Other MMORPG experience/inspiration

[AngelBlade]

Hello Everyone,
         Yet another Noob chiming in. Technically, I haven't even finished the tutorial, so although I find these forums fascinating, I'm withholding all my comments and opinions until I've actually played the game. : )

So my question/topic is this: What other 3-D MMORPG's have you played and what did you like or dislike about them? Mechanics, environments, whatever...

I'll post my experience in a bit.  : )


AngelBlade

IC:Cratok Shik

[Prolix]

I played the4thcoming for many years as it developed. There was lots to do and many useless things to learn.

[Candy]

Other 3D MMORPG's, you say? I'm a firm believer in "gameplay>graphics".

I have played great 3D MMO's (PlaneShift, Dream of Mirror Online was pretty fun during my brief stay), and terrible 3D ones (Runescape).

However, my favourites other than PlaneShift are Nowhere Else and Beyond and Kingdom of Loathing. They're both 2D, browser-based, one has sprites and the other has stickmen, but the games themselves are great and their chatrooms quite addicting (you even get some roleplay going on there sometimes, though on KoL it's sheer silliness and on NEaB it's a mix of that and a powermoding contest).

As for what I liked/hated about the 3D ones, I'll say this:

Runescape: Everyone knows it's terrible. Probably the most redundant game on the 'net. Takes ages to level, and somehow people keep coming back to it. You're "encouraged" to become a paying member with every update they make, as well as every other NPC interaction in-game.

Only thing I liked about it in my brief stay was talking to a certain friend while I played and joking around about the in-game things.

Dream of Mirror Online: Much better experience. You might not have heard of this one; it's a little Korean game, I think, though they have an English server. Very cutesy, anime graphics (I'm a sucker for cutesy things), and they had a handful of different races - my favourites being the anthropomorphic cats and the slyphs. I loved how the slyphs got to float around, flying was a skill you could train in, and there were lots of NPC quests. The locations were quite pretty, too.

Some things I didn't like about the game were that the battle system was pretty confusing, and they had this little system where sometimes, you'd "fall in love at first sight" with another character at random, as decided by the system (it was cute at first, but then it got annoying). It also lagged quite a bit, but that's because I was playing it on my old, crappy PC.

[Kaityra]

Why are you asking, AngelBlade? Looking for other MMO(RP)G to try out? If so, there are many other forums "reviewing" MMO(RP)Gs.

Well, here is my list:

Everquest 2: I played the trial and I really liked this game a lot, as it had content and a nice graphics. Unfortuntantely it is not free to play.
9Dragons: I really like the setting as I'm into Martial Arts. The content and the graphics are nice.
Last Chaos: Nice graphics, but my computer had some problems with certain areas. But it had the worst player base I have ever seen.
DOMO(Dream of Mirror Online): Fantastic game as Candy already mentioned.

So, here is the question: Why did I stop playing these games? Simple answer: Because the players I have met there know nothing about roleplaying. It is all about grinding and leveling, and which is the best equipment and which is the best build for the class, even up to the point where it becomes a science.

But there is at least one other MMORPG out there. It is called Illarion. It has only 2D-graphics but when it comes to roleplay it rivals Planeshift. Plus it has the best crafting system I have ever seen.

[Xordan]

StarWars Galaxies - Fun until the devs totally fscked it up. I really loved the entertainment classes, the need to eat and drink, player housing/cities.
WoW - Well made in general. End game isn't very good, but a lot of people enjoy it apparently.
EVE - Best RP game in existence. Best economy in any MMO. The downsides is that it's a rather brutal game, if you lose then you lose big. But you can't have a good RP game where everyone wins tbh. Go do children's theatre if you want that.
D&D Online - Bad. Just, not good. Everything was half finished, half planned, half supported.
Age of Conan - Best MMO out there graphically. Has some very innovative features, combat is truly unique with it being real-time. There's RP servers with strict rules which is cool. It's very new so the downsides have yet to be discovered.

[neko kyouran]

Age of Conan - Best MMO out there graphically. Has some very innovative features, combat is truly unique with it being real-time. There's RP servers with strict rules which is cool. It's very new so the downsides have yet to be discovered.

As in, the people who pre=ordered, get to start playing the real game (and not beta) starting today, and the non pre-orders in a few more days from now.  And yep, the combat is pretty nifty, imo.

[Xordan]

Age of Conan - Best MMO out there graphically. Has some very innovative features, combat is truly unique with it being real-time. There's RP servers with strict rules which is cool. It's very new so the downsides have yet to be discovered.

As in, the people who pre=ordered, get to start playing the real game (and not beta) starting today, and the non pre-orders in a few more days from now.  And yep, the combat is pretty nifty, imo.

Yeah, I was in the open beta and I've pre-ordered

[piprees]

What type you looking for angelbade - free or all charges, free to play with premium etc?

[RichardShru]

I had played sooo many other mmo's, its not even funny.

Runescape had me for a while, then it was just boring as hell. Thing is, I never bothered leveling my character, he never made it past lvl 3 lol. I just ran a clan for a while.

after playing all kinds of browser games, I found another 3d mmo. Silk Road. This was intresting in theory, but I just hate the idea of ginding, and I evnetually quit that one to.

Then I found Shadowbane. I played this one for a while and found it fun until I found my first RP mmo. Underlight is one of the best games I've ever played hands down. It had roughly 15 players  (and that's not even the number of active players) and had only five gm's, but the players were incredible role players and the gm's were so active, it was hard to believe. The game itself was nice due to its small population and absolutly no lag (its got graphics like Doom lol) and its completely original ideas for things like leveling up (it used a teaching system were the gm's would give the players tasks to complete involving the arts they wanted or how much experiance they wanted). But, that one evntually had a problem when the gm's had an argument and finally three of the four gm's who owned the rights to the game asked for the playerbase to boycott the game so they could make a new one. That was in april. After playing some more browser games, I finally found this. lol. And I must say, I have proabably had as much fun here as I did in underlight. Ok, enough of my rambling. lol

[AngelBlade]

Well first to answer a few of the questions posed to me, as to what type, free or paid, i meant any and all. I also am not looking for another MMORPG to try, i know lots of other websites to look for one. : )  I just wanted to know about some peoples' experiences and what they had tried before landing in PS.

I still have an active account on WoW, I like the art style and the mechanics, i don't like the complete lack of RP, even on their RP servers.
I have an account on Mabinogi, other than the micro-payment system, i like their approach to the MMORPG. Combat has a much lower role than in other MMORPGs and skills have a much higher. I haven't gone too far in it but it seems rather small in scope, you don't get the feeling lof being part of a big immersive world like you do with Wow and other 'large' games.

I've played a few others, one of my favorites that's not around anymore was Asheron's Call 2. Although they didn't populate the world enough, it had a great crafting system IMO, and a pretty good 'leveling' system. It had weather affects before most everyone else, and when you took damage, it showed on your character as cuts and bruises.
I've played 9Dragons, ROSE Online, FlyFF, 2ndLife and Dark Ages.

Of course, the want/need for role-playing is what has brought me to PlaneScape. I'm hoping is the bridge i'm looking for from a 3-D RPG game and a table-top RPG session.

: )

AngelBlade
IC: Cratok Shik

[piprees]

Ok il answer my own personal experince first.

I have spent the better part of ten years trying to find an online cross platform cross virtual/real life role playing enviroment that would rival greyhawk/dragonlance/runequest and live role play envorment for years.


And now i have found one - PLANESHIFT

roleplayers, developers, programmers ALL - working together for the common goal - NUFF SAID

Not saying any more - because i think if your from the same place as me that says it all...

[Pizik]

Played PS as my 1st MMO, then a friend persuaded me to use a trial of WoW he got me, I got hooked for a good while. But, Once id hit level 70 I realised that there wasnt really alot for me to do as a Hunter, re-rolled and leveled a Paladin Tank to MT for my guild, but repeatedly people showed a complete lack of guild loyalty and would change guilds constantly if you were not already raiding end-game content. So, I play PS now, and still pay my subscription to WoW because I cant bear to lose the characters I put so much of my time into ;oS


To sum up WoW, its pretty, some of the players are nice, but it attracts alot who either lack any skills at playing the game, or who are generally scum.

[neko kyouran]

So, I play PS now, and still pay my subscription to WoW because I cant bear to lose the characters I put so much of my time into ;oS

Just an fyi...

You can cancel your subscription to WoW and not lose your char, items, stats, etc.  They store it all indefinitely.  When you want to play again, all you have to do is re-activate it, which isn't very hard at all. 

I've had to do it a few times when I knew I just was too busy to play for a while due to RL things.

[eldoth_terevan]

WoW does not delete characters, as Neko said. The account just goes inactive if you do not pay. However, there are roleplayers in WoW, and dedicated older players, but there are a lot of obnoxious kids. I also have accounts on Minions of Mirth, the ratio of obnoxious kids to serious players is about the same. Actually it is about the same in any game, even a busy day in Planeshift. Make the games what you want them to be, I find good people on all systems. I still login to play in Planeshift as it is a unique world, just like Mirth and Azeroth.

[Mathy Stockington]

Eldoth you are correct. We make the experience what we want it to be - good and bad.