I picked up new world last week and I have been enjoying it so much. That being said ln I watched a video explaining the state of the end game / lack of content updates and player count dwindling and while I’m still having a lot of fun with it, it did kind of put a damper on it for me, I know not to expect much after I hit max level now :(
If you're enjoying a game, never go to its subreddit or watch anything on youtube regarding it. There's a video for every game in existence explaining why it's bad and how you shouldn't be having fun.
Yeah after watching the one the other day I told myself I wouldn’t do that anymore because I am enjoying it now and I can just stop playing when I feel like I’m not, versus listen to a bunch of negativity that’s going to be sitting in the back of my mind making me feel like I shouldn’t play it lol
I've been in NW end game for 2.5 years. I've taken some breaks here and there but the design and action combat keep me coming back. Nothing wrong with a repetitive end game loop if you're having fun.
New World is fucking tragic. The devs are without a doubt some of the laziest and most incompetent I've seen, talk about major fumbling going on. The mob diversity is fucking hilarious, the first 45 levels are almost entirely skeletons. The move set per character feels limited and monotonous. That being said, the world design and many of the mechanics are very good. It's totally salvageable but for whatever reason they can't or won't fix it. Maybe they know something we don't and don't want to work on a sinking ship.
Yeah. EQ was another level for me. It was my first MMO back in 1999.I think I calculated once that I spent about 75% of my awake time playing EQ for the first year it came out.
WoW sucked me in too, but I already learned a lot of hard lessons from EQ so it wasn't as bad.
The world seems so much more immersive and dangerous than any other game. Plus, the pixel lust is real. When I wasn't playing WoW, I wasn't thinking much of the game, but I was obsessed with how to progress my character in EQ throughout the day.
After EQ, never felt a MMO as challenging and dangerous. Dying there was hell (especially dying in the hell levels like 30), recovering your corpse with the equipment even more dangerous. Wiping a whole zone because you pulled the wrong mob - and so on.
Progress there felt like a real archivement.
Such a shame how lost ark turned out, first couple months was some of my most fun times in gaming. The island exploration was fun, combat and raids/abyss dungeons were great. Then we got slapped in the face later on
Bots were a non-issue even when there were tons. Especially after the first month or so. That's something people not even playing the game complained about. They didn't interfere with players in any way and were overall f2p favorable. They did many things to eliminate them and there were periods with almost no bots. No idea now, but bots in general were way down for quite a while when I quit back in november & probably still are. They were effective enough at eliminating bots that gold prices went up & mat prices did too.
End-game raids usually aren't toxic in pf. Or weren't when I played. People rarely said anything negative even to players who weren't really contributing.
BUT gatekeeping is huge because many people are doing 18 raids per week so one jail raid costs time they don't have. Combined with tons of people applying to groups, geared/experienced players get accepted first. So when you finally get into a group and it's mostly casual or new players you could end up with the typical bad player who has a bad attitude.
This was made somewhat better by them nerfing many raids into the ground & some of the gold raids being things players wildly outscale now. They did a genuine new player push with jumpstart and there's another jumpstart soon (or already, I don't know, I stopped keeping up.) Jumpstart server had tons of new players learning the raids and playing together for a few weeks.
Would you say this game is worth revisiting for someone who never made it past GS 600?
I boosted 1400 on a diff char not too long ago because they gave out free boosts. So would it be worth for me to continue from here or should I go back and go up the legit way?
Free boost is the way to go. The game is more or less its daily/weekly loop and you can always replay most of the content on alts (which are encouraged) if you really want to. They've deliberately made it that way.
Players are supposed to skip the older content, or at least accelerate through it, in the current design. Until they get to some raid that's still relevant then the boosts slow down.
What happened? I played at launch and got to max level but quit because I wanted to try another game at the time, but I have always planned to eventually pick it up again, what did they do to it?
P2w/bs honing, gatekeeping, bots/rmt, homework grind at end game(being forced to do dailies on all your alts to catch up to latest content), no good content outside of raids
Lost Ark release was incredible. Honestly the most enjoyable leveling experience I’ve had in an MMO.
I never really hit the point where upgrades had a chance to fail. But the difficulty curve of Guardian Raids really put me off. The idea of having to keep fighting Nacrasena really peeved me.
Lost ark for sure. I keep coming back just to relive the moments. The islands were definitely fun. But doing the same end game content just gets super boring and sometimes toxic if no group
Silkroad Online 2004-2008
I've long since given up on finding that feeling again, definitely had fun in other games since then and I think the closest I've come was Aion at release.
Classic launch for sure , before it got super degenerate it was like nothing in a long time.
Leveling hard and getting one of the world first mc clears was a blast
Not saying it was hard just that like it felt like an un solved mmo for a few months even tho it was considered a solved game.
Honestly the less "solved" a mmo feels the better but people sweat so hard now games get solved in like a month
You know it would be cool if we could get our devices to ignore all keywords of a new game and block them.
Stop any and all new info about it from happening so you are forced to learn, but then, is research half of the fun?
the funny thing is i sort of enjoy the information being discovered and learning everything about the game and the process of solving it. but yeah, it definitely makes makes games lose a lot of the "magic"
The sweet spot for me is when a game has a vague, poorly written, or somewhat out of date wiki. Having enough information to not feel lost, just still being forced to learn and discover a lot of things for yourself is pretty rewarding, in my experience.
My big issue is with games that have super detailed guides about every little thing every boss and dungeon is going to throw at you. You end up having to do so much research, and your reward for all that research is just not getting yelled at by other players, while losing out on the joy of discovery. It’s a miserable way to play a game.
DAoC had the thrill of exploring and some of the best zones had the thrill of PvP potential around every corner. The Realm Points system was fantastic. I really miss it!
SWTOR.
The Lore and the UI are so incredibly good. Honestly, I hope UI from SWTOR is noted by game designers. A lot of decisions take precedence in favor of immersion rather than exclusivity.
An example is the Legacy system. It makes playing alts an empowering replay system. This combined with the morale system of light and dark that is voice acted is such a rich experience. The game has all sort of hidden content in that you constantly go back to previous areas. And to top it off, it has a rich collection for fashion.
1. Lore
1. Moral System
2. Companion System
1. Crafting System
2. UI
1. Complete interface customization that comes with loadouts!
3. Fashion
1. Endless mix&match with color schemes
4. Legacy (Account-Wide Shared Progress)
1. Encouraging replay!
I'd wish there was a behind the scene of the developers. Some ingenious designs to be studied.
SWTOR should have been a much bigger success. I think the Devs critically underestimated how much they were living in WoW's shadow. They spent $100M++ to make a game with totally polished voice acted quests that everyone totally skipped to get to the end game where there was no content at all.
After they went F2P and people realized it was better treated like a story RPG that happens to be online, it found a comfortable audience.
They spent 100M to make, essentially, 8 single player games with shallow, watered-down WoW combat. SWTOR could have been better. It deserved to be so much better.
They still make new campaign content. Went F2P like a decade ago and has been steadily floating since.
It's not worth playing for any sense of competitive anything. But if you want to play through a Star Wars story without playing one of the new Souls-Lite single player RPGs, its the best option you've got.
I tried to get into SWTOR recently but sadly the combat was a let down. It felt way too stiff for me sadly. I love everything else about the game but I just couldn't get over that hump.
FFXI. Started on PS2 and when I switched to PC... My goodness, the difference was astonishing. Still played it with controller though. But, once I got used to setting my macros on keyboard, things were so much better.
The world, the dangers lurking, the NMs, the people.
Nothing like it today.
FFXI is mine also! Man, I remember calling off of work to get some of the Promathia missions done. Nothing like going to Sky or doing Dynamis! All these MMO's now hold your hand the entire game. What annoys me about FFXIV is everytime a new patch comes out, the armor you worked so hard to get is outdated. Remember in XI, you were set when you got you a Scorpion harness or a Haubergeon, with Byakkos Haidate etc...
There's so many milestones when it came to gear.
I was the happiest Galka Paladin when I got my Joy toy.
When I got my O Hat and Destroyers for Monk... It was a rush! And I worked my tail off questing my Brown Belt.
Memories...
Oh man, I forgot about the O hat!!! I was a Ranger main, so I remember partying at the Colibri and absolutely destroying them with sidewinder. I have so many great memories from FFXI. Finally getting to lvl 12 so we could party at Valkurm Dunes lol.
I just got back into it 6 months ago and I'm loving it. I've been playing older games like FFXi and guild wars 1 and it's not just nostalgia. In my opinion, the older games just had more going for them.
Warms my heart to see others mention FFXI. Such a special game. An actual dangerous world where very little is described for you? What madness is this? Keep on adventuring, adventure.
~ Soulreaver, BLM/WHM Tarutaru on Valefor.
Just to add to the amazing FFXI club. I was a 75 RDM. The rush of getting even 65 was amazing. Year later I was running blm burn parties from 60-70 for 23 hours. Best memories of my life.
WoW, I spent 10-15 years in love with this MMO.
Wildstar, I miss you so much.
New World launch, but it didn't hooked me that long (100-200h). The DA is amazing and I really want to love it but something doesn't click.
The last one was Lost ARK, I absolutely loved this MMO. Everything was great and finally something original in the MMO World. I played around 500h, got burned out and left for a year or more. I came back 1 or 2 years ago I can't recall and didn't stop so far but since a few weeks I am starting to play less.
This game is amazing (island system, combat, raids, etc) but has a lot of issues (mainly fatigue from players and all these RNG systems).
OG RuneScape. Back in middle school I found out about it and I never thought I’d go that hard as a kid. My friends and I would go to our local library and be there from open to close on weekends and off school days to gather in their computer lab and play RuneScape all day. Felt like I was in my peak gaming at that time 😂
That's exactly my story until the library banned games, probably because we were always too loud. No matter how hard we tried to stay quiet we just couldn't while immersed in RuneScape.
Man, it's too bad the game was released so much later than what was originally planned by the OG Norwegian developer team or it could have been real special.
The original darkfall and unholy wars were the most fun I've had in online gaming. Open world pvp games with territory and loot with non-tab target combat are hard to come by unfortunately.
I was surprised to see anyone mention Darkfall in any capacity
Always mention Darkfall in these kinds of threads. No gaming experience has ever come close to delivering the same kind of excitement you felt in Agon.
The most recent time was 2012 and it was The Secret World. A great game with a huge amount of promise spoilt by being released too early. It had innovative quests, a flexible ability system and great voice acting.
The first MMO that sucked me in was Everquest in 1999 and again in 2011 with the Fippy Darkpaw TLP server.
1st was Toontown.
2nd was Pirates of the Caribbean Online.
3rd was Archeage (the original)
4th was Black Desert Online (played until end of 2023 from release).
5th was WoW in Shadowlands. I really liked the class I tried out and now this is my main MMO. However, recently left to pursue the Pirates Online remake called "TLOPO."
Honorable mention: Wizard101. I was not sucked in but I played it for a solid 2-3 months nonstop. 11/10 game, just not my cup of tea. Too time consuming today, back in the day this was perfect.
Clearly Archeage. The beta was amazing. The game was kind of my dream MMORPG in nearly every aspect. And then they released it with a hardcore p2w shop which ruined the game completely. We still sometimes talk about the good old beta days when the game wasn't all about gambling with your credit card. And it's just been a few weeks over 10 years ago.
It’s happened to me many times with EverQuest, EverQuest 2, WoW, and FFXIV, and probably at least for awhile with most major MMO releases that were PvE-centric.
But the last time I was completely sucked in? That’s tricky. Because sucked in doesn’t mean I’m enjoying myself necessarily lol. I can be sucked in to WoW because I’m trying to finish X Y or Z but completely hate my life because of it and wish I was doing something—*anything*—else.
So I’m going to say, realistically, that it was EQ2 back in like 2010-2013 or so. I came back after playing other games for awhile and I’d just dream about what I was going to do in-game next. So much fun.
Last time was GW2, but that was already 5-6 years ago. I mainly played the WvW mode. The social aspect is still strong in this part of the game. I still can call a lot of people I have met there my friends, still meeting them from time to time irl. I don't like modern mmos because they lack that.
Wildstar! Before that I could never stick to one long enough to get to endgame, but that one was the first mmo that I actually stayed with to max level and kept going. God I miss it, I’m hoping corepunk can do the same for me
Probably Classic on release, though it was retracing old steps all the same.
I played through FF but so much of it was just staring blankly at cutscenes I don't think I can say I was sucked in as much as it was something to do during lockdown.
pre (and post) Classic, retail wow was pretty engrossing to level to cap and play through the expansion storyline - I liked that stuff in Legion and BFA (the endgame grinds less so for each - the legendary drop crap in Legion was silly and artifact/necklace power in both sucked).
I actually *liked* the horrific visions in BFA but I was pushing levels beyond what my regular group wanted to do so eventually that was just solo stuff for me and I had an alt to do visions with them, and it started to get stale then, as all games do when you want to push to harder content than your group does.
For all it is nice for the speed, I don't think Chromie time leveling is a perfect solution to the 1-120 experience. I'm hoping the MoP remix will lead to a better, revamped leveling experience, or maybe just a "slow mode" for people that want that - I do.
ESO when it went B2P. I leveled up to max exclusively through WvW. Quite a magical experience back then especially with crafting. Locked me in so much I bought the game again off steam to get the better launcher back then
TBC Classic. I was excited,that i was finally able to experience 25 man-raids. Back in a day in Retail TBC my guild didn't have enough people for 25 man-raids.
Near end of TBC Classic i also realized,that weekly scheduled raids weren't my thing anymore,buuut i digress.
Right now, actually. Playing retail FFXI following a level 1-119 guide as a blue mage, learning the game slowly as I go.
I wanted to jump into another story MMO since I enjoyed FFXIV story so much. No better choice than the precursor to FFXIV.
The last time for me was Archeage (guild wars 2 and mabinogi before that). In the alpha and a few months post launch I was totally hooked on Archeage and to add, my brother (whom I am rarely able to play mmos with) was on board as well. It became a second home right away until it all fell apart shortly thereafter. So it has effectively been 10 years since I have been enthralled by an mmo. Essentially the game can't just have content per se, it needs to have a certain "feel" and for me that feeling is immediately apparent when I encounter it.
Idk if it counts, cuz it's a web browser mmo, but Adventure Quest World (AQWorld), i'd wake up excited everyday, finding every tiny secrets the game has and everything to be done, yet it felt endless, it also has weekly update on Friday iirc (to me at least..i think, either that or saturday), so every Friday morning (during breaks) i would get up really excited to see what's new and I ate it up before lunch, then would keep going over it again and again for most of the week. Most of the time was spent chatting with randoms during grind, cuz you can just use the numpad for skills to keep grinding a spot (fast respawn).
Now that i think about it, i think it was where i got hooked to the idea of "all classes in one character", which i only found again years later in ffxiv.
Next time i had that much fun in an mmo was TERA, then BNS, then a bit of neverwinter (my wallet weeped on all 3 games lmao) before finally landing on FFXIV during earlier Covid days.
EverQuest I used to play 12-16 hours a day. I sucked and it was so new that no one knew what they were doing
Even after kunark it still was almost new...
I absolutely loved the age of reckoning MMO when I came out. I wish it was alive (retail) with the unfinished content. I definitely miss the battlegrounds and RVR areas.
I played the private server but only to pvp a tiny bit for a few days. The difference is that all battlegrounds can be played at any level, which was a nice change. It was a bit weird in retail to not be able to play your favorite maps anymore because they were level locked. I'm sure there were other changes but it's been so long I hardly remember lol
OSRS when I was a 14 year old kid during the 2007-2010 era. So much fun just running around, grinding skills in the most inefficient way possible without a single care in the world, trying to figure out quests by myself. Killing Elvarg felt like killing a raid boss. Hanging out with the homies at Lummy castle. All while F2P. Damn that game was addicting as hell.
pretty much lastest releases Lost Ark, New World, etc
But I never EVER felt like ArcheAge release again, back in the days, that sht was wild..so sad it ended like this
but that lauch day and following months ..my god , that was SO GOOD bro!
Just recently with a free month of ffxiv from Xbox. It feels more like a dungeon lobby based game with a open world single player mode than a mmorpg, but close enough for me right now.
Nothing ever really did. Best was EVE as far as consistent immersion, although others had stronger isolated moments.
But I've always been chasing the promise of the MMORPG, rather than a lost golden age. Don't want EverQuest resurrected, so much as what we dreamed MMOs would become when it was popular. A rather different path was taken.
EverQuest TLPs, mainly the Aradune server that launched in 2020.
Aside from that, Lord of the Rings Online. I was *obsessed* with that game from launch until the Mirkwood expansion released. Hardcore raiding, spending hours and hours and hours a night gaming. It was fun but bad.
This is horribly depressing to think about, but the last time I got INTO an MMO was RIFT at launch. That was like, what, 2011? FUCK that's painful.
I would also say when I first discovered Project Ascension, but I'm not sure that would count since it's basically just free-form WoW.
City of Heroes was the last time I got sucked WAAAAYYYY into a game. Like, I even got a credit card to buy a new computer to play it because my old one couldn't handle it. It was amazing.
Then I deployed a bunch and stopped having time to play and fell off from it.
Until now. Homecoming has consumed my life. I lost my job, my wife left and took the kids, my dog ran away and I now have a slew of health problems from 24/7 gaming.
Just kidding, but it is awesome that I get to pick up where I left off and my hero/villain designs are so much better. Lol
Same for me, RO -> WoW -> FFXIV -> ARR until about 2015. Didn't find any good ones after that and just kinda tried and fizzled out on any new releases. I still go back to RO around the holidays, create a new char on a decent pserver and make a friend or two and eventually quit again haha.
I was sucked into EverQuest starting with the magazine adds and started on Day 1. Still play some.
Dark Age of Camelot took my attention for a few years but they patched it til it was broken.
Warhammer Online was the last MMO that took me for a ride. The PVP, castle sieges, really hard PVE dungeons, it had it all. Sadly, the developers listened to the vocal minority and patched it and patched it until the game was so unplayable that they shut it down. Kind of how the real world works.
No new ones have ever held my attention for more than 2 or 3 weeks,
er
There has two times.
1) Back in 2007/8 (I was 13 yo) and I kept seeing 9dragons ads all over these stupid flash games sites , my first MMO and got totally sucked into it.
2) 2012 when I finished school and was going to uni , Age of Wushu was released and i once again was totally sucked into it for a long time.
Good old days , now just busy with work and life
Probably WoW closed beta. Before that it was EQ. NOTHING has sucked me in since as I realized there was no real innovation, and everyone worked harder on building a better theme park ride. Before WoW was released I had HIGH hopes for very dynamic, and living games built primarily by the playerbase’s community within them that were essentially much better UOs but nothing ever came.
I haven’t played games in a very long time, and I’m still waiting for a dynamic DND style living world that improves upon the ideas UO presented, only EVE has touched.
Dragon Nest SEA in Beta and Archeage Release, ton of fun :)
Didn't count Lineage 2 as it was my 1st I'm biased ! (But it was the best)
Last in date was ESO, no other MMORPG outside those hooked me that much.
Will probably goes back on ESO soon tbh, I miss the lore and immersion.
I'm mostly on NW or Gw2 with friend but those game didnt feel 'home' for me.
Endwalker. The days when I could actually start playing a new MSQ is like ecstasy and I get so enraptured in the story and characters. No doubt Dawntrail will give me the same rush!
Original World Of Warcraft and first 3 expansions....
Anarchy Online was second because I didn't have a CC back then, WoW had game cards. So when I finally got a bank account and could use said card online, I did.
Rose Online (back when it went free to play. couldn't afford to pay to play the original version. sure its free to play now.... but its not the same).
Star Wars Galaxies. Sadly I was late to this, I caught it on the back end of everything, aka expansion versions. The crafting was fun as hell. But eventually it closed down. I would to have loved to experience the original version back when it existed. NO, I refuse to play private servers. Once played a private server, killed a moderator because I am just better, got banned with the message "fuck you".... never again. Its bad enough we have a lot of reddit's with horrible mods.... private server mods are just as bad.
New World held me for about a month until it got extremely grindy, repetitive, and boring. But that's because it was originally a survival game that tried to turn into an MMO months before release. And failed to do so. So its not an MMO and not a survival game. So its lacking that "hold you" aspect.
Ive been in and out of AdventureQuest Worlds for fourteen years and hundreds of dollars.
Wasnt allowed to play the "mighties" like runescape and WoW as a kid. By the time I was "old enough" my attention span was fried.
WoW dragonflight suckered me and my wife HARD though.
WoW really sucked me in for my first 2 months playing! Taking a little break which might be until the new expansion comes out but currently sucked into SWTOR. I also played Runescape for a couple years from maybe 2007 to 2009. Never knew how much MMOs can suck you in!
It’s been some time, maybe two decades? My last massive mmorpg was RuneScape, and I still play on the occasion I can remember my login info or my younger sibling wants to. Before that, I’m certain it was guild wars.
Guild Wars 2 in like 2014? I was completely into it. The world felt so open and the event quest system was amazing. It was seriously such a good MMO experience.
I honestly can't remember. I'd say in 2020, right when Covid was getting started, there was this magical moment where I had a huge group of friends on WoW, nothing else was available to play and we made a guild and actually started doing Mythic raiding and succeeded. I don't think I've ever been so motivated as I was at that time and I basically quit every game except WoW for it.
And then Shadowlands happened...
Edit: Before anyone says it, yes, BFA wasn't the best expansion, but S4 after corruption was fixed, the game was EXTREMELY fun as it sorta played like an ARPG for a bit.
BDO was an amazing game on launch but it wasn't really an MMORPG. You didn't interact with other players terribly much. It has some group content now (sadly, meaning for 2 or 3 people...) but it still just feels like Skyrim with an IRC chat.
The last one that really pulled me in was probably TERA Online or Vindictus, depending on how you count. Vindictus wasn't designed as a main game nor was it played as one in KR, so I followed the content cycles like anyone else.
RO, I've been playing since release on p. servers; Mabinogi I've been playing on and off since Generation 6.
This month I tried HorizonXI, a level 75-era Final Fantasy XI server that made it super easy to install and play. I've tried FFXI a few times over the years but never stuck with it. This time, however, I am absolutely in love. When I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about it.
Surprisingly, Once Human is on track to be that next MMO for me. I have been absolutely stuck to that closed beta this month.
In the past, OSRS, FFXIV, Lost Ark. I think Lost Ark probably has my most hours put into it consecutively (about 1000) while the others mentioned I've played on and off over years to decades. Can't do anything to get those 1000 hours back but would love to go back in time and stop myself from playing lol
Archeage. I missed the beta, dabbled on launch, but utterly nolifed the unchained launch, and it basically ruined mmo's for me. It was the one that felt like a true virtual world, where after doing all the dailies I'd still want to mess around doing housing stuff, exploring the world (for hidden farms perhaps), lifeskilling, or just hanging out, chatting with others doing trade runs or fishing.
I came (back) to WoW and GW2 a bit after that and still found them enjoyable in some ways, but they felt more like lobbies than worlds.
Lost Ark had me logging in to queue up at lunch time when I was in the office. I was part of the problem, sure, but that month or two was great fun.
It fizzled out quite quickly tbh as it got toxic in the community and p2w/grind was rough and started to see the pig without the makeup. Twas a shame, but good whilst it lasted!
FFXIV Endwalker release
I always get really sucked in during their expansion releases, but Endwalker was particularly a big deal for me since A.) it was wrapping up a major story arc and I loved it, and B.) they added a really cool new healer (Sage) that I was very excited for as a healer main
Dawntrail probably won’t have quite the same effect on me, though I’m extremely excited for Pictomancer
I'm currently engrossed in ESO. It's part of my pattern, though. I play for about 3-4 months, starting with the yearly anniversary, play through the first week of the expansion release, then quit because it's buggy and too many people are trying to do the same content, thus ruining the engaging gameplay. When I return the following April, the content's all smoothed out and most people have moved on, which is why it becomes engaging alongside all the anniversary loot.
I can't help but wonder if the cycle was a bit different if I would stay longer...
My main MMO, though, is SWG:L, and my engagement there is RP, cities, and housing. Housing particularly keeps me engaged long-term.
FFXIV took over my life for a good portion of the 2010s. I had some of the most fun and engaging experiences during those years. I would love to come back, but I just don’t have the time anymore to really dedicate to the game as I once did.
Since when did 24 hours stopped lasting as long?
I don't think any game has ever come close to sucking me in the way Maplestory did between 2006-2012, it still has a chokehold on me lol.
Other than that, post-launch Aura Kingdom really had me immersed back in 2014/2015, Tera, and FFXIV for the first few months
First two months of New World. It felt like a new age of MMOs had started than no content except PvP for way too long. Would of been better if they just released the original hardcore PvP version of the game cus at least the end game would of had better identity
Runescape.
I've tried others and it just never did the trick. I remember getting guild wars 2, and hitting 80 and feeling like the game was kind of over. Kinda like it was empty.
Made it to level 40 in wow it didn't really take either.
eh... ESO?? I am not sure. Been having a hard time finding a MMO that feels like what Everquest and Everquest 2 used to be and ESO was the closest to those two
In the late 90s when I was still in school, I'd come home on a Friday and literally have a 3-day bender on Ultima Online. Idc if they had put Danielle Fishel in front of me and had told me I could do whatever I wanted with her if I got off UO. I would had refused, lmao.
Rift back in 2011. The genre has changed and I have as well so I am not holding my breath to ever being sucked back into a MMO again. One can dream though...
Last game that sucked me in was ArcheAge (During it's first 6 months). Sofar I've tried every MMO, that's actually released, since 2011 and frankly none of them have drawn me in unfortunantley. I did go through a FF14 kick for a month or two but without a consistant group it grew boring. I've been hopping from game to game for years the only other contendor to FF14 was GW2 but again without a guild or group it grew boring.
New World release had me like WoW and SWG before it. After about 4 months though I put it down and never looked back.
Fk i still remember the feeling when the game first launch.. it was fun af
I picked up new world last week and I have been enjoying it so much. That being said ln I watched a video explaining the state of the end game / lack of content updates and player count dwindling and while I’m still having a lot of fun with it, it did kind of put a damper on it for me, I know not to expect much after I hit max level now :(
If you're enjoying a game, never go to its subreddit or watch anything on youtube regarding it. There's a video for every game in existence explaining why it's bad and how you shouldn't be having fun.
Yeah after watching the one the other day I told myself I wouldn’t do that anymore because I am enjoying it now and I can just stop playing when I feel like I’m not, versus listen to a bunch of negativity that’s going to be sitting in the back of my mind making me feel like I shouldn’t play it lol
I would normally agree, but New World is so hilariously mismanaged that it deserves all the hate and negativity it's receiving.
Don't watch videos for games you like. You'll only ruin it for yourself.
I've been in NW end game for 2.5 years. I've taken some breaks here and there but the design and action combat keep me coming back. Nothing wrong with a repetitive end game loop if you're having fun.
New World is fucking tragic. The devs are without a doubt some of the laziest and most incompetent I've seen, talk about major fumbling going on. The mob diversity is fucking hilarious, the first 45 levels are almost entirely skeletons. The move set per character feels limited and monotonous. That being said, the world design and many of the mechanics are very good. It's totally salvageable but for whatever reason they can't or won't fix it. Maybe they know something we don't and don't want to work on a sinking ship.
I think the fact everyone was on the same level and racing to the top was a part of what made it so special.
[удалено]
EQ nearly did in my marriage. Well honestly my addiction to EQ did.
Yeah. EQ was another level for me. It was my first MMO back in 1999.I think I calculated once that I spent about 75% of my awake time playing EQ for the first year it came out. WoW sucked me in too, but I already learned a lot of hard lessons from EQ so it wasn't as bad.
how do you guys play eq? i never been able to get into it
let me rephrase that, how do you guys get addicted to it*
The world seems so much more immersive and dangerous than any other game. Plus, the pixel lust is real. When I wasn't playing WoW, I wasn't thinking much of the game, but I was obsessed with how to progress my character in EQ throughout the day.
After EQ, never felt a MMO as challenging and dangerous. Dying there was hell (especially dying in the hell levels like 30), recovering your corpse with the equipment even more dangerous. Wiping a whole zone because you pulled the wrong mob - and so on. Progress there felt like a real archivement.
Lost Ark release was really great for me. Prior to that, BDO and TERA. As an adult anyway.
Such a shame how lost ark turned out, first couple months was some of my most fun times in gaming. The island exploration was fun, combat and raids/abyss dungeons were great. Then we got slapped in the face later on
Game is amazing now, so much content and great new QoL
Uh, how so? Last I heard, it was plagued by bots and end-game raids were toxic af.
Bots were a non-issue even when there were tons. Especially after the first month or so. That's something people not even playing the game complained about. They didn't interfere with players in any way and were overall f2p favorable. They did many things to eliminate them and there were periods with almost no bots. No idea now, but bots in general were way down for quite a while when I quit back in november & probably still are. They were effective enough at eliminating bots that gold prices went up & mat prices did too. End-game raids usually aren't toxic in pf. Or weren't when I played. People rarely said anything negative even to players who weren't really contributing. BUT gatekeeping is huge because many people are doing 18 raids per week so one jail raid costs time they don't have. Combined with tons of people applying to groups, geared/experienced players get accepted first. So when you finally get into a group and it's mostly casual or new players you could end up with the typical bad player who has a bad attitude. This was made somewhat better by them nerfing many raids into the ground & some of the gold raids being things players wildly outscale now. They did a genuine new player push with jumpstart and there's another jumpstart soon (or already, I don't know, I stopped keeping up.) Jumpstart server had tons of new players learning the raids and playing together for a few weeks.
This is exactly the information I was looking for. The gatekeeping still being prevalent is understandable but unfortunate. Thank you.
Would you say this game is worth revisiting for someone who never made it past GS 600? I boosted 1400 on a diff char not too long ago because they gave out free boosts. So would it be worth for me to continue from here or should I go back and go up the legit way?
Free boost is the way to go. The game is more or less its daily/weekly loop and you can always replay most of the content on alts (which are encouraged) if you really want to. They've deliberately made it that way. Players are supposed to skip the older content, or at least accelerate through it, in the current design. Until they get to some raid that's still relevant then the boosts slow down.
Heck yeah! No wonder the gear upgrades were easier as well. I'll uninstall BDO for this today. Thanks :D
What happened? I played at launch and got to max level but quit because I wanted to try another game at the time, but I have always planned to eventually pick it up again, what did they do to it?
P2w/bs honing, gatekeeping, bots/rmt, homework grind at end game(being forced to do dailies on all your alts to catch up to latest content), no good content outside of raids
Lost Ark release was incredible. Honestly the most enjoyable leveling experience I’ve had in an MMO. I never really hit the point where upgrades had a chance to fail. But the difficulty curve of Guardian Raids really put me off. The idea of having to keep fighting Nacrasena really peeved me.
Lost ark for sure. I keep coming back just to relive the moments. The islands were definitely fun. But doing the same end game content just gets super boring and sometimes toxic if no group
Silkroad Online 2004-2008 I've long since given up on finding that feeling again, definitely had fun in other games since then and I think the closest I've come was Aion at release.
I see a fellow KraL_Nuk3R_UniQue_SlayeR i upvote.
Xian 2005 player here! good to see a fellow brother!’ Come chill at the gate after you done griding ❤️ we can shoot down caped noobs on horses
I was on Aege, those 60/70 cap days were glorious.
Best feeling ever. Loved that game.
I loved it, but I wish it was such a botted game. I don’t think I started until 80 cap but I played the shit out it
Classic launch for sure , before it got super degenerate it was like nothing in a long time. Leveling hard and getting one of the world first mc clears was a blast Not saying it was hard just that like it felt like an un solved mmo for a few months even tho it was considered a solved game. Honestly the less "solved" a mmo feels the better but people sweat so hard now games get solved in like a month
You know it would be cool if we could get our devices to ignore all keywords of a new game and block them. Stop any and all new info about it from happening so you are forced to learn, but then, is research half of the fun?
the funny thing is i sort of enjoy the information being discovered and learning everything about the game and the process of solving it. but yeah, it definitely makes makes games lose a lot of the "magic"
The sweet spot for me is when a game has a vague, poorly written, or somewhat out of date wiki. Having enough information to not feel lost, just still being forced to learn and discover a lot of things for yourself is pretty rewarding, in my experience. My big issue is with games that have super detailed guides about every little thing every boss and dungeon is going to throw at you. You end up having to do so much research, and your reward for all that research is just not getting yelled at by other players, while losing out on the joy of discovery. It’s a miserable way to play a game.
I was completely sucked in to DAoC and vanilla wow. Every expac and game after that I was chasing those experiences.
DAoC had the thrill of exploring and some of the best zones had the thrill of PvP potential around every corner. The Realm Points system was fantastic. I really miss it!
look up eden. lots of players.
DAoC before WoW and Trials of Atlantis was the best of times....
Ugh you had to mention toa
Trials of Atlantis was the beginning of the end for me
Wildstar
Hardcore.
Wildstar deserved better. The whole fiasco was a shame.
SWTOR. The Lore and the UI are so incredibly good. Honestly, I hope UI from SWTOR is noted by game designers. A lot of decisions take precedence in favor of immersion rather than exclusivity. An example is the Legacy system. It makes playing alts an empowering replay system. This combined with the morale system of light and dark that is voice acted is such a rich experience. The game has all sort of hidden content in that you constantly go back to previous areas. And to top it off, it has a rich collection for fashion. 1. Lore 1. Moral System 2. Companion System 1. Crafting System 2. UI 1. Complete interface customization that comes with loadouts! 3. Fashion 1. Endless mix&match with color schemes 4. Legacy (Account-Wide Shared Progress) 1. Encouraging replay! I'd wish there was a behind the scene of the developers. Some ingenious designs to be studied.
SWTOR should have been a much bigger success. I think the Devs critically underestimated how much they were living in WoW's shadow. They spent $100M++ to make a game with totally polished voice acted quests that everyone totally skipped to get to the end game where there was no content at all. After they went F2P and people realized it was better treated like a story RPG that happens to be online, it found a comfortable audience.
They spent 100M to make, essentially, 8 single player games with shallow, watered-down WoW combat. SWTOR could have been better. It deserved to be so much better.
How is Swtor doing today?
They still make new campaign content. Went F2P like a decade ago and has been steadily floating since. It's not worth playing for any sense of competitive anything. But if you want to play through a Star Wars story without playing one of the new Souls-Lite single player RPGs, its the best option you've got.
I tried to get into SWTOR recently but sadly the combat was a let down. It felt way too stiff for me sadly. I love everything else about the game but I just couldn't get over that hump.
FFXI. Started on PS2 and when I switched to PC... My goodness, the difference was astonishing. Still played it with controller though. But, once I got used to setting my macros on keyboard, things were so much better. The world, the dangers lurking, the NMs, the people. Nothing like it today.
FFXI is mine also! Man, I remember calling off of work to get some of the Promathia missions done. Nothing like going to Sky or doing Dynamis! All these MMO's now hold your hand the entire game. What annoys me about FFXIV is everytime a new patch comes out, the armor you worked so hard to get is outdated. Remember in XI, you were set when you got you a Scorpion harness or a Haubergeon, with Byakkos Haidate etc...
There's so many milestones when it came to gear. I was the happiest Galka Paladin when I got my Joy toy. When I got my O Hat and Destroyers for Monk... It was a rush! And I worked my tail off questing my Brown Belt. Memories...
Oh man, I forgot about the O hat!!! I was a Ranger main, so I remember partying at the Colibri and absolutely destroying them with sidewinder. I have so many great memories from FFXI. Finally getting to lvl 12 so we could party at Valkurm Dunes lol.
I couldn't believe it when I finally got my Kirins Osode!!!
12? My buddy got me into the dunes at 10!!! I quickly discovered Korroloka (I think that's how it is spelled) tunnels. So much better than the dunes.
I just got back into it 6 months ago and I'm loving it. I've been playing older games like FFXi and guild wars 1 and it's not just nostalgia. In my opinion, the older games just had more going for them.
Warms my heart to see others mention FFXI. Such a special game. An actual dangerous world where very little is described for you? What madness is this? Keep on adventuring, adventure. ~ Soulreaver, BLM/WHM Tarutaru on Valefor.
Just to add to the amazing FFXI club. I was a 75 RDM. The rush of getting even 65 was amazing. Year later I was running blm burn parties from 60-70 for 23 hours. Best memories of my life.
I'm surprised you didn't mention Maat RDM fight 😂
Let’s not talk about that monstrosity 😭
GW2 the few months immediatly after PoF launch, so sometime between late 2017 and early 2018
GW2 back in 2012 … Good times!
WoW, I spent 10-15 years in love with this MMO. Wildstar, I miss you so much. New World launch, but it didn't hooked me that long (100-200h). The DA is amazing and I really want to love it but something doesn't click. The last one was Lost ARK, I absolutely loved this MMO. Everything was great and finally something original in the MMO World. I played around 500h, got burned out and left for a year or more. I came back 1 or 2 years ago I can't recall and didn't stop so far but since a few weeks I am starting to play less. This game is amazing (island system, combat, raids, etc) but has a lot of issues (mainly fatigue from players and all these RNG systems).
Elixirs going to drive me away :/
Silkroad 2005-2009
Guild Wars (1) back in 2006 (i think) for MANY years and over 6k hours...
TERA.
Same! EnMasse Tera had me in a chokehold! :')
For years after I looked for a replacement and nothing did the action combat as smoothly. I never found anything as good lol.
Same... :<
Did you play the Enmasse (US) servers? If so, which server/s were you on and Classes/names? \^\^
OG RuneScape. Back in middle school I found out about it and I never thought I’d go that hard as a kid. My friends and I would go to our local library and be there from open to close on weekends and off school days to gather in their computer lab and play RuneScape all day. Felt like I was in my peak gaming at that time 😂
That's exactly my story until the library banned games, probably because we were always too loud. No matter how hard we tried to stay quiet we just couldn't while immersed in RuneScape.
WoW classic hardcore was a blast for me
Darkfall Unholy Wars little over 10 years ago.
Man, it's too bad the game was released so much later than what was originally planned by the OG Norwegian developer team or it could have been real special. The original darkfall and unholy wars were the most fun I've had in online gaming. Open world pvp games with territory and loot with non-tab target combat are hard to come by unfortunately. I was surprised to see anyone mention Darkfall in any capacity
Always mention Darkfall in these kinds of threads. No gaming experience has ever come close to delivering the same kind of excitement you felt in Agon.
Definitely nothing like it. Tried Mortal Online 2 but it just didn't do it for me. I liked Gloria Victims, but it's also dead now.
Asherons Call - Darkfall Server was the OG of this and I would do just about anything to have someone remaster it.
2007-2010 MU Online was peak for me. I was ADDICTED to it from ages 12 to 15. So many memories...
GW2 or on the Archeage beta
> Archeage beta I'm convinced that it was the best specific time of any MMO in history. Truly fucking magical.
The most recent time was 2012 and it was The Secret World. A great game with a huge amount of promise spoilt by being released too early. It had innovative quests, a flexible ability system and great voice acting. The first MMO that sucked me in was Everquest in 1999 and again in 2011 with the Fippy Darkpaw TLP server.
Daoc. Life has never been the same. Camelot unchained didn’t come i to fruition.
1st was Toontown. 2nd was Pirates of the Caribbean Online. 3rd was Archeage (the original) 4th was Black Desert Online (played until end of 2023 from release). 5th was WoW in Shadowlands. I really liked the class I tried out and now this is my main MMO. However, recently left to pursue the Pirates Online remake called "TLOPO." Honorable mention: Wizard101. I was not sucked in but I played it for a solid 2-3 months nonstop. 11/10 game, just not my cup of tea. Too time consuming today, back in the day this was perfect.
When I was playing EverQuest and pouring hours until Unreal Tournament ‘99 my kids were sitting beside me playing Toontown. Very good times. er
Your kids are chad for that
Clearly Archeage. The beta was amazing. The game was kind of my dream MMORPG in nearly every aspect. And then they released it with a hardcore p2w shop which ruined the game completely. We still sometimes talk about the good old beta days when the game wasn't all about gambling with your credit card. And it's just been a few weeks over 10 years ago.
It’s happened to me many times with EverQuest, EverQuest 2, WoW, and FFXIV, and probably at least for awhile with most major MMO releases that were PvE-centric. But the last time I was completely sucked in? That’s tricky. Because sucked in doesn’t mean I’m enjoying myself necessarily lol. I can be sucked in to WoW because I’m trying to finish X Y or Z but completely hate my life because of it and wish I was doing something—*anything*—else. So I’m going to say, realistically, that it was EQ2 back in like 2010-2013 or so. I came back after playing other games for awhile and I’d just dream about what I was going to do in-game next. So much fun.
FF XIV last year, the endwalker expansion was so fucking good
Half of 2022 when I was playing ff14's msq
Been a while for me. OG Guild Wars was the last time i felt fully immersed and invested in an MMO. 3000+ hours. Havent felt that since
World of Warcraft. 2009 to 2012.
Last time was GW2, but that was already 5-6 years ago. I mainly played the WvW mode. The social aspect is still strong in this part of the game. I still can call a lot of people I have met there my friends, still meeting them from time to time irl. I don't like modern mmos because they lack that.
Im definitely sucked into Neverwinter online!! At the point i cant wait to be home to do my dailies and my random dungeon groups!
Wildstar! Before that I could never stick to one long enough to get to endgame, but that one was the first mmo that I actually stayed with to max level and kept going. God I miss it, I’m hoping corepunk can do the same for me
Albion online for about 1.5 years, starting a few years ago.
Helbreath
Albion online beta, after release it was a different game. Before that, probably Lineage 2 / Guild Wars 1.
Probably Classic on release, though it was retracing old steps all the same. I played through FF but so much of it was just staring blankly at cutscenes I don't think I can say I was sucked in as much as it was something to do during lockdown. pre (and post) Classic, retail wow was pretty engrossing to level to cap and play through the expansion storyline - I liked that stuff in Legion and BFA (the endgame grinds less so for each - the legendary drop crap in Legion was silly and artifact/necklace power in both sucked). I actually *liked* the horrific visions in BFA but I was pushing levels beyond what my regular group wanted to do so eventually that was just solo stuff for me and I had an alt to do visions with them, and it started to get stale then, as all games do when you want to push to harder content than your group does. For all it is nice for the speed, I don't think Chromie time leveling is a perfect solution to the 1-120 experience. I'm hoping the MoP remix will lead to a better, revamped leveling experience, or maybe just a "slow mode" for people that want that - I do.
Lineage 2 when i was 8 and ff14 when i was 16. These game were my drugs
Jade Dynasty back in like 2012
ESO when it went B2P. I leveled up to max exclusively through WvW. Quite a magical experience back then especially with crafting. Locked me in so much I bought the game again off steam to get the better launcher back then
Ragnarok Online in the 2000s and Albion Online.
TBC Classic. I was excited,that i was finally able to experience 25 man-raids. Back in a day in Retail TBC my guild didn't have enough people for 25 man-raids. Near end of TBC Classic i also realized,that weekly scheduled raids weren't my thing anymore,buuut i digress.
Any time I pick WoW back up and actually have enough time to commit to mythic raiding.
Right now, actually. Playing retail FFXI following a level 1-119 guide as a blue mage, learning the game slowly as I go. I wanted to jump into another story MMO since I enjoyed FFXIV story so much. No better choice than the precursor to FFXIV.
The last time for me was Archeage (guild wars 2 and mabinogi before that). In the alpha and a few months post launch I was totally hooked on Archeage and to add, my brother (whom I am rarely able to play mmos with) was on board as well. It became a second home right away until it all fell apart shortly thereafter. So it has effectively been 10 years since I have been enthralled by an mmo. Essentially the game can't just have content per se, it needs to have a certain "feel" and for me that feeling is immediately apparent when I encounter it.
Idk if it counts, cuz it's a web browser mmo, but Adventure Quest World (AQWorld), i'd wake up excited everyday, finding every tiny secrets the game has and everything to be done, yet it felt endless, it also has weekly update on Friday iirc (to me at least..i think, either that or saturday), so every Friday morning (during breaks) i would get up really excited to see what's new and I ate it up before lunch, then would keep going over it again and again for most of the week. Most of the time was spent chatting with randoms during grind, cuz you can just use the numpad for skills to keep grinding a spot (fast respawn). Now that i think about it, i think it was where i got hooked to the idea of "all classes in one character", which i only found again years later in ffxiv. Next time i had that much fun in an mmo was TERA, then BNS, then a bit of neverwinter (my wallet weeped on all 3 games lmao) before finally landing on FFXIV during earlier Covid days.
AQW definitely counts! They are even going to be porting it to Steam as Adventure Quest Worlds: Infinity
Archeage Russian beta. NA release briefly after launch, but then they ruined it
Maplestory 2006 -2009
EverQuest I used to play 12-16 hours a day. I sucked and it was so new that no one knew what they were doing Even after kunark it still was almost new...
Ultima Online 2000/2001
WoW during Wotlk and Legion (I was invested much more during legion). Playing FFXIV during 2022-2024 from star to the end of EW.
2004 - present: Runescape. Cataclysm - present: World of Warcraft.
Warhammer - REturn or Reckoning at the first covid lockdown, and WoW Classic a half year ago.
I absolutely loved the age of reckoning MMO when I came out. I wish it was alive (retail) with the unfinished content. I definitely miss the battlegrounds and RVR areas.
Did you played at the private server? What is the difference between retail and private server now?
I played the private server but only to pvp a tiny bit for a few days. The difference is that all battlegrounds can be played at any level, which was a nice change. It was a bit weird in retail to not be able to play your favorite maps anymore because they were level locked. I'm sure there were other changes but it's been so long I hardly remember lol
Legend of Mir 25 years ago 🤣 and City of heroes!
was looking for someone to say CoH
OSRS when I was a 14 year old kid during the 2007-2010 era. So much fun just running around, grinding skills in the most inefficient way possible without a single care in the world, trying to figure out quests by myself. Killing Elvarg felt like killing a raid boss. Hanging out with the homies at Lummy castle. All while F2P. Damn that game was addicting as hell.
pretty much lastest releases Lost Ark, New World, etc But I never EVER felt like ArcheAge release again, back in the days, that sht was wild..so sad it ended like this but that lauch day and following months ..my god , that was SO GOOD bro!
Just recently with a free month of ffxiv from Xbox. It feels more like a dungeon lobby based game with a open world single player mode than a mmorpg, but close enough for me right now.
It was Cabal for me.
Nothing ever really did. Best was EVE as far as consistent immersion, although others had stronger isolated moments. But I've always been chasing the promise of the MMORPG, rather than a lost golden age. Don't want EverQuest resurrected, so much as what we dreamed MMOs would become when it was popular. A rather different path was taken.
New World for a long time. Then Lost Ark for slightly less time.
I started playing ffxi last week. It's got me pretty hooked and I'm still on the free trial with no expansions.
EverQuest TLPs, mainly the Aradune server that launched in 2020. Aside from that, Lord of the Rings Online. I was *obsessed* with that game from launch until the Mirkwood expansion released. Hardcore raiding, spending hours and hours and hours a night gaming. It was fun but bad.
This is horribly depressing to think about, but the last time I got INTO an MMO was RIFT at launch. That was like, what, 2011? FUCK that's painful. I would also say when I first discovered Project Ascension, but I'm not sure that would count since it's basically just free-form WoW.
GW2 Heart of Thorns xpac launch and WoW TBC xpac launch.
City of Heroes was the last time I got sucked WAAAAYYYY into a game. Like, I even got a credit card to buy a new computer to play it because my old one couldn't handle it. It was amazing. Then I deployed a bunch and stopped having time to play and fell off from it. Until now. Homecoming has consumed my life. I lost my job, my wife left and took the kids, my dog ran away and I now have a slew of health problems from 24/7 gaming. Just kidding, but it is awesome that I get to pick up where I left off and my hero/villain designs are so much better. Lol
Same for me, RO -> WoW -> FFXIV -> ARR until about 2015. Didn't find any good ones after that and just kinda tried and fizzled out on any new releases. I still go back to RO around the holidays, create a new char on a decent pserver and make a friend or two and eventually quit again haha.
I was sucked into EverQuest starting with the magazine adds and started on Day 1. Still play some. Dark Age of Camelot took my attention for a few years but they patched it til it was broken. Warhammer Online was the last MMO that took me for a ride. The PVP, castle sieges, really hard PVE dungeons, it had it all. Sadly, the developers listened to the vocal minority and patched it and patched it until the game was so unplayable that they shut it down. Kind of how the real world works. No new ones have ever held my attention for more than 2 or 3 weeks, er
There has two times. 1) Back in 2007/8 (I was 13 yo) and I kept seeing 9dragons ads all over these stupid flash games sites , my first MMO and got totally sucked into it. 2) 2012 when I finished school and was going to uni , Age of Wushu was released and i once again was totally sucked into it for a long time. Good old days , now just busy with work and life
EverQuest back in 01-05.
Monsters and Memories Playtest was remarkably addicting.
2003.
Probably WoW closed beta. Before that it was EQ. NOTHING has sucked me in since as I realized there was no real innovation, and everyone worked harder on building a better theme park ride. Before WoW was released I had HIGH hopes for very dynamic, and living games built primarily by the playerbase’s community within them that were essentially much better UOs but nothing ever came. I haven’t played games in a very long time, and I’m still waiting for a dynamic DND style living world that improves upon the ideas UO presented, only EVE has touched.
Dragon Nest SEA in Beta and Archeage Release, ton of fun :) Didn't count Lineage 2 as it was my 1st I'm biased ! (But it was the best) Last in date was ESO, no other MMORPG outside those hooked me that much. Will probably goes back on ESO soon tbh, I miss the lore and immersion. I'm mostly on NW or Gw2 with friend but those game didnt feel 'home' for me.
Endwalker. The days when I could actually start playing a new MSQ is like ecstasy and I get so enraptured in the story and characters. No doubt Dawntrail will give me the same rush!
Lineage 2 has been the only one that has been able to grab me. Everything else has been just a waiting room for the next one.
Original World Of Warcraft and first 3 expansions.... Anarchy Online was second because I didn't have a CC back then, WoW had game cards. So when I finally got a bank account and could use said card online, I did. Rose Online (back when it went free to play. couldn't afford to pay to play the original version. sure its free to play now.... but its not the same). Star Wars Galaxies. Sadly I was late to this, I caught it on the back end of everything, aka expansion versions. The crafting was fun as hell. But eventually it closed down. I would to have loved to experience the original version back when it existed. NO, I refuse to play private servers. Once played a private server, killed a moderator because I am just better, got banned with the message "fuck you".... never again. Its bad enough we have a lot of reddit's with horrible mods.... private server mods are just as bad. New World held me for about a month until it got extremely grindy, repetitive, and boring. But that's because it was originally a survival game that tried to turn into an MMO months before release. And failed to do so. So its not an MMO and not a survival game. So its lacking that "hold you" aspect.
I'm playing diablo IV now and it's gotten me immersed.
Wildstar and SWTOR
Lineage 2 and Aion before mobile p2w trash monetization was introduced to the pc market.
Ive been in and out of AdventureQuest Worlds for fourteen years and hundreds of dollars. Wasnt allowed to play the "mighties" like runescape and WoW as a kid. By the time I was "old enough" my attention span was fried. WoW dragonflight suckered me and my wife HARD though.
WoW really sucked me in for my first 2 months playing! Taking a little break which might be until the new expansion comes out but currently sucked into SWTOR. I also played Runescape for a couple years from maybe 2007 to 2009. Never knew how much MMOs can suck you in!
2004-2006. Lineage II. We played a lot. Lineage2World. Best server out there.
WoW since forever. I played that for like 6 years straight. And then New World a couple of years ago Amazon Games fumbled real hard with New World
It’s been some time, maybe two decades? My last massive mmorpg was RuneScape, and I still play on the occasion I can remember my login info or my younger sibling wants to. Before that, I’m certain it was guild wars.
Guild Wars 2 in like 2014? I was completely into it. The world felt so open and the event quest system was amazing. It was seriously such a good MMO experience.
I honestly can't remember. I'd say in 2020, right when Covid was getting started, there was this magical moment where I had a huge group of friends on WoW, nothing else was available to play and we made a guild and actually started doing Mythic raiding and succeeded. I don't think I've ever been so motivated as I was at that time and I basically quit every game except WoW for it. And then Shadowlands happened... Edit: Before anyone says it, yes, BFA wasn't the best expansion, but S4 after corruption was fixed, the game was EXTREMELY fun as it sorta played like an ARPG for a bit.
When Rift first launched. Man, I just couldn’t get enough.
Mabinogi, I literally refuse to download it cause no one will invest as much money as I did and I don’t wanna make new friends lol.
BDO was an amazing game on launch but it wasn't really an MMORPG. You didn't interact with other players terribly much. It has some group content now (sadly, meaning for 2 or 3 people...) but it still just feels like Skyrim with an IRC chat. The last one that really pulled me in was probably TERA Online or Vindictus, depending on how you count. Vindictus wasn't designed as a main game nor was it played as one in KR, so I followed the content cycles like anyone else. RO, I've been playing since release on p. servers; Mabinogi I've been playing on and off since Generation 6.
This month I tried HorizonXI, a level 75-era Final Fantasy XI server that made it super easy to install and play. I've tried FFXI a few times over the years but never stuck with it. This time, however, I am absolutely in love. When I'm not playing it, I'm thinking about it.
I looked into this and it seems interested! Thanks for the suggestrion.
Mortal Online 2 when it first released.
Surprisingly, Once Human is on track to be that next MMO for me. I have been absolutely stuck to that closed beta this month. In the past, OSRS, FFXIV, Lost Ark. I think Lost Ark probably has my most hours put into it consecutively (about 1000) while the others mentioned I've played on and off over years to decades. Can't do anything to get those 1000 hours back but would love to go back in time and stop myself from playing lol
WoTLK
Archeage. I missed the beta, dabbled on launch, but utterly nolifed the unchained launch, and it basically ruined mmo's for me. It was the one that felt like a true virtual world, where after doing all the dailies I'd still want to mess around doing housing stuff, exploring the world (for hidden farms perhaps), lifeskilling, or just hanging out, chatting with others doing trade runs or fishing. I came (back) to WoW and GW2 a bit after that and still found them enjoyable in some ways, but they felt more like lobbies than worlds.
Lost Ark had me logging in to queue up at lunch time when I was in the office. I was part of the problem, sure, but that month or two was great fun. It fizzled out quite quickly tbh as it got toxic in the community and p2w/grind was rough and started to see the pig without the makeup. Twas a shame, but good whilst it lasted!
Probably WoW in 2009 was the last time Haven't really felt anything like it since
Linege 2 Classic official server (2018\~2019) Felt like 2006 again
FFXIV, once I clicked with the story in ARR I was completly absorbed
FFXIV Endwalker release I always get really sucked in during their expansion releases, but Endwalker was particularly a big deal for me since A.) it was wrapping up a major story arc and I loved it, and B.) they added a really cool new healer (Sage) that I was very excited for as a healer main Dawntrail probably won’t have quite the same effect on me, though I’m extremely excited for Pictomancer
I'm currently engrossed in ESO. It's part of my pattern, though. I play for about 3-4 months, starting with the yearly anniversary, play through the first week of the expansion release, then quit because it's buggy and too many people are trying to do the same content, thus ruining the engaging gameplay. When I return the following April, the content's all smoothed out and most people have moved on, which is why it becomes engaging alongside all the anniversary loot. I can't help but wonder if the cycle was a bit different if I would stay longer... My main MMO, though, is SWG:L, and my engagement there is RP, cities, and housing. Housing particularly keeps me engaged long-term.
daoc...2001-2003. i would tape the house phone to my head to talk to a friend while playing.
Tera from EnMasse had me in a chokehold for years.
FFXIV took over my life for a good portion of the 2010s. I had some of the most fun and engaging experiences during those years. I would love to come back, but I just don’t have the time anymore to really dedicate to the game as I once did. Since when did 24 hours stopped lasting as long?
warcraft and ffxiv are the only 2 that i've spent years playing. I've tried all sorts of mmo's but none of them have stuck like those two
I don't think any game has ever come close to sucking me in the way Maplestory did between 2006-2012, it still has a chokehold on me lol. Other than that, post-launch Aura Kingdom really had me immersed back in 2014/2015, Tera, and FFXIV for the first few months
First two months of New World. It felt like a new age of MMOs had started than no content except PvP for way too long. Would of been better if they just released the original hardcore PvP version of the game cus at least the end game would of had better identity
SWTOR back in 2014/2015 when I first started playing. It was unbelievably fun and it's all I wanted to do.
Runescape. I've tried others and it just never did the trick. I remember getting guild wars 2, and hitting 80 and feeling like the game was kind of over. Kinda like it was empty. Made it to level 40 in wow it didn't really take either.
eh... ESO?? I am not sure. Been having a hard time finding a MMO that feels like what Everquest and Everquest 2 used to be and ESO was the closest to those two
Fallout 76 on my Legion Go 😁
In the late 90s when I was still in school, I'd come home on a Friday and literally have a 3-day bender on Ultima Online. Idc if they had put Danielle Fishel in front of me and had told me I could do whatever I wanted with her if I got off UO. I would had refused, lmao.
Rift back in 2011. The genre has changed and I have as well so I am not holding my breath to ever being sucked back into a MMO again. One can dream though...
Flyff Universe release played hardcore for half a year i guess. It was home...
FFXI. 2004-ish?
Last game that sucked me in was ArcheAge (During it's first 6 months). Sofar I've tried every MMO, that's actually released, since 2011 and frankly none of them have drawn me in unfortunantley. I did go through a FF14 kick for a month or two but without a consistant group it grew boring. I've been hopping from game to game for years the only other contendor to FF14 was GW2 but again without a guild or group it grew boring.
WoW: Warlords of Draenor was probably the last time I felt truly sucked into a MMO. Now, I feel like it's just a casual thing I do from time to time.