TheRPGSite

Spurred by the "RIP CoH" thread. What's everyone playing nowadays?

I'm playing WoW. My history with WoW is funny, a played for a short time back in 2007 and never really made it to the level cap (70 at the time), or even got to see much of the world (I had a bad, bad case of "altitis" even back then, making 3-4 characters and playing all of them more or less at the same time). I had to quit in no small part due to my very time-consuming graduate education.

Fast-forward 5 years and WoW gets a horribly belated Brazilian release, complete with generously discounted prices, and I'm like "screw it, I'm resubbing". I bought it, bought the expansions, and even got the wife to play with me. We're leveling together an Undead Warlock and an Undead Hunter; right now we're both 79 and can't wait to hit ICC and try our hand at murdering the Lich King (she's a big WC3 fan). I have my altitis mostly under control, with a Troll Druid parked at level 63 (stopped playing it when the Warlock hit the same level, so as not to do the same quests on two alts at such a short interval) and a Goblin Hunter at 34.

No, I haven't hit the level cap yet. And I've been playing for a year (though my top character, the Warlock, has 5, maybe 6 days /played). If anything, I'm leveling too fast; I got to Outland at level 61 and I was 70 before even leaving the first map (I did do a bunch of dungeons, though. My wife is addicted to the Dungeon Finder). I believe in enjoying the ride and I dig the quest storylines, silly as they may be.

Turns out that, 5 years later, Warlock is still my favorite class by far. I had a lot of fun with the Druid too, who is pretty much a one-man party. The Hunter is OK, nothing stellar, but fun to goof around and collect pets with. I tried the Death Knight but was underwhelmed and somewhat confused by the disease management and rune management mini-games. I'm curious to try Shaman (because I'm a sucker for elemental magic, and want to try healing); Paladin and Warrior (because I had a great time tanking instances as a Druid in bear form, and Paladin also lets me try my hand at healing).

Now, I don't think I could find the time to play another MMO, and I'm not sure I'd want to even if I could -- since WoW is such a huge, expansive world full of nooks and crannies to explore. I enjoy questing, dungeons, battlegrounds, crafting, playing the Auction House, hell, I might even enjoy the Pokémon-like "pet battles" they introduced with this patch (as soon as I find the time to play them).

Still, I remember my short experience with CoH fondly. I played trial accounts on WAR (enjoyed Public Quests; other than that, not impressed, despite knowing and liking the lore), LotRO (fun achievement system, great continuity withy the Middle-Earth mythos, but landscapes felt a bit repetitive and I couldn't make heads or tails of the crafting system) and DDO (interesting, but by then I was hooked on WoW).

I'm kind of curious about Rift: Planes of Telara (I find the talent-building system of "souls" and "roles" very interesting, though the lore and the races look fairly boring), Star Trek Online (never heard anything about this since release) and DCUO (ditto, except that it went F2P).

So who's playing what? RPGnet has a healthy community of MMO players complete with RPGnet-specific guilds. I don't think we can get the numbers to create a RPGsite guild, but maybe we can hit each other up here and there. I also welcome your impressions of any games you might be playing.

Playing guildwars 2 with a friend infrequently; not a lot of free time.

Seems very good though.


If I had time I would play Age of Conan.

Currently playing Guild Wars 2 on Tarnished Coast server, mostly as a Charr Mesmer.  It's a beautiful game, and play is very, very deep: while you can pick setups that let you burn down non-dungeon enemies by mashing simple abilities, a more flexible and higher-speed design gives a lot of benefit.  There's a lot of rough spots (glitches, the game economy is bucked, dungeons are too heavily gated for a game without a looking-for-dungeon tool).

I've also been toying with Glitch before it closes, mostly just out of interest in their design.  Less than a week left, and a crap game, though.

The Secret World strikes me as interesting, but I'm hesitant to buy a box or maintain an account for a game that's looking as marginally profitable as it is.

In the past, I've played City of Heroes (Storm/Dark Defender, Elec/Elec Brute, Kin/Energy Defender) and World of Warcraft (Druid and Priest).  Dabbled in Perfect World International, Matrix Online, Tabula Rasa, Everquest II, Champions Online, and a handful of others.

Quote from: The Butcher;604992Star Trek Online (never heard anything about this since release)

Played for a bit.  The freemium model is a little irritating, most seriously in character slots, but it's a fun month or so of gameplay.  Mostly in the space game, while they've polished the ground side a lot since release, it's still nothing special.  It didn't hold me for terribly long, though: while space play is fascinating, it never came as terribly deep and the plotlines were more MMO-average than anything fascinating.

I am playing Lord of the Rings Online. Quit once (started right after launch), then came back. Ive played a number of games in the past: Asheron's Call (1 & illfated 2), Saga of Ryzom, Star Wars Galaxies, WoW, Champions Online (the only game I ever maxed levels!), SWTOR.

LOTRO keeps getting very meaningful expansions, and most importantly, I can log in, play for 30 minutes solo and still have fun.

AC1 had this wonderful, scalable system with its own physics that made it really fun - though its graphically ancient.

I am also on Lord of the Rings Online currently (and also Kingdom of Loathing but that does not count).

It is pretty solo friendly, which I like, and has just added mounted combat. That said some of the game is very grindy, and a lot of the micro-transaction stuff is getting very annoying (and not very micro, $50 for a ridable Hobby Horse!).

I miss Ultima Online's big days...

None at the moment. Waiting on the new Elder Scrolls MMO to come out, will automatically sign up for that. Also will probably try the new Goblinworks/Pathfinder MMO as well. Going to try to get in on the Kickstarter Beta, Hopefully, Santa will be good to me!

Quote from: Looter Guy;605131I miss Ultima Online's big days...

I loved Ultima Online.

I ended up working in a sweatshop making shirts (basically ;) ) :)D

Quote from: Piestrio;605143I loved Ultima Online.

I ended up working in a sweatshop making shirts (basically ;) ) :)D

awesome times! I was a professional looter and real estate agent!

I am playing Champions Online, and Star Trek Online. I can be talked into playing other free ones except for TOR (horrible free system.)

Is Star Trek Online any good?

I am playing The Secret World, mostly. It's like an awesome Adventure Game someone dropped into the middle of an "ok" MMO. I have alot of fun exploring the world, finding Lore, solving Investigation Missions, but am annoyed at having to stop to fight some stupid mob every 10 feet.

I also occasionally play Star Trek Online. I love the ship to ship combat. Mostly I play on my Naussican mercenary on the Klingon side, but I do have several Federation characters I lost interest in when the RP guild... err Fleet... I was in dried up.

I used to play Dungeons and Dragons Online, but eventually I ran out of Free content worth doing, and wasn't inspired enough to pay.

Otherwise, I am very non-plussed by the MMOs I've seen. I found LoTRO to be a huge disappointment, given the hype it gets, and would rather gouge my eyeballs out with a fork than play WoW.

Quote from: Spinachcat;605162Is Star Trek Online any good?

Ship combat is fun and excellent and feels very 'Trek, PVP ship combat doubly so (love stalking Federation players while cloaked). Ground combat is mediocre, and misses the mark more than it hits it, but there is a free targeting FPS mode you can play in that almost makes up for it. The story arcs are a mixed bag of super-cool to stupid. Kind of like 'Trek episodes. Overall, it's worth checking out, as it's free to try.

Im playing Guild Wars 2, its pretty good thus far but being fairly new it still has a few teething issue they're ironing out(the usual questlines gettign stuck and overpowered monsters that come with launching abit ahead of schedule).  Still worth a play though if your into fantasy mmo's(jeff grubb helped craft a fair few of the personal storyline quests and a big chunk of the setting aswell).

Currently I am playing a lot of Star Wars: The Old Republic. It's a great game, imo, though it definitely needs polishing (still!).

I also log into GW2 when they have an event, but honestly, the game kind of bores me. The fact they put absolutely no effort into costumes not clipping doesn't help at all.

I used to play: Lord of the Rings Online, Champions Online, City of Heroes, D&D Online, and WoW. I tried out a few others, but nothing that lasted more than the initial month.

Im less annoyed at the clipping myself and more annoyed at how little variety they have overall to the point where the karma based crafting recipes for armor are the same damn look at each of the 4 or 5 tiers and the final top skill rank armour is one suit that is abit/very crap for each tier dependant on what class your hero is.

Lots of GW2 love here. I've never played GW1 or 2, but I'd like to hear what's the game like? (comparisons to WoW helpful)

Also, you can play a Klingon mercenary on STO? My interest is piqued.

Quote from: The Butcher;605320Also, you can play a Klingon mercenary on STO? My interest is piqued.

Sorta. But not really.

You can belong to the Federation or to the Klingon Empire in STO.

The races for the Empire are Klingon, Naussican, Gorn, and Lethean. And on both sides, you can create your own race as well.

The Naussicans are written up as mercs in the in-game lore, but it has no effect on the game play, as you still work for the KDF. You can roleplay your Klingon as a merc, but it will have no effect on gameplay, as you still work for the KDF.

That said, there's enough Klingon vs. Klingon House battles you can join in for big rewards that you can plausibly have the game support your merc status (i.e. fighting for one house or another in the various battles). House Battles are K vs. K PVP. There have been some Fleets (kind of like guilds) who have successfully established themselves as in-game Mercs that other Fleets can "hire" for PVP.

You can't change sides and work for the Federation or anything like that, though. Which makes sense, as I don't think the Federation hires mercenaries anyways.

Don't know if World of Tanks qualifies as it lacks the "rpg," element, but that's where you'll find me most of the time...until I get my joystick situation...

That certainly sounds dirty, doesn't it?

...fixed which is when I'll be spending a lot of time online flight-simming.  Picked up IL-2 for cheap on GOG.com a week or so ago and danged if I aint hooked again into those sort of games.

Quote from: The Butcher;605320Lots of GW2 love here. I've never played GW1 or 2, but I'd like to hear what's the game like? (comparisons to WoW helpful)

Also, you can play a Klingon mercenary on STO? My interest is piqued.

Comparing it to WoW would be doing it a disservice tbh as it sheds alot of the crap WoW brought to the mmo table(though fractals the new random dungeon thing they recently added is adding a version of geargrind back into the game for those who just couldnt handle the switch), the best thing i could suggest is next time they do a trial accounts event i could pm you and sort you out a trial code so you can see what you think for yourself that way you wont have to fork over the cash for the ful game? im guessing they may add the trials back in either during this coming wintersday event or early next year(they just finished one in november).

Quote from: The Butcher;605320Lots of GW2 love here. I've never played GW1 or 2, but I'd like to hear what's the game like? (comparisons to WoW helpful)

GW2 is more WoW-like than GW1 (which was effectively an AI or PVP team squad-based instance-heavy game), although there are a sizable number of improvements.

Most significantly, combat is much faster and responsive.  Most WoW-likes rely on server calculations for accuracy calculations, and encourage players to stand in place cycling attack through rotation or through priority.  Guild Wars 2 doesn't do that: if someone's swinging a sword or shooting an arrow at your character, most of the time you can actually move out of the way (bullets and certain magical attacks require dodge-rolling to evade).  Its attack and defense powers are very reactive, so recognizing and countering enemy attacks really makes a huge difference.  Without conventional meatshields or healers, group and team events become very interestingly hectic.

Quests work dramatically differently.  While you have one Personal Story quest for most of your leveling, there's not a conventional quest log.  Instead, sections of a zone are tied to Renown Hearts and repeatable Events.  There's still some "Kill Ten Rats"-esque Renown Hearts, but outside of the starting zones the majority tend to things closer to "help clear this zombie outpost" or "Stop the Nightmare Court from turning people evil".  Better, many Events chain : if you stop the nightmare court in time, the locals might go on to try to take out one of their outposts, while if you fail the event, there might be a second event to put down the fresh monstrosity.  Unfortunately, few of these events are terribly permanent, as is common for open-world situations, but it does make the place feel a lot more lively or war-torn.

The writing's also actually sane.  When two combating found that their millennia-long war was about to be interrupted by the bastard offspring of the Lich King and Deathwing, they actually negotiate a (troubled) truce instead of giving the zombie-dragon fresh troops.  The five races are actually fairly complex species instead of racial stereotypes (and, worse, boring ones), and especially the Charr personal quests tend to raise interesting roleplayer questions of duty versus justice.

You can get into end-game play relatively easily.  There is a gear treadmill for Ascended-type gear right now, but level 80 Exotics can be crafted and represent about 10-15 gold (and the difference between even Rares and Exotics isn't so severe).  You can jump into most dungeon teams without needing to run tiered instances forever to raise your iLvl.

Not all great.  Fractals of the Mists has some rather goofy gateway systems, so you do have to run that a lot at lower levels to get into the more difficulty versions.  The lack of a decent LFG tool means that finding groups for dungeons is a lot tougher than it needs to be.  There are some balance issues, some fairly severe (mostly Elementalists).  And the economy and crafting system is majorly screwed.

Quote from: Broken-Serenity;605555the best thing i could suggest is next time they do a trial accounts event i could pm you and sort you out a trial code so you can see what you think for yourself that way you wont have to fork over the cash for the ful game? im guessing they may add the trials back in either during this coming wintersday event or early next year(they just finished one in november).

Thanks for the kind offer! Right now I got my hands full with WoW but let me know when they're offering trial accounts and I might just try my hand at it.

Quote from: gattsuru;605564GW2 is more WoW-like than GW1 (which was effectively an AI or PVP team squad-based instance-heavy game), although there are a sizable number of improvements.

Most significantly, combat is much faster and responsive.

Quests work dramatically differently.

The writing's also actually sane.

You can get into end-game play relatively easily.

Very informative summary, thank you.

All of these sound very interesting. I'm particularly frustrated with the (now mid-game) gear grind! I'm level 80, I want to get into ICC and pop a cap on the Lich King's ass, and I can't because my iLvl is too low. I have to keep cycling through the same dungeons and hope something iLvl 180+ drops.

As for WoW's corny writing and cliché races, they've kind of grown on me, at least Horde-side. I like the Tim Burtonesque Forsaken undead, the noble savage orcs, the Native American minotaurs ("Tauren"? Really?), the voodoo trolls, the haughty magic junkie elves and now the greedy and industrious goblins. The Alliance doesn't grab me, though, except maybe dwarves (cliché as hell but fun), draenei (fucking aliens!) and werewolves ("Worgen"? Even worse than "Tauren").

In any case, I'm happy to see someone addressing the common complaints about WoW and actually trying to do something different. WAR and LotRO are cool, but I think that's more because of the lore and less due to any game design merit of their own (they often felt a bit like "poor man's WoW" in terms of actual gameplay, at least in the early levels).

Quote from: The Butcher;605629As for WoW's corny writing and cliché races, they've kind of grown on me, at least Horde-side. I like the Tim Burtonesque Forsaken undead, the noble savage orcs, the Native American minotaurs ("Tauren"? Really?), the voodoo trolls, the haughty magic junkie elves and now the greedy and industrious goblins. The Alliance doesn't grab me, though, except maybe dwarves (cliché as hell but fun), draenei (fucking aliens!) and werewolves ("Worgen"? Even worse than "Tauren").

You know, Warcraft had a trilogy of games out which introduced those races, bit by hit, before WoW? They're all better games than WoW across the board, Warcraft II is my favorite. But hey, did you know, the first Warcraft game stated as a WarHAMMER game Blizzard was designing for Games Workshop but the deal fell through? So Blizzard filed the serial numbers off, and we have Warcraft now?

So the reason WoW races feel cliched is they are largely Warhammer ripoffs.

Quote from: Doctor Jest;605982You know, Warcraft had a trilogy of games out which introduced those races, bit by hit, before WoW? They're all better games than WoW across the board, Warcraft II is my favorite. But hey, did you know, the first Warcraft game stated as a WarHAMMER game Blizzard was designing for Games Workshop but the deal fell through? So Blizzard filed the serial numbers off, and we have Warcraft now?

So the reason WoW races feel cliched is they are largely Warhammer ripoffs.

Preaching to the choir here. As I noted above, I actually like the races (any game where you can play dwarf, nice elf, naughty elf, orc, troll, minotaur, alien, zombie and werewolf is all right in my book). I just take exception at a couple of silly names; imagine yourself introducing them at your game table. "Tauren" screams "not really a minotaur, I swear, seriously you guys stop laughing" and "Worgen" sounds like someone throwing up.

Also, I like these races, and the frankly badly-written lore behind them, because I played WCII and WCIII. In fact, I tend to concur with your analysis, vis-a-vis WCII vs. WCIII. ;)

WoW vs. WC, though, is apples vs. oranges to me. Very different games even if the franchise is the same.

I'd also heard before about the Warhammer thing and I enjoy imagining how much they probably kick themselves over it.

Quote from: The Butcher;606051"Tauren" screams "not really a minotaur, I swear, seriously you guys stop laughing" and "Worgen" sounds like someone throwing up.

Yet their badness pales in comparison to "Pandaren".

QuoteI played WCII and WCIII. In fact, I tend to concur with your analysis, vis-a-vis WCII vs. WCIII. ;)

WCII was better because it was what a sequel should be; a refinement and expansion of the original game (which was also fun, I missed the Worg Riders when WCII came out). WC3, however, was Story Time to learn all about the new MMO they're working on.

QuoteI'd also heard before about the Warhammer thing and I enjoy imagining how much they probably kick themselves over it.

There was some kind of settlement between GW and Blizzard, so who knows. They may be kicking themselves, or they may be kicking themselves all the way to the bank. No idea.

Quote from: Doctor Jest;606611Yet their badness pales in comparison to "Pandaren".

Touché.

I keep popping back into WOW every few months but my stays keep getting shorter and shorter as my gripes with the game keep growing. Last time I dropped a month after signing up.
My favorite aspect was always the questing and exploring... with friends or alone... and that is so streamlined and easy now... no more world-spanning epic quests. Everyone just racing to an end-game that I find grueling and annoying.
I tried playing through the starting goblin questline and it was like playing a (less than amazing) solo game.

Are there any MMOs that favor casual play like COH did? Pop in for an hour and leave... lots of room for exploration/discovery... players who don't behave like meth addicts?

Quote from: Simlasa;607083I keep popping back into WOW every few months but my stays keep getting shorter and shorter as my gripes with the game keep growing. Last time I dropped a month after signing up.
My favorite aspect was always the questing and exploring... with friends or alone... and that is so streamlined and easy now... no more world-spanning epic quests. Everyone just racing to an end-game that I find grueling and annoying.
I tried playing through the starting goblin questline and it was like playing a (less than amazing) solo game.

Are there any MMOs that favor casual play like COH did? Pop in for an hour and leave... lots of room for exploration/discovery... players who don't behave like meth addicts?

Leveling is if anything too fast these days.

I was thrilled to find out out that there's a NPC in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar that you can pay 10g to "freeze" your level and stop experience gains, and another 10g to get back on track.

My main is now level 81 and I didn't get to do the top tier of WotLK dungeons because my iLvl is under 180. :mad:

After I reach 90 I intend to start an alt and "freeze" it at levels 60, 70 and 80 the better to explore these areas and the attending dungeons unhurried.

I feel WoW is actually fairly welcoming of casual play, I just don't think that's what most of the commuinity wants (which is weird. I always took the majority to be casuals like myself).

If you ever feel like trying a fresh server (and don't mind not understanding what everyone's saying) send me a PM and we might get something low-level (world or dungeon) done at one of the Brazilian servers. Or I could start an alt at your server, your call.

Quote from: The Butcher;607114Leveling is if anything too fast these days.

Yeah, when we were first playing it was normal to find an inn, make the place your 'home'... cause you'd be in that zone for a while. Nowadays I'll blow past it in an hour... both because I outleveled it and because all the quests are easier and require far less travel.
A lot of the newer/revamped areas have VERY linear questlines that you can't break in on unless you start at the very beginning. None of that wandering around looking for hidden quests (like the one to get the fairy dragon pet that's been removed).

QuoteI was thrilled to find out out that there's a NPC in both Stormwind and Orgrimmar that you can pay 10g to "freeze" your level and stop experience gains, and another 10g to get back on track.

I was in a 'classic' guild that planned to turn off XP at 60 and do old end-game dungeons... but that lasted about a week. I kept looking for guilds that did old content but nada.
There is a LOT of content I've never seen because it's old and no one wants to do it anymore... or will just go there, get the whatsit, and leave. Getting all the way through one of the larger dungeons such as Black Rock Depths isn't very likely. I blame the random dungeon finder for a lot of that.

Something I just heard about is that they've turned off the raid requirements for all the old raid instances... and altered fights that mechanically required multiple players (such as the Twin Kings in Silithus). So I'm thinking I might join up again sometime and use my top lvl toons to solo that stuff just so I can finally see it.

QuoteI feel WoW is actually fairly welcoming of casual play, I just don't think that's what most of the commuinity wants (which is weird. I always took the majority to be casuals like myself).

I think that when leveling was slower... and when there was a lot more hidden stuff to find... it was rewarding to just go in a play for a bit, explore. Crafting could be a game unto itself (and was for me). Some of the class quests, such as getting the mount for my warlock and gaining the druid shapeshifting forms, were pretty involved and could keep me happily occupied for weeks. You weren't going to make it to 60/70/80 anytime soon... so relax.
But most of that content is long gone. The game is gaining breadth but losing depth. It's all been radically simplified.
For instance, there was a monster in... the night elf area, I forget... that was back in a cave. Not on the main path or anything. If you happened to wander in there and fight him you could take his heart and it started a quest. Nothing pointed you towards him though... you'd only find him by exploring. Now, not only does a previous quest send you straight to him, but he's standing outside on a rock so you're sure to find him.
Changes like that all over the place have taken a lot of fun out of exploring, now everything is pointed out and has big red arrows leading you to it.
Same thing with the loot that drops... used to be there'd was all sorts of strange exotic stuff I'd find... a lot of it for crafting or certain spells. A lot of that has been removed... so that except for gear, it's boring.
Less mystery, less to discover.
Rather than expanding the map I wish they'd find ways to expand on content that's already there... find ways to keep me returning to Duskwood as I level up... find ways to offer a wider variety of quests there (daily quests).
 
Like I said, I ran through the newish goblin starter quests... totally linear, no way off the path... you can't just run to Ogrimmar. You're on islands that are fairly large, but outside of where the quests take you... nothing to discover. You might as well be in a hallway.

QuoteIf you ever feel like trying a fresh server (and don't mind not understanding what everyone's saying) send me a PM and we might get something low-level (world or dungeon) done at one of the Brazilian servers. Or I could start an alt at your server, your call.

That could be fun. I might join up again sometime. I'm not interested in being kung fu panda but I'd like to see Naxxramas and visit Ahn'Qiraj.

Quote from: Simlasa;607125For instance, there was a monster in... the night elf area, I forget... that was back in a cave. Not on the main path or anything. If you happened to wander in there and fight him you could take his heart and it started a quest. Nothing pointed you towards him though... you'd only find him by exploring. Now, not only does a previous quest send you straight to him, but he's standing outside on a rock so you're sure to find him.
Changes like that all over the place have taken a lot of fun out of exploring, now everything is pointed out and has big red arrows leading you to it.
Same thing with the loot that drops... used to be there'd was all sorts of strange exotic stuff I'd find... a lot of it for crafting or certain spells. A lot of that has been removed... so that except for gear, it's boring.
Less mystery, less to discover.

This is one of the things I really like about The Secret World. It doesn't hold your hand and direct you towards every quest. There's a ton of quests you will only find by exploring. You'll be traveling through some woods and come across a dead body wrapped in a cocoon or something and investigating it will lead to a quest. Plus there's lore scattered all over the place that opens up a small bit of the larger story for you, and I love wandering around finding things.

I was taking a shortcut across one zone and stumbled on a hidden military base that wasn't on the map. Sneaking into the base while avoiding being seen let me discover a mission to sabotage their operation.

I also like that it's not always 100% clear what you need to do next in every mission. You have to think sometimes and figure out the connection. The clue will sometimes be vague like "find out what happened"

I wish more games were like that, but alot of people like everything spoofed to them.

Quote from: Simlasa;607083Are there any MMOs that favor casual play like COH did? Pop in for an hour and leave... lots of room for exploration/discovery... players who don't behave like meth addicts?

Quote from: Doctor Jest;609574This is one of the things I really like about The Secret World.

Seconding this answer.  The gameplay's not for everyone, especially build design, but especially now that it's gone box-purchase-only, The Secret World very strongly favors casual play.  You can make a lot of progress in relatively bite-sized chunks, and you do actually have to explore or even think to progress.  Sometimes that goes a little too far -- there's an Investigation quest that involved translating latin into a runic code, and another where knowledge of morse code and basic electronics was required -- but it does very well, most of the time.

It has a few late-game things that can be somewhat time intensive, but even most dungeons can be run in less than an hour.

Quote from: Doctor Jest;609574This is one of the things I really like about The Secret World.

That does sound very cool. I'll have to check if my ancient computer will run it...

I'm playing WoW and STWOR, with a bit of Age of Conan thrown into the mix.  I tried Aion and found it too... Nintendo.  Just DLed Star Trek Online to check it out.

I create a new toon every WoW expansion and work my way up.  It saves me having to fight my way through the mad rush to get to level cap, and if I do it right everybody will have cleared out of Pandaria by the time I get there.  I counteract the "leveling is too easy" by leveling via battlegrounds.  There, leveling goes in fits and spurts; you can occasionally soom forward a level in one BG, but most of the time you have to grind your way through.  I also get a chance to learn to play my class the hard way.

I'm a bit of an altoholic in TOR, but I do have a toon at max level (Gunslinger).  For the most part, I've been enjoying the class story, running Heroics when people need help, and enter into the occasional Flashpoint.

I really do like Age of Conan, especially the old style sword and sorcery part, but too many people seem to create toons just to say "Ooo... bewbs!!!"  That said, there are a core of those of us who do the F2P area who actually level toons and have a good time.  I just don't get on the game enough right now.

My kids play LOTRO with my free account, so I keep track of things over in Turbine-land that way.  I kind of gave up LOTRO when they started playing, mainly because they were having such a good time of it I discovered I didn't need to play the game to enjoy watching them play it.

Quote from: Simlasa;609683That does sound very cool. I'll have to check if my ancient computer will run it...

One thing about TSW is that it just went to the Guild Wars/Guild Wars 2 model of paying.  You buy the game, and no more sub.

I'm playing Star Trek Online, and I also DJ there as DJ Photon (https://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-Photon/284246738307147?fref=ts) on Subspace Radio (http://subspace-radio.net), a free live streaming music station. I stick around STO because it has an awesome community and I really like the starship combat.

Quote from: gattsuru;609669Sometimes that goes a little too far -- there's an Investigation quest that involved translating latin into a runic code, and another where knowledge of morse code and basic electronics was required -- but it does very well, most of the time.

I love that stuff, personally. None of it is so complex that you can't figure it out if you're willing to spend a little time on google and wikipedia to figure some things out. The game has an in-game browser, too. Although one time to decode a really fast cycling audio morse code message, I found it most expedient to download a freeware morse code translator and play the code in game with that running in the background.

I like that it forces you to think outside the box. Lateral thinking FTW.

Quote from: Kaiu Keiichi;610137I'm playing Star Trek Online, and I also DJ there as DJ Photon (https://www.facebook.com/pages/DJ-Photon/284246738307147?fref=ts) on Subspace Radio (http://subspace-radio.net), a free live streaming music station. I stick around STO because it has an awesome community and I really like the starship combat.

For a moment I got all excited about a streaming station playing Alexander Courage, John Williams, Jerry Goldsmith, James Horner, Dennis McCarthy and maybe even some other stuff that would work well like Paul Oakenfold that I could listen to while cruising at maximum warp... then I clicked it and got grungy Nu-Metal.

Bummer

Played Champions Online for a while, but got bored.

Also tried EVE Online, and really liked it except for a certain sense of cyclic pointlessness... the sense of being in such a giant universe was great, though. Would have liked a little more character customisation, and maybe some more personality to the actual places you visit. Or maybe that's just me.

Quote from: Simlasa;609683That does sound very cool. I'll have to check if my ancient computer will run it...

how ancient is ancient?

I still enjoy DDO, even though it requires a major commitment of time, as high level Quests can take anywhere from 1 to 3 hours to complete, and you can't stop mid-Quest.

Just started playing SWTOR with my son, and while the game is fun, damn do they charge for everything. F2P on SWTOR is certainly a "you can't have nice things...EVER."

Downloading DCU, to see if my son will enjoy it. I remember not enjoying the button mashing oddness of trying to do Combo's on a computer (hopefully they've fixed this).

Going to download STO, since I didn't know it went F2P, and I enjoyed the Starship Battles. Hopefully, I won't be required to go dirtside, like at launch.

The wife and I have been talked into giving SWTOR a try by a former WoW guildmate.

I'm downloading the game right now. Who can recommend a good, noob-friendly race/class combo? We're playing Republic-side (though I'll be damned if I don't get to play a Cyborg Bounty Hunter and/or a Pureblood Sith Inquisitor further down the line).

Quote from: The Butcher;627333The wife and I have been talked into giving SWTOR a try by a former WoW guildmate.

I'm downloading the game right now. Who can recommend a good, noob-friendly race/class combo? We're playing Republic-side (though I'll be damned if I don't get to play a Cyborg Bounty Hunter and/or a Pureblood Sith Inquisitor further down the line).

If you want a class that can heal yourself out in the field but still use DPS, there's the Trooper/Commando line.  I think the Jedi Councillor/Sage DPS tree and Smuggler/Scoundrel DPS tree would be good for that too.  

You start out solo, but you get a companion before you leave the starting planet.  The starting companion for each Republic class is:

Jedi Knight = DPS companion
Jedi Councillor = Tank companion
Trooper = DPS/Tank companion
Smuggler = Tank companion

I think all four base classes play well, but if you favor glass cannon Mage-style of play, Councillor/Shadow and Smuggler/Gunslinger are the directions to head in.  If you like tanking, there's the Knight/Guardian, Councillor/Shadow, and Trooper/Vanguard.  I've done some off tanking on my Councillor/Shadow before on World Bosses when we didn't have another tank, and it holds aggro surprisingly well.  So don't discount the Councillor/Shadow for tanking even though it's a light armor wearer.

As far as story goes... I only have a Smuggler at L50, and I've only gotten through Chapter 1 on the others, but I liked them all.  The Smuggler is the most different of the three, because you're not really fighting for the Republic until much later, and the Councillor is definitely the most pseudo-scientific Force jargon of the bunch, but I still liked them all.  From what I've been told, if you liked KOTOR, the Knight's class story is most like that.

I'm playing Planetside2 for my MMO fix, and Skyrim for my RPG fix.  Beautiful balance in those two, actually.

Quote from: The Butcher;627333We're playing Republic-side (though I'll be damned if I don't get to play a Cyborg Bounty Hunter and/or a Pureblood Sith Inquisitor further down the line).

The bounty hunter gets a healer pet.  So it makes for a good solo class...

Quote from: mcbobbo;627381The bounty hunter gets a healer pet.  So it makes for a good solo class...

I really like the BH on the Empire side, although I've only played into Chapter One there too.  Kind of like the Smuggler in that it's not technically part of the Imperial forces, but plays like the Trooper.

So. I played WoW for a long time, but I kept finding myself stuck in Raiding grinds, felt too much like work so I've never even played the new expansion.

Seriously: I thought I had two jobs for a while, spending six hour a night, after work, in raiding. Fucking job. Fuck that.

I did Eve for a long time, but I'm not a PvPer... seriously, when I play a video game I don't do it for social reasons, thus anti-social reasons are also low on my list. Eve is a lot more fun if you get your kicks out of being a raging asshole all the time.

Been playing Star Wars the last month. I gotta say the storyline missions for the classes, and the built in follower thing seem pretty rocking, and the little PvP I did was actually pretty fun.  Been meaning re-spec my gunslinger for stronger PvP (sharpshooter tree is, apparently, the strongest DPS class, but its static, which is death in PvP matches. But the Dirty Fighter tree, with its massive bleeds is a PvP murder machine, so I read...).

Its weird how races don't actually seem to matter, or if they do its just a tiny, tiny bit.  

Also, the class balances are weird. I like my gunslinger (two gun fighting, but the crouch and cover mechanic, which is unique to the class, is occasionally painful), but the bounty hunter almost seems to be a better skin of the class concept (two guns, but heavily armored, mobile and with a better mechanic to 'limit' powers...), and I had a lot of fun with my Trooper (who is static as I only play that with my leveling buddy, also, oddly, a trooper.).  Compared to WoW and other MMO's I'm familiar with, SW:TOR is odd about healing and tanking and the like. I mean, in groups, you can have a clearly labled Tank and a clearly labeled Healer, but it often doesn't feel like that's what they're doing. My Trooper, for ex, is a 'tank' trooper (with my Levelling Buddy being the healing trooper), but mostly I just do damage with the option to be a little more threatening, and (as I recall) at least one healing power of my own.  The 'healing trooper' with the bigger gun doesn't play as a healer, but as DPS...

At least my gunslinger is consistent. Kills all around, and lots of them.


Now, I do see a lot of Guild Wars 2 (and 1 for that matter) at my house, but I never got into it. And I did play City of Heroes for a while, and was dimly excited by teh idea of champions online, but given that I am prone to twenty hour marathons, I tend to avoid getting sucked in unless I 'have to'.

Spike raises a couple of good points. Wife and I dinged level 90 in WoW some three weeks ago and we're stuck grinding gear for dungeons so we can grind gear for raids... yeah. The scenarios are neat, though.

As for SWTOR, yeah, I'm looking into the classes (fuck, this thing takes forever to download and install) and each class actually branches into two "advanced classes" which in turn feature three talent trees each. Your healer is as likely to be a Jedi Consular Sage with the Seer spec, or a Smuggler Scoundrel with a Sawbones spec. I like this.

Quote from: The Butcher;627511Spike raises a couple of good points. Wife and I dinged level 90 in WoW some three weeks ago and we're stuck grinding gear for dungeons so we can grind gear for raids... yeah. The scenarios are neat, though.

As for SWTOR, yeah, I'm looking into the classes (fuck, this thing takes forever to download and install) and each class actually branches into two "advanced classes" which in turn feature three talent trees each. Your healer is as likely to be a Jedi Consular Sage with the Seer spec, or a Smuggler Scoundrel with a Sawbones spec. I like this.

Yeah, it takes forever and a day to download, and update 1.7 is dropping today as well.  That said, I found it quicker than Aion's download by several hours.

I forgot Aion, damn!

I loved the hell out of it until about level 30, when suddenly I had to chose between playing in the outlands, with lots of flying but only a 30 seconds til death timer, or playing and doing missions in the world, with 30 seconds of flying, period.

Seriously. Thirty seconds of flight at a time? What the fuck was that all about?

Quote from: Spike;628061I forgot Aion, damn!

I loved the hell out of it until about level 30, when suddenly I had to chose between playing in the outlands, with lots of flying but only a 30 seconds til death timer, or playing and doing missions in the world, with 30 seconds of flying, period.

Seriously. Thirty seconds of flight at a time? What the fuck was that all about?

I just could never really get into Aion.  The mouse keys were the reverse of other MMOs, and having to remember that kept throwing me off.  The graphics, while nice, allowed for some really weird combos that threw off the sense of immersion big time.  You're out in a field, and a character with a mushroom head runs by.

Really?  Could you be any more out of step with the rest of the environment?

The story itself was interesting, but the quest dialogue felt too Nintendo for me, and that also kept me from enjoying the game.  Oh, and the 50 million gold farmers drove me nuts too.

I'm still subscribed to WOW, but I pulled back after I finished all the rep grinds in Pandaland on my main.  I'm not raiding, and I don't feel much like logging in until another patch hits.

I also play Guild Wars 2, which I enjoy a lot more due to it being far more solo friendly.  Five characters, all being leveled up, to help with tradeskill grinding; I have one of each playable race (Norn Warrior, Human Guardian, Asura Mesmer, Sylvari Ranger, Charr Engineer) and love the hell out of the game so far.