t have much choice but grouping after a while. That didn’t bother me much, since it was always my hubby and I playing, but it could be a problem for some.
Guild Wars is nice… a bit different than your typical mmo… (no monthly fee for one)
http://www.guildwars.com
WoW is ok, till you realize you’re playing around a bunch of 12 year old spoiled bliz-kids. The immaturity level of that game is amazing. But it’s easy. No level grind, quests that take you thru to 60, and a high end that’s amusing for about a month.
Lineage is really good, but it has that level grind. I don’t mind grinding so much, so i’m enjoying it (tho the grind in SWG blew badly. I hated the grind there). There’s lot of underlying parts of Lineage that make it interesting as well. A good story, a nice political backdrop, political pvp, rather than zomggangtasticzergrush! like in WoW, interactive economy. Like this loads more than WoW or EQ.
DDO i’ve heard mixed reactions about. While no level grind at all, you can’t solo at all, you are forced to group. After a short time, people are getting bored and burning out on it. I haven’t tried it yet, so i don’t know, honestly.
Over-all, i suggest Lineage.
Well, yeah, but what Pen and Paper D&D adventure ever started with anything but, “You and your party are sitting in the local tavern…”
🙂
Dunno, no one would ever play it with me 🙁
asshats
Most of the RPGA games I’m in start off with an invitation to take a job with someone.
I did play in a great campaign that started off with all of us playing epic characters, who screwed up. The next week, we were all nobody villagers listening to the legend of them screwing up, and those were our new characters.
I’ve only played WoW and City of Heroes/Villains (Both). It is an inescapable inevitability that level grinding is a part of any level based system (with only 10 levels I can imagine how long it takes to level in D&D Online).
WoW is nice in that you don’t zone throughout each of the continents. It is one large continuous map. That makes the immersion into the world more complete. However, for most classes pre-20 means VERY LONG runs to get anywhere. Most classes get some form of travel power at 20 (might be 30). That mitigates that painful running *slightly*. That is the only downside to WoW really.
There are other pitfalls. Most classes, even though they are capable of more than one function, will get typed into a role. Clerics = healer. Druid = healer. Fighter = Tank. And so on. It doesn’t matter that a build that does other things can be made (Druids, in fact, are excellent at healing, Damage per second, and tanking with their various different forms) and clerics have some very good unresisted attacks that have high damage. Most classes can do more than one thing very well.
City of Heroes/Villains the lines between the various classes (called Archetypes or AT for short) are more distinct. In CoH there are in fact ATs called Tanks, Blasters, Scrappers, Defenders, and Controllers. Each is more or less self-explanatory. Tanks take the brunt of the opposing firepower and have powersets designed for this. Blasters are offensive (mostly ranged) damage dealers. Scrappers are almost exclusively melee and do very high damage with critical chances. Defenders have various buffs and debuffs to aid the team (including a healer class if that’s your thing). Controllers use various controls to hold, immobilize, confuse, sleep, fear, or otherwise render opponent incapacitated.
In City of Villains the lines between the various ATs are slightly more blurred. There are Brutes, Stalkers, Dominators, Corruptors, and Masterminds. Brutes are the scrapper analog except that the long a fight goes the more damage they do (there is a bar that goes up as you attack and are attacked). Stalkers are one hit wonders – they have a first level power that makes them all but invisible. While “hidden” in this manner they have another power available later that allows them to delivery at hugely power assassin strike. In PvP this will one-shot most players except tanks, scrappers, brutes, and some defenders. Dominators are teh CoV analog to Controllers except that their secondary powerset is damage based instead of buff/debuff based. Corruptors are the blasters of CoV with primarily ranged high damage attacks but they have a buff/debuff secondary similar to Defenders in CoH. MasterMinds have various henchmen that they can summon and resummon each with different powers.
Both games are worth a look and it will really break down to which type of environment (fantasy or modern/sci-fi) you want to play in.
“There are other pitfalls. Most classes, even though they are capable of more than one function, will get typed into a role. Clerics = healer. Druid = healer. Fighter = Tank. And so on. It doesn’t matter that a build that does other things can be made (Druids, in fact, are excellent at healing, Damage per second, and tanking with their various different forms) and clerics have some very good unresisted attacks that have high damage. Most classes can do more than one thing very well.”
This is more after reaching raiding levels, tho. Up till then, you’re pretty much free to play however you wish.
Talashandy replied with a good point (though, interestingly the reply isn’t showing).
The polarizing effect (more so in WoW) of classes being typed into one role really doesn’t come into play until later levels (45+ and mostly in the 50+ range). This is where you’ll encounter lots of raid style dungeons where several full teams will be working over one large, very powerful opponent opponent. If your goal is to go raid eventually I suggest not making a build that goes outside of your class’s specialty.
Unless fundamentally redefining your play style is fun for you after 45+ levels of playing in one fashion. That may sound sarcastic but it isn’t intended to be. I have rebuilt characters in CoH/V after 40 levels and fundamentally redefined their role. It can, in fact be fun. However, if you tend to become accustomed to one play style and get very good at it I suggest finding the class that already fits that style the most so you’ll have minimal pain when you get to the raid levels.
This is slightly less a problem in CoH/V since there is a fair amount of overlap between classes (enough so that you don’t need a defender in CoH for healing).