I’m not at the point of quitting Warcraft yet, but I am beginning to feel the twinges coming on. It’s not just that things are bad; the game’s had rough patches before and bounced back better than ever. Lately, though, Blizzard has been doubling down hard on not understanding what their customers actually want and treating us with overt contempt when told, and it’s getting to the point that I’m beginning to wonder about the ethics of continuing to give them my business.
But MMOs themselves seem like they’re in a significant lull. Wildstar is gone (I know a lot of people didn’t like it, but I loved it), and SWTOR is…its own beast. I love the grindy nature of MMOs for its own sake, for its ability to give me a dopamine boost from constantly collecting stuff and reliably making numbers go upward for a long time, large stretches of which can be spent zoning out entirely to watch movies and listen to music.
So what else do you recommend, gamers? Please pitch me another potential home. I’m down to my last one and it’s less welcoming than it used to be.
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I’m likely not going anywhere, I’m willing to fight the devs for their own good, until they actually flip the switch.
THAT BEING SAID
I hear that SWTOR has some things in the works? I don’t trust when devs hype their own stuff anymore, but they’ve been making some pretty bold statements. “2019 will be SWTOR’s biggest year” and the like. I also am currently playing FFXIV which I know you tried and it was meh for you, but I’m still going to suggest it! Tons of QoL changes coming for that game soon too. As well as pretty meaty patches. Like entire classes being added in one patch.
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That’s a point, I kinda wandered away from FF14 before giving it a fair chance. I was more distracted by other things than dissatisfied with that game, and I know my level 13ish character couldn’t possibly have even begun to explore what the game has to offer.
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The writing has an odd feel to it, compared to other MMOs. Likely because it uses a lot of Final Fantasy games as source material and inspiration, and those games’ stories are very unique.
But the narratives are still incredibly strong, especially if you’re coming into them from BfA. The Shakespearian dialect forces me to read some things more than once to understand what’s going on, but again, it’s just a very unique story.
Btw, if that dialect isn’t Shakespearian, do not correct me, you freakin’ nerds. Nobodyeth liketh a knowitalleth.
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Final Fantasy made me into an evangelist for it, which I guess is the highest praise I can give it.
It doesn’t really take off until you get out of your starting zone, though. I just rerolled a new character and realized that the starting experience is pretty far divorced from the rest of the game.
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Oh. Well, that pretty much explains my experiences. Guess where I still am!
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I love it because it really does feel organically like a more-or-less normal person, who kind of falls into this epic adventure.
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Other than WoW I’ve only played LOTRO and SWTOR. Both are good. If you’re subbed.
LOTRO has a pretty good rp community too, if you’re after it.
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There are some interesting looking titles here, imo. Unfortunately, these are the only things I can really see as being of interest and they’re… next year.
Otherwise, the only other ‘big’ mmo is ESO. Lotro is pretty good, as Sarestha said. Just old and reliant on its cash-store if you’re not subbed.
Most MMO’s these days are on steam - do a surf through there and you might find some of interest, since 90% of them are free.
((And for reference, those in that video? Are -western- MMO’s, so they’re what we’re used to.))
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Huh, I didn’t realize there were a bunch coming out. I’d been thinking the genre itself was in a downswing. I mean, it clearly is, but maybe not as much of one as I’d thought.
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I agree. I had assumed the genre was essentially dead, asides from some old leeches kinda hanging on, but this gives me some hope. I really want this genre to be revitalized and given some value again. I grew up with it, after all.
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FFXIV owns
It loses some charm if you aren’t familiar with the franchise, since there are a lot of token staples in there where half the fun is seeing them pop up. It’s very different than WoW in a lot of ways, too. But man is it good at what it does.
Just be aware the “proper” way to play your first class is to ignore sidequests and just focus on Blue quests (these open up essential things like dungeons. You can ignore the class-starter ones though) and Main Story Quests (the ones with the flaming circle). I remember you posted you felt grindy and, well, that’s probably why; the first class is tuned to be completed via the Main Story with only a few roulettes and stuff thrown in to close gaps here and there.
Just be aware that, like, most FF games, it’s a very slow burn. You’ll have like 30 hours of killing chickens or fetching bear butts wondering what’s going to happen and then it flips on a dime to go off the rails into the “real” story. It’s pretty much how all FF have ever gone and is part of the fun, but you’ll be around the 40’s or so before things probably start to make sense.
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FF14 has already been mentioned, so I’ll further support what others have said. I’m still not much further than you got but I had a good feeling about it.
I’ll also shill the Warhammer Online private server for anyone interested in large scale PvP, though I’m not sure you’d particularly like it Azhaar. As much as I like it, it’s still a deeply flawed game.
The first video game I remember playing back when I was ten or so and I only got a half hour of “computer time” a week was the MMO Puzzle Pirates. Haven’t played in forever but it still seems to be around and my brother has equally fond memories. Minigame based, progression seemed to be mostly cosmetic but if I remember correctly everything degraded over time so it’ll probably be a time sink if you’re into that sort of thing.
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I should maybe mention that I loathe PvP, so any game based around that is not gonna be to my taste.
I miss Pirates of the Caribbean Online. That was a fun MMO.
That and it was acronymed into Potco, which amuses me.
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There’s a revival project I think, I never kept up with it but it looks like it’s live. Thought about mentioning it myself.
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https://tlopo.com/ is the one I’ve seen.
“The Legend of Pirates Online”. It’s absolutely free, too, supposedly. Maybe I’ll try it sometime, if it’s a faithful recreation of the game. I’m genuinely surprised it hasn’t been nuked from orbit, though, considering how protective developers and companies are over their properties.
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Especially Disney properties.
I only played it extremely briefly so I can’t strictly recommend it, but Lord of the Rings Online is supposed to be good and has its own housing system with instanced neighborhoods.
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I’ve played it for a while. It’s old and somewhat stiff, feels older than WoW though it’s not, but it -actually- supports roleplayers. It does have its own housing, too, and its familiar to play. The f2p version is pretty lenient too, so. Since it’s on steam, I’d wholeheartedly recommend giving it a go if you enjoy Lotr properties.
Edit --> I give. I GIVE UP, YOU’VE BROKEN ME. …I’m going to download FFXIV. It can’t go any worse than my return to Swtor did and I have a gmail account that I can use for it. I’ll just have to pay attention to try and get onto one of the RP servers.