Looking for a solo casual friendly MMO.

SamRF

MMOs are my favorite genre of game by far. But my work and family life make it hard to commit anywhere near the time I used to have for gaming. I get little chunks of a few hours here or there, but they aren't consistent and are prone to interruptions.

So I need to play very solo and casual friendly MMOs.

I'd rather not play a free to play MMO, unless you really recommend it. I just don't like to have the constant urge to spend money on thing in the MMO.

Also, I want to be able to just play the game when I come back after a long time, instead of spending much time on remembering combos etc. . If this potentially only applies to a certain class in an mmo, don't hesitate to tell me.

Thanks! 

simsalabim77

GW2 is the best bet, IMO. 

Siug

Elder Scrolls Online.

BizkitNL

Elder Scrolls Online came to my mind without even reading your post.

immodium

Megilindir said:

Stay away from ESO. If you play it solo it is worse than other Elder Scrolls games

In what way?

IMO I'd have to say combat is far better in ESO than the single player games and also crafting.

Now with One Tamriel it plays more like Oblivion/Skyrim as the world scales to your level so you can go where you choose to adventure.

I'll throw LOTRO in the ring. A game that's very solo friendly now. It's F2P though.

SamRF

Megilindir said:

What you ask is basically an utopia. If you want a casual friendly soloish game, why do you choose MMOs to go with?

MMOs are no territory for quality solo plays. They always inherit some kind of grouping neccessity by nature : You have to commit.

Take this advice : buy Mass Effect Andromeda. Play it for many hours to come. You say you are a family man. You need to be always 5 mins afk every now and then here and there..

Stay away from ESO. If you play it solo it is worse than other Elder Scrolls games

With solo, I meant that I don't need to group up and communicate with people in order to play the game properly. Ofc I don't mind dungeons or raids, or even pvp with other players, as long as it doesn't require too much effort and communication. 

esc-joconnor

I'd sat most of them out now would work for you, at least for a few classes as far as difficulty goes. Just avoid the oldschool revival games with their forced grouping and less forgiving mechanics. It would be help to hear more details on your preferences. Asian/Western, Tab/Action combat, Sci-fi/Fantasy, what activities you enjoy, etc.

ConstantineMerus

Besides ESO which is perfect for you, I believe SWTOR would work out as well as long as you skip the high-end raiding. 

Megilindir

What you ask is basically an utopia. If you want a casual friendly soloish game, why do you choose MMOs to go with?

MMOs are no territory for quality solo plays. They always inherit some kind of grouping neccessity by nature : You have to commit.

Take this advice : buy Mass Effect Andromeda. Play it for many hours to come. You say you are a family man. You need to be always 5 mins afk every now and then here and there..

Stay away from ESO. If you play it solo it is worse than other Elder Scrolls games

cheyane

ESO is fine solo I played it solo and did the occasional dungeon in groups. It's a good game give it try.

 GW2 is also a good game.

Oh BTW I loved Black Desert Online too I enjoyed it solo and I did the trading, breeding horses and building up my worker empire and it was loads of fun.

Po_gg

With "I'd rather not play a free to play MMO" you pretty much narrowed down the available options
TSW could be fitting, it is b2p (at least for now, we don't know what the relaunch will bring), the missions are like small stories (so you can play in short chunks and still have the feel of "well done"), and you don't need groups for the main storyline, in fact for a couple story parts you can't even bring a group, because those are "forced-solo" (if there's a forced grouping, there should be the opposite as well, right? ).

SamRF said:

With solo, I meant that I don't need to group up and communicate with people in order to play the game properly. Ofc I don't mind dungeons or raids, or even pvp with other players, as long as it doesn't require too much effort and communication. 

Then it's a great match - and a bit sad, since TSW has maybe one of the best communities, you miss out a lot if not chat with them -, most channels are local and only visible within your current zone, and most people use the global custom channels instead, so if you don't sign up for those channels, you will barely see any communications "while playing the game properly" (*)
Same goes for pvp and dungeons (at least on normal and elite difficulties), you don't need to drop even a simple "Hi" (but of course that would be a common courtesy).



In a sense however I agree with @Megilindir above, maybe a singleplayer game with an online part would be a better fit, like GTA with GTA Online, or the Ghost Recon game HL just tested recently.

(*) from a newcomer's first impressions on the forum, the chat part:
"When I first began playing a few weeks back, chat was completely dead. Having heard whispers of an active, friendly community, this was a little disheartening - even more so because zones actually reduce the number of players also for atmosphere. Then by chance, I happened upon a forum thread on custom chat channels and that all changed."

SavageHorizon

Eso if you want to play an mmo that has no feeling of risk or progression. Mobs are all the same level from start of level to top level fucking boring. 

Kyleran

Others will laugh, but I'll recommend EVE.  With continuous real time training you can progress your character even if you aren't playing. 

Leave for 2 weeks, your character has new skills learned, its a big reason why I play.

Also, the basic mechanics are quite simple, you learn how to mine, or run mission, or explore, pretty much if you come back in a year, you'll easily pick those activities right back up because they won't have significantly changed.

Warning, EVE is very complex, many argue unnecessarily so, but it will keep you entertained for a very long time (perhaps a lifetime)  if you want to explore all possible paths. 

It actually has a F2P option (sort of), you can create an Alpha clone for free and experience much of what EVE has to offer.

But is more of a free trial, they cap your skills at lower levels, don't give you access to the most advance version of ships, and your real time training is 1/2 of normal rate.

It's meant to encourage you to sub of course, but if you decide to let it lapse it's nice to know you can still find skills to set into motion which will continue to train (at a slower rate) while you're away.

As a casual player, there will be activities you can't do, such as capital fleet warfare, but there's plenty of jump in and out  PVP action in groups such as Red vs Blue or the Not Purple, shoot it fleets for a casual player to jump in and enjoy.

Oh, not for everyone, but I still feel it might be of interest in your situation. 

 

Amathe

WoW or GW2 are safe bets for a solo player.