|
|
If any of these interest you, I will try to give you more details on whichever one you sound interested in.
EVE Online: Sci-Fi game. There is only one server, with roughly 20-30k people on it at one time. You fly a space-ship. That's the basics of the game. The backbone of the game is that it is one of the most in-depth games on the market. Beneath the surface is a world of politics, player ran corporations fighting to take control of the universe, a real economy driven by the players, full PvP, space pirates, mercenaries, mining corporations, and fleet warfare. It is a skill-based game. Instead of choosing a class from the start, you just choose a general area of skills, and then take whatever skills you want later on. Very steep learning curve, free-for-all PvP, quite possibly the most fun of any MMO I've played.
Good for casual players due to its XP-system (you set a skill to learn and it learns it for you, even while offline. There are several thousand skills though, and nobody in the game has them all, not even those who have played since its release) At the same time, good for hardcore players because the more effort you put in, the more it rewards you. Instead of killing for XP, you kill for ISK (money). You can gain ISK by mining, running missions, being a pirate and ransoming people, being in a mercenary corp where people pay you to fight their wars for them, etc.. very harsh world that will bite you in the ass if you aren't prepared. People will steal from you, kill you, etc.. as long as it was done using real in-game mechanics (and not exploits/glitches) it is completely legal.
Huge alliances made up of multiple corporations (guilds) will fight to control space, set up stations for mining moons, block access to their areas of space, and will have huge fleet wars to try to push the others out of space that they want. LOTS of different ships make for great variety.
FFXI: Their community is widely regarded as one of the best in the genre. Very long game. If you don't have time, I wouldn't bother with this one. Class-based system with multi-classing. Typical raid-based endgame, and you may have a hard time catching up to the older players due to how long it takes to get anywhere. Also - Forced grouping. If you don't group, you're screwed, unless you know people who will help you out as soon as you start playing.
Lord of the Rings Online: I played in the beta of this game, but wasn't that impressed. Since its release though it is widely known as a casual players dream game. A lot of people speak highly of it, and the immersion factor is great. Another class-based game, without all that many classes. No PvP either. I thought it was quite generic, and looked/felt way too much like WoW. Lots of quests, and frequent free updates.
Guild Wars: Not an MMO - As stated by the developers, it is a CORPG - Cooperative Online RPG. The entire game is instanced, which just bugs the hell out of me. You might not care, but it takes a lot away from the game world when everywhere you go is just like playing a single player game, with exception of cities. PvP is the only true upside to this game. The PvP takes a mixture of skill and gear to be good at, and is actually pretty fun. Don't expect the same kind of PvP as you would in other games though. This is strictly a team vs. team sort of thing.
WoW: Yes, the heavy hitter in the MMO world. Why? Because it is easy for someone to pick up and instantly know what they are doing. There is very little learning curve to the game. As far as PvE goes, they got it right... sort of. Players are very far ahead now with epic gear, and it will be hard to compete if you don't have enough time to dedicate to getting gear to start working up the chain. If you like raiding, then this is the game for you. If you don't... well, this is the game for you UNTIL you hit the level cap. From then on, it becomes strictly a raiding based game. Because either way, you need gear to be able to compete in PvP. PvP is based mostly on gear, and less on what the player knows. Put a skilled player in decent gear up against a mediocre player with uber gear, and the person with better gear will in nearly all cases poop all over the better player. In addition, PvP is just another grind. Grind kills to get better gear. Not very meaningful in that it doesn't affect anything in the game world. If you win in a battleground, nothing happens except... you won! You gained some honor points, and that's pretty much it. It's a very polished game, and decent. I can see why it has so many subscriptions, but there are better games out there.
City of Heroes/Villains: Superhero game. Customization is great. Class-based game. Very different from what you might expect in the genre. Has a very decent following, but unfortunately it felt like too much of a grind for me to get very involved in. Definitely fun for a change of pace though, and if you want something 'different', it's definitely worth a shot.
Everquest II: Another pretty hardcore raiding game. EQ 1 started the trend of raiding games, and EQ II repeated it. Old-school fantasy MMO at its finest though. This game screams cliche fantasy, but the immersion is great. They actually did voice-overs for the NPCs so that they actually talk to you, which is just a nice touch on the game. Again, a raiding game that I really didn't get into it. But still worth a shot.
MMOs to keep an eye on in the future:
Hero's Journey: Not much is known, but it is being made by Simutronics, the "Kings of Content". They made old-school MUDs, and have spent the last few years developing nothing but the engine to be used in the development of their MMO. The engine has also been licensed to Bioware and several other companies. Very capable company, and what will likely be a very original MMO of their own design.
Pirates of the Burning Sea: A game based on the age of sailing. PvP oriented, with the option of passing on PvP. Players will fight to take over ports to gain benefits from them. You level up, get access to bigger ships, etc.. 4 factions, all against eachother. Pirates, Spain, France, England. Comes out in January.
|