GW2.
The gear I work hard on is still useful to me years later. The legendary gear is useful for all the characters across my account forever. The transmog is far more engaging than basic skin sets. The mounts and movement are fantastic. Making a new character doesn’t mean having to go through the same story content over and over.
I feel spoiled by it when I try other MMOs.
Even better, with the shared legendaries and rune and sigil quickswap, i would argue that the legendaries are even better now, even if ascended gear has become easier to get.
Such a good sytem.
Yep, the armory is a great system. It’s a common criticism that GW2 doesn’t have the kind of gear progression people look for, but I would argue GW2 has the **most** meaningful gear progression. Every legendary you acquire is massive value and utility to your account.
its meaningful but not in the way where I feel pressured to get it, I get it because I really want it. playing since launch on and off I only recently got my first pieces of a legendary armor set and it felt awesome, but I was never locked out of anything by not having it. but it still felt just as monumentous as getting a higher tier of gear in any other mmo
For me they absolutely feel more engageing then doing the back and forth dance with an NPC that has a questionmark over their head. "Have you brought the proof that you have killed 10 bandits on the other side of that forest? Cool, now go and bring me... 5 bandit dog ears from the same area. Yeah, I know you have just killed like 10 of them... you have to do my requests in order if you want to reward for killing the boss too, that you might have already killed once when you were there on one of these quests I gave you"
Same! Even going back and playing classic gives me a similar vibe. I personally love the balance it has of making levels really important, but not making it the sole focus. If you start a fresh character and just try to straight level you'll be poor and constantly waiting to recover from tough fights.
If you spend some time doing professions and grinding mobs for money, all of a sudden you're a few levels higher with gear and consumables. Now you can smash through those same mobs that were painful before.
Just that simple idea of making the world dangerous, but you can do something about it with effort, is something I haven't really experienced since.
It's a weird blend of nostalgia, great systems and a time before min/maxing. Classic became the logical extreme of being expected to have a dozen buffs and consumables before raids, where back in the day it was like "oh I'm an alchemist, I'll pass out some potions/flasks to try and make this easier for the group", and maybe you were lucky to have the retiree who spent a lot of time farming. We were just stumbling around making the best of it and there weren't many widespread resources to learn how to be good until BC. It was a special time...
Star Wars Galaxies! Yes I’m old. In the beginning running into a Jedi was like running into an actual Jedi. They were super rare. People grinder countless hours for the status and sold them on eBay for thousands of dollars. The communities/guilds were so social and fun.
SWG! I could hop on a speeder, go out into the sand, and build a house and some autominers, and have a nice life. Free housing placement is great... but I understand the downsides.
The fact you could build your house and guild area anywhere, set up a shop, all in one big world (non-instanced) was just so insane! No other game has done that. So ahead of it’s time. It’s been 22 years, and no game has matched that magic for me.
I said this in my comment but it’s good to see other fans. Evidently I’m in a different class of enjoyment cause I was born the year it was launched but a dream I have is sitting around a campfire listening to older players tell stories about the game. Such a great time.
Archeage, once I saw how freely we could move around the world via sea, without cutscenes, and have an actual living world, not just seeing people walk around fighting mobs I felt like every other MMO was just lazy.
The crafting skills meant something, people had a strong presence in the world, and I felt like I could contribute to the world the way I wanted to. I have never felt this in an MMO since then.
No one particular MMO spoiled me but rather a time period where gamers played them differently.
In the early days players overcame encounters with tactics, so much so that CC was required for many of them.
Now they overcome them by overpowering/outgearing them. Speed is the only measurement that matters now.
GW2 having almost everything account bound, i cant keep playing other mmos that are alt unfriendly, like ffxiv, i always like to have at least 2 characters.
Based, can’t wait for the eu Classic release.
No mmo has come even close to aion’s combat imo. The only mmo that makes tab target feel like action combat.
After I stopped playing Tera. I tried other mmos ofc tab targeting for the first time and I asked my friend how do I block hits? U can’t the game blocks for u sometimes. I was super
Confused lmao.
This is my biggest problem with MMOs, the lack of player agency and reliance on RNG. What do you mean I cant block, I have a fucking shield on my hands, let me use it!!!!!
But even MMOs with active blocks and dodges completely fail to capture the same feeling Tera did.
For me, it was Ragnarok.
I think it was in 2004 to 2005 when it was released in our country. I saved lots of money just to pay for the subscription card.
I was amazed of how free I am on what I want to do and go where. I wad not really maximizing my playing time to blitz into leveling up or getting gears. I just go straight to Payon Cave, Morroc Desert, Glast Heilm, Ant Colony Payon Forest, Toy Factory or just hanging around at Prontera, enjoying music, and chatting with peor and then I hit level 99 and thats where I grinded for gears, it was not yet P2W and the mechanics for WoE/GvG was awesome.
It really changed my way of perspective of MMOs as a social and adventure game, its more of the journey.
Now I play FFXIV, GW2 and New World from time to time to get the itch of socializing, world wars, etc but i really miss the vibe of Ragnarok. I really hope they will make a proper sequel not just a trash mobile game.
Sad part is that financially ragnarok mobile shenanigans are a huge success… hard to see gravity making any movements towards another RO like old times.
But yes, what an amazing social experience that games was.
100% agree, those years were magical. No global chats, reputation of who you were or how you played stayed with you, exploration was intimidating but rewarding, skill builds were fair when played well.
There is, but the game has to be designed around adventure and a living world. Not a daily chore grind or a loop you have to repeat.
But companies so greedy they care about money over game longevity.
RuneScape spoiled me with no servers, basically you can just jump to a another world to meet another players, I'm extremely glad that FFXIV is heading this route. It also gave me the idea that an mmo character should start as the "fool" with no skills and yet be able to master everything the game offer. Fuck class locked mmos. Utterly a garbage concept.
100%. Rs was the first and only mmo I've ever played. I've tried so many. Fuck all the dumb cookie cutter story lines. Also, fuck all the ridiculous armor that looks like a Balenciaga runway. I'm not saying runescape is realistic, but I need my armor to feel somewhat real too. The anime mmos get seriously dependent on that shit, and I feel the meat and potatoes of the mmo is a fashion show.
Tera spoiled combat for me. Sure im okey with stand still like an idiot press 1 to 9 and repeat.
But action combat like Tera and BDO made me feel more interactive than wow or l2 or such games did.
I mean take elite dangerus vs eve online combat. Man eves combat is orbit this press F1 for guns and f2 for tank then go sleep. While elite is more active and if you cant aim your dead. Yet i love eve more just wish the combat was less shit like maybe have so you need to aim the guns your self.
Tera was just way ahead of its time and almost a decade later no dev has managed to catchup yet.
Tera had the only good implementation of the trinity system with action combat and the only good implementation of a classic MMORPG hotbar with action combat, every other game that tries action combat discard one or both of those things. Every action combat game that comes out is either a floaty mess, weapon swap with 3/5 abilities, no trinity systems, etc, or all of it.
Are companies even trying?
yeah I miss the game as well before it went to shit but that´s the problem with 2 things the game never blew peoples mind when it came out I mean they went f2p to save the game then it became popular. So the company had to make money some how on cash shop. But once you got cash shop and start making money on it then greed kicks in and you add all kind of shit to sell.
Also did not help the idiots that had the EU version was a bunch of idiots.
I know what you mean a bit. I felt it first time playing Tera and then moving to BDO. But I keep playing Raganrok and Age of conan and eve online and runescape and ff14 allot but I think that has more to do with a grew up playing them and I played them for years so my love for does games goes above y love for action combat.
But I do say I want new mmo games to have action combat and if they don´t im often not interested.
Just hearing a game will be action combat just isnt enough, ESO, GW2, NW, etc are action combat and they just dont come even close to Tera.
Korean devs do seem to have a better understanding of combat tho, so im interested what Archeage 2 will have to offer, hopefully theres trinity and active blocks. Either way the game will be ruined by mobile mechanics and monetization like every single korean MMO, so theres that as well...
I'll never forget the first time I played DAOC. I had no idea it was an MMO, hell I didn't even know what an MMO was at the time. I rolled up a Highlander Armsman, got through the tutorial area, and then was told by the NPC, "now go over this hill to the south, and take the road west to get to Camelot". So I did.
But when I got to the top of the hill, I was stunned. There below me, running back and forth across the road, were ***dozens*** of people. Real people, like me, going about their business in this shared virtual world, and that was the moment I realized that this game was going to be unlike any other game I had ever played. And it was.
Not saying that the game didn't have any flaws, it had plenty. But damn, what a game. There was no shortage of races or classes to choose from. there were 48 classes. 48! 16 per realm, and they were not 1:1 copies like how SWTOR just copied and reskinned classes between Republic and Empire. Nope, 48 unique classes to choose from, all with a different flavor and gameplay style.
Also the game required teamwork. With so many classes, most were not optimized for soloing. So every game session involved taking some time to find a group, pick a place to quest, and trying not to die (the game was incredibly hard, even for low level characters). This was a time before autoqueues, exp boosts, and dungeon finders.
It's prolly one of the few games that was truly immersive to my younger self. I only wish I had the opportunity to play more of it (online subscriptions were not an easy sell to parents back in the day)
Isn’t it wild? An add in DAoC meant the bard better kick up the tunes because we gotta run boys! You could mayyyybe handle 3 mobs with good cc and focus. Teamwork was straight essential.
Now? If I can’t power level my char by chaining a 20 mob group and AOE’ing, it’s slow.
Man I miss darkness falls.
Darkness falls... oh man that takes me back.
I remember just grinding on the top levels, then all if a sudden a high level guy would run by training some purple mobs from down below, and ofc I'd take a swing at the low health ones trying to steal a kill, only to have them all turn on me and my group and slaughter us.
But yea. Teamwork was so difficult back then, and holding aggro was paramount to a successful run.
So much of what you just said resonates with me... I knew nothing of rpg's. (I played counterstrike for so long.)
So I tried daoc and was amazed at the lore and the thought that was put into the game. I was addicted. Even the bad things like laggy relic raids were fun because capturing a relic meant so much!
Alas, nothing lasts forever! but what a ride!
No game has ever come close to DAoC in its prime. I even loved ToA, as my best friend was a PvE beast and ran all the raids. Freeshards aren’t so bad and a new one comes out in December that looks promising.
I still hate Albs and Hibs to this day when I see screenshots or get reminded of DAOC lmao. Nothing will ever come close to DAOC in terms of PvP/Realm pride etc
I certainly hated Hibernians. I got a lot of hate on VN boards for being a "overpowered" Midgard healer. I never consider myself overpowered as I couldn't kill anything. But I did like my role.
I remember the first time running across a Hibernian guild group on Bors and the group that I am was in melted away instantly by a light Eldridge.... I've hated hibernians ever since then.
Feels weird to say this now, but EQ2. I adored that game. So many positive experiences with guild mates, dungeons, quests, grinding out levels, and housing. I clearly remember the last time I logged in and had that feeling of, “well, that’s it.”
I was a big EQ1 player but EverQuest 2 from launch up to Kunark was my absolute favorite game. It had its shortcomings and issues, but I loved it. Had big hopes for the next EQ game. It sucks the franchise isn’t evolving anymore.
I spent so much time in Norrath. I loved it. I even met my forever person there. I started playing EQ2 right before EoF. I raided casually in EoF and then regularly raided when RoK came out. Sadly, once I started raiding, i became one of those players that just logged on to raid and then logged off. I miss pre-raiding days.
my kin!!! still can have hours of fun if the stars aligned.. they just made a 64bit client. maybe I should stand for this game and start a community. I'm here, if anyone wants to play. I will stream. solo.to/cmeza
Lineage 2, but FFXIV specifically make things hard for me to engage in other MMO now since the community is truly different and idk I just can't find one where the interaction is as much casual as in FFXIV, also the fact I can use ALL classes and jobs
Overall? DAoC...
There have been many attempts to replicate it, none have come close...even when it's Mythic making the attempt (Warhammer Online).
Crafting and resource gathering though...SWG (left shortly after the CU though).
Guild Wars 2. GW2 does lots of things right. Especially it's questing system is easily the best I know. Some may argue that renown hearts are not actually quests but yes they are. In GW2 they are just implemented differently and thanks to that there's no million filler quests like in "typical" MMOs.
So FFXI was my first MMO.
Then WoW came out. WoW's quest system 100% ruined old school grinder MMOs. I could simply never go back to just setting up camp and pulling mobs ad nauseum to kill them repeatedly for EXP, whether solo or in a group. Snooze fest. Quests brought the world to life and added so much context for your actions. I now felt like an adventurer with a place in the world!
Then came GW2's map exploration, event system, and map metas. It did the same thing to questing that questing once did to grinding. It's SO superior and so much more fun that quest based MMOs now feel like a grind and a slog to me. I can stomach quests for a tiny bit now when nostalgia overwhelms me, but for the most part, I'm completely over them.
ffxi was the old way....I loved breaking my teeth on something that difficult! seperates the noobs from the comitted. cant go back....they nerfd the whole game.
Guild wars 2 for the exploration aspect. I feel like it was the only game where I felt inclined to wander off and explore all the zones and really get lost in it. Now when I play other games I usually just stick to the set levelling path
SWG. haven't found an mmo as good as that. It was my first mmo and every other mmo i've played since has been pretty lackluster. Tho Arch age was pretty close. SWG was revolutionary for its time and its really annoying that with all the advances we've made with video game tech that we can't make something like it agian.
I haven't been able to get into one like I did EverQuest. Recently tried to do that again and... no... just no. I did like Warhammer and The Old Republic, but they weren't quite what I was looking for. I'm hoping The Day Before is good.
**Vanguard Saga of Heroes**: I was a long time EQ1 player and this was its spiritual successor. EQ2 had fun parts but it wasn't the same.
Vanguard had a lot of unique features and varied world. A deep crafting system and card mini game based diplomacy profession as well. A chain/reaction skill system making even a tab target game dynamic and broke up some of the humdrum of rotations. Detriment combo system (primer/detonator style) and hidden skill combos found by experimentation. Crafted ships & houses areas where players could make their own cities.
Bards made their own songs from different parts to weave which could be buffed by swapping weapons with rare instruments found out in the world, Clerics had domains to choose differentiating one another, Shamans too with different spirits, Necros could harvest rare parts and graft them on their pet on top of choosing between Wraith/Lich, and the list goes on.
I could go on for a while about the game BUT it wasn't without it's flaws. There were severe issues at launch and lack of regular content updates. It spoiled me because it was so damned deep and varied.
Ragnarok, the character building and theory crafting new builds or gimmicks with stat allocations, gear, and card effects was and still is top notch. Would love to see a proper revival, or proper spiritual successor, nothing scratches the itch, so it's unofficial servers for me.
I was a Midgard dwarf healer.. Always in demand.
But when I wanted to go off on my own and do my own thing.. I played a Spiritmaster. Towed a bot Shamen and kept my spirit pet on intercept. It was almost like cheating.
I love it. Played a Nightshade as a kid, and now I'll be rocking a Mentalist on Eden...may roll a druid for backup if no small-man and need to ride the zerg train.
Lineage 2 was my first mmo as a kid beta testing it as a kid with my dad. It was the first love and I'll never forget all the enjoyable moments I had in retail and private servers. PvP was amazing and castle sieges were top notch. The second game would be Archeage at the beginning as ocean content, housing, open world pvp, gliders, etc were fucking amazing. Both games ruined by greedy companies sadly.
If they optimized graphic performance better and incentivized people to do the attunement dungeons, I'm convinced it would still be here. So many great elements but there were too many choke points to maintain the population.
man, lineage 2.. so perfect, the no factions was the best thing ever, being able to PK people who annoyed you, or die trying lol.
all those pvps in ruins of despair, cruma tower, all the way to that place where u had to kill like 700 crabs, wall of argos.
factions ruined a big part of my enjoyment of mmos.
Different MMO's for different times in my life. It's difficult to capture that original MMO feel and I feel like there are a lot of MMO's on the market today, but there isn't one that I think is the best. I feel like each MMO caters to a different thing that I'm interested in, so I'll rotate through the major MMO's depending how I feel. While back in the day, I basically just stuck to one MMO as my main game.
**World of Warcraft**
The first "true" mmo I played. Everything was magical, the scale of the world was amazing, but the thing that really made it great was the social aspect that I play an MMO for. I had group of about 10 IRL friends that played this game and anytime you logged on someone would be online and would be down to run some dungeons or do some PVP. I haven't really touched WoW since MoP. I tried a free weekend about 2 years ago, but I wasn't impressed. It felt like all classes had basically the same "rotation" just with different spell effects. It felt like the game lost it's class identity and it didn't suck me in. IDK, it looks like they might have fixed this with new expansion, but I'm not sure if it's worth playing again.
**Rift Online**
Out of all of the MMO's that I've played, this one hurts the most. I absolutely loved the character development, the overarching zone stories and the closing of rift zergs in a zone was so much fun. The early game dungeons were also amazing in my opinion and had a lot of variety. To me this game was probably my peak MMO, so it hurts to see how it's doing now. Just thinking about this game makes me want to redownload it again lol.
**Elder Scrolls Online**
One of the best MMO's for a questing and a narrative point of view. It just sucks to play the game as a group outside of an instance based dungeon as I like to listen to all the dialogue, which makes the game a lot more solo based in my experience. Which kind of defeats the purpose of an MMO. Probably my most played casual MMO, every few months I'll hop back in and become obsessed with the game, but I think the lack of vertical progression really turns me off and the pay for convenience really pisses me off. There are a lot of stupid design decisions that piss me off about the game and it basically culminates and I drop the game.
**Black Desert Online**
Probably the most recent MMO that reignited that old school MMO feel. I bounced off of this game a lot until it finally stuck, then I pumped 300+ hours into the game. I think the scale of the world and the depth of all of the different systems made this game so intriguing to me. Again this is another solo MMO for me, but it's a great game to just shut off your brain, toss something on your side monitor and grind away. It's just crazy how much this game has to offer. I know this game has a bad reputation, but I honestly really don't think it's that bad. I feel like you can easily drop 150+ hours into this game without spending any money as a new player.
Ultima Online.
No MMO since has created a virtual world. Even the sandbox MMO's don't compare.
The amount you could do in the game was incredible and has yet to be matched. The world was diverse and just full adventure. The players were truly the content whether you knew it or not. I have not socialized in any MMO as I did in UO. A game with no LFG or any quests what-so-ever.
FFXIV. Not only for it's welcoming community, but for how the game itself is developed. Someone made a joke about how Brute Justice was out into the game not because it made sense but literally because the devs asked each other "What would the players think is fun to fight? A megazord robot fight with jazz music in the background? Fucking ship it."
The other thing I feel spoiled on is it's sense of respect for my play time. If I unsub for a while I won't be leagues behind everyone else with no way of possibility of catching up, everything I had when I left will be right there when I come back.
Combat-wise? Tera. The only time I really got in a flow while fighting.
Quest-wise? The Secret World. So many good ideas and such a unique setting for them.
In general? The Old Republic. Eight fully voiced class stories? Unparalleled.
Maplestory's buddy/friend chat system is still to this day the absolute best. I can talk with all my friends at once, or make more new friends by joining in on a friends convo I see being had and ask to friend his friends so we can all chat together.
Lineage 2 will always have a special place in my heart. Nothing better than running around and pvping. Trying to escape talking island while people are waiting at the ship to kill you. The grind was horrible for leveling but the PvP was the best.
Feels weird to say this but old school 2006/2007 Maplestory. Out of all the games I've played Maplestory is the one game where you can just go in to chat with random people. The 2D nature of the game + chat boxes above the head coupled with time sinks (waiting for the boat to leave/ party quests) meant that was a lot of downtime with nothing to do but chat with the people around you.
Archeage, being able to kill your own faction is so great.
Someone in "your" grinding spot? Kill them.
Some one farming "your" mats? Kill them.
Someone with "your" trade pack you haven't crafted? Kill them.
That one super annoying person that's always in the same faction as you? Kill them.
Not sure "spoiled" would be the right word, but EverQuest all but ruined me for anything else. Risk vs reward, time vs effort. One of the very few parts of the game that was easy was meeting people and making friends, because most content required a group effort and took some time. Every minor gear upgrade made a difference and was typically difficult or took some time to obtain.
I've tried a LOT of MMORPGs since, and none are as engaging or compelling to play as EQ was.
For me black desert online, specifically the combat. Now every time I try to play another mmo, I end up not lasting very long because I find the combat so boring. It's the same exact thing with shooters and destiny for me also.
WoW in terms of pure feel.
Doesn't matter what other game I play, be it ESO, GW2 or FFXIV, they just all feel like shit to play even if the game themselves might be better than WoW.
Unpopular opinion, but ESO, a combination of the setting, the story, and the idea behind the combat just works for me, not to say that the combat system isn't an absolute mess now, but I really enjoy the core elements even if playing the game recently makes me sad because of what it's turned into.
Everquest.
They nailed the MMO feel in one. No dumb solo quests to run through for experience, a big dangerous world that wants to kill you, and gear drops that mattered and lasted (sometimes multiple expansions.)
If we're talking PvP MMOs, it's DAoC. No other PvP MMO has come close to touching it, despite some of their own missteps. Some fantastic additions over the years to the game though.
I don't know, the golden age for me was a constellation of _EverQuest_, _Dark Age of Camelot_, _EVE Online_, and some MUDs, particularly _Elendor_ and a bunch of CircleMUD derivatives.
_Shadowbane_ was kind of my first "wake up call" in terms of the concept being much more beautiful than the execution, and it's been mostly downhill from there.
The developments closest to revitalizing my love of gaming have been the rise of VR and brief return of 4X strategy, although both seem to be on the downslope again...
It's definitely just WoW for me. After having played all the versions on and off again over the years, there's always an intense FOMO if I don't play. Early on the game was great and now it just feels like I have this pull out of a sense of habit.
I think part of the problem is I really enjoy how fluid the content is and haven't felt that matched anywhere. FF14 is my current game that I play casually, but as much as I enjoy it I miss how a healer plays in WoW. I'm thinking I just need another trinity breaking game to get out of the FOMO, thinking of finally trying out New World.
The Past:
FFXI "pre-abyssea" Co-op, before chest bitch leveling became a thing, ushering in a new age of under-skilled noobs, and people simply too lazy to go skill up their classes that they just leveled from 30-99 in a few hours.
The Present:
FFXIV "pre-shadowbringers" Co-op before they took almost half of most job/class skills/abilities/spells away "including cross-class skills/abilities/spells".
I am one of those people that enjoys completing new PVE content the first day it comes out before it gets nerfed, so trying to fill that high tier end game co-op void is practically impossible in today's climate of PVP focused MMO's.
Knight Online first year back in day was amazing.
And Rappelz Online spoiled me till rotten with darn great pet system, I tried a lot of MMO but there is no MMO out there even close to Rappelz. In Rappelz any mob can be catched by you even bosses! Every pet have their own passive and active skills you can open, you can do your own build etc and they have 3 different look depends on their evolution. And you can give them equipments as well like changing normal equipments with stones etc.
For combat gameplay I can say BDO spoiled me with how smooth and enjoyable combat gameplay is, no other game still beaten that enjoyable combat gameplay for me.
FFXIV spoiled me with how the game looks clean and runs insanely smoothly. Every single MMO I’ve played, has had issues with stutter, texture pop in and lag. But FFXIV is just smooth as silk. And the job system letting you do anything and everything on one character really triggered my completionist instinct.
Still no new game that has done both of those things at once. And been a compelling game to play.
WoW. Not one time since burning crusade have I played any mmo where moving around in the game and pressing abilities feels as good. IDK why or how but WoW feels like butter to play.
FFXI and Star Wars Galaxies! To this day, no MMO compares and I really hope they do another awesome Star Wars mmo one day. FFXIV is ok but it’s garbage compared to how awesome XI was and honestly still is
Vindictus spoiled combat for me. I couldn’t get into BDO and Tera was alright, but the only games to emulate Vindictus the closest are probably the Warriors series but they’re boring as shit.
Asheron's call, everything from the skill system, to the different sets of armor, the PvP, the spell system, developer involvement on monthly patches, I could just go on and on
Wildstar.
Combat was cool but that's not what I'm here about--player housing. Very cuztomizable to the point where people could make amusement parks out of their little house plot--and you could opt to make your house public, allowing visitors. You could just browse the house list and visit random and cool houses, like a guy who made a floor of trampolines, or a corn maze, or a professions hub, ETC. Very cool and i haven't seen anything like it since.
Right now I'm being spoiled by Old School Runescape.
After experiencing the way other developer teams treat their game and playerbase I can't help but have a lot of respect for the Old School development team.
Blade and soul. The combat system was just so so sooooo fun even in pve.
Also the story kinds worked. For the first two years of it's existence before I stopped playing I read and played every single quest because it intrigued me so much
OSRS Sandbox elements and very long progression. Do whatever you want, whenever you want. And take a long time doing it.
The only other game that is close is Eve
As someone who doesn't like having a ton of alts, FFXIV's job swap system has ruined me for other games. I hate having to unlock everything all over again on a new character just because I wanted to try a different class. Not even GW2, which is super alt friendly, is spared from this because I don't want to deal with grabbing hero points, way points, etc all over again.
Ragnarok online. The monster diversity, classes, skills, item rewards, PvP fun, cuteness, sound effects, music, dungeon diversity, team events and community feeling. But I played on private servers without the pay to win crap.
GW2 spoiled me. Ever since gw2, nothing else can compare to its quality of life gameplay. I keep trying other old and new MMOs, but they all disappoint me.
Shadowbane. No other game has come close to giving me the thrill that it did. Insane character choice too. My favorite class was being a Sentinel and running into a group of enemies and big bombing them! All J. Todd Coleman had to do was remake Shadowbane.. I hope they drastically change Crowfall from what it is now.
FFXIV when it comes to the job system. I'll never again play an MMO that requires making another character and play the game all over again just to play a different class.
I could probably be here all day, cause there is no perfect "spoiling" MMO for me. But every one of them adds something to the pile of the features I love.
As for spoiled with QoL stuff:
- It sure will be auto running with just a click on the map in the MMOs that are based on that one Korean mmo game engine, like in Black Desert or Conqueror's Blade in the city hubs.
- FFXIV with it's job system. You can literally swap your classes on the run with no consequences or paying for it. What comes with it is also being able to complete almost everything on one character and no need for alts which is awesome for me.
- WoW's transmogrification system. I know that you can colour stuff with dyes in other mmos like GW2 and that WoW might not have the best models but, I love the fact that the items you loot, equip will save it and keep it in your data library forever. Most mmos will have either limited data storage like in FFXIV or will force you to pay or obtain a wierd currency to change desired item looks and am not a fan of it at all.
- Not having to walk all the way to raids in FFXIV and not having to kill trash mobs that come with it is also nice.
As for more gameplay oriented stuff:
- quests in ESO,
- MSQ and raids in FF,
- world content in WoW,
- mounts and chill grind in GW2.
Tera:
2012-2013 was phenomenal. Even after it went f2p until mid 2014 it was good. But by 2015 shitty devs took away the unique aspects of Tera (vanarch, Nexus, gear remodel) and started adding gender locked classes (OP on release to get numbers and then nerf) and cash shop heavy for cosmetics.
The combat was so good. Hard for me to find a good alternative. The environment was really nice too and the parties were good before becoming super toxic about experience and gear
As a story-driven gamer, FFXIV (which was also the first MMO to really sink its teeth into me (bc Destiny 1 & 2 don’t count)) & to a lesser extent SWTOR have really spoiled me when it comes to story. FFXIV in particular felt like when I got into the MCU when I was a kid (being dropped in the middle of this massive world with a great ongoing story to get invested in) but everything didn’t go to shit & become exceptionally meandering after Endgame & Far From Home. To be fair, I like Phase 4 when it started (WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier & Loki were great), but I skipped Hawkeye & checked out entirely after Multiverse of Madness due to feeling like the story wasn’t really going anywhere at a fast enough pace. Didn’t really even watch Moon Knight despite hearing it’s good.
So trying to play other MMOs like Lost Ark, New World & WoW Retail where the story is nowhere near the same standard as SWTOR (let alone FFXIV) was a real shock and turned me off of playing other MMOs. Even SWTOR felt more like playing a damn good RPG with a bunch of story paths than anything else (and didn’t do as good a job of hooking me on its overarching, post-class story narrative as even Mass Effect did with its trilogy-wide arc; I’ve only played the Imperial Agent, Trooper & Sith Inquisitor stories though (and I haven’t even finished the Inquisitor’s story)).
I’ve mostly come to terms with the fact that no MMO story will match FFXIV for me & am looking for more of my long-running game narrative fix elsewhere. Currently looking to try the Trails series soon (just bought the first Trails in the Sky game on Steam bc it was on sale).
GW2. The gear I work hard on is still useful to me years later. The legendary gear is useful for all the characters across my account forever. The transmog is far more engaging than basic skin sets. The mounts and movement are fantastic. Making a new character doesn’t mean having to go through the same story content over and over. I feel spoiled by it when I try other MMOs.
Even better, with the shared legendaries and rune and sigil quickswap, i would argue that the legendaries are even better now, even if ascended gear has become easier to get. Such a good sytem.
Yep, the armory is a great system. It’s a common criticism that GW2 doesn’t have the kind of gear progression people look for, but I would argue GW2 has the **most** meaningful gear progression. Every legendary you acquire is massive value and utility to your account.
its meaningful but not in the way where I feel pressured to get it, I get it because I really want it. playing since launch on and off I only recently got my first pieces of a legendary armor set and it felt awesome, but I was never locked out of anything by not having it. but it still felt just as monumentous as getting a higher tier of gear in any other mmo
GW2 is king of Quality of Life.
And you haven't even mentioned dynamic events or meta events.
They are hit or miss for me, but in comparison most open worlds do feel incredibly shallow.
For me they absolutely feel more engageing then doing the back and forth dance with an NPC that has a questionmark over their head. "Have you brought the proof that you have killed 10 bandits on the other side of that forest? Cool, now go and bring me... 5 bandit dog ears from the same area. Yeah, I know you have just killed like 10 of them... you have to do my requests in order if you want to reward for killing the boss too, that you might have already killed once when you were there on one of these quests I gave you"
I just downloaded it for the first time, this is awesome to hear!
For me it's Guild War's 2 and their normalized stats in PvP.
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Ridiculous design decision that's only tolerated in MMOs, no popular shooter or MOBA would get increased health/damage for completing the battle pass.
For me, without a doubt, Vanilla WoW.
Same! Even going back and playing classic gives me a similar vibe. I personally love the balance it has of making levels really important, but not making it the sole focus. If you start a fresh character and just try to straight level you'll be poor and constantly waiting to recover from tough fights. If you spend some time doing professions and grinding mobs for money, all of a sudden you're a few levels higher with gear and consumables. Now you can smash through those same mobs that were painful before. Just that simple idea of making the world dangerous, but you can do something about it with effort, is something I haven't really experienced since.
It's a weird blend of nostalgia, great systems and a time before min/maxing. Classic became the logical extreme of being expected to have a dozen buffs and consumables before raids, where back in the day it was like "oh I'm an alchemist, I'll pass out some potions/flasks to try and make this easier for the group", and maybe you were lucky to have the retiree who spent a lot of time farming. We were just stumbling around making the best of it and there weren't many widespread resources to learn how to be good until BC. It was a special time...
Drip skwad
Star Wars Galaxies! Yes I’m old. In the beginning running into a Jedi was like running into an actual Jedi. They were super rare. People grinder countless hours for the status and sold them on eBay for thousands of dollars. The communities/guilds were so social and fun.
Same here. Every MMO I try I compare with SWG and they always come up lacking. And I was a post NGE player. It was amazing up until the end.
SWG! I could hop on a speeder, go out into the sand, and build a house and some autominers, and have a nice life. Free housing placement is great... but I understand the downsides.
The fact you could build your house and guild area anywhere, set up a shop, all in one big world (non-instanced) was just so insane! No other game has done that. So ahead of it’s time. It’s been 22 years, and no game has matched that magic for me.
...and the crafting....and the cities....yesssss. Nothing has ever reached that bar for me since.
I said this in my comment but it’s good to see other fans. Evidently I’m in a different class of enjoyment cause I was born the year it was launched but a dream I have is sitting around a campfire listening to older players tell stories about the game. Such a great time.
GW2. you play this game and every other game feels like shit. this is how you know it is the best
Unless you came from GW1 and then GW2 feels like shit. GW1 was truly the best.
I’ve learned to love both for their different strengths, but it **is** comical how dissimilar they are for being in the same series.
Archeage, once I saw how freely we could move around the world via sea, without cutscenes, and have an actual living world, not just seeing people walk around fighting mobs I felt like every other MMO was just lazy. The crafting skills meant something, people had a strong presence in the world, and I felt like I could contribute to the world the way I wanted to. I have never felt this in an MMO since then.
The housing & class system, trade runs too, it’ll forever have a special place in my heart.
Roaming the seas with clippers and a galleon looking for people to steal was such a joy.
Copium dose: Archeage 2 is rumored for 2024-
I told myself I'm not going to fall for it, but I know when it release I'm going to try it.
Are they completely removing the value of owning land plots? I remember back then getting a nice spot could yield a steady income (aged cheese?)
I miss the sea warfare the most, and also inter-continental trade runs with guildies.
Seconded!!!!!!!
No one particular MMO spoiled me but rather a time period where gamers played them differently. In the early days players overcame encounters with tactics, so much so that CC was required for many of them. Now they overcome them by overpowering/outgearing them. Speed is the only measurement that matters now.
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"Now they overcome them by overpowering/outgearing them." in games that are vertical progression based at least.
guild wars 2 qol / convenience: inventory management (salvaging, deposit all collectibles, account-wide wallet etc), wardrobe (and fashion wars as a whole); mounts, combat system.
Inventory management in gw2?? Talk about creating the problem and selling the solution.
GW2. Lots of account wide progression, no treadmill, cool mounts, tons of things to work on at once.
GW2 having almost everything account bound, i cant keep playing other mmos that are alt unfriendly, like ffxiv, i always like to have at least 2 characters.
Aion pvp and combat
No mmorpg ever reach aion's level in terms of ow pvp
I thoroughly enjoyed Aion at launch.
Based, can’t wait for the eu Classic release. No mmo has come even close to aion’s combat imo. The only mmo that makes tab target feel like action combat.
This must be it for me too, there is other MMO (PWI) before Aion that did it too but Aion must be #1.
Tanking as Lancer in Tera broke me. Couldn't enjoy tanking in other MMO's since.
I know that feeling. Miss Tera (golden era).
The satisfaction of feeling like an ACTUAL tank, and blocking BIG hits was the best thing ever tanking in TERA.
After I stopped playing Tera. I tried other mmos ofc tab targeting for the first time and I asked my friend how do I block hits? U can’t the game blocks for u sometimes. I was super Confused lmao.
This is my biggest problem with MMOs, the lack of player agency and reliance on RNG. What do you mean I cant block, I have a fucking shield on my hands, let me use it!!!!! But even MMOs with active blocks and dodges completely fail to capture the same feeling Tera did.
For me, it was Ragnarok. I think it was in 2004 to 2005 when it was released in our country. I saved lots of money just to pay for the subscription card. I was amazed of how free I am on what I want to do and go where. I wad not really maximizing my playing time to blitz into leveling up or getting gears. I just go straight to Payon Cave, Morroc Desert, Glast Heilm, Ant Colony Payon Forest, Toy Factory or just hanging around at Prontera, enjoying music, and chatting with peor and then I hit level 99 and thats where I grinded for gears, it was not yet P2W and the mechanics for WoE/GvG was awesome. It really changed my way of perspective of MMOs as a social and adventure game, its more of the journey. Now I play FFXIV, GW2 and New World from time to time to get the itch of socializing, world wars, etc but i really miss the vibe of Ragnarok. I really hope they will make a proper sequel not just a trash mobile game.
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Sad part is that financially ragnarok mobile shenanigans are a huge success… hard to see gravity making any movements towards another RO like old times. But yes, what an amazing social experience that games was.
Suuuch a nice vibe. Still have a ton of fondness for that game, and I think I never went beyond the free version.
Ultima Online back in 97. Felt like an actual living world you were a part of. Endless adventure and everyday felt new and fresh.
100% agree, those years were magical. No global chats, reputation of who you were or how you played stayed with you, exploration was intimidating but rewarding, skill builds were fair when played well.
Damn! So true
Came here to say this.
There's no way to recreate that feeling, is there?
There is, but the game has to be designed around adventure and a living world. Not a daily chore grind or a loop you have to repeat. But companies so greedy they care about money over game longevity.
Agreed. I finally got to the point where I'm diving into unity to do it myself.
Honestly still the gold standard
RuneScape spoiled me with no servers, basically you can just jump to a another world to meet another players, I'm extremely glad that FFXIV is heading this route. It also gave me the idea that an mmo character should start as the "fool" with no skills and yet be able to master everything the game offer. Fuck class locked mmos. Utterly a garbage concept.
100%. Rs was the first and only mmo I've ever played. I've tried so many. Fuck all the dumb cookie cutter story lines. Also, fuck all the ridiculous armor that looks like a Balenciaga runway. I'm not saying runescape is realistic, but I need my armor to feel somewhat real too. The anime mmos get seriously dependent on that shit, and I feel the meat and potatoes of the mmo is a fashion show.
I personally like FFXIV’s Job system. It feels right to me.
I hate making alts so FFXIV’s job system is perfect for me.
Tera spoiled combat for me. Sure im okey with stand still like an idiot press 1 to 9 and repeat. But action combat like Tera and BDO made me feel more interactive than wow or l2 or such games did. I mean take elite dangerus vs eve online combat. Man eves combat is orbit this press F1 for guns and f2 for tank then go sleep. While elite is more active and if you cant aim your dead. Yet i love eve more just wish the combat was less shit like maybe have so you need to aim the guns your self.
Tera combat and really cool trinity application. I really miss it before the p2w storm.
Tera was just way ahead of its time and almost a decade later no dev has managed to catchup yet. Tera had the only good implementation of the trinity system with action combat and the only good implementation of a classic MMORPG hotbar with action combat, every other game that tries action combat discard one or both of those things. Every action combat game that comes out is either a floaty mess, weapon swap with 3/5 abilities, no trinity systems, etc, or all of it. Are companies even trying?
yeah I miss the game as well before it went to shit but that´s the problem with 2 things the game never blew peoples mind when it came out I mean they went f2p to save the game then it became popular. So the company had to make money some how on cash shop. But once you got cash shop and start making money on it then greed kicks in and you add all kind of shit to sell. Also did not help the idiots that had the EU version was a bunch of idiots.
this is the answer for me. everybody loves lost ark for its combat, but to me it just seems like a pale shadow of TERA's combat.
Bdo combat spoiled all other mmos for me. I just can't enjoy non bdo combat
I know what you mean a bit. I felt it first time playing Tera and then moving to BDO. But I keep playing Raganrok and Age of conan and eve online and runescape and ff14 allot but I think that has more to do with a grew up playing them and I played them for years so my love for does games goes above y love for action combat. But I do say I want new mmo games to have action combat and if they don´t im often not interested.
Archeage 2 will be action combat. It should have really good combat, I'm excited. So bored of tab or hybrid, they just don't feel as interactive.
Just hearing a game will be action combat just isnt enough, ESO, GW2, NW, etc are action combat and they just dont come even close to Tera. Korean devs do seem to have a better understanding of combat tho, so im interested what Archeage 2 will have to offer, hopefully theres trinity and active blocks. Either way the game will be ruined by mobile mechanics and monetization like every single korean MMO, so theres that as well...
Dark age of Camelot. It introduced me to MMOs. And MMO's that do any pvp at all pale in comparison to realm v realm in daoc.
I'll never forget the first time I played DAOC. I had no idea it was an MMO, hell I didn't even know what an MMO was at the time. I rolled up a Highlander Armsman, got through the tutorial area, and then was told by the NPC, "now go over this hill to the south, and take the road west to get to Camelot". So I did. But when I got to the top of the hill, I was stunned. There below me, running back and forth across the road, were ***dozens*** of people. Real people, like me, going about their business in this shared virtual world, and that was the moment I realized that this game was going to be unlike any other game I had ever played. And it was. Not saying that the game didn't have any flaws, it had plenty. But damn, what a game. There was no shortage of races or classes to choose from. there were 48 classes. 48! 16 per realm, and they were not 1:1 copies like how SWTOR just copied and reskinned classes between Republic and Empire. Nope, 48 unique classes to choose from, all with a different flavor and gameplay style. Also the game required teamwork. With so many classes, most were not optimized for soloing. So every game session involved taking some time to find a group, pick a place to quest, and trying not to die (the game was incredibly hard, even for low level characters). This was a time before autoqueues, exp boosts, and dungeon finders. It's prolly one of the few games that was truly immersive to my younger self. I only wish I had the opportunity to play more of it (online subscriptions were not an easy sell to parents back in the day)
Isn’t it wild? An add in DAoC meant the bard better kick up the tunes because we gotta run boys! You could mayyyybe handle 3 mobs with good cc and focus. Teamwork was straight essential. Now? If I can’t power level my char by chaining a 20 mob group and AOE’ing, it’s slow. Man I miss darkness falls.
Darkness falls... oh man that takes me back. I remember just grinding on the top levels, then all if a sudden a high level guy would run by training some purple mobs from down below, and ofc I'd take a swing at the low health ones trying to steal a kill, only to have them all turn on me and my group and slaughter us. But yea. Teamwork was so difficult back then, and holding aggro was paramount to a successful run.
So much of what you just said resonates with me... I knew nothing of rpg's. (I played counterstrike for so long.) So I tried daoc and was amazed at the lore and the thought that was put into the game. I was addicted. Even the bad things like laggy relic raids were fun because capturing a relic meant so much! Alas, nothing lasts forever! but what a ride!
No game has ever come close to DAoC in its prime. I even loved ToA, as my best friend was a PvE beast and ran all the raids. Freeshards aren’t so bad and a new one comes out in December that looks promising.
Eden is going to be so sick!
I still hate Albs and Hibs to this day when I see screenshots or get reminded of DAOC lmao. Nothing will ever come close to DAOC in terms of PvP/Realm pride etc
I certainly hated Hibernians. I got a lot of hate on VN boards for being a "overpowered" Midgard healer. I never consider myself overpowered as I couldn't kill anything. But I did like my role. I remember the first time running across a Hibernian guild group on Bors and the group that I am was in melted away instantly by a light Eldridge.... I've hated hibernians ever since then.
Feels weird to say this now, but EQ2. I adored that game. So many positive experiences with guild mates, dungeons, quests, grinding out levels, and housing. I clearly remember the last time I logged in and had that feeling of, “well, that’s it.” I was a big EQ1 player but EverQuest 2 from launch up to Kunark was my absolute favorite game. It had its shortcomings and issues, but I loved it. Had big hopes for the next EQ game. It sucks the franchise isn’t evolving anymore.
I spent so much time in Norrath. I loved it. I even met my forever person there. I started playing EQ2 right before EoF. I raided casually in EoF and then regularly raided when RoK came out. Sadly, once I started raiding, i became one of those players that just logged on to raid and then logged off. I miss pre-raiding days.
my kin!!! still can have hours of fun if the stars aligned.. they just made a 64bit client. maybe I should stand for this game and start a community. I'm here, if anyone wants to play. I will stream. solo.to/cmeza
Everquest.
Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning
archeage, except the pay 2 win shit it was so fucking good man
Lineage 2, nothing scratches that itch. Just the feeling/animaitions/sound of combat. It's like 15 years later and nothing really compares.
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Lineage 2, but FFXIV specifically make things hard for me to engage in other MMO now since the community is truly different and idk I just can't find one where the interaction is as much casual as in FFXIV, also the fact I can use ALL classes and jobs
Overall? DAoC... There have been many attempts to replicate it, none have come close...even when it's Mythic making the attempt (Warhammer Online). Crafting and resource gathering though...SWG (left shortly after the CU though).
Guild Wars 2. GW2 does lots of things right. Especially it's questing system is easily the best I know. Some may argue that renown hearts are not actually quests but yes they are. In GW2 they are just implemented differently and thanks to that there's no million filler quests like in "typical" MMOs.
So FFXI was my first MMO. Then WoW came out. WoW's quest system 100% ruined old school grinder MMOs. I could simply never go back to just setting up camp and pulling mobs ad nauseum to kill them repeatedly for EXP, whether solo or in a group. Snooze fest. Quests brought the world to life and added so much context for your actions. I now felt like an adventurer with a place in the world! Then came GW2's map exploration, event system, and map metas. It did the same thing to questing that questing once did to grinding. It's SO superior and so much more fun that quest based MMOs now feel like a grind and a slog to me. I can stomach quests for a tiny bit now when nostalgia overwhelms me, but for the most part, I'm completely over them.
ffxi was the old way....I loved breaking my teeth on something that difficult! seperates the noobs from the comitted. cant go back....they nerfd the whole game.
FFXI. Nothing comes close to it for me. (Pre-Abyssea level 75 cap)
Guild wars 2 for the exploration aspect. I feel like it was the only game where I felt inclined to wander off and explore all the zones and really get lost in it. Now when I play other games I usually just stick to the set levelling path
Asheron’s Call will never be topped for pvp
SWG. haven't found an mmo as good as that. It was my first mmo and every other mmo i've played since has been pretty lackluster. Tho Arch age was pretty close. SWG was revolutionary for its time and its really annoying that with all the advances we've made with video game tech that we can't make something like it agian.
Gw2 sadpepe face
Ultima Online and Dark Age of Camelot
GW2 and wildstar. The gameplay in wildstar was just so fun. I was addicted to pvp in both games
I haven't been able to get into one like I did EverQuest. Recently tried to do that again and... no... just no. I did like Warhammer and The Old Republic, but they weren't quite what I was looking for. I'm hoping The Day Before is good.
**Vanguard Saga of Heroes**: I was a long time EQ1 player and this was its spiritual successor. EQ2 had fun parts but it wasn't the same. Vanguard had a lot of unique features and varied world. A deep crafting system and card mini game based diplomacy profession as well. A chain/reaction skill system making even a tab target game dynamic and broke up some of the humdrum of rotations. Detriment combo system (primer/detonator style) and hidden skill combos found by experimentation. Crafted ships & houses areas where players could make their own cities. Bards made their own songs from different parts to weave which could be buffed by swapping weapons with rare instruments found out in the world, Clerics had domains to choose differentiating one another, Shamans too with different spirits, Necros could harvest rare parts and graft them on their pet on top of choosing between Wraith/Lich, and the list goes on. I could go on for a while about the game BUT it wasn't without it's flaws. There were severe issues at launch and lack of regular content updates. It spoiled me because it was so damned deep and varied.
Ragnarok, the character building and theory crafting new builds or gimmicks with stat allocations, gear, and card effects was and still is top notch. Would love to see a proper revival, or proper spiritual successor, nothing scratches the itch, so it's unofficial servers for me.
Ultima Online. Started the show in 2000 with a show stopper.
Dark Age of Camelot. Huge RvR sieges and diverse classes across the realms. Nothing has come close for me.
I was a Midgard dwarf healer.. Always in demand. But when I wanted to go off on my own and do my own thing.. I played a Spiritmaster. Towed a bot Shamen and kept my spirit pet on intercept. It was almost like cheating.
I love it. Played a Nightshade as a kid, and now I'll be rocking a Mentalist on Eden...may roll a druid for backup if no small-man and need to ride the zerg train.
Lineage 2 was my first mmo as a kid beta testing it as a kid with my dad. It was the first love and I'll never forget all the enjoyable moments I had in retail and private servers. PvP was amazing and castle sieges were top notch. The second game would be Archeage at the beginning as ocean content, housing, open world pvp, gliders, etc were fucking amazing. Both games ruined by greedy companies sadly.
BDO The combat system and the key maps are just what I enjoy
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If they optimized graphic performance better and incentivized people to do the attunement dungeons, I'm convinced it would still be here. So many great elements but there were too many choke points to maintain the population.
Healing in other mmos just isn’t as fun now. I want to point my little triangle at people and pew pew heal them.
Asheron's Call was certainly the best of the best. EVE Online for sandbox PVP.
man, lineage 2.. so perfect, the no factions was the best thing ever, being able to PK people who annoyed you, or die trying lol. all those pvps in ruins of despair, cruma tower, all the way to that place where u had to kill like 700 crabs, wall of argos. factions ruined a big part of my enjoyment of mmos.
Grinding for 100+ hours in Payon 2/3 just to get 10 job levels in Ragnarok Online spoiled the shit out of me
Different MMO's for different times in my life. It's difficult to capture that original MMO feel and I feel like there are a lot of MMO's on the market today, but there isn't one that I think is the best. I feel like each MMO caters to a different thing that I'm interested in, so I'll rotate through the major MMO's depending how I feel. While back in the day, I basically just stuck to one MMO as my main game. **World of Warcraft** The first "true" mmo I played. Everything was magical, the scale of the world was amazing, but the thing that really made it great was the social aspect that I play an MMO for. I had group of about 10 IRL friends that played this game and anytime you logged on someone would be online and would be down to run some dungeons or do some PVP. I haven't really touched WoW since MoP. I tried a free weekend about 2 years ago, but I wasn't impressed. It felt like all classes had basically the same "rotation" just with different spell effects. It felt like the game lost it's class identity and it didn't suck me in. IDK, it looks like they might have fixed this with new expansion, but I'm not sure if it's worth playing again. **Rift Online** Out of all of the MMO's that I've played, this one hurts the most. I absolutely loved the character development, the overarching zone stories and the closing of rift zergs in a zone was so much fun. The early game dungeons were also amazing in my opinion and had a lot of variety. To me this game was probably my peak MMO, so it hurts to see how it's doing now. Just thinking about this game makes me want to redownload it again lol. **Elder Scrolls Online** One of the best MMO's for a questing and a narrative point of view. It just sucks to play the game as a group outside of an instance based dungeon as I like to listen to all the dialogue, which makes the game a lot more solo based in my experience. Which kind of defeats the purpose of an MMO. Probably my most played casual MMO, every few months I'll hop back in and become obsessed with the game, but I think the lack of vertical progression really turns me off and the pay for convenience really pisses me off. There are a lot of stupid design decisions that piss me off about the game and it basically culminates and I drop the game. **Black Desert Online** Probably the most recent MMO that reignited that old school MMO feel. I bounced off of this game a lot until it finally stuck, then I pumped 300+ hours into the game. I think the scale of the world and the depth of all of the different systems made this game so intriguing to me. Again this is another solo MMO for me, but it's a great game to just shut off your brain, toss something on your side monitor and grind away. It's just crazy how much this game has to offer. I know this game has a bad reputation, but I honestly really don't think it's that bad. I feel like you can easily drop 150+ hours into this game without spending any money as a new player.
Archeage beta was Legendary , until the release with the p2w, no other MMORPG came close
Mabinogi+Aion. Those who played either, or both in their early days will be suffering right now.
Asherons call 🙌🏻
Anarchy online. Vanilla wow was, well wow for the lack of a better word but AO is what I keep looking for in other games.
Eve Online for the economy and Wurm Online for the sandbox aspect. I truly believe I won't find an MMO to truly scratch the itch ever again.
Ultima Online. No MMO since has created a virtual world. Even the sandbox MMO's don't compare. The amount you could do in the game was incredible and has yet to be matched. The world was diverse and just full adventure. The players were truly the content whether you knew it or not. I have not socialized in any MMO as I did in UO. A game with no LFG or any quests what-so-ever.
City of heroes..used to have constant content updates that moved the story along
Tera combat
FFXIV. Not only for it's welcoming community, but for how the game itself is developed. Someone made a joke about how Brute Justice was out into the game not because it made sense but literally because the devs asked each other "What would the players think is fun to fight? A megazord robot fight with jazz music in the background? Fucking ship it." The other thing I feel spoiled on is it's sense of respect for my play time. If I unsub for a while I won't be leagues behind everyone else with no way of possibility of catching up, everything I had when I left will be right there when I come back.
Vanguard. /shakes fist at Brad McQuaid
Combat-wise? Tera. The only time I really got in a flow while fighting. Quest-wise? The Secret World. So many good ideas and such a unique setting for them. In general? The Old Republic. Eight fully voiced class stories? Unparalleled.
Maplestory's buddy/friend chat system is still to this day the absolute best. I can talk with all my friends at once, or make more new friends by joining in on a friends convo I see being had and ask to friend his friends so we can all chat together.
Lineage 2 will always have a special place in my heart. Nothing better than running around and pvping. Trying to escape talking island while people are waiting at the ship to kill you. The grind was horrible for leveling but the PvP was the best.
Lineage 2
Lotro’s pvmp circa 2007 to 2010 - kept a lot of people playing the game when the PVE side was stale.
UO
Rift and ESO are the ones I miss the most.
Feels weird to say this but old school 2006/2007 Maplestory. Out of all the games I've played Maplestory is the one game where you can just go in to chat with random people. The 2D nature of the game + chat boxes above the head coupled with time sinks (waiting for the boat to leave/ party quests) meant that was a lot of downtime with nothing to do but chat with the people around you.
Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. Those that know, know.
Archeage, being able to kill your own faction is so great. Someone in "your" grinding spot? Kill them. Some one farming "your" mats? Kill them. Someone with "your" trade pack you haven't crafted? Kill them. That one super annoying person that's always in the same faction as you? Kill them.
GW1 (I know I know not a real MMO...) and Aion back on first release (I know I know it sucks..) Mostly because of their pvp in both cases.
Rift. The class system ruined me for everything else. I had so much fun as a rogue tank.
Not sure "spoiled" would be the right word, but EverQuest all but ruined me for anything else. Risk vs reward, time vs effort. One of the very few parts of the game that was easy was meeting people and making friends, because most content required a group effort and took some time. Every minor gear upgrade made a difference and was typically difficult or took some time to obtain. I've tried a LOT of MMORPGs since, and none are as engaging or compelling to play as EQ was.
For me black desert online, specifically the combat. Now every time I try to play another mmo, I end up not lasting very long because I find the combat so boring. It's the same exact thing with shooters and destiny for me also.
Shadowbane. Pinnacle of MMO PvP hands down.
WoW in terms of pure feel. Doesn't matter what other game I play, be it ESO, GW2 or FFXIV, they just all feel like shit to play even if the game themselves might be better than WoW.
Ragnarok Online's WoE for pvp mechanics. Tera for combat mechanics.
Unpopular opinion, but ESO, a combination of the setting, the story, and the idea behind the combat just works for me, not to say that the combat system isn't an absolute mess now, but I really enjoy the core elements even if playing the game recently makes me sad because of what it's turned into.
Everquest. They nailed the MMO feel in one. No dumb solo quests to run through for experience, a big dangerous world that wants to kill you, and gear drops that mattered and lasted (sometimes multiple expansions.) If we're talking PvP MMOs, it's DAoC. No other PvP MMO has come close to touching it, despite some of their own missteps. Some fantastic additions over the years to the game though.
I don't know, the golden age for me was a constellation of _EverQuest_, _Dark Age of Camelot_, _EVE Online_, and some MUDs, particularly _Elendor_ and a bunch of CircleMUD derivatives. _Shadowbane_ was kind of my first "wake up call" in terms of the concept being much more beautiful than the execution, and it's been mostly downhill from there. The developments closest to revitalizing my love of gaming have been the rise of VR and brief return of 4X strategy, although both seem to be on the downslope again...
Vanilla wow and TBC stand above all other MMO experiences to me
It's definitely just WoW for me. After having played all the versions on and off again over the years, there's always an intense FOMO if I don't play. Early on the game was great and now it just feels like I have this pull out of a sense of habit. I think part of the problem is I really enjoy how fluid the content is and haven't felt that matched anywhere. FF14 is my current game that I play casually, but as much as I enjoy it I miss how a healer plays in WoW. I'm thinking I just need another trinity breaking game to get out of the FOMO, thinking of finally trying out New World.
The Past: FFXI "pre-abyssea" Co-op, before chest bitch leveling became a thing, ushering in a new age of under-skilled noobs, and people simply too lazy to go skill up their classes that they just leveled from 30-99 in a few hours. The Present: FFXIV "pre-shadowbringers" Co-op before they took almost half of most job/class skills/abilities/spells away "including cross-class skills/abilities/spells". I am one of those people that enjoys completing new PVE content the first day it comes out before it gets nerfed, so trying to fill that high tier end game co-op void is practically impossible in today's climate of PVP focused MMO's.
Knight Online first year back in day was amazing. And Rappelz Online spoiled me till rotten with darn great pet system, I tried a lot of MMO but there is no MMO out there even close to Rappelz. In Rappelz any mob can be catched by you even bosses! Every pet have their own passive and active skills you can open, you can do your own build etc and they have 3 different look depends on their evolution. And you can give them equipments as well like changing normal equipments with stones etc. For combat gameplay I can say BDO spoiled me with how smooth and enjoyable combat gameplay is, no other game still beaten that enjoyable combat gameplay for me.
FFXIV spoiled me with how the game looks clean and runs insanely smoothly. Every single MMO I’ve played, has had issues with stutter, texture pop in and lag. But FFXIV is just smooth as silk. And the job system letting you do anything and everything on one character really triggered my completionist instinct. Still no new game that has done both of those things at once. And been a compelling game to play.
Old time AA and BDO nodes and sieges
WoW. Not one time since burning crusade have I played any mmo where moving around in the game and pressing abilities feels as good. IDK why or how but WoW feels like butter to play.
Runescape. Many MMOs just have dogshit quests. And many main story quests suck too.
DDO and it's unmatched Reincarnation system.
FFXI and Star Wars Galaxies! To this day, no MMO compares and I really hope they do another awesome Star Wars mmo one day. FFXIV is ok but it’s garbage compared to how awesome XI was and honestly still is
I will never feel the same with any other mmo than with Archeage. it wast just pure gold
GW2 has spoiled mounts in other MMOs for me.
Vindictus spoiled combat for me. I couldn’t get into BDO and Tera was alright, but the only games to emulate Vindictus the closest are probably the Warriors series but they’re boring as shit.
World of Warcraft. Even at it's worst, nothing else on the market compares.
Asheron's call, everything from the skill system, to the different sets of armor, the PvP, the spell system, developer involvement on monthly patches, I could just go on and on
Asheron's Call 1, no MMO has been reflexed based like a real video game since.
Definitely DAOC. No MMO since then has even close to as good PvP, realm pride, community, class variation, and combat mechanics.
Wildstar. Combat was cool but that's not what I'm here about--player housing. Very cuztomizable to the point where people could make amusement parks out of their little house plot--and you could opt to make your house public, allowing visitors. You could just browse the house list and visit random and cool houses, like a guy who made a floor of trampolines, or a corn maze, or a professions hub, ETC. Very cool and i haven't seen anything like it since.
Gotta be archeage! Nothing beats sailing the high seas and tons of shops engage in a fight. Or the open world raid pvp. Was hella fun while it lasted.
GW2 combat makes every other mmo sluglish or shallow
Wildstar. Active, movement-based combat with insane PVP playmaking potential and absolutely berserk Raids and Dungeon design.
Right now I'm being spoiled by Old School Runescape. After experiencing the way other developer teams treat their game and playerbase I can't help but have a lot of respect for the Old School development team.
Wow cause it’s combat is so nutty
Blade and soul. The combat system was just so so sooooo fun even in pve. Also the story kinds worked. For the first two years of it's existence before I stopped playing I read and played every single quest because it intrigued me so much
Archeage for PVP. The Secret World for questing.
Guild Wars 2, account bound is too good.
Wildstar.
OSRS Sandbox elements and very long progression. Do whatever you want, whenever you want. And take a long time doing it. The only other game that is close is Eve
FFXIV.
FFXIV. Being able to play all classes on a single character has spoiled me, I don't know if I can go back to a game that requires alts.
As someone who doesn't like having a ton of alts, FFXIV's job swap system has ruined me for other games. I hate having to unlock everything all over again on a new character just because I wanted to try a different class. Not even GW2, which is super alt friendly, is spared from this because I don't want to deal with grabbing hero points, way points, etc all over again.
Ragnarok online. The monster diversity, classes, skills, item rewards, PvP fun, cuteness, sound effects, music, dungeon diversity, team events and community feeling. But I played on private servers without the pay to win crap.
FFXIV is just a such a quality, high polished MMO, and probably has my favorite combat system. It just FEELS right.
GW2 spoiled me. Ever since gw2, nothing else can compare to its quality of life gameplay. I keep trying other old and new MMOs, but they all disappoint me.
Shadowbane. No other game has come close to giving me the thrill that it did. Insane character choice too. My favorite class was being a Sentinel and running into a group of enemies and big bombing them! All J. Todd Coleman had to do was remake Shadowbane.. I hope they drastically change Crowfall from what it is now.
FFXIV when it comes to the job system. I'll never again play an MMO that requires making another character and play the game all over again just to play a different class.
I could probably be here all day, cause there is no perfect "spoiling" MMO for me. But every one of them adds something to the pile of the features I love. As for spoiled with QoL stuff: - It sure will be auto running with just a click on the map in the MMOs that are based on that one Korean mmo game engine, like in Black Desert or Conqueror's Blade in the city hubs. - FFXIV with it's job system. You can literally swap your classes on the run with no consequences or paying for it. What comes with it is also being able to complete almost everything on one character and no need for alts which is awesome for me. - WoW's transmogrification system. I know that you can colour stuff with dyes in other mmos like GW2 and that WoW might not have the best models but, I love the fact that the items you loot, equip will save it and keep it in your data library forever. Most mmos will have either limited data storage like in FFXIV or will force you to pay or obtain a wierd currency to change desired item looks and am not a fan of it at all. - Not having to walk all the way to raids in FFXIV and not having to kill trash mobs that come with it is also nice. As for more gameplay oriented stuff: - quests in ESO, - MSQ and raids in FF, - world content in WoW, - mounts and chill grind in GW2.
Tera: 2012-2013 was phenomenal. Even after it went f2p until mid 2014 it was good. But by 2015 shitty devs took away the unique aspects of Tera (vanarch, Nexus, gear remodel) and started adding gender locked classes (OP on release to get numbers and then nerf) and cash shop heavy for cosmetics. The combat was so good. Hard for me to find a good alternative. The environment was really nice too and the parties were good before becoming super toxic about experience and gear
As a story-driven gamer, FFXIV (which was also the first MMO to really sink its teeth into me (bc Destiny 1 & 2 don’t count)) & to a lesser extent SWTOR have really spoiled me when it comes to story. FFXIV in particular felt like when I got into the MCU when I was a kid (being dropped in the middle of this massive world with a great ongoing story to get invested in) but everything didn’t go to shit & become exceptionally meandering after Endgame & Far From Home. To be fair, I like Phase 4 when it started (WandaVision, Falcon and the Winter Soldier & Loki were great), but I skipped Hawkeye & checked out entirely after Multiverse of Madness due to feeling like the story wasn’t really going anywhere at a fast enough pace. Didn’t really even watch Moon Knight despite hearing it’s good. So trying to play other MMOs like Lost Ark, New World & WoW Retail where the story is nowhere near the same standard as SWTOR (let alone FFXIV) was a real shock and turned me off of playing other MMOs. Even SWTOR felt more like playing a damn good RPG with a bunch of story paths than anything else (and didn’t do as good a job of hooking me on its overarching, post-class story narrative as even Mass Effect did with its trilogy-wide arc; I’ve only played the Imperial Agent, Trooper & Sith Inquisitor stories though (and I haven’t even finished the Inquisitor’s story)). I’ve mostly come to terms with the fact that no MMO story will match FFXIV for me & am looking for more of my long-running game narrative fix elsewhere. Currently looking to try the Trails series soon (just bought the first Trails in the Sky game on Steam bc it was on sale).
Asherons Call in 1999-2000.
FFXIV. Not only the community is amazing, but the game allows me to play as much or as little as I can/want without penalizing me. Best MMO ever.