I am considering buying this game. But before I spend $50 bucks on it, I want to hear people's opinions about it first. I just quit Star Wars Galaxies (That game is crap now, too many Jedai), and don't want to spend $100-200 on RAM to play EverQuest II. Any suggestions on which MMORPG "crack" I should buy?

World of Warcraft is definatly the one to get if you like questing, and high end raid instances with big fights against giant monsters and the like.

Guild Wars is more for those who want to play alone-ish, as nearly every place is instanced.

World of Warcraft has a very nice artistic effect, with very good framerate because of lack of polys etc. However, it can be shiney.

Guild Wars has better graphics.

World of Warcraft has multiple races, and good PvP

Guild Wars has one Race, and from what I've seen, little to no PvP.

WoW is pretty solo-friendly from what I've seen, but I'm only level 10 so far, so I probably don't know what I'm talking about..

EQ1 if you want high end raiding. It's hard to be starting this late in the life of the game though.

WoW if you like the leveling up experience, but don't care if there's nothing to do at max level (don't bite my head off, compared to EQ1 there's no high end content).

EQ2 runs like EQ1 if you don't have a godly computer (playable, but a little uncomfortable if you're used to insane FPS framerates); the gameplay starts out real fun, but it gets pretty tedious after about 2 months though.

Those are the only 3 I'd recommend. EQ1 if you can invest 20-40 hours per week, EQ2/WoW if you can't.

QM

Uh, Guild Wars is focused around working with other groups. You can solo sometimes for farming in the lower levels but for missions and once you reach level 20 (the cap) you can't. You need a group to survive.

The other aspect of Guild Wars is the huge PvP system. Every town has an arena where you're paired up with random people (one town has a team arena where you can party with whoever you want to). And then there are guild vs. guild battles which Arenanet keeps track of on the GW ladder.

Yeah, it's almost impossible to get to level 20 alone in Guild Wars. The quests just can't be done alone, and the NPCs are crap after level 8 or so. PvP is more of an arena match game. I rather enjoy it. They put you in random teams and you fight other random teams in an arena. Levels matter to a point, but not as much in other MMO's, thats why I love Guild Wars. two level 9's a level 7 and me (8 at the time) beat out 9 groups before we got defeated. We went up against a few level 10 groups and won. It's about the teamwork. That and its free make it awesome. If you dont mind the money, get WoW, because it's awesome as well.

I played EQ1 and got to level 56 (Back when the max was 60), and I was a necromancer...that game took too much time, though, but still extremly fun!

I got EQII, but like I said, I only have 512MB RAM, thus all my settings are set to minimum, and still experiance an in game "lag". I don't think I'll play it for a while.

WoW is getting high on my list so far.

Guild wars seems to lack something..I like the random people popping-up-to-save-your-life experiance.

Final Fantasy XI is another you should consider. Because of the fact that you can change jobs on the fly, there are always higher experienced people leveling low level jobs in low level areas. It's very simple to start up and playing, the there is an extreme wealth of end game content.

FFXI is based on partying, there is almost NO solo play. If you enjoy playing with others, this is your game. Huge HNM kills (Huge Notorious Monsters), high level god kills and high level areas are abundant, and there is fun to be had at every level.

FFXI second largest MMO in the United States (Folllowing WoW), although it doesn't compare to the Korean based MMOs (Linage 2 has almost 4 times the members of WoW and FFXI combined. And the dual nature of the game, with large player bases in both Japan and America lead to party options for all players at all times.

The environments are beautiful

Peaceful


Awe inspiring


And sometimes down right creepy


Im a 66 RNG/NIN on Ragnarok, if you would like to play, I can set you up on my server with an established lot of good players.

City of Heroes! Whoo. Or WoW. Both good.

I wouldn't even think about CoH until CoV comes out. I just hear it's boring after a while because you can only do so much until it gets boring. I hear it's good, but it's just not good enough yet.

/me seconds the call for Final Fantasy XI

Damn game just keeps drawing me back in....

That's true, the lack of loot makes the gaming somewhat streamlined. That said, it is very fun while it lasts, especially if you're into the whole superhero thing.

Those are the kind of moments I love, along with the feeling that comes with you being in enemy territory, and a poor low level who wandered into contested territory comes back, with PvP still enabled, and being chased by an angry bear.

*paste*

Same with all my friends. I had like 5 friends all leave when WoW came out, then 5 months later, all came back, and three of them brought more friends along with them FROM WoW.

Funny, most of the people playing WoW came from FFXI saying it was a horrible game. What with the crappy community, and *need* to group. Crappy community as in "u jap? *kicked from group*"


OMFQ UBER AZN!!!1

Thirded. Plus, the music is awesome, especially Zi'Tah.

Oh, and the whole "omq foragner yoo kcik from party" doesn't happen so much anymore, at least not on Kujata. It'll probably kick off again when they release it on the X-Box 360. The only other problem is inflation, but that's to be expected from a 99% player run economy.

Those are the people who quit during the <18 level areas.

Once you break level 18, and head to Quifim, everyone becomes a lot less stupid. (Mostly because those who make it past level 18 actually like the game, and aren't for the pure ego boosting)

And gradually the n00bishness thins out, so by the time you're 40 or 50 you play with people who know their jobs reasonably well.

WoW is great from 1-59. There's exploring, some interesting quests (though too many tedious "farm mobs" or "farm mobs for rare drops" quests), and a bunch of fun. But, after those initial 2 months, you'll hit 60, and then there's nothing to do but upgrade your loot...

2 months...? Guess I'm slow...

Yeah, it took me 3+ months to hit 60 personally, and I game quite a bit. After level 60 WOW is really kind of hit or miss. Some people LOVE it, some people HATE it. I haven't played this part of the game enough to pass judgement, but so far I love it. Upon hitting 60 I've sucessfully made myself eligible for like 6 more instance groups...

Yea, I'm level 35 after 4 months.

Some WOW screenshots of my 60 Night Elf warrior on Sargeras...

Elf = right at home in the hot springs of golakka in the Un'Goro Crater
http://imagecorner.sorrowind.net/56/71117825552.jpg

Unfortunately, so are some rather large dinosaurs...
http://imagecorner.sorrowind.net/56/61117825092.jpg

40 man instances ftw.

45 after 6

Maybe I just played excessively It is my first MMORPG, so I was having a lot of fun, to begin with.

I think I'm up to about 15 days /played, currently, and I got the game about three and a half months ago.

40 man raids aren't the answer, either, since all that you get is loot that has a different coloured name and has a couple more points of int or spi...

I'm Alcyon on Scarlet Crusade, if anyone wants to say 'Hi!'

I've been playing this game since December yet I don't have any level 60 chars yet. However, I do have 3 chars on the same server that are 50+ (55 paladin, 54 hunter, and 51 rogue) which explains why I'm taking so long to level :p

MP, some of the people in my guild do the high end raids for the challenge, not the loot. It's quite an accomplishment for a guild to defeat some of the bosses, and some people have a lot of fun getting it done. Not everyone plays WOW to loot whore. (I know I do)

I like doing the instances once, for the challenge, and for the quests, and for the experience, but once those are done, what's left? There's no way to progress your character at 60 other than by loot runs to get more items; no more levels, no Alternate Advancement points, my tailoring is at max (enchanting's at 260, but it's absurdly expensive to raise)... there's very little to do by yourself. You can't hunt for rare recipes (since the good ones mostly drop in instances), you can't hunt for rare weapons (since they're either in instances or world drops), you can't build houses, set up shops, or have any permanent effect on the world.

It seems that in attempting to make WoW accessible to the casual gamer, they removed everything unique about MMORPGs (ability to have an effect on the world with others, say), but left the boring loot runs.

Yeah... qufim is hell, yhoator is hell, Garliege Citidel is hell.

The game starts to get less bad at around 40ish for new players. For older players, you can usually find good parties for the Desert at around 30. (Last two parties with my NIN have been 6-7k/hour PTs in Altepa Desert)

Some people like loot runs. Have you beaten Ragnaros?

It's nice that some people like wasting hours of their life to upgrade their database entry, but I don't. And if Blizzard would like for me to keep paying them, they can start introducing content that appeals to more than 5% of the playing population.

No, I've not defeated Ragnaros. My server is yet to field a serious MC expedition. But since there's basically no lore or quests associated with the place, and no real reward, what's the point? I can think of better ways to spend eight hours.

So to summarize, they need more end game content... Oh wait, they have it, but I'd rather not play it.

Edit: If you aren't interested in MC style gameplay, and the commitment of time required... quit now.

As far as I know, SWG is the best MMOG (that has a decent sized player base) where you can leave a permanent mark on the world. Player made towns, and just owning buildings in general is awesome.

EQ2 has a lot of instanced housing (boo, instancing totally defeats the purpose of a MMOG), but has a few pieces of property that are exclusively owned.

EQ1 really is just about your character, and more specifically what gear you have. Everyone's level 70 (or at least 66), and AAs are important, but not as important as your weapons, hp and mana pools.

I still play EQ1 (after giving EQ2 a whirl for 2 months). I don't raid. I have 447 days, 13 hours, and 1 minute played time (as of this writing). This is since August 19, 1999. If all there is to do in an MMOG at max level is raid, the developers weren't trying very hard. If there's no way for players to affect the world they play in directly, then character development should never stop, else there's no point to keep playing. I have 280 out of over 1000 AAs earned; I have a long way to go before I max out my character.

QM

Edit: Mikus, he didn't say he doesn't want to commit the time, he said he'd rather spend the time doing stuff that appeals to him more. Raiding sucks in my opinion; if that's all WoW offers at 60, Blizzard doesn't have as cool of a game on their hands as I had thought.

Edit2: EQ1 handles the raiding vs. non-raiding population by alternating content in expansions. PoP was mostly for raiders, but as time passed has become more accessible by non-raiders. LDoN was for non-uber non-raiders; it was instanced 1 group adventures with a time limit of 90 minutes. GoD was for the hardest of the hardcore raiders; me and my friends still managed to find non-raid stuff to do there, but a lot of the EQ1 population just disliked it. OoW is hard, and sort of a playground for the ubers, but was meant for non-raiders to seriously upgrade and progress. DoN (the newest one) is like LDoN with instanced adventures, but provides tons of raid challenges as well; it's the best expansion they've released in the past 3 years. So I guess they broke their trend with this newest expansion, but that's not a bad thing; I didn't want another raid expansion.

Funny, most seem to have had high level characters. :\ just go onto any WoW related forum, and ask for people who played FFXI.

Aah, the infamous "if the game sucks and is boring, you're the problem". No, it's WoW's endgame that sucks. It's boring and repetitive and there's only one thing to do. Blizzard promised that this would be a game for casual game players, and that there would be lots of fun things to do at the level cap, which is why they made it so easy to get there. Newsflash: They haven't. There's a total of two or three endgame dungeons, and that's it.

MMORPGs could be so much more than they are, but there are visionless people like you who seem to think that the way Everquest did it in 1999 is the only legitimate way for MMORPGs to ever exist.

Upper black rock spire, Lower black rock spire, black rock depthes, scholo, and stratholme.

More than 2 or 3.

Lineage2 is for elite MMORPG player



thats me char ive been playing the game for over a year heavily and im still only lvl 70 of 75lvls and once you get 75 you do hours of questing and enable a subclass which is automatically lvl 40, a long as hell grinding xp game with open pvp anytime anywhere, very harsh death penalties and :).. Veyr rewarding to stomp on the weak though

Molten Core, Onyxia's Lair, Battlegrounds, Blackwing lair soon (hopefully), and more under development.

Please refrain from insulting me because you're unsatisfied with something I like. No one cares about how much of an e-thug you can be.

Dire Maul too. Sweet loot, and very very fresh instance content. Implemented after people complained about repetitive UBRS.