I have no idea what the current status of the game is now (I think it went free-to-play a while back), but back when I did extensive beta testing a couple years ago, Pirates of the Burning Sea had the best crafting/manufacturing system I’d ever seen.
Honestly, if you’re into crafting as the major factor, I would avoid any of the current generation of PvE oriented games. At this point, they are pretty much all race-to-max-level (where quest rewards are enough to keep you going, so nobody buys low-level stuff) then gear-grind through instances and raids.
Consumables can be the exception, but any sort of armor/weaponsmithing type stuff might have one or two items that sell with any regularity, and pretty much anyone with that tradeskill knows it, killing the profit.
DDO – Dungeons & Dragons Online – is by the same people who make Lord of the Rings Online, is also free to play, and I’m loving the heck out of it. There is plenty of crafting and economy-manipulating to be done. For me it also has the added bonus of the D&D nostalgia factor, which I haven’t played since the 80s.
Thanks for all the advice guys. Looks like the best MMOs are ones I have already played Against my better judgement, I have created a free World of Warcraft account that goes up to level 20. Once I hit that, we’ll see where the road takes me.
I am making an Orc Warlock on a PvP server, as that’s what I used to play. Was in one of the top raiding guilds on the server back before Burning Crusade came out, and miss the controlled chaos and quick reflexes of playing a crowd control character. What sever do Dopers play on?
Yes, I play Second Life, and from Day One they were free to play, and what’s more they dont sell things directly to you … they let players build and sell things to one another, and they took on the role of the bank. You buy your in game money from them. Ka-ching! (To be fair, players who want to set up their own bit of virtual world in Second Life have to “buy” land from them, and it’s pretty steep … about $300 USD a month. I’m AMAZED at all the people who do this.)
Even though there are TONS of freebies to be hand on Second Life, every last sim has a mall attached to it, filled with shops if it’s a popular sim. Some sims are nothing BUT malls. Like real malls, they mostly sell clothing. I think Second Life may have the highest percentage of female players of any game there is, based on the malls.
I have to second (third?) EVE. I’m just getting back to it after a year and a half (and a visit to Age of Conan, LOTRO, DDO, and a few so bad they weren’t worth remembering) off. I’m also bumping this thread to call attention to the one I started.