story- SWTOR
Raids-Everquest, pre gates of Discord
lore-Secret World
character customization-City of Heroes/Villains
mentoring-City of Heroes/Villains
scaling -City of Heroes/Villains mission instances scaled to party size
combat-WoW
housing-EQ2
crafting-EQ2
setting- SWTOR/Secret World/DCUO/WoW
EQ by far beats all of these games. You could argue it was the game that started these type of MMOs. It just suffered from being an old game and new options hitting the market. Even going back to it, a larger playerbase would make it so good. Its ironic that all the things people complain about that classic has, EQ still has. Its biggest downfall for today and especially the newer generation is that you had to actually read text. Even with some guides, it still took a long time to get certain things or do certain things. Epic weapon quests take forever but its so rewarding when you complete it.
ESO and old school SWTOR have the best storylines. You just wanted to play it out to see what happens. Didn’t even care too much about the mmo aspect of SWTOR, the stories were amazing and they intertwined them in the dungeons. ESO is the same way, you could do pve with ppl or by yourself and the story is just so rich.
FF series has a nice calming demeanor to it. Its been awhile since I played but it always seemed like the devs actually cared about their playerbase.
GW2 was gorgeous but when they blamed their playerbase for their own security shortcomings, I was out. Played multiple MMOs and never once got “hacked”. Played GW2 and a large swath of players had their accounts “hacked” and they blamed their playerbase for it, simply absurd. Can’t trust a company with garbage security measures.
SWTOR had the best campaign, for the first 2-3 expansions. It went down the drain as expansions went on.
SWTOR = Story telling
GW2 = Art and environment
Rift = Open world events
Wildstar = Combat
FF14 = Player housing / crafting
Firefall = Movement
Warcraft = Above average at everything
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All I’m hearing is Runescape is the best MMO ever. I agree! lol
PvP was Runescape Classic. Levels barely mattered, gear was the main component with all of it being easily accessible. As for games still out I’m not sure as I don’t tend to PvP in anything anymore.
PvE: This is subjective on what you expect from end game. RS3’s end game is fantastic and challenging. There’s 0 lockouts besides on the raids. You can spam bosses for your loot, but the drop rate won’t be 1 in ~30 it’ll be 1/512 or something similar.
Auction house is again Runescape. Wildstar did a similar thing with “buy orders” where you put a price and if somebody is willing to sell for that price you’ll get it.
Sorry, I love Runescape even after 20 years of playing it
Amen to that.
If I could create my dream game I’d pretty much be copying the game play loop of osrs
I’m shocked no mmo has attempted it
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I played it very briefly, not enough to give a good assessment.
aion came up with cool extendable weapons.
that was pretty neat. but nobody else picked it up and aion died so idk 
EQ2 had the best housing. It is so customizable the they made sold a house that was nothing but a plot if land so people could build what they wanted to.
Good question… for me it would have to be:
- Story: Tie between Final Fantasy 14 and Guild Wars 2 (especially from Heart of Thorns onward).
- Combat: Guild Wars 2 gets the award here, it is by far the best combat system in an MMO to date, no other MMO compares.
- End Game: This is again a tie between World of Warcraft and Guild Wars 2. Guild Wars 2 has a very unique end-game and it really stands out, but World of Warcraft definitely has that loop that you want to keep coming back for.
- Housing: Going to give this one to ESO, as tempted as I was to give it another tie, but this time between ESO and RIFT (I do not like the housing system from FF14 at all), ESO does a far better job.
- Transmog: RIFT gets this award, hands down. They have the best transmog system in the genre.
- Class Design: This is a tie between RIFT and Guild Wars 2. RIFT for all its flaws had one of the best class systems in the MMO space just for how much sheer customization there was available. Guild Wars 2 gets a huge nod because of just how many builds can exist, and how many more variations have been added with expansions.
- Mounts: Guild Wars 2, hands down, without question. No other MMO compares.
Best overall? That’s honestly a three-way tie. Final Fantasy 14, Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft are all equal in my book for their own reasons.
This is only out of the MMOs I’ve played. There may be better versions I haven’t experienced yet.
Housing: SWTOR
Professions: WoW: WoD
Combat: WoW, pre AOE caps. (Best combat for me was also in WoD.)
Casual content: FFXIV
Leveling content: SWTOR
Character Customization: DCUO or WoW: SL
End-Game Content: WoW (Prior to SL, but not WoD this time)
Collector Content (stuff to just collect): WoW
PvP: SWTOR (nothing beats Huttball)
WoW’s still the leading MMO in my eyes, but I feel like I’m only scratching the surface with FFXIV. I gave ESO a shot and absolutely hated it. I really liked SWTOR until you finished the class stories, but those stories were great. DCUO was a really fun game to make a character for, but it got boring really fast.
For me EQ was the best to level in and grind content.
Sitting in a zone with a few people BS while pulls came in while we med for mana was fun. You got to just basically sit inside a private discord server BS while playing a game together. It was fun.
Combat wasn’t fast paced, and you really only had 1-8 buttons at most to press. It was a relaxing chill game.
Story/Lore: WoW/SWtoR
Housing: Wildstar
Combat (Responsiveness and Enjoyment): Wildstar/WoW
Questing/Leveling: SWtoR
Graphics: BDO
Environment: GW2
Endgame: WoW
PvP: WoW
Character Customization: GW2/BDO
Wow this is actually really good data specially for does who have play some if not all these games… to create a flowchart of at least the forums vocal % by repeated names of games mention in X or Y category, checking by unique accounts and likes… etc.
I love it!
I’ll write up a rough summary later on when I’m at my computer
It won’t be wildly accurate due to I didn’t use like a format but it’ll still paint a picture
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I’ve played most of them, I disagree with a lot of people, but I think both popularity of certain games along with me being older than many puts me in a position that I can more thoroughly evaluate all these games. And even so, I do forget and have forgotten of some that shine in more niche departments. Really, there’s absolutely no MMO that does a lot above mediocre, WoW being the most mediocre of all (there’s nothing great about it, and there never was, but it’s all so balanced that it gives a more horizontal experience compared to others)
For instance, I see lots of people applauding GW2, when GW1 was far superior in almost every single regard except for tech (of course, it was the prequel, less tech available).
I’ve seen one mentioning DCUO, which’s far inferior compared to older Champions Online (which was supposed to be Marvel’s MMO, got re-branded due to copyright shenanigans), and Champions Online being much inferior to it’s predecessor “City of Heroes / City of Villains”, funnily enough the Super Hero MMO genre only got downgraded over the years.
One that shines with the whole “Wolrd Quest” thing was Warhammer Online, which I forgot completely, it also had some above average PvP, but could never beat GW1.
Oh, and there are tons of the less known MMOs that were either too niche or too indie, like Mortal Online, Darkfall Online, even Age of Conan (best combat system model for an MMO, although people at Funcom sucks at making any games, so it was never properly finished, and even worse balanced. ESO took a bit from it, but to me ESO still looks way too clunky).
Mortal and Darkfall were basically open world fantasy MMO with a slap of Second Life to it, they were prototypes for what I believe to be the “real MMO experience”, but both failed, imo due to lack of tech, talented developers, and money.
And let’s not forget Star Wars Galaxies, which was a far better MMO compared to SWTOR, SWTOR only really has the story going for it, and being less outdated, while Galaxies was a far superior game as a whole.
Anyway, that’s just to paint a quick picture.
PS: I do abhor all asian MMOs, nothing’s worse than those both in a business model perspective, and in overall quality. Some do impress with graphics, though, like BDO.
Dark Age of Camelot pvp was chef’s kiss good. 3 faction open world land conquest.
Warhammer Online made by the same people had good pvp as well.
This is coming from someone who really dislikes pvp in wow.
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What I have played the most (likes years of playing):
- FFXI
- FFXIV (still play sometimes)
- Wow (just came back after not playing for a few years)
- Aion
- Tera
Wow is like an old comfy pajama, I keep going back to it.
From the ones I’ve played:
GW2 - pvp and overall zone environments
Asheron’s Call - community, sandbox class design, open world continuity and ability for players to drive / create story
WoW - questing, instanced play, flying, lore, storytelling mechanisms
BDO - crafting, travel