So I’ve found myself with more free time lately and was thinking about getting into an MMO (again) to become my new time sink.
I’ve gone in and out of various MMOs over the years; original everquest (played for a while but never really got into end game content), WoW (in and out at various times but had a raiding hunter), FFXIV (both the original sadistic version and ARR but never reached end game content either time), and probably a few others that I spent very little time playing.
So as I said, I was looking to get back into one of these time vacuums and was looking for any recommendations from people who are playing any of the numerous MMOs that are out there. Just a couple points that might hopefully help in people pointing me towards something that may interest me:
I’m not looking to get back into WoW. Not sure why I feel that way but I do.
Assuming I can still dig up my previous character, if FFXIV is still an option. Having played it a few times over the years I’m familiar with it but if anything has changed in the last year or so I’m all ears.
I’m not really a huge PvP’er but it’s not a dealbreaker. I wasn’t a fan of Guild Wars and EVE doesn’t really interest me either.
So if anyone has any suggestions on ones worth looking into, I’d appreciate it. Thanks in advance!
I was looking at that but the graphics kind of turn me off to it.
A couple additional pieces of info I realized I should have included:
Free or Subscription based is fine. I don’t mind spending money for a monthly sub if needed. To be honest, a lot of the time I feel like the fee-based ones are a little better in the sense that they keep more of the riff-raff out. Don’t get me wrong, games like WoW and FFXIV are going to have those kind of players regardless but I feel like the monthly fee keeps the numbers lower.
Graphics are important to me. The laptop I have can run pretty much anything out there (albeit not necessarily the most recent games at max settings) so that’s not really an issue. Also, I’m open to suggestions for PC, XBOX ONE, PS4, and Wii U although I’m sure most, if not all, will be for PC.
My current MMO of choice is The Secret World. It’s buy-to-play, with a subscription option for various perks. DLC (Issues) are bought from the game store as they come out, but everything up to Issue 15 (the latest one) comes with the complete edition of the game. There’s a free trial available.
Its setting is a version of the modern world in which “Everything is true”, i.e., all the conspiracy theories, urban legends, and myths have at least some element of truth to them. Murderous cults, schools of magic, zombies, vampires, fairies, Lovecraftian horrors–they’re all out there. There really are secret societies vying for control of the world…and you work for one of them. You play as an agent of the Illuminati, the Templars, or the Dragon.
Lord of the Rings online is a little on the old side, but still going strong, and still has a fairly unique feel and community relative to a lot of other games. It’s also an apple that didn’t fall TOO far from the WoW tree, so if you’re comfy with WoW mechanics but don’t want WoW, it’s a strong choice.
I followed this a little bit sometime while it was still in development but then it fell off my radar. It definitely looks to be interesting - is there any current or past MMO that you would compare it to or is it kind of a one of a kind mmo? I might have to look into this a little further.
I looked into Lord of the Ring but it didn’t really spark an interest (although I am unsure why).
Thanks all for the suggestions and replies. I definitely appreciate it.
Elder Scrolls Online has been steadily improving since launch, and is a pretty good game now. It always had the Elder scrolls universe to build a good story line from, and has pretty much figured out the MMO mechanics by now. They just released a big update yesterday with housing, and last week announced an expansion chapter back to Morrowind for June. It is actively developed heavily, rather than in the “hanging on to milk more money” stage of life that many of the older MMOs feel like to me.
I play Planetside 2 regularly. It’s all PvP, but it’s done really well: several MMO-sized open worlds, faction-based warfare based on capturing bases, easy to find teams, quick to get to fights, flat power curve so higher level players can’t dominate, real money buys flexibility in character builds but no advantages in a fight. It’s free to play. Spending real money let’s you improve your character faster but not really needed.
I also like Blade and Soul. It’s beautiful. No, it’s really beautiful. Combat is very fluid martial arts and takes player skill to do well. There’s plenty of both PvE and PvP. The PvP is boring and easy to avoid or engage in as you feel (it’s costume-based). It’s free to play; money gets you costumes and lots of conveniences. You’ll need/want to spend some amount of money if you decide to play for long. (Fair warning: it’s by the company that killed City of Heroes.)
I can recommend The Secret World. I played for a while, but it got too creepy for me. Even mine own character creeped me out.
And not an MMO, but I play The Sims (mostly 4, but 3 is excellent) a lot, too. It satisfies some of the same “play a character in a world with advancement” gamespace as MMOs do for me. And also Crusader Kings 2, for that matter.
Is Elite Dangerous prone to the newbie-ganking that Eve Online is reputed to be rife with?
Is there any goddamned game out there that comes close to CoX? I am finally pretty bored playing through Borderlands repeatedly and could use a shot in the old super-arm.
If you’re into the Star Wars thing, the Old Republic MMO might be right up your alley. It probably feels closer to a single player RPG than any other MMO I’ve played. The graphics were good as I recall, and I had a lot of fun murdering anything that looked at me funny with force lightning. I think it’s gone F2P since I tried it out, so things might have changed.
No shit, where has this been hiding? I gather it’s primarily a Euro game and player base, but this is almost a clone of CoX in so many ways I can’t believe no one here has mentioned it.
The website is a little cranky, and has some kind of SSL certificate problem, but I’m thinking it might be worth a free trial look and my $30. It’s kind of hard to find out how much it costs to (1) buy (2) keep playing (3) upgrade, as that bad certificate blocks most access to the paywall.
It can be but (AFAIK) the worst gankers have gone back to EVE. Elite also has the option of playing in private groups or playing solo, both of which use the same servers as open play.
One private group, “Mobius”, became so popular that the developers had to split it in two so it wouldn’t overwhelm the coding used to establish its part of the servers. The original Mobius is now primarily for the Eastern Hemisphere with “Mobius PVE” for the Western. Most, if not all, Dopers can be found in one of the Mobius groups. Mobius also has a presence on Facebook and Elite utility site inara.cz; there is no requirement to join either but it’s nice to communicate with other players on Facebook.
Champions Online is probably what you’re after but I haven’t played that in a long time.
I play SWTOR quite a lot. It’s still subscription-based, but there is a F2P option (though going F2P does make it harder to access certain game functions and content). Visually, I love it, and there is a ton of full animation (cut scenes) and fully-voiced story content.
Particularly over the past year-plus, the two most recent expansions for the game have felt very single-player oriented (friends of mine who play Mass Effect – one of Bioware’s other big titles – say that it has reminded them of that game, a lot).
A lot of my fellow SWTOR players are pretty dissatisfied with recent changes to the game (particularly gearing), and the general lack of new group content over the past two years. The consensus among players is that Bioware isn’t putting many resources behind the game any more, and that, while it may still be around for a while longer, new content is going to be limited going forward.
Eh, no worries. I like it because it’s a pretty decent adaptation of Middle Earth to the MMO format, and because it has an unusually polite, pleasant community. It certainly doesn’t break a lot of new ground or anything.
Actually, it came out around the time the CoX servers were closing so it had a big migrant CoX community when it launched. People who didn’t want medieval fantasy went to SW as a “contemporary” MMORPG plus all the power mixing and matching was attractive to CoX players even if the milieu wasn’t spandex.
It’s too bad this thread came up now since the game was just on sale a week or so ago. It goes on sale pretty regularly so, if you want to play the trial now and then wait for a sale to buy it, you probably won’t be waiting too long. Plus you can get one of the bundle (complete/ultimate) editions.
theres DC universe if you want the super hero thing and its got an off the wall premise… theres also tera and rift…and if you can get past the 2001 graphics anarchy online still lives
in fact the makers of rift have about 5 or 6 games now and so does perfect world they have the star trek online …
Also try my.com but if you go to any place I mentioned they have no problem showing you their entire line up
In Blade and Soul, you put on one costume, you’re on one open-world PvP faction. Put on the opposite costume, you’re on the other. There’s multiple pairs of opposing factions, so there’s always a fight to be had somewhere. But the fighting is too meaningless to be fun for me (not that different than WoW).
No, there is not. The best you can do is find a game that has a similar aspect or two to CoH.
I may give it a try again. My biggest gripe was there was too much emphasis on players with a max-level character and little for players without. And all my character names got randomized by the server merges. And I could not find a pair of decent-looking pants for my Jedi Consular.
The best you can do is find a game that has a similar aspect or two to CoH.