Octopus Overlords

I'm getting the MMORPG bug, and I wanted to see what people thought was currently the best one to get into. All of the current ones look interesting, and I have enjoyed Ultima Online, Dark Ages of Camelot and City of Heroes on and off.

You forgot to mention Jumpgate.

I'm a WOW guy because it's not nearly as tedious as any of the others (excl. EQ2 which I haven't played). I couldn't be enjoying it more.

I'm something of an MMORPG dilettante, and I must admit that I've played every game on that list. I think that WoW is probably the best bet for the majority of gamers because they've distilled the standard format such that it's significantly less tedious. You could argue that EQ2 is every bit as good, but it strikes me as being geared more towards the hardcore gamer.

A fine example: In WoW, if you want to switch to an entirely new weapon class at level 35, it may take you a half hour to get your new skill to a useable level. In EQ2, it will take several times that much. If you were to try it in Final Fantasy XI (the Undisputed King of Tedium) you'd be lucky to have it done in under a week.

A slightly offtopic note: I once spent 5 hours in FFXI building up fame in a city by walking into a zone, walking to a certain NPC, handing him 1 fish, zoning out, and repeating. Yikes. I did this in order to receive a single level 20 spell. Double Yikes.

The elitist gamer in me feels that such chores build character, and they certainly give bragging rights when you've accomplished something. But the realist in me realizes that they aren't really necessary, and now that they're gone I really don't miss them. WoW has finally allowed me to rope my non-MMORPG friends in, primarily because it's so easy to get going. And once you are, it remains engaging.

EQ2 for hardcore gamers, WoW for casual gamers.

I voted for EQ2 simply because I consider myself a more hardcore MMORPGer, and also because EQ2 innovates in areas that I was disappointed in WoW for not innovating more in.

Part of me agrees with the WoW philosophy - do I really have time to harvest for 5 hours? Isn't that a waste of time? But then another part of me says, "Who cares, as long as you're having fun?" Whether I'm having a blast playing Half Life 2 for two hours straight or clicking on an ore node for two hours straight, the end result is the same.

I will say this - if I wasn't in a guild and didn't have a group of friends I played with regularly, WoW would probably appeal to me more. Combat and crafting in EQ2 is just a whole lot easier and more fun when you have people around you can count on. I think WoW did a good job making solo play a viable option while still providing strong group play. EQ2 takes more of a stance of "Ok you can solo if you're really desperate, but the game is going to be most rewarding with a group."

I'm also in the EQ2 camp.

WoW seemed way too cartoony for me and I just couldn't get the immersion I do from EQ2. I also like complicated, involved games so maybe that's why I'm enjoying it so much.

I can't really vote because I really haven't tried but two, Planetside and Ultima Online when it was only a year old. But I have been caught up in all the WOW hype here at OO and did run out and get it yesterday on my way to work along with the giant strategy guide to help a noob out. Hearing that you can actually solo in it along with the different "look" to it and Blizzards track record sealed the deal for me. Others have reported that for people like me who don't have much time to game when others are online during the week can still find plenty to do so they aren't so far behind come the weekend when we can join our friends online. Now tonight I got out of work early just so I could come home and finish rebuilding my PC. Perhaps November wasn't the best month to get a wild hair up my ass and decide to mod my case, it has been apart for about a month now and I have both HL2 and now WOW waiting to be played on it.

I just hope the quests and gameplay are more interesting than MMO's have appeard to me so far. The idea of just playing to level up and get more stuff doesn't do much for me, I need purpose and events and a sense of being part of a real world complete with its own problems. One MMO I read about but can't remember the name of now was going to age your character to where you would eventually die of old age if not something else and along the way you could produce offspring and leave your legacy to them but the offspring would still have to level themselves up. That sounded like the best idea I had heard of in a MMO to date. I should also say the article I read was published well before Sims 2 came out so I don't think they got the idea there.

I would vote planetside, but it is not a option. The new mech enhancements are supposedly great.

*maybe starting planetside again*

What, no Meredian 59? I boycott this poll. Good day sir.

I'm going with EQ2, simply because it feels to me like the game that all the other MMO's were leading up to. I can count the things I don't like about it on one hand after a month of play time.

DaoC is still a great game, though, and if anyone is considering another look at it at this point the Catacombs expansion is stellar. The new character models and armor are an awesome addition to the game.

Fretmute wrote: A slightly offtopic note: I once spent 5 hours in FFXI building up fame in a city by walking into a zone, walking to a certain NPC, handing him 1 fish, zoning out, and repeating. Yikes. I did this in order to receive a single level 20 spell. Double Yikes.

Triples yikes. /sigh. You could have done it that way . . . or you could have gone about actually doing meaningful quests in Windurst (I'm assuming you're talking about the scroll of Aspir?) and advancing story lines in that city.

Plus I'm sorry but I'd have to disagree with you with the weapon skill thing too. Yep it takes awhile to level up new weapon skills . . . but a week?! That's a gross estimation and overly exaggerated.

I don't know, I'll probably be the only one to say anything worthwhile about FFXI. Sure I've only played that and EQII (which I really disliked a lot) as far as MMO games go, but I really really like that game a lot. Been playing for a year plus now. Sure the "grind" is kinda bad, but MMO games aren't always about "grinding for xp".

So I guess I'll give a single, solitary vote for FFXI.

I've played all on the list except WoW which I am about to try. City of heroes still gets my vote, mostly because of the sheer versatility of character concepts and power sets. Though virtually no one actually roleplays in these games, in CoH it makes a certain amount of sense that all these players have a superhero alter-ego.