Tell me about MMORPG's...

Cafe Society
41

I find EVE Online to be very nice for limited playtime. There’s no grinding whatsoever. Character advancement is in the form of skill training that takes place in realtime, even when you’re not logged in. Well, perhaps I should amend the no grinding whatsoever a bit, because obtaining ISK (cash) can be a bit of a grind if your preferred in-game activities require funding.

It does take forever and a day for characters to develop. This isn’t quite as critical as it might be, since even complete noobs can play with and even successfully compete against characters who’ve been around since the game was introduced. No, the noob won’t be successful in a 1v1 match with a veteran, but he can play an important role in a group setting after only a few days.

Where the game shines is in the complete freedom players have to drive the story in much of the universe. Beyond the space ruled by the NPC factions, in the vast reaches of “0.0” space, there are no rules beyond what the players make for themselves. Huge alliances of player corporations make war with one another. Empires are built, civil wars break out, former allies turn knives into the back of their erstwhile friends, anonymous parties pay organized mercenary groups to disrupt the logistics of their enemies. All punctuated by massive fleet battles between hundreds of ships.

It’s also got a really kick-ass player-driven market. In some ways it’s even more an economic sim than a space combat game. It’s near-complete laissez-faire capitalism, and if you passed Econ 101, you can exploit your understanding of how free markets work and make a fortune (if you’re so inclined…naturally becoming an economic magnate doesn’t involve blowing shit up nearly as much as becoming a front-line combat pilot, which depending on your tastes may be an important factor).

42

Nothing much to add that hasn’t already been said, but if you want casual, I think CoH fits the bill. Nothing to do with me being on it, of course. =^^=

I have 2 free trials still, so if you want to try it out, pop me an email.
One thing that hasn’t been said here is the community. The reason I’ve stayed with CoH is because of the community. If you really want to get into the MMO part of the game, you have to connect with the community, and the best way is through the official boards. I play on Virtue, which, I have to say, has the best community that I’ve seen, ever. It’s like a tiny slice of MPSIMS, MMO style.

Have a look!

But all I can say is, whichever one you choose eventually, try them all out first. Most MMOs have free trials floating around, and I’m sure we can hook you up with a free trial if you need one.

43

[size=1]Um, how was the book? I started it on a vacation when I needed something mindless to read and the vacation ended before the book did (I’m about halfway through). And I haven’t picked it up since, and is it worth having along on my next vacation so I can finish it or should I just donate it now?Oh, and the game that she based it on wasn’t anywhere near as interesting as it was described in the first 5 or so pages (when the book was somewhat set in reality), but a more boring version of the general idea.

44

You might want to take another crack at it when Issue 7 comes out (which should be Soon[sup]TM[/sup]). The Mayhem Missions offer a pretty villainous feel, but the real kickers are in the high-level arcs (although Peter Themari’s missions can be pretty nasty–“rescue” citizens…then turn them over to the Vahz). I haven’t had a chance to play many of them, but one of the early testers of the level 40+ content mentioned a mission that made her cry and refuse to complete it.

45

One of the things that I think was only touched upon in CoH/CoV is the character creation. I played Star Wars: Galxies when it first came out (do not buy this piece of crap!), and WoW as well, and CoH’s character creation blows them both out of the water. Not even a fair contest.

FOr exapmple, in WoW, you have about a dozen or so races to choose from, and six or seven classes. Though not all races can do all classes, so I don’t know the total combinatiobs possbile.

In CoH you have five orgins, and then five archetypes. The origins are essentially meaningless, as they only effect certain items (called enhancements) you can use later in the game. They are more for yourseld to give a sense of what your character is. Is he a mutant, magic-user, robot, a etc…But each archetype has five or six power subsets. So right ther you have 25-30 choices of how to start you character, ignoring the origin (which ups it to 125-150, but as said, they are essentially just for roleplaying purposes.)

But the REAL kicker is how to make your character look. To me, it seemed the WoW had about a dozen options each for face, hair, and clothes. And that was it, really. You chose the face, the hair (and any facial hair), and clothes, and color of each. The clothes were (IIRC) a “set.” Which is to say, a set of robes, or a tunic and pantaloons. CoH, in contrast, has so many options it’s unreal.

There are three “main” sections, head, bosy, and legs, each with it’s own set of subsections. Head types include things like normal face, face with mask, face with half mask, helmets, robot heads, monster heads, heads with hats, etc. The there are options like what kind of hat, what the hair looks like, what type of glasses you might want, facial hair, accesories like large ears, scars, antennas, visors, cigars, etc…Most of those have their own colors as well (most items have a primary and secondary color that can be set independantly of any other item.)

The chest and legs have an equal number of bewildering options. There is no limit to what you can make. It’s the best part of the game, which is the reason I had dozens of alts when I played. :stuck_out_tongue: