MMO Shifts...

[Narudude360]

I can't seem to find an MMO I can enjoy for more than a week... I hate that, because they all look so fun! I want to try a lot but I don't enjoy them if I continuosly play them! I have tried many. WAR, WoW, Maplestory, Mabinogi, ToP:O, SW:G, and now the only ones left (In my current intrest, as Stargate: Worlds isn't out yet.) is LotRO: SoA, and EVE: Online. Please help me with this bust, and try to help yourself here as well.

[Aura Nightbane]

in the end, your not an MMO gamer, i have the same problem, ive tried EVERY MMO that you can play for any amount of time for free in English(and some in Korean and Japanese)

you may get lucky and find a game that will hold you for a few months(for me it was Guild Wars, because of the story), but i doubt that you will stick to one game for much longer than that.

My advice, stuck to non-multiplayer games(atleast stay away from MMOs, things like Team Fortress 2 are not the same)

[Breltar]

Try DDO since it is free now?

[Cheesegear]

The only MMO(RPG) I've ever stuck-through long-term has been Hellgate: London. Unfortunately, most of the servers are down now, and the devs have gone bust. But, the single-player is still pretty awesome.

Everything else has just been the same game. I played WoW for a long time. Got bored when I realised I was doing the same thing over and over again, sometimes for no reward (~4 hour raids and getting no drops, for instance). So, trucked on over to WAR. It was pretty much the same game. A bit more focused on PvP though. Headed on over to Guild Wars, since I don't have to pay. I've still got my account with GW, I just haven't played in a long time.
Tried DDO for a while. There is no solo play. Or, not any that's worth talking about. If you can't form up a group, it's game over since you'll never get past level 5 or 6 on your own. Unless you've pored the forums for 'solo run builds' and have a working knowledge of all the instances that you need to do.

But, HG:L was different. And had an atmosphere that I liked, semi-post-apocalyptic with daemons from Hell coming to rip your face off. Rather than the tired and worn-out High Fantasy setting. The learning curve was steady. Instances were winnable solo (although, some of them took a while that way). And the interface was friendly.
Instead of the fifty-bajillion-million toolbars that I had to use whilst playing WoW/WAR. I've never played City of Heroes/Villains. But, I've heard good things about it. Just...Haven't got around to it yet.

I wont mention that WoW has butchered the WarCraft franchise for all it's worth...Wait. Too late.

[The Evil Thing]

EVE is hard. It's possible to play and enjoy it for a long time but unless you're prepared to really get stuck in and join up with other players you might find yourself lonely, out of your depth, or both.

You can get a free two week trial, so use that to join EVE University. At the very least you should have some fun doing that.

EDIT: Once you reach a certain point in EVE, you can pay for your subscription entirely with in-game currency. Legally.

[Murdim]

Obligatory off-topic answer :
I wont mention that WoW has butchered the WarCraft franchise for all it's worth...Wait. Too late.WoW vanilla ? Not so much. Most villains were obscure or unknown characters (Ragnaros and his Dark Iron dwarves, Nefarian and his Black Horde, Onyxia, C'thun and the Qiraji...), who were cleverly inserted in the world and had good reasons to stay where they were doing what they did. The Scourge invasion involved using expendable troops to harass the living and retake the control of the Eastern Plaguelands, and Kel'Thuzad came in person only because he had prepared his own resurrection in advance. Of course, since the Burning Crusade expansion... well, let's just say Blizzard changed his policies concerning believability, and that most of the characters involved in the game since then are "ruined FOREVER".
As for the OP, I can recommand you to try EvE online. The game is quite... special, and radically different from most other MMOG, but remains an unquestionable success in its domain.

[The Evil Thing]

While the world and rules of EVE are harsh and unforgiving, the players are not. If you ask for help then odds are there'll be someone willing to swing by and bail you out. Of course, you should always be on your guard, just as you would in the real world.

[ghost_warlock]

That kid who lives in my basement picked up 'Champions Online' the other day...sort of a new version of City of Heroes, I guess (super hero game).

I've never played it but he says it's a lot of fun. It's held his attention so far and I swear the kid's got some serious game-ADD (usually doesn't seem like he can play the same game for more than 20-30 minutes before switching to something else). Anyway, just a suggestion.

[Cheesegear]

That kid who lives in my basement picked up 'Champions Online' the other day...sort of a new version of City of Heroes, I guess (super hero game).

Yeah. It's got good reviews so far. And is 'active' on this particular board at the moment. So, I might give it a whirl tomorrow.

[Jagos]

Yeah. It's got good reviews so far. And is 'active' on this particular board at the moment. So, I might give it a whirl tomorrow.

They recently had a HUGE nerf. I suggest this thread (http://forums.champions-online.com/showthread.php?t=55288) to get a gist of what's been happening.

But you may like it as well so have fun. :)

[The Evil Thing]

Aion is also under open beta, so you might want to give that a go too.

[Myatar_Panwar]

Is Aion actually in open beta? Or is it one of those "Oh pre-order and get a key to our 'Open Beta' k?" things.

Also, I am with you OP. I have lately just been playing in betas whenever possible, as its free and I'm sure to get my fill before its over.

[Corvus]

I wont mention that WoW has butchered the WarCraft franchise for all it's worth...Wait. Too late.

This I don't get - it's Blizzards franchise and they can advance the storyline however they see fit. I really don't see why some people want it to remain static and unchanging.

And people have always been saying that - WC3 butchered WC2, WOW butchered WC3, TBC butchered WOW, WOTLK butchered TBC, Cataclysm butchered WOLTK - and undoubtedly when WC4 comes out (which is what they seem to be working up to) they'll say it has butchered what has come before too.

[Querzis]

And people have always been saying that - WC3 butchered WC2, WOW butchered WC3, TBC butchered WOW, WOTLK butchered TBC, Cataclysm butchered WOLTK - and undoubtedly when WC4 comes out (which is what they seem to be working up to) they'll say it has butchered what has come before too.

This. Honestly, I cant take the «Blizzard ruined the warcraft lore» seriously when it has already been said thousands of times. Everytime there is something new in the lore or a new important character or the death of an old character, someone will say its ruined forever. Its getting really annoying.

[Optimystik]

This. Honestly, I cant take the «Blizzard ruined the warcraft lore» seriously when it has already been said thousands of times. Everytime there is something new in the lore or a new important character or the death of an old character, someone will say its ruined forever. Its getting really annoying.

If the unpleasable fanbase annoys you, you may want to avoid the internet then :smalltongue:

[Zeb The Troll]

Is Aion actually in open beta? Or is it one of those "Oh pre-order and get a key to our 'Open Beta' k?" things.

Also, I am with you OP. I have lately just been playing in betas whenever possible, as its free and I'm sure to get my fill before its over.Aion was in a true Open Beta (anyone with internet access could download and play) until early this morning when it got shut off in preparation for Pre-order Head Start later in the week (Sep 20th, I believe).

[Setra]

Isn't EVE the one you can play by setting yourself down to mine or somesuch then go to sleep as it goes?

In general my advice is this: You don't have to like an MMO, not everyone does (I do though), it seems if you really want to you'll have to find one that breaks the standard MMO formula... I don't know exactly what that is (Grind grind grind?) but I have a friend who dislikes most MMOs (WoW, WAR, etc.) but does enjoy City of Heroes.. as well he is looking forward to getting Champions Online, so I'd recommend those.

[Triaxx]

Only if you enjoy waking up to your pod floating in space.

What sort of normal games do you enjoy? It might help to narrow down the MMO for you.

[Murdim]

I don't know exactly what that is (Grind grind grind?) but I have a friend who dislikes most MMOs (WoW, WAR, etc.) but does enjoy City of Heroes.. as well he is looking forward to getting Champions Online, so I'd recommend those.I'm quite curious about how Champions Online will turn out in the next months. I don't think the developpers will manage (or more accurately, will take substancial enough time and means to manage) to please both of their two main player bases, the challenge-obsessed MMO fanatics and those who simply want to play a superhero.

Either they use an extremely limited set of optimal character builds as a framework for new content, keep raising the difficulty and focus more and more on "competition-based" gaming (read : PvP and raids), and CO becomes a WoW-like MMORPG among many others. Or they consider that even the most fanciful build should be viable and favors the least balance-concerned gamestyles (leveling/rerolling, RP, PvE solo and in small groups, non-rewarding PvP), and inevitably attract the loathing, the contempt and the wrath of most "hardcore players" as well as massive whine about the balance issues.



Only if you enjoy waking up to your pod floating in space.If you're lucky... (http://www.podkill.net/)

[The Evil Thing]

Isn't EVE the one you can play by setting yourself down to mine or somesuch then go to sleep as it goes?
No, although it's a similar thing. The idea is that skills are trained regardless of whether or not you've logged in.


If you're lucky... (http://www.podkill.net/)
It'll make a man out of you.

[Dragor]

I tried WAR on-and-off for a year now (due to a lack of funds) and got to Rank 30 (out of the 40 levels) and then quit. Yes, the RvR and PvP is fun at first but then gets repetitive when you realise that's it. I thought it was going to be revolutionary. It wasn't. This slowly dawned on me.

It's a good MMO if you like your normal kind of MMO with the slightest of twists. Not even the setting, which I love, could keep me playing.

So, I'm thinking of Champions Online or I'm simply going to wait for The Old Republic to come out. I have a lot of trust in BioWare, so hopefully it'll be delicious, delicious win. Even though I STILL think the lightsabers are a little too big, I'll let it slide! :smalltongue:

[MickJay]

This. Honestly, I cant take the «Blizzard ruined the warcraft lore» seriously when it has already been said thousands of times. Everytime there is something new in the lore or a new important character or the death of an old character, someone will say its ruined forever. Its getting really annoying.

People are naturally conservative, every change in something they're used to will be called "destruction", "ruination" etc. It's a basic mechanism that keeps people from changing things that work to something that might be better, but also might be deadly, and it gets applied to basically everything, at some level.

That, and W2 ruined the original Warcraft. Oil platforms and ships, damn it...

[Murdim]

People are naturally conservative, every change in something they're used to will be called "destruction", "ruination" etc. It's a basic mechanism that keeps people from changing things that work to something that might be better, but also might be deadly, and it gets applied to basically everything, at some level.

That, and W2 ruined the original Warcraft. Oil platforms and ships, damn it...I... am not sure to agree with you. Of course, there's a considerable part of the fanbase who considers every evolution as bad and whines about everything they think is new (whether it's true or not) because it's... well, not what they know. But that doesn't mean there isn't some serious character derailment going on since Burning Crusade. Blizzard IS whoring their characters (more particularly, their villains) in order to make "interesting" boss fights.

Exiled Eredar Space Paladins ? I have no problem to accept it. Sargeras' backstory changing slightly to include them in ? No problem. Ultra-developped magitek from angelic energy beings ? No problem. New creatures, new evironments, new cultures ? No problem at all.

But... Illidan and his (former) allies behaving in an increasingly stupid way, losing any kind of proactiveness, credibility, character depth and moral ambiguity they had in favor of ineffectual cartoonish villainy, and more generally looking like they're just quietly waiting for the players to kill them and take their ph4t lewt ? Kil'Jaeden being the exact opposite of what he's supposed to be since at least Warcraft II, of what made him the true Big Bad of the WHOLE RTS SERIES ? CoT3, whose absolute absurdity hasn't been handwaved in any way ? Well, I'll just say I'm not sure you need to be a whining conservatist idiot to complain about this kind of thing.

[Brother Oni]

I support the recommendations that you try EVE before you subscribe and that you spend as much of the two week trial in EVE University so that you have people around that you can ask for help.

One often quoted image for EVE Online: Learning curves of popular MMOs (http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Learning_Curve_of_Popular_MMORPGS_Pic).

(Oh and if you see The Evil Thing in-game, run. :smalltongue:)


Another MMO that I'm enjoying at the moment is Atlantica Online (http://atlantica.ndoorsgames.com). It's a turn based MMO, much like the non-online version of the Final Fantasy series from Square Enix.

[Setra]

One often quoted image for EVE Online: Learning curves of popular MMOs (http://digg.com/playable_web_games/Learning_Curve_of_Popular_MMORPGS_Pic).
Is it good or bad that image makes me WANT to play Eve?

How's the community?

[Brother Oni]

The community is generally older than that for most MMOs: the developers are on record stating that the average age is 28.

Note that I said older, not more mature. We still have our fair share of idiots, trolls and other undesirables (just look at the CAOD forum, where all the major chest thumping and epeen waving is done).

If you're polite, patient and aren't adverse to (major) setbacks, then most people in the community will be helpful. There are stories where new players have been caught unawares by pirates, lost almost everything and have been given advice on how to avoid being destroyed next time, often by the pirates themselves.
There are also people who blow their tops at being destroyed by pirates and almost have a heart attack screaming at them in game and on the forums.


One point to bear in mind - EVE has a very harsh death penalty. If your ship is destroyed, you lose it and almost everything that was fitted to it and if your escape pod is destroyed as well, then it's back to your emergency medical clone in a space station.

I once got caught and had my ship and pod destroyed - at the time, it set me back about 3 months worth of gameplay. I learnt my lesson and I now know what NOT to do. I also have the names of the people who killed me and revenge is a long time coming... :smallbiggrin:

[Setra]

The community is generally older than that for most MMOs: the developers are on record stating that the average age is 28.

Note that I said older, not more mature. We still have our fair share of idiots, trolls and other undesirables (just look at the CAOD forum, where all the major chest thumping and epeen waving is done).

If you're polite, patient and aren't adverse to (major) setbacks, then most people in the community will be helpful. There are stories where new players have been caught unawares by pirates, lost almost everything and have been given advice on how to avoid being destroyed next time, often by the pirates themselves.
There are also people who blow their tops at being destroyed by pirates and almost have a heart attack screaming at them in game and on the forums.


One point to bear in mind - EVE has a very harsh death penalty. If your ship is destroyed, you lose it and almost everything that was fitted to it and if your escape pod is destroyed as well, then it's back to your emergency medical clone in a space station.

I once got caught and had my ship and pod destroyed - at the time, it set me back about 3 months worth of gameplay. I learnt my lesson and I now know what NOT to do. I also have the names of the people who killed me and revenge is a long time coming... :smallbiggrin:
Three Months of Gameplay? :smalleek:

Yeah, I think I'm going to steer clear of that... I'm usually pretty good about dying, even in FFXI where you can level down and whatnot, but I don't think I could take that.

No wonder there were all those corpses on that chart.

Edit: On the other hand.. Pirating sounds like so much fun.. urgh, conflicting options, I guess I'll be trying the demo

[Brother Oni]

Three Months of Gameplay? :smalleek:

No wonder there were all those corpses on that chart.


To be fair, it was a VERY bad day for me. I don't think I touched the game for a week after that.
At least I had my medical clone up to date, so I didn't lose any skill points - now THAT would have probably made me quit.



Edit: On the other hand.. Pirating sounds like so much fun.. urgh, conflicting options, I guess I'll be trying the demo

I think Steam has a downloadable trial version that runs for 21 days, although they may have changed that offer.

Pirating isn't really a solo occupation if you want to be successful. I personally know more about avoiding pirates than being one, so you're better off asking other people about a successful pirating career or looking in the Crime and Punishment section of the EVE forums.

[Rae]

I wouldn't let tales of losing 3 months of game play to a bad loss throw you off. No offense meant in the least, but that level of loss requires two things:
1) Putting all your eggs in one basket
2) Throwing your egg basket into the street

Truth of it is, EVE allows you to choose both your level of risk and your level of loss. If you like, you can pour all your money into a single ship, take it into low security (read: dangerous, pvp) space and see what happens. You can also keep it in high security where your almost perfectly safe, and use cheap alternatives if you want to go into low security or 0.0 space for some reason.

[Caewil]

I've just joined Eve online as well. 'Tis quite fun, although I haven't really gotten into it.

[Brother Oni]

I wouldn't let tales of losing 3 months of game play to a bad loss throw you off. No offense meant in the least, but that level of loss requires two things:
1) Putting all your eggs in one basket
2) Throwing your egg basket into the street


It was a combination of multiple things; I wanted to try out 0.0 space for the first time, so I jumped into a missile ferox (drakes weren’t around back then) and headed out there. I got caught in a bubble camp on the first jump in and as a new player, I didn’t know what to look out for (anchorable warp disruption fields aren’t on the default overview settings). Result – it took 15 of their frigate wolfpack to pop me and my pod (and I was 7km from the gate when I finally did). That’s when I realized I was in my full +3 implant clone rather than my jump clone (+3s cost around 28mil ISK back then).

So I saddle back up, refit a new ferox, updated my clone and decided to take a mission, which was The Assault in 0.4 sec space. Now back then, that mission spawned at belts, but I figure, middle of the day euro time, only 15K players online, should be fairly quiet, right? Wrong, half way through, I get jumped by a T2 fitted thorax and I go pop again. Amusingly the npc got the kill mail, I had the pirate down to structure and I gave him a bloody nose by destroying most of his (very) expensive T2 drones. :smallbiggrin:

I manage to escape this time, but that mission is still in progress. Since there were only 2 rats left and the pirate was probably refitting, I decide to chance it in a half arsed hawk fitting. I get into system and I'm on the last rat, when the pirate alt of a corp mate shows up. I convo him, say hello, he says hello back and warps to me in belt. Then he promptly warp scrambles me and destroys my ship.
Apparently he was under orders from my CEO to show me how dangerous low sec was by blowing up my ship the first time he saw it in low sec…:smallsigh:

Grinding back up all those losses on level 3 missions took the best part of 3 months (level 4 missions would regularly eat people back then).


To Arachnid;
If you're having problems in game, drop me a pm with your character name and I'll see what I can do to help or answer any questions in game (or start up a new thread in here).

[Setra]

I've been trying out Eve, I'm enjoying it quite a bit... It's definitely hard to get the hang of though, that learning curve joke seems pretty accurate now.

I tried to get my friends playing it (With the promise of piracy) but unfortunately two of them quit a day into the demo (one within an hour) :smallfrown: Well I still have one playing with me.

[LostOne27]

EVE is a great game...and it's the only MMO that's managed to keep my interest for awhile. There's so much to do, and you can do all of it if you want, or you can specialize and do one thing very well. The game is kind of harsh, but well worth it.

[Caewil]

I'm doing well actually. So far I've raked in around 3 M ISK. On my way to getting a badger for mining/etc until I skill up for a Procurer. Getting to Industry Level V is tough. Aside from that, I have two Navitas's, a Condor, a Kestrel, an Iteron and an Incursus.

I still have some problems with rapid-targeting and orbiting. Perhaps I should go customize my hotkeys or something.

[Vizen]

But... Illidan and his (former) allies behaving in an increasingly stupid way, losing any kind of proactiveness, credibility, character depth and moral ambiguity they had in favor of ineffectual cartoonish villainy, and more generally looking like they're just quietly waiting for the players to kill them and take their ph4t lewt ?

This. Blizzard DID royally screw with things from TBC onwards. It's supposed to be in a timeline (Else the first cinematic in WoW probably wouldn't say "Ten years after...") and yet, Illidan is in Black Temple on Outland. I could of sworn Arthas killed him in Icecrown in Warcraft 3. Am I missing something? :smallconfused:

Though I suppose with the money they're pulling in from people, they don't really need plot anymore.

[Setra]

I could of sworn Arthas killed him in Icecrown in Warcraft 3. Am I missing something? :smallconfused:
He got better.

[Oslecamo]

He got better.

Having demon blood is known to do this.:smalltongue:

[The Evil Thing]

I'm doing well actually. So far I've raked in around 3 M ISK. On my way to getting a badger for mining/etc until I skill up for a Procurer. Getting to Industry Level V is tough. Aside from that, I have two Navitas's, a Condor, a Kestrel, an Iteron and an Incursus.

I still have some problems with rapid-targeting and orbiting. Perhaps I should go customize my hotkeys or something.
Hold down control and click anything you want to target and you will. To be honest, I think the best navigation is done by double-clicking where you want to go, as any craft with manoeuvrability enough to benefit from rapid orbiting changes will fare better if you're controlling things yourself.

One thing: don't bother with a Procurer. They're stupid wastes of time and money so get a Retriever instead. Until then, go mine in an Osprey.

[Inhuman Bot]

On Eve: Personally, I hate Eve. I'm not usually the type who enjoys MMOs, or spreadsheets, so maybe I'm not the right type of person to play Eve, but I really don't find it fun.

The last MMO I've played was WoW. Sure, as people have said, it killed the lore (Blizzard, please make a Retcon and stick to it.), but Eve really felt like work.

The amount of financial and skill planning really made it feel like another job to me.

However, I defineately see the appeal, so I'm not going to dissuade anyone from trying it.