I didn't have many expectations in the early days, so they were not really surpassed. UO, SWG and EQ2 were all amazing experiences.
GW2 was the one surpassing my expectations. After leaving SWG and then EQ2, I did not expect to find another MMO I could invest the majority of my time in. It turned out to have enough variety to keep me occupied for 3+ years.
But let me explain. When I heard Cryptic is making what at that time as still starry eyes hopeful of MMORPGs
My dream MMO was D&D MMO set in Forgotten Realms, and what better than one that is set as successor of Neverwinter Nights.
To hear that Cryptic , that produced failure as Champions and STO - with their "print MMOs quickly" engine, and under lead of Bill Roper - Is making Neverwinter MMO
And not only that - the MMO was planned to be twitch ACTION based. Complete opposite of what D&D is.
this was crushing and disappointing. So much i didnt even want to try it when it was released.
But when i finally did, i was more positively surprised than with any MMO previously.
The writing was superb. The combat system was actually more fun than most. And all in all it was incredibly fun experience.
I am kinda confused, if your dream MMO is DnD MMO, in forgotten realms. They already have one, and had one then it is called DND online, and it is basically like neverwinter nights but a MMO. I played both, I would say Never Winter, is basically just a copy of world of war craft, and none of it felt like DND. I enjoyed both though, I quit never winter when I figured out why every time i joined PVP, i would instantly die over and over, even when I figured out how to play. They also want to much money to be a white skinned elf lol.
GW1: I played the beta and while doing a mission in the Maguma Jungle I was sure I need to get and play this game at launch. It was perfect for me.
Tera: I didnt enjoy the beta much but the Valkyrie promotion lately with rewards for getting to level 65 changed my view of the game. It's one of the better MMO's out there.
No love for Anarchy Online around these parts? Launch was horrible, but man, that one blew me away and then some. It was my first MMORPG love and I'm not that fond of sci fi at all..
/Cheers, Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
None. The three I have gotten to max level in seemed fun for awhile, but the fun quickly evaporated at endgame. I couldn't even bring myself to level past 60 when I played World of Warcrap back in late 2010-early 2011. The second time I tried in early 2015 I couldn't endure the boredom to play past level 50. Too bad I missed Vanilla. Too bad I missed original Everkill 1 and UO. I was more than old enough, but I wasn't playing MMORPGs back then. Or maybe not too bad. I have a decent imagination, so it's possible that hearing and reading stories about them from players is good enough. I have attempted and sampled many more mmorpgs, but none of them seemed fun enough for me to devote much time to them. And the more I play the currently available mmorpgs, the more I grow dissatisfied and even contemptuous of them.
I have yet to play a true role-playing game online. I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but I don't believe any yet exist at this time.
As long as level and gear progression schemes, closed narrative generic questlines, and repetitive endgame grind are the norm and the standard, I do not expect to.
For those of you who believe those are essential elements in an mmorpg, you can all hold your breath for incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. However, many, most, if not all of us may be dead and buried or cremated before they become a viable option for games. And that's if they ever do.
WoW was simply beautiful. The art direction was truly wonderful and although we take it for granted now, back then it was mesmerizing. My jaw literally dropped when I first saw the forests around Auberdine in the Night Elf zone.
The first time I picked up flight on CoH was such a liberating experience. All my childhood days of reading comic books and playing tabletop RPGs about superheroes (Champions, Heroes Unlimited) all became a visual reality with CoH. I don't think any other game will truly capture my love for superheroes like my initial wonderment I had with CoH. Cryptic is a crappy company but I'll always be grateful for CoH.
I have 3 that ironically I haven't touched in years(as a matter of personal taste not because they were objectively bad) UO I had no concrete expectations so it exceeded em by default. WOW , that things a freak. EVE another game that went it's own way with no apologies. I wasn't really a fan of either but they all had one thing in common. The design was based on what the creators wanted to play, not what a market study or focus group said was a must. Game design is at least in part a creative endeavor, that requires some level of passion for the creation. It's probably damn hard to get passionate about checking tick boxes off a todo list you could care less about otherwise. Might as well call em TPS reports as design docs.
Wurm and only Wurm. All other MMOs have disappointed in some way or another. With Wurm I wasn't expecting good combat or graphics but everything else has far exceeded my expectations. I've been especially impressed with the quality of their wiki, community, and the regularity of meaningful updates.
The recent cooking update for instance took one of the worst areas of crafting in a game with great crafting and made it one of the best.
CoH surprised me, enough that I played it all 8 years. EQ2 also was better than I thought it would be. I had quite a chip on my shoulder over anything that said 'EQ' in the title, after the first one decimated my Tribes clan. But a friend talked me into trying it, and I liked it enough that it has the third most hours of any game I played after CoH and DCUO.
Recently? Nothing really. I'm playing ASTA, which is better than I thought it would be, but it did not surprise me like CoH and EQ2.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
Back then was Guild Wars 2, but only at first. It wanted to revolutionize MMO's and it had nice designs and ideas but the novelty was washed away when it came to the endgame.
WoW, Druid was the best class I've ever played in an MMO, to instantly become a cat, bear, bird, moonkin, while exploring was the best. GW2, the most fluid game I've ever played, the best combat of any MMO. SWTOR class stories. ESO, exploration and questing up to 50. SWG, exploration, professions, and sandbox play. L2, strangely addictive and even though I don't PvP a lot I played it for years, constantly. Aion had nice questing and a nice flight mechanic and fun quests. Played tons more but these were/are great.
"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
Prior to WoW I'd been playing Warcraft since Warcraft II. I had no MMORPG experience, however I do remember playing Asheron's Call to some extent. I never got very far with Asheron's Call, and I don't really have any momentous memories about it. But WoW really sucked me in all the way up through Burning Crusade. Wrath ruined everything for me. I skipped Cataclysm I think this is around the time AoC and WAR were supposed to be WoW killers.
I played them both. Age of Conan is where all my friends migrated to. I had a great time in Tortage and going to Tarantia (I think that's the big white city) and the whole game had a really awesome Ancient vibe, yet I felt too squishy and ended up dipleased with the gameplay and the general feeling. It was all too scattered out. It felt too single player.
My friends also all tried WAR. I barely got anywhere in that game. The gameplay felt clunky or something. I just never got immersed.
After that the WoW killer was supposed to be SWTOR. I played it briefly in the beta and hated it absolutely. Around this time I went back to WoW. Eventually I did come around to SWTOR and that was a great single player game, but as an MMO it's a failure.
Now I have nothing. All the WoW killers failed to kill WoW and I hate Broken Shore in WoW with a passion. I feel a great void and immense disappointment with this genre that was so rich and provided me with so much.
Dungeons and Dragons Online - was amazing, had that real table top feel, then, for reasons I cannot fathom, they felt the need to be more "generic style MMO" and really killed the whole feel of the game.
Guild Wars 2: This game was amazing on every level to me.. I had a blast doing everything in this game, map exploration, dungeons, personal story, world vs word, fractals, I loved it all. Then for some stupid reason they released Heart of Thorns, and it was a full buffet of everything I didn't like, in fact they invented things to put in that I could not stand.
Trove - It's such a simple looking game, but it's mechanics were spot on, just smooth as glass in how they worked, for the blocky little world that it is, nothing felt awkward, slow, or clunky. Sadly, the upper level grind was insane, and I burned out.
But let me explain. When I heard Cryptic is making what at that time as still starry eyes hopeful of MMORPGs
My dream MMO was D&D MMO set in Forgotten Realms, and what better than one that is set as successor of Neverwinter Nights.
To hear that Cryptic , that produced failure as Champions and STO - with their "print MMOs quickly" engine, and under lead of Bill Roper - Is making Neverwinter MMO
And not only that - the MMO was planned to be twitch ACTION based. Complete opposite of what D&D is.
this was crushing and disappointing. So much i didnt even want to try it when it was released.
But when i finally did, i was more positively surprised than with any MMO previously.
The writing was superb. The combat system was actually more fun than most. And all in all it was incredibly fun experience.
I am kinda confused, if your dream MMO is DnD MMO, in forgotten realms. They already have one, and had one then it is called DND online, and it is basically like neverwinter nights but a MMO. I played both, I would say Never Winter, is basically just a copy of world of war craft, and none of it felt like DND. I enjoyed both though, I quit never winter when I figured out why every time i joined PVP, i would instantly die over and over, even when I figured out how to play. They also want to much money to be a white skinned elf lol.
Umm Dungeons and Dragons Online is actually set in Ebberon, not Forgotten Realms, it has a Forgotten Realms Expansion.. Just FYI.
EQ1 and Anarchy Online....I thought both were a blast from the get go...WoW was good though it felt a little dumbed down after playing EQ for 4-5 years.
Comments
GW2 was the one surpassing my expectations. After leaving SWG and then EQ2, I did not expect to find another MMO I could invest the majority of my time in. It turned out to have enough variety to keep me occupied for 3+ years.
I would have have to say DAoC because it didn't seem all that great and I wasn't expecting it to be good. At first glance it seemed like another EQ.
I tried EQ when it first came out but thought it was shit so I went back to UO for a while.
~~ postlarval ~~
Please do not respond to me, even if I ask you a question, its rhetorical.
Please do not respond to me
I am kinda confused, if your dream MMO is DnD MMO, in forgotten realms. They already have one, and had one then it is called DND online, and it is basically like neverwinter nights but a MMO. I played both, I would say Never Winter, is basically just a copy of world of war craft, and none of it felt like DND. I enjoyed both though, I quit never winter when I figured out why every time i joined PVP, i would instantly die over and over, even when I figured out how to play. They also want to much money to be a white skinned elf lol.
Tera: I didnt enjoy the beta much but the Valkyrie promotion lately with rewards for getting to level 65 changed my view of the game. It's one of the better MMO's out there.
/Cheers,
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
I have yet to play a true role-playing game online. I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but I don't believe any yet exist at this time.
As long as level and gear progression schemes, closed narrative generic questlines, and repetitive endgame grind are the norm and the standard, I do not expect to.
For those of you who believe those are essential elements in an mmorpg, you can all hold your breath for incredibly advanced Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality. However, many, most, if not all of us may be dead and buried or cremated before they become a viable option for games. And that's if they ever do.
WoW was simply beautiful. The art direction was truly wonderful and although we take it for granted now, back then it was mesmerizing. My jaw literally dropped when I first saw the forests around Auberdine in the Night Elf zone.
The first time I picked up flight on CoH was such a liberating experience. All my childhood days of reading comic books and playing tabletop RPGs about superheroes (Champions, Heroes Unlimited) all became a visual reality with CoH. I don't think any other game will truly capture my love for superheroes like my initial wonderment I had with CoH. Cryptic is a crappy company but I'll always be grateful for CoH.
UO I had no concrete expectations so it exceeded em by default. WOW , that things a freak. EVE another game that went it's own way with no apologies. I wasn't really a fan of either but they all had one thing in common. The design was based on what the creators wanted to play, not what a market study or focus group said was a must. Game design is at least in part a creative endeavor, that requires some level of passion for the creation. It's probably damn hard to get passionate about checking tick boxes off a todo list you could care less about otherwise. Might as well call em TPS reports as design docs.
The recent cooking update for instance took one of the worst areas of crafting in a game with great crafting and made it one of the best.
EQ2 also was better than I thought it would be. I had quite a chip on my shoulder over anything that said 'EQ' in the title, after the first one decimated my Tribes clan. But a friend talked me into trying it, and I liked it enough that it has the third most hours of any game I played after CoH and DCUO.
Recently? Nothing really. I'm playing ASTA, which is better than I thought it would be, but it did not surprise me like CoH and EQ2.
The world is going to the dogs, which is just how I planned it!
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Such waste of potential.
GW2, the most fluid game I've ever played, the best combat of any MMO.
SWTOR class stories.
ESO, exploration and questing up to 50.
SWG, exploration, professions, and sandbox play.
L2, strangely addictive and even though I don't PvP a lot I played it for years, constantly.
Aion had nice questing and a nice flight mechanic and fun quests.
Played tons more but these were/are great.
"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
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
Prior to WoW I'd been playing Warcraft since Warcraft II. I had no MMORPG experience, however I do remember playing Asheron's Call to some extent. I never got very far with Asheron's Call, and I don't really have any momentous memories about it. But WoW really sucked me in all the way up through Burning Crusade. Wrath ruined everything for me. I skipped Cataclysm I think this is around the time AoC and WAR were supposed to be WoW killers.
I played them both. Age of Conan is where all my friends migrated to. I had a great time in Tortage and going to Tarantia (I think that's the big white city) and the whole game had a really awesome Ancient vibe, yet I felt too squishy and ended up dipleased with the gameplay and the general feeling. It was all too scattered out. It felt too single player.
My friends also all tried WAR. I barely got anywhere in that game. The gameplay felt clunky or something. I just never got immersed.
After that the WoW killer was supposed to be SWTOR. I played it briefly in the beta and hated it absolutely. Around this time I went back to WoW. Eventually I did come around to SWTOR and that was a great single player game, but as an MMO it's a failure.
Now I have nothing. All the WoW killers failed to kill WoW and I hate Broken Shore in WoW with a passion. I feel a great void and immense disappointment with this genre that was so rich and provided me with so much.
Dungeons and Dragons Online - was amazing, had that real table top feel, then, for reasons I cannot fathom, they felt the need to be more "generic style MMO" and really killed the whole feel of the game.
Guild Wars 2: This game was amazing on every level to me.. I had a blast doing everything in this game, map exploration, dungeons, personal story, world vs word, fractals, I loved it all. Then for some stupid reason they released Heart of Thorns, and it was a full buffet of everything I didn't like, in fact they invented things to put in that I could not stand.
Trove - It's such a simple looking game, but it's mechanics were spot on, just smooth as glass in how they worked, for the blocky little world that it is, nothing felt awkward, slow, or clunky. Sadly, the upper level grind was insane, and I burned out.