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MMORPG/MMO recommendation for newbie to genre?
StarryEyedGamer
Member Posts: 21
Hello! 
Would any of you be able to recommend a first MMO/MMORPG for me?
I've only ever played single-player adventure/RPG games for console other than Skyrim on PC, so I'm a complete newbie when it comes to choosing.
I would like one that has:
* A friendly, decent-sized community
* A lot of quests to keep me engaged in the story/lore/world
* A decent story (I know this isn't a console game, so it doesn't have to be amazing)
* I care more about PVE than I do PVP, though I'll try it; so I'd like a lot of "endgame" options that aren't just killing other players, haha.
* Cutscenes once in a while if possible...voice acting/dialog choices not a selling point since I love games like Zelda where you don't talk at all, really.
* Fantasy of some sort
* Decent graphics....think along lines of LoZ: Twilight Princess/ Skyward Sword rather than Majora's Mask/Ocarina of Time. Doesn't have to be anime looking, though.
* F2P, or B2P if I must.
P.S. My rig is as follows (just in case you want to know):
i5 2500k 3.30ghz
AMD HD Radeon 6670 1GB DDR3 (plan to upgrade this if able with my wattage)
600 watts
8 GB RAM
750+ hard drive space
Thanks for any help/tips you give, and I hope to get to know all of you! 
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
Comments
Guild Wars 2
it has everything that you specified as requrements
Does GW2 really have a lot of PVE post cap, though?
I don't know much about endgame or capping in general, but I do know that I want to always have something to do, a quest/story to complete. I do know they release content every 2 weeks.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
>Does GW2 really have a lot of PVE post cap, though?
Yes, I leveled til 80 lvl my elementalist in november 2012
and now I played around 1 year on cap in PvE and have a lot of fun.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
GW2 is a great game for newer players. Most of what people don't like with it comes from expecting things to be a certain way and from it not having a heavy raid progression end game. Honestly any game made in the past few years is going to be newbie friendly~.
GW2 is a solid choice.
i would also recommend FFXIV.
"There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning,
an infinite game for the purpose of continuing play."
Finite and Infinite Games, James Carse
I would jump on Final Fantasy 14 right now. It isn't terribly over complicated to pick up and start playing and there are tons of other new players.
Even though it is a new MMO, I consider it to be a more "classic" approach to the genre. It doesn't try to be something revolutionary. It is just good, solid MMORPG gameplay. There are plenty of great group based PvE encounters and dungeons in the game that gradually increase in difficulty.
Combat is real-time like most other MMORPG's, but it strays from the growing "twitch-based" trend and focuses more on timing.
I have been an MMO gamer since before the term even existed, and I find that FF14 has been a refreshing change by bringing back the more old school feel to the genre.
I'd also say GW2 which is B2P is a good choice for a first MMO
WoW would fit perfectly but it's still subscription based for now.
There's also Rift and LOTRO which are both F2P but I've not tried them so can't really say whether they fit all your criteria. Perhaps someone else who has can advise you.
As far as post-cap GW2. The new content release every 2 weeks is mostly PVE content. It does tend to be temporary though so it hasn't built up as much new content as you might think. Nevertheless when you're playing it means that every 2 weeks there's likely to be something new to do.
GW2 is a good option, but it pretty well dies after you hit level cap. Basically you'll go complete exploring, complete a bunch of your discovery type stuff, basically get your zone completion up to 100%, and after that there really isnt a whole lot to do besides repeat content you've already done.
Personally i would reccomend Rift. There is wwwwaaaaaaayyyy more content. The graphics are much better. Storyline probably isnt as good, but its also F2P, not B2p. The other thing is the community is Rift is vastly better than GW2. GW2 is filled with arena net fanbois and then PVP douche's. Neither of which are very accomodating or friendly people.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
Rift's graphics are different not better and it doesn't have way more content~.
GW2 has plenty to do at end game too, it just isn't 20 man raids to get slightly better gear to do a 20 man raid to get slightly better gear.
Rift is an ok options since it is free but it is a pretty big step behind the AAA MMORPG's that are out there. It fits into that went FTP for a reason crowd that includes SWTOR and AION.
I was not aware the Final Fantasy one was released already, oops. Will look into it, thanks!
Hmm, there seems to be a bit of conflicting information on the PVE endgame side of GW2.
I do learn games rather quickly, so adaption to any game, newbie-based or not, is fine.
I heard Rift has some fps/optimization issues at the moment, though? I listed my rig up top as I'm sure y'all saw, and while it's not terrible by any means, I don't want a game to be unplayable.
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
I wouldn't personally go to the game where the ambassador for it is describing another game's fanbase as 'fanbois and douches'.
Considering ive played both games extensively, i can confidently say you're wrong.
I exhauasted 95% of the PVE content in GW2 in approx 120 hours of playtime. That included all the group dungeons and the main storyline and getting every zone to 100%.
Yes, Rift does have end game raiding. But they have a metric crapton of other stuff outside of that.
Graphically Rift is better. Its also different, its not as stylized or as "colorful" as GW2, but as far as the actual quantifiable graphics. I.e. polygon counts, texture resolutions, etc etc. Rift definitely, DEFINITELY has better graphics. Many people equate what they like, i.e. the "style" of the graphics with the quality of the graphics. Now, thats fine to hate / like one style over another but that doesnt mean that because lets say someone likes the wow "style" of graphics, or lets say a wildstar "style" of graphics, that its better than say Rift, or The Secret World, etc etc.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
What do you think/know about this part of my comment concerning Rift?
"I heard Rift has some fps/optimization issues at the moment, though? I listed my rig up top as I'm sure y'all saw, and while it's not terrible by any means, I don't want a game to be unplayable."
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
Sorry, i missed that part, let me go check your rig. Ill edit this post in a moment.
The 6670 might be a slight problem. You won't be able to play it at max settings. I played it originally on a core 2 duo at 2.4ghz (e6600) and a GTX 260 core 216 (old vid card) and was able to play it on high settings at 1920x1080. So, it does run a bit better on nvidia than ati (gw2 is the opposite, but GW2 is not graphically taxing on a video card).
You will def be able to play it, u just woll have to turn a coupple things down or off.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
EQ2 would be a great option for you .. try Antonio Bayle server or Unrest ... The quest and lore are great and endless.. Housing is excellent .. Voiceovers are well done .. Graphics are nicely done .. Classes are unique and fun .. There is a streaming client that will have you up and playing in minutes , along with a very well done F2P model ..
Any idea what I would turn down? I vaguely remember a friend having a similar setup and having only 15-20 fps on High/Ultra, but this was pretty recently, so it may be the fps issues many players have been talking about?
"The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes."
-Marcel Proust
Personally I've not managed to do all the PVE stuff in GW2 after 800 hours of playtime over the last year (I've still not done any explorable dungeons or fractals and only have one lvl 80 character) but then people get through content at different rates.
Rift has a good reputation in terms of content and from what I heard they added lots of content frequently when it first came out though whether that's still the case now I'm sure Hrimnir can tell you. It's also free so you don't need to worry about spending money on a game and then finding out you don't like it. GW2 has free trials now and then but you just missed the last one so you might have to wait a bit for the next one.
I think graphical preference is a very subjective thing unless you're talking about the technical details. Ultimately however it's whether you like what you're looking at on the screen in front of you. I'd look at some in-game videos of all the games suggested to see which ones appeal to you visually.
Just to mention that Final Fantasy XIV is subscription based but there can be an advantage in joining a new game as you'll find lower level zones more populated, the community can have more of a buzz about it, and you might find it easier to get into the community when it's forming than when it's already been around for a while.
I agree with this is as well. EQ2 is/was a great game, and if you want to talk about a ridiculous amount of content. Easily easily 300-400 hours of PVE content if you start from 1. You'll be doing it alone though, the game is almost 10 years old so 90%+ of the playerbase is max level now.
"The surest way to corrupt a youth is to instruct him to hold in higher esteem those who think alike than those who think differently."
- Friedrich Nietzsche
RIFT doesnt cost anything to get involved
- jump into RIFT
if you find want to try something different, purchase GW2
EQ2 fan sites
I have played both and you are simply exaggerating, Rift does not have more content than GW2. Now if you like doing the same raid over and over and count each time you do it as new content or something that is just your own weird valuation system. You also can't just completely throw out the PvP content.
Style is much more important than polygon count. GW2 looks much better than Rift to me. The environments look better, the animations seem more natural etc. That is why I said different not better. Looking at the game in action is going to mean more to someone than someone just saying this one has more polygons. Rift did less with more when it comes to how it used the graphics.
I would agree the smart plan is to try the free to play stuff first and then if none of it sticks move to GW2 and then if still nothing sticks consider the subscription games. I personally would not suggest EQ2 to a newbie. Starting out fresh on a very old game is generally one of the harder things to do and if you are really new at the genre I'd just look elsewhere to get your start.
Agree with Rift and GW2 as solid suggestions. Do try SWTOR too. True, the MMO aspects of it are pretty terrible but it does have the best story out of any MMO you will find and probably would serve as a good introduction to the genre since you can pretty much play it like a single-player RPG with other people around. LOTRO is worth a look too if you don't mind something a little older/somewhat graphically dated.
I think for any new MMO player, the free trial of EVE Online is also worth experiencing. You may either love it or hate it, but in a genre which usually is built on iteration and outright copying, EVE offers something totally unique.
Hello all
I played GW2 a few months ago and i have 100-150 hours game time and i have 2 maxed out chars (Guardian and a Hunter)i did all dungeos all bosses 100% expore (i didn't go PvP exept to explore the zones) so here's my point its alot of fun till lvl 80 and then it starts geting a litle booring,there are 4 things to do each day (if you don't like PvP) kill all world bosses,do all dungeons,do your daily achivements and finish exploring the map(world bosses for gold and items,dungeons for the points(if you don't like the stats/skin of the items in the vendor forget about the farming of the dungeon),daily achivement for points and gold,when you are 100% compleated on the map you done with this task).Each world boss takes like 5min and if i recall there are 7 or 8(if i remember correctly),there are 5-6 dungeons with 3 paths each and it takes like 25-30min with a good group for each part(heres the problem hard to get a group,and a good group is harder to find) daily achivement 10-20min for all daily achivements the rest of your day ingame goes in to exploring
I havent played Rift alot but the in my opinion the endgame is better but the leveling isn't as fun as GW2.
Recently i started playing RF online and the leveling is kinda fun.