Guild Wars 2 and ESO are often suggested first when others look for PvE games. I have played both and neither suit me for different reasons. Guild Wars 2 felt like I was playing just to play at end-game. There were no goals, other than story completion and collecting cosmetic items. Elder Scrolls Online just felt bland. It had a ridiculous number of quests, but they were thinly-veiled traditional MMO copypasta fetch / kill X boars / postal service quests. The story in ESO didn't draw me in, so I was left with nothing to be interested in.
Please don't suggest Witcher 3. The combat felt awkward and unresponsive, and the level-based combat doesn't make sense for an open-world game.
I'm looking for some fun PvE combat and a story that is either very compelling, or can be ignored and still enjoy the game. The game doesn't have to be a MMO, as long as it has decent RPG elements, like character progression.
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I started my MMO gaming playing Dark Age of Camelot. I enjoyed the PvE in that game and the PvP was also fun. I'm older now, and not as interested in PvP. DAOC has not aged well, too. The interface and game's systems felt old when I last played it 5+ years ago, so I can't imagine trying it again.
I did enjoy Guild Wars 2 until I reached end-game and felt like there was not enough to keep me interested in playing longer.
There is so much content to do, which isn't just speed boost to 110 and endlessly grind gear. You can solo old raids/old content (which I classify as content because in WoW you get rewards (mostly cosmetic being the main thing) for doing dungeons and raids). WoD garrison has a ton to do (a lot of people didn't like garrisons though, but I did), collecting pets/mounts, achievements, crafting...just so much.
The lore is amazing too, very few MMOs have a starting area...for each race...with tons of lore in each race...that is EASY to find and not having to look outside the game to find it.
Sadly no PVE MMO has beat out WoW on content and quality, while also continually updating the graphics (like Blizzard does with WoW) at the same time.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
I have played it, and the elitism of the community turned me away. I never found a group that I felt welcome in. I also played the latest expansion for 6 months and never found a legendary item.
I have played that as well. It suffered from the same community problems I had with WoW.
Thought WoW was doing a level down system soon? So low level content would still be a challenge? So something like Molten Core would need a raid to clear it again?
Sounds like your problem is not the games but the people. Have you thought of joining a guild that plays many MMOs. Grievance HERE has their foot in every MMO and welcomes their members in all games.
You missed the boat.
I enjoyed FFXI for years and it was NOT about lame tactics like "end game" or instances or needing raid content to feel challenged.
The game was pretty much a forced grouping game,so you got to enjoy content helping each other.
No hand holding,no linear direction no fake looking markers floating over heads or sparkles or arrows.
The FUN aspect was the abilities,your class and the combat/group structure.You cannot mimic that in a game designed to solo,it is impossible.So whatever FUN word is being used for games like Wow and it's clones where you wander around solo or in instances is badly misused.
So i now sit and wait for a new game to come along and bring back the FUN experience because nothing outside of a few old school games does it.Sadly now instead of big studios doing big things with games,we have thousands of mickey mouse studios trying to sell us crap.
It gets frustrating because we used to pick between a handful of developers and games,now we have to sift through thousands just to be disappointed.
I believe sooner or later we will see another FUN game to play with other REAL players,until that time,single player games can only offer a half assed FUN experience.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.