Hey, you. You're finally awake...
Hello guys, gals and my other pals! I'd like to introduce myself as one of your new Moderators and say a big "Hello World!" to the Community.
I personally love playing MMOs (I got to 40 in Zenith in a few hours...) and couldn't find a thread where the Meta Community could come as one and discuss any type of MMO, so I decided to create this! This is meant for any and all MMO discussion, whether it's VR, PC, Console or even Mobile so please be respectful to others and what platform they're coming from.
I'll start off our thread by expressing my thoughts on all the MMOs I've played, please chime in with your opinions and any suggestions you may have!
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Black Desert Online - I enjoy this MMO possibly a little too much. Purchased this right on launch on March 1st, 2016 and have tried most of the other MMOs on this list in order to try and quit this game, but there's no escape. Truthfully, this is the MMO I have the most knowledge on and others won't have as much writing. BDO's graphics are far superior to any other, I've yet to see an MMO compete with them in this area. The combat is one of the reasons I'm hooked, it's not like traditional combat with the 1-9 keys, rather a plethora of combinations needed sort of like a fighting game. The downside is definitely the gear progression, you're basically gambling in order to make progress. While other MMOs have different sets of gear, BDO only has a handful and is instead upgraded through a percentage based gamble with your punishment being a downgrade in gear if the enhancement doesn't succeed and it's only worse with accessories, where they completely break if you fail. There are ways of protecting these items from downgrading, but they cost tons of in-game currency and usually isn't seen as something worth doing. This is a MMO for those who enjoy PvP, although it'll take you some time to be able to keep up with the open-world fights, there's plenty of content for new players who just want to PvP. Arena of Solare pins you in a 3v3 with randomly selected classes with equalized gear, you also have Node Wars which can be up to a 50v50 fight where your Guild claims territory for money and has a gear cap as well in most cases to keep the fighting fair. A very unique game, but not a game for everyone.
Elder Scrolls Online - I tried my hardest to get into this MMO, I had a group of friends to play with and I think I lasted a week before I stopped playing. I first started playing in 2018, I believe, the best time I had then was exploring with friends until we found a weird temple. Don't remember the area this was in, but there were a group of players that suddenly appeared and took a bite out of us. We turned into vampires and thought this was hilarious, especially when we found out that people pay tons of money for this to happen and our group just got it for free. I tried to give ESO another try in 2021 but the combat just wasn't enough for me, you're limited to a weapon with only a few skills and it just feels very minimal to me. I'm sure the story is great and the world is vast, but I just couldn't bring myself to continue with that style of combat.
Final Fantasy 14 - This is another MMO I can't get into because of the combat, on-top of the subscription fee. I've tried to force myself to play this and even dropped money on getting all the expansions a few months ago to get incentivized with a "I bought this content and can't refund it" type of way but had no luck. I enjoyed playing the magic class, whatever the name was, but I continue to get pushed this idea of "the game gets better after you finish base content" and this strays me a lot from pushing forward in content. If there was a way I could skip the base game, I'd probably get into it much more since it's an MMO greatly known for the story-telling. Also, the dungeons/bosses and homes players can create look insanely cool but this isn't enough to motivate me.
Lost Ark - I didn't get into this one much, the eagle-view camera really didn't bother me since I play League of Legends from time to time. The game did seem to have a lot of potential but it's now heavily affected by votes, the reason I stopped playing is because the world is locked behind the main-story and that's not very enjoyable to me. I'd be willing to try it again but would also love to hear thoughts about this MMO if anyone has played it actively.
New World - I'm disappointed in the flop of this MMO, it had great potential but it didn't really take off like most players expected. This was fantastic at launch and continued to be entertaining and engaging until the PvE content was completed. PvP wasn't anything special either, it gets very repetitive after a few wars. The best part of this game for me was the leadership aspect I fell into, on my server I was lucky enough to be the head of multiple companies/guilds thanks to being the first to purchase a territory. It was a great experience being able to supply starter groups with gold and have them join in the fight. I don't think I could ever pick this game up again, it's a great experience for both New and Veteran MMO players, but it's not something I think most players would stick out long-term.
RuneScape - This has a very special place in my heart, this is what introduced me to the MMO genre and allowed me to experience everything else within this list. I actively played this daily from sometime in 2009 until they introduced Evolution of Combat on November of 2012. In my eyes, they tried to copy the World of Warcraft formula and it didn't workout for them, thousands of players dropped off the game instantly with this. Now that combat is optional and they've released Old School RuneScape so there's three very different ways to play this MMO now and they're all very fun in their own areas. OSRS is very grindy and tends to be a bit more complex because the stats of your gear actually affects your gameplay greatly. RS3 is more of an semi-AFK game with more skills and content as well as improved graphics. Both are updated very frequently but it has the same fate of SWTOR, where only the fans are keeping the game up, I don't believe the new-player intake is high with this MMO but heavily suggest everyone to give it a try, even just for a day.
Star Wars: The Old Republic - Fantastic story telling, even if you're not a Star Wars fan you'll definitely enjoy this story telling. I only played through the base game but have seen clips of the expansions and it looks great to play. The combat is very similar to Final Fantasy 14 but to me seems very fluid, majority of your skills are able to flow into one another and work very well in combinations. The player-base is something I don't see increasing anytime soon, it's a game being held up by the Star Wars community but is on par with FF14's story-telling.
Wizard101 - I added this to the list for the same reason as RuneScape, it's incredible knowing this game is still up and running. I haven't played this in many years but ran into some clips of how the game state is right now and it actually seems very fun. A lot of quality of life changes have been made and they're even rewarding players who have a membership by adding a loyalty system to the game, the rewards look really cool too. I've thought about playing this again recently as a game on the side, it can be complicated if you get into the PvP aspect of it and the overall game is very colorful and welcoming for any type of person.
World of Warcraft - This is definitely a "save the best for last" moment, although I haven't played this MMO as much as the others. Whatever opinion you may have of this game, you can't argue with the numbers it brings in monthly with the player-base and to this day it holds the record for most players in an MMO. I wish I had the opportunity to play this when it was first introduced, I've heard nothing but good things about all the content up until the Wrath of the Lich King expansion. I personally began playing when the Legion expansion was released and continue to main a Demon Hunter (For The Horde!) to this day, the newest expansions haven't grabbed my attention and I quit playing once Burning Crusade was introduced for Classic. I've read good things about Dragonflight, the overall story is fantastic and it takes the top place in a story-driven game in my opinion. Lately, it hasn't been on par with the content FF14 has released, but the original story with the first few expansions is mind blowing and I will continue to support Illidan through his journey!
