most 'fun' MMO?
DiscoZombie
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
Join Date: 2003-08-05 Member: 18951Members
in Off-Topic
I've tried quite a few MMO games over the years and I'm trying to decide what I had the most fun in. Played UO when it came out, but only very briefly because my computer couldn't handle it (imagine that). Since then, I've played a MUD, Star Wars Galaxies, Planetside, Neocron, Ragnarok Online and various 'free' Korean MMO's like Maple Story, World of Warcraft, probably several other betas and stuff I can't even remember. I can't decide which was the most fun.
SWG was widely considered lame, and I mostly agree, but the atmosphere was awful cool. it had to be, it's Star Wars. I enjoyed sniping things with my rifleman, but the whole thing about buffs from doctors and dancers like multiplying your stats by 10 just made the whole thing too stressful.
I always had a blast in Planetside but never played it more than a couple months at a time for some reason. I'm considering renewing my account yet again... flying a reaver was pretty awesome, as were the big indoor base and geode battles...
I played Ragnarok Online during the beta and like the first month of release. I liked it a lot, but they did a wipe of a week's worth of playing because of some hackers or something, and that bothered me too much to keep playing.
Now I'm playing WoW and it's fun, but the fun is kinda diluted... I mean, I'm never having a terrible time in it but I'm never really having an awesome time either. they've created a pretty incidious formula, with you getting better one piece of equipment at a time... I'm looking forward to the expansion but can't tell whether it's going to improve the game or break it. Raid sizes will be smaller and I think that will be a good step...
Anyway, looking back at all the MMO's you've ever played, what did you have the most fun with?
SWG was widely considered lame, and I mostly agree, but the atmosphere was awful cool. it had to be, it's Star Wars. I enjoyed sniping things with my rifleman, but the whole thing about buffs from doctors and dancers like multiplying your stats by 10 just made the whole thing too stressful.
I always had a blast in Planetside but never played it more than a couple months at a time for some reason. I'm considering renewing my account yet again... flying a reaver was pretty awesome, as were the big indoor base and geode battles...
I played Ragnarok Online during the beta and like the first month of release. I liked it a lot, but they did a wipe of a week's worth of playing because of some hackers or something, and that bothered me too much to keep playing.
Now I'm playing WoW and it's fun, but the fun is kinda diluted... I mean, I'm never having a terrible time in it but I'm never really having an awesome time either. they've created a pretty incidious formula, with you getting better one piece of equipment at a time... I'm looking forward to the expansion but can't tell whether it's going to improve the game or break it. Raid sizes will be smaller and I think that will be a good step...
Anyway, looking back at all the MMO's you've ever played, what did you have the most fun with?
Comments
Its not the best MMO(that goes to EvE), but by pure terms of fun(if not thought-provoking-ness), it wins.
-iRO - Too many botters, too much powerlevelling. I ended up getting suspended for repeatedly breaking the aggro of monsters on high-levels who were powerlevelling lowbies (in a zone the lowbies had no business being anywhere near for another 30-40 levels).
-EvE - Too much time spent. Skills gained in realtime is a neat concept. But not giving anything to those willing to devote large slices of their day, aside from in-game money? It creates a painfully overburdened economy. Had a good corp, but it just got damn boring.
-MapleStory - Fun and all, but the camping/grinding idiots ruined it. Also gets boring after a short while.
-PlanetSide - Pointless. All the work you put out yesterday has already been wiped away today. Fight and kill. Nothing more to do, after all.
-City of Heroes/Villains - Gets boring very quickly just beating on baddies, with nothing else to really do. Skill ramping makes quest completion a chore, not fun.
-SWG - Played the demo. Lag killed me, as did the crappy coding. Slideshow any time I left the cantina, so I ended up making a dancer. Standing around and competing with other dancers all day is even more boring than walking around and finding things to kill.
-FFXI - WHM never run out of partying opportunities, but once you get a good party, all you do is sit in a given area and grind for items, exp or gil. And gods help you if you try to do the whole WHM/BLM thing... levelling up a caster class *again* is a total pain, and not worth it. Idiots also kill the game.
-Anarchy Online and Neocron were rather forgettable.
-Second Life screwed me. I paid $80 for the 'lifetime with land' account, and was downgraded without warning to a $7 'basic lifetime' account. I haven't been back in about two years now. The lack of actual mesh models is also disappointing; I don't want to go somewhere that everyone looks like the ******* child of the Michelin Man.
-WoW - It gets boring after a while, as you learn to memorize all of the newbie quests up to a certain level. You run through, mostly grinding to catch up to friends on this or that server, so you can play together... seriously, I have at least a hundred characters spread across 30 or so servers. Server economies get bloated and unwieldy, and goldfarmers suck the fun out of the game, making it so rich people get all of the goodies, as usual.
All in all, I'd say WoW is the most fun though. Mostly for the people there... if I didn't want to go adventuring with friends, I probably would be off playing more iRO though.
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I can easily say I had the most fun playing EQ1. It was challenging; death actually had consequences and it took a degree of intelligence to make it to 60(unlike a certain popular MMO). Also, the world was huge and felt alive and full of people in a way that instanced dungeons can't seem to reproduce.
As far as WoW goes, taking my first character to 60 was a blast, but it's starting to get dull pretty damn fast. Burning Crusade looks nice so far, and 25-man raids will definitely pawn face, but I'm not yet convinced it's going to be much different.
omg <b><a href="http://www.wwiionline.com/scripts/wwiionline/index.jsp" target="_blank">WW2 ONLINE!</a></b> Its awsome full stop best ever so much to do best community ever pwnt all of your mmo's.
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That game keeps coming up but you never hear much about it. anyone else have any positive or negative reviews?
so many games, so little time <img src="style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/wow.gif" style="vertical-align:middle" emoid=":0" border="0" alt="wow.gif" />
you need some patients there are mobil spawns and trucks etc. to take you into battle. Be in the air force bit faster action..
To be honest though... most MMOs really come back to me as being boring in the end.
The most fun I had looking back was the following games for the following reasons:
<b>Neocron</b>
Not fun once they started tidying it up and stuff... back in the ole beta days when things were in chaos and the streets were dangerous. Having people trying to assassinate you because you made a name for yourself (through non-violent means) was a heckload of fun.
There were also moments like when I realised I was carrying too many things to move and ended up with a gang of people pushing me down the street to the nearest inventory. Great fun :3
I also ended up as a mod on the official forums for a while before deciding it was too much responsibility.
But don't expect it now... neocron isn't the same game anymore, not by a long shot.
<b>Ragnarok</b>
I did tours of the pyramids! :D
Again... this was more fun in the alpha/beta before obnoxious people started getting into the mix and the game became more and more grindy. Darn good fun when you ignored levelling and just travelled the world with friends though (especially if the friends in question were super high level :p ).
Back in the alphas I used to help out a lot by holding lessons on the game at prontera square (which was where you spawned when you first joined instead of that daffy training course). I'd help people out by telling them what worked, what didn't and giving them some initial direction for what they wanted. I also held question and answers at the end and often experienced players couldn't help but join in. Great fun!!! :D
I guess someone new could get a giggle out of this game like I did as long as they remember just to enjoy the silly world rather than falling to the griiiiiiiind. Community isn't what it once was though.
<b>Asheron's Call 2</b>
I could take a pair of boots and hammer them into a handy sword for you. You'd find musical instruments all over the world that you could play together with others to make fun melodies and even form marching bands... sadly it's not like that anymore as they've changed a lot of things and the actual levelling game is meh as per usual after a while :p
<b>Biosfear</b>
I got to play a sassy fairy with torn jeans and I even got offered a head GM position by the head head GM. That was probably because I spent most of my time in the town helping people; often answering questions before the GMs could :p
Fun while it lasted but I got bored because it's basically diablo MMO in a new universe.
<b>World of Warcraft</b>
yup... back in the beta that was. Back when most people were still new, jerks hadn't really joined yet and when there were no battlegrounds or raids to distract the level 60s which lead to epic and amicable city sieges that everyone seemed to enjoy; even on the 'Normal' non-pvp servers :D
Now, it's not the same. and the community went maaajorly downhill too.
While it's not an MMO my most fun game (which was also inevitably maimed by the developers as they progressed) was Phantasy Star Online. The original Dreamcast one.
Oh dear heck how that ruled my life. The drama! The intrigue! The roleplaying :o
All this gaming has taught me a few valuable lessons though.
1) MMO Devs will slowly remove the fun from their games.
the key word for this is 'refinement'. They put in more protection for the players and more linear content and eventually it just all becomes dull and generic. The game inevitably loses it's character as the devs go out of their way to remove either the players' abilities to 'play' sandbox-style or provide more content for them to interact with rather than the people around them. You get less and less freedom as they tighten the noose.
I swear, it's bizarre how much fun a lot of the MMOs I've played are when they're in alpha/beta and it seems to go downhill as they 'fix' the game. then again it could be down to the fact that they're putting more and more in that forces or channels you into playing the way 'they' think you should play it and allowing less flexibility for everyone else's way :o
2) The more popular something is, the more likely you are to find jerks.
Simple laws of probability... there's always jerks, it's just that as population increases you're more likely to bump into one despite the % of them in the game probably never changing :3
3) All games should have Asheron's Call 2's musical system or something better
this is a cast iron fact :p
4) More games should let me be a kick-###### fairy
more opinion than fact this time but by golly it's point number 4 and I'm sticking to it XD
5) Enemies are more fun when they're either human or not all the same AI.
You may or may not have noticed this but all MMOs pretty much have one monster. The skin may change, the effects on it's attacks might alter and the reach it has might also differ but no matter what you do or where you go 'fred' will always be waiting. If you're lucky his cousin 'bob' might be there.
How do fred and bob work?
<b>Fred:</b> Walk towards player until in range of attack and use it
<b>Bob:</b> same as fred except he runs away a lot
Fred and Bob know not what this fancy 'cover' stuff is. Stealth, tactics and complex movements are hogwash. Fred and Bob only care about attacks/spells and goddamn you if you think otherwise :p
sometimes this weird thing we call a 'boss' happens. Generally this is when fred (never bob) eats too much and gets handed a huge frigging gun. Net result is fred with lots of hp and some fancy firepower... OMG BOSS!!!.
The best part is that these attacks either can't be dodged or avoided at all or need a certain spell/armour that will lower the damage. Whoopdee doo.
PSO showed me the light on this one by having bosses with complex patterns you could learn and dodge! My character in that game was a one-hit wonder; one hit and she'd die... but because I could learn the way things moved and worked I almost never ever died (though there were many, many, many times when I'd be on the edge of my seat or surviving by the skin of my teeth :3 ). Net result was intelligent players with a hint of skill and tactics can be good no matter their level instead of it all being about numbers.
Hmmm... ok this is turning into a rant. I'll stop now ^^;
but yeah! that's my whole thing on mmo fun for now :p
Anyways, heres an <a href="http://www.unknownworlds.com/forums/index.php?s=6819312013924909056&showtopic=67145&st=0" target="_blank">old thread</a> I think is relevant to the discussion.
Thanks to EQ, my grades plummeted, I got into academic probation in college (GPA 1.0 ftw). I'm still surprised I became a graduate student. Evercrack, yup.
Scar of Velious is the zenith of EQ fun day. Then Luclin came, its technical bug & requirements stomped all over my computer.
i dunno if it has been released in foreign places but it has been in china taiwan and japan.
As for an actual MMO, I'm going to say WoW without even having played it. It's MMO-lite. Same idiots, less grind. Some Warcraft thrown in for good measure might help, too.
But, ask yourself; Why do you want to play a MMO anyway?
This also helps us narrow down what you would actually want.
lol guild wars
As for an actual MMO, I'm going to say WoW without even having played it. It's MMO-lite. Same idiots, less grind. Some Warcraft thrown in for good measure might help, too.
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Not sure what you are saying there, WoW features a much greater grind then almost any other MMO I have played, they even succeeded at making the only dynamic content (PvP) a complete grind (I didn't even know that was possible until they did it). And on that note: WoW hardly qualifies as an MMO, mostly because of the great deal of instanced content and the fact that its playerbase is split up over many many servers, allowing per server population to be very low. Not to say it isn't fun or anything, just trying to get a few facts straight.
4 reel b.
Oh, and you're insane if you think WoW is light on grinding. Pretty much everything at 60 is a grind.
4 reel b.
Oh, and you're insane if you think WoW is light on grinding. Pretty much everything at 60 is a grind.
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It IS light on grinding. There is more to the game then just level 60. Up until that point, WoW is grind light.
It IS light on grinding. There is more to the game then just level 60. Up until that point, WoW is grind light.
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Uh, sure it is.
Now go out and kill 50 zhevras for Jok Mok'Dar and return to him for a reward of 50 silver.
Uh, sure it is.
Now go out and kill 50 zhevras for Jok Mok'Dar and return to him for a reward of 50 silver.
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Never had a quest that bad, so I assume that's the extreme end, and besides, I don't count doing the objectives of a quest grinding. Second, XP and item rewards from quests tend to be fairly good, meaning less grind. Third, it's still grind light compared to other MMOs.
Not sure what you are saying there, WoW features a much greater grind then almost any other MMO I have played, they even succeeded at making the only dynamic content (PvP) a complete grind (I didn't even know that was possible until they did it). And on that note: WoW hardly qualifies as an MMO, mostly because of the great deal of instanced content and the fact that its playerbase is split up over many many servers, allowing per server population to be very low. Not to say it isn't fun or anything, just trying to get a few facts straight.
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Uh...no?
Yeah, there are hundreds of servers.
There are SEVEN MILLION PLAYERS.
Each server on average has 1000 people at lowest point, 4 to 7k at peak. That easily qualifies for "MMO".
And frankly, yeah, theres grinding, but its nicely hidden and still feels rewarding, unlike other MMOs.
Uh...no?
Yeah, there are hundreds of servers.
There are SEVEN MILLION PLAYERS.
Each server on average has 1000 people at lowest point, 4 to 7k at peak. That easily qualifies for "MMO".
And frankly, yeah, theres grinding, but its nicely hidden and still feels rewarding, unlike other MMOs.
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Im more referring to the fact that, you are never interacting with with more then say, 40 at most, other people at a time. When you do an instance it's just you and the 4 other people. When you do a battlegrounds it's just you and 19 other people. The only time when you are competing against more then that is when you are selling stuff at the auction house...
And to specify: A grind is when you have the do the same thing over and over. This includes: Killing mobs over and over for a quest (collect X kills, or X drop items), or running the same instance over and over again. Basically doing any one thing in repetition is a grind. If you are doing several different things or when something changes dynamically, it is no longer a grind. Most of the quests in WoW are a grind: gather 20 murloc eyes, kill 20 zhevra, gather 60 thorntusks, etc. The time it takes to grind things is what makes up alot of the WoW endgame, ex: Gather a total of 1200 savage fronds and trade them in for an epic item then repeat until you have all items. Or run molten core 12748 times until you have people with enough armor to run AQ 1238759 times. This is just how the game was designed, it's still fun. I enjoy playing with the people I meet through it and making friends, but just because you enjoy a grind doesn't mean it isn't a grind.
I don't think it's fair to call it a non-MMO just because you're often only interacting with 40 people at a time. that's a lot of people. what MMO has you interacting with more at the same time? In a game like Planetside, a battle may have like hundreds of people, but you usually only deal with a few at a time - just like in every MMO, WoW included. In fact, I don't think I've ever had more than 40 people on my screen in any MMO besides WoW.