Not sure about exact requirements. First option - Lord of the rings online. Free to play. Based on well-known Tolkien's work (movies/books) so you surely will meet known characters. Graphic: not heavy. Some areas are known to be laggy though. Community: I consider it to be good. It's helpfull, sometimes racing to help others. Enough Kinships (clans), from LGBT friendly to roleplaying or just having fun.
Second option: Istaria. graphic really dated, would run on probably any machine. Free to play. When I played it, community was really small - but helpfull. Many end-game territories where you can test your skills (did I mention Indestructable Fiyakis that almost wiped my own group?). Paying players may become Dragons - yes, fly in the sky - and own land plot, building whatever game offers.
If community is the key, I would reccomend Lotro. If you come to Laurelin, feel free to ask me for some guidance.
+1 to Scorch and Lithuanian, good community, fun to play and not heavy on gfx: your description seems LotRO to me.
Community is one of the bests out there. Gfx is scalable to the point that a few years ago when my card died I've played LotRO for 2 weeks on the onboard GPU and I still had a solid 40-50 fps
(but truth to be told, as Lithuanian said the lag is there some places... that's not a gfx issue, but an engine one. Those incriminated areas have lag spikes even on a pimped out overclocked powerhouse gear...)
edit: since the Anniversary festival is ongoing at the moment, the areas around the festives are more laggy now than usual. It is usually a great time to jump into the game, however, oddly, there's no big sales so far with the birthday. Maybe next week they will announce something...
I've been looking for something to pour time in to, for the run up to Bless Online. I may give LotRO a try again. I was concerned the playerbase would be dead in terms of activity, but according to this thread I was mistaken?
Nope, it is pretty active on every server (that's why they moved everyone together on the 1/3 of the original servers a few years ago), and not only at the endgame - but of course that's where the majority is.
There's a decent number of new players, leveling alts, roleplayers at every range, and now with the festival (since it's for everyone and placed into the starter areas) you can meet with a pretty big crowd on the lower levels too. (unless you roll an elf, their festival area is not really participating the anniversary)
I've been looking for something to pour time in to, for the run up to Bless Online. I may give LotRO a try again. I was concerned the playerbase would be dead in terms of activity, but according to this thread I was mistaken?
I've never seen a problem with LOTRO population in any area. The way they create extra phases as needed (only) helps. I don't often see that I am in another phase anymore. . not as much as before but I always see people running around and chatting.
I am on the two RP servers though.
I think it does most of what the OP is looking for. It depends on what you mean about the graphics. They look beutiful on my 5+ year old machine. . . . yikes. . maybe it is 7+
Comments
First option - Lord of the rings online. Free to play. Based on well-known Tolkien's work (movies/books) so you surely will meet known characters.
Graphic: not heavy. Some areas are known to be laggy though.
Community: I consider it to be good. It's helpfull, sometimes racing to help others. Enough Kinships (clans), from LGBT friendly to roleplaying or just having fun.
Second option: Istaria. graphic really dated, would run on probably any machine. Free to play. When I played it, community was really small - but helpfull. Many end-game territories where you can test your skills (did I mention Indestructable Fiyakis that almost wiped my own group?). Paying players may become Dragons - yes, fly in the sky - and own land plot, building whatever game offers.
If community is the key, I would reccomend Lotro. If you come to Laurelin, feel free to ask me for some guidance.
http://www.mmoblogg.wordpress.com
Community is one of the bests out there. Gfx is scalable to the point that a few years ago when my card died I've played LotRO for 2 weeks on the onboard GPU and I still had a solid 40-50 fps
(but truth to be told, as Lithuanian said the lag is there some places... that's not a gfx issue, but an engine one. Those incriminated areas have lag spikes even on a pimped out overclocked powerhouse gear...)
edit: since the Anniversary festival is ongoing at the moment, the areas around the festives are more laggy now than usual. It is usually a great time to jump into the game, however, oddly, there's no big sales so far with the birthday. Maybe next week they will announce something...
There's a decent number of new players, leveling alts, roleplayers at every range, and now with the festival (since it's for everyone and placed into the starter areas) you can meet with a pretty big crowd on the lower levels too.
(unless you roll an elf, their festival area is not really participating the anniversary)
I am on the two RP servers though.
I think it does most of what the OP is looking for. It depends on what you mean about the graphics. They look beutiful on my 5+ year old machine. . . . yikes. . maybe it is 7+
Wa min God! Se æx on min heafod is!