As far as I know, I've played pretty much all of the big mmo's out there. Most recent big time spender was EQ Phinigel server. But I quit playing around the time Ragnar was launched. I don't really want to "re-play" EQ again. But it did fulfill the desires I have.
1. Extremely time consuming. The more time you put into it, the more you get out of the game.
2. Social aspects that allow you to help others, and it actually be beneficial to them (buffing low level players, etc.)
3. Reliance on other players to make progress (leveling), or undo lost progress (rezzes).
I look at the "top voted released games" on mmorpg.com and I don't think it really helps me much. I've tried Guild Wars 2, and ESO. I didn't like them very much, as I felt I didn't really "need" to interact with anyone else. Same with WoW. I mean, you CAN interact with others, and for some content (dungeons and raids) you will need their help. But it's just a silent zerg rush. Groups of people just going through the motions as they grind and grind. They might as well be NPC's. Same with FFXIV. Leveling feels so lonely, with the only time you need to interact with anyone is when doing a dungeon. And again, it's the same "hello" at the beginning, and "thanks" at the end.
I have thought about EVE. A super deep mmo with a huge reliance on others. I'm just not sure if it's for me.
Comments
WOW classic servers if you want a return to old school 40 man raiding.
Both however are on the unknown and perhaps distant horizon.
"True friends stab you in the front." | Oscar Wilde
"I need to finish" - Christian Wolff: The Accountant
Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
Fools find no pleasure in understanding but delight in airing their own opinions. Pvbs 18:2, NIV
Don't just play games, inhabit virtual worlds™
"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
That or go ahead and give Eve a go. I'm primary PvE but I stayed with Eve for two or three years. Just do your research, read forums about corps. and find a good one compatible with what you think you might like to do. Everyone should play Eve a least once in their life, it's an interesting experience, no other game like it.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
It checks most of your boxes.. with the only questionable one being grouping to progress.. but it depends on what you mean by progress. If you want to complete all the quests, you'll need to group. It's definitely not a zerg fest. The community and population is excellent, at least on the Evernight server (which has a large EU and US population on it). Join a kinship, loads of people looking to do elite world content for deeds and such.
If you just subscribe instead of messing about with the FTP option it's a smooth ride. You could always try the FTP option first though if you haven't played it before. You probably have though.
Not sure if you're looking for something newer though. It's just what I've been sinking my teeth into lately after hopping games for a bit before it.
Morrowind
Fallout 3
Yeah, only one of those is an MMO, but they will all suck your time down to nothing.
The girlfriend comment - I'm married, with 3 kids. We work from home and homeschool. That's why I have so much time.
Tabletop games or LARPing, yeah I don't think that's for me. Number one, is I'm not evensure where to begin to find these groups of people in my area. We just moved to a lakehouse (just waiting on swimming season to get here) in the Charlotte area.
Single player games like Elder Scrolls and Fallout have been what I usually play anymore. I've played them all to death. Waiting on Fallout 4 VR before replaying it. Of course, as great as those games are, they are still single player. The "alone" feeling sucks after a while, which is why I'm here on mmorpg.com.
BTW, I'm not competitive much. I don't like PVP in mmo's at all (well except for early WoW's open world PVP - that was pretty fun...and The Division's Dark Zone). I don't mind games that are centered around PVP like PUBG, Battlefield, or CoD. I've grown to despise any form of MoBA game (Overwatch, DoTA, etc.) While those games can be fun, it ends up being just a sport. The only thing you carry with you when the game ends is perhaps some cosmetic crap. No sense of progression.
Between quests, deeds and the social side either with a kin or just chatting it pretty much hits your items.
There used to be a hobbit kin in the Shire called the Bounders that would do patrols around the place and help anyone out that needed it.
You should look into it again. If you played once your account should still be there. I'm on Landoval and it's pretty active all during the West Coast US day & evening.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Aloha Mr Hand !
there is a flaw in your requirements, most time consuming games are dead or inactive same with games that had social aspects and reliance on other players for progress because of the majority of the playerbase being lonewolves or antisocial.
mabinogi and latale were two games i enjoyed when i last played them because players were definitely more social than the others, however most of the progressing can be done alone.. you can always make friends and progress together and there are instance dungeons (that can also be soloed but the late game dungeons will require better gear or a party)
if you want a game with better graphics, warframe is definitely a great choice, you could farm relics and get parts for weapon/warframe primes to sell for cash currency or craft them. you can voice chat here and also join a guild with discord to socialize. you can revive people when they die as well
I found in most games these days, that people don't socialize anymore. They all have their private guilds and discord servers. There's no reason for them to go on a general chat channel and actually *gasp* socialize with new people.
I'd second Uncharted Waters Online, but be warned, that the new reboot by the new publisher brought back the same issues that it should have easily fixed. You can still get lost for hours in the grind, but you will be at a major disadvantage as a new player.
I'd also like a more casual MMO that had a lot of human interaction, but that doesn't really seem like a thing anymore. At least, not MMOs that have any degree of population left in them.
Except that it crashes every 5 minutes and no one from the devs can get that stupid thing fixed. They just tell you to run it in dx9 mode and you're set. Why would I want to run a game that supports better GFX in a lower setting. Ugh
I never had crashing problems with LOTRO until recently. Now, I'm unable to stay in the game for more than 10 minutes without a crash to desktop. DX9 doesn't help. SSG is actually making things less stable with time. I just finally gave up and uninstalled.
Though currently in early access, its very time consuming and certainly promotes interaction between players, and certainly has one of the friendlies communities I've ever encountered.
If you dp decide to join, then hit me up.
Link: http://playboundless.com/
OP I'm sure you've already thought of, or played, EQ2. If not it can have a ton of group content if you play through all the dungeons. Pretty deep in other game play aspects but of course over time they have made things easier, at least easier than they were.
YEAH Curse you Warhammer and your Mortal empires, I have had 4 hours sleep a night for last 2 weeks, I look like I've just been dug up. (ironic as vampire count is my thing)
But yeah if you want to waste 100.s of hours till you find a MMO that suits, Warhammer will certainly do that.