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[Cimarron]

Its been a while since I have played an online rpg and I think i'm about ready to take the plunge again. But which one? I have to admit the most fun I have ever had with a mmorpg was FFXI with DAOC as a close second. DAOC is too old for my tastes now so its not an option. WOW was fun but everyone was too busy soloing to play groups and group play is what I crave the most. I bought D&D online but I never got a chance to play it because my hard drive crashed before I installed it so I have no clue about it but no one talks about it anymore so I am guessing it isn't too good. So my question is which mmorpg still has a friendly community with a healthy online population that is still FUN to play now. I only have limited time to play now a days and I can't really try out each one so some thoughtfull advice would be appreciated. I had wanted to play PSOBB but eveyrone I've talked to said that its pretty much dead and if you are not part of a clan or have a high level character you better like soloing. Thanks!

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

WOW was fun but everyone was too busy soloing to play groups and group play is what I crave the most.

What?

 

[Cimarron]

What I found is that most folks emjoyed soloing more than group play. Maybe it was the level i was at (I was only 25 when I left).

 

[Neo_Dasus]

Here's an idea, just don't play one at all...or you could wait for Pokemon D/P

Though if you really want to waste time....go play Maplestory/Silkroad Online/Guild Wars. Those games are heavily based on parties/groups.

 

[Gattsu25]

World of Warcraft becomes very group oriented once you reach level ~32...by level ~40 gaining experience outside of a group is a chore


Try WoW again

or you can play something like EQ2 which I hear is more party oriented...no clue if it's GOOD or not

scour the WOW thread and disregard any opinions by anyone that frequents there...from what I've seen...WOW heavy gamers on this forum have all adopted a "WOW rocks and everything else blows" mentality...in fact, if you're DNDO account is still up, try that for a spell...this forum is HEAVILY slanted toward WOW so reduced talk does not reallymean it sucks


and Guild Wars is not a MMO...it's Diablo II with team battles and MUCH freaking slower character progression...still fun


edit: shit...if you REALLY REALLY want to waste time then check these two games out:

http://www.aardmud.org/
http://www.achaea.com/main.html

don't expect fancy graphics though


mwahahahahahahah!!!

 

[Liu Kang Baking A Pie]

What I found is that most folks emjoyed soloing more than group play. Maybe it was the level i was at (I was only 25 when I left).

The entire argument against WOW by everyone at level 60 is that it's all group and raid play.

You quit when you got to a level everyone can reach in 3 days. Try again.

 

[Tamanon]

I played WoW because I didn't like how in FFOnline to advance you HAD to group. I can sometimes be a solo player. But I love the raiding in WoW and the later instancing.

 

[Ploid 3.0]

BLU12 lfp. Wanna go to dunes Tama? Bring your war mithra.

 

[Cimarron]

The entire argument against WOW by everyone at level 60 is that it's all group and raid play.

You quit when you got to a level everyone can reach in 3 days. Try again.

3DAYS? R U SERIOUS? lol i must suck! maybe i should reactivate the old wow account. 2day was tax free day in massachusetts so i bought guildwar factions and the latest expansion packs for ffxi. I don't know whp i'm fooling buying all these games. I can't possibly play them all. Consumerism go! I think I may try making a blue mage mithra.

 

[Tamanon]

BLU12 lfp. Wanna go to dunes Tama? Bring your war mithra.

Dunes

 

[AntoneM]

I would have recommended Lineage 2, but it's game economy has long since been destroyed by farmers ie: selling adena (in game currency) online. Everything has gotten so expensive that in order to advance you need to be in an extremely friendly clan or you need to buy adena. The only way around this is to go back in time 2 years and start playing early in the games life. I have had an incredible time playing since I was tyhere at the begining but I started a new character on a different server and I almost immediately ran into money problems. I lament because I really do think it's the best MMO out there.

PS: I switched to WoW due to the broken economy in L2.

 

[BlackMage]

just wait for the next big MMO.. it sucks playing them after they've been released a while. Warhammer maybe?

 

[firex]

I would say if you really want a good MMO, wait for age of conan. The previous generation of MMOs (EQ, UO, Anarchy Online, DAOC etc.) wasn't so great, but one game in there that I think has aged really well is AO, and Age of Conan is made by the same developers. This time it should hopefully get off on the right start, cause AO blew right at release but Funcom quickly fixed it and made the game way better. Also, unlike SOE/SOE Jr. (blizzard), Funcom is willing to try very different things to make the experience better, and I'm not talking about class balance or anything like that - for example, the core AO with no expansions is completely free to play now.

I play WoW and I'm in a raiding guild and I'll probably get majorly renewed interest when the expansion comes out, but until then I'd seriously not recommend it because the endgame involves getting into a good guild, picking a class that's not too overplayed, and going on raids where you depend upon 39 other people to get 2-3 items a week from an instance, if you're lucky. And really, age of conan sounds like it's going to be way better balanced with their endgame goals in mind - a very strict pvp/pve division written into the engine, and a focus on town building (which involves guilds, small groups, and solo players all in different aspects) instead of simply being EQ in a Warcraft setting like WoW has become.

 

[ManaByte]

I agree on Lineage II. Best features/reward for time invested...just the economy is shot to all hell due to the gold farmers. But NCSoft did ban all Chinese IPs from accessing the game so that helped a bit. However, there are still account security issues with the game with pissed off Chinese farmers constantly trying to hack it to gain access to accounts. The last update they did had to reset everyone's password due to a security issue.

 

[LuCkymoON]

I agree on Lineage II. Best features/reward for time invested...just the economy is shot to all hell due to the gold farmers. But NCSoft did ban all Chinese IPs from accessing the game so that helped a bit. However, there are still account security issues with the game with pissed off Chinese farmers constantly trying to hack it to gain access to accounts. The last update they did had to reset everyone's password due to a security issue.

L2 was fun at the begining but gold farmers did alot of damage. NCsoft didnt help by having higher drop rates for gold but lower drop rates for rare items. that actually had the opposite effect they wanted lol.
when Nssoft reset everyone's ingame and master passwords (security issue they said) that surprised me. I can tell you server population everywhere drop by half lol. Alot of people got owned by that move. poor erica

 

[Gattsu25]

I would have recommended Lineage 2, but it's game economy has long since been destroyed by farmers ie: selling adena (in game currency) online. Everything has gotten so expensive that in order to advance you need to be in an extremely friendly clan or you need to buy adena. The only way around this is to go back in time 2 years and start playing early in the games life. I have had an incredible time playing since I was tyhere at the begining but I started a new character on a different server and I almost immediately ran into money problems. I lament because I really do think it's the best MMO out there.

PS: I switched to WoW due to the broken economy in L2.

L2's economy was ****ed back when I was in the beta

 

[Muddimar]

I played L2 for a while, had a decked out guy that was level 42 I believe, then my account was ganked. Needless to say they deleted my character, and sold/traded all my killer gear and cash flow. Talked to Tech support who said, "There's clear evidence all of your stuff was sold or traded...but there's nothing we can do." So, I stopped playing L2 and switched to WoW. Been playing WoW now since it came out, and I'm definately not disappointed. My password in L2 was a 13 letter ingredient on the back of a gatorade bottle...dunno how anyone could of guessed it :lol