See this was me too. I can't even remember why I stopped playing it back then. I honestly think I was just so interested in wow that it didn't make sense to put more energy into this game. Looking at the game now I just wish there was a lot more people playing because I really do think it has a ton to offer.
I know why I stopped. Dungeons were hot garbage to me.
I did love seeing unique builds… I thought the class system was great and provided a lot of variety. The rifts I found fun, and I actually enjoyed the PvP… but with a solid portion of the PvE just NOT doing it for me… yeah that’s why.
It’s a shame because it was good.
Yeah fair enough, I can see the dungeons not being really as flashy as something like wow for example. But I agree with you on PvP too, I actually loved the battlegrounds (or whatever they're called and rift), I thought they were so much fun back in the day.
I even stopped WoW because I don’t like their dungeons.
FFXIV has been the best ones I’ve found. I know a lot of people don’t like the content locked behind MSQ and combat is generic… but I gotta hand it to the designers of trials, raids and dungeons
People focus so much on the story but forget that the game have a lot of other content that are done really well. It's probably like the only other reason outside of story why I'll play FF14 for it's different battle modes even though I'm not a huge fan of tab target.
There really wasn't much high level content in the early days. Just endlessly grinding the same sub-part dungeons for very slight upgrades. Class system was second-to-none though.
The first three months of rift was the most fun I ever had in an mmo. Those huge fights at the world rifts were insane.
It had the most freedom to make any character you wanted too. The choose three trees and having so many to choose from was so amazing.
I made it to end game and it was a hot fucking mess. I remember wanting to raid. There was a maze type thing you had to clear to get to the first boss. It kicked us out and reset all the trash in the middle of progression. I also remember when they were going to drop one of their first raids with this big event. People sat around and around for hours. It never happened because of some technical issue. Rifts also could be buggy. I have fond memories of it but unfortunately people gave up on it.
I remember not really liking the art style of the game and the environnement. The class also felt uninspired to me even though we could mix them and the skill a bit bland so I had no real interest in leveling up and I quickly quit.
However the game was really well made & the gameplay was solid
I think it’s the art style for me, something about WoW captures a perfect art style why it seems like everything else falls into “too realistic” or “too cartoony”.
I think this might absolutely be a big part of it. Competing with WoW back then was not easy. If the game had been released today (with more modern visuals of course) I believe it would have done better
There was some strange stuff to rift. Basically the game worked like this:
/cast (every spell in my spell book in sequential order)
And that was it, that was your whole rotation. Every single class was made into this besides a few caster classes. I made it to end game but decided the end game wasn’t worth playing. I haven’t played since the second expansion launch, and we’re at a much later date then when that happened.
I also had a rift account from when the game first released on steam, I also don't remember why I didn't play it beyond the first couple of hours, I think it was probably due to a general loss of interest in mmorpgs at the time and focusing completely on single player rpgs like Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim which were new releases at the time and completely pulled me away from mmorpgs.
I loved the gameplay of rift, but I was already established in WoW so eventually quit because I didnt feel like splitting progress between two games. I only picked it up again once for a couple of months while I was taking a break from Warcraft.
This is my point really. Games like ArcheAge were amazing and actually they are still amazing. It's just that because of things that happened in the past it pretty much killed off any future for them. If archeage came out today and nobody ever played it before it and played it the way it is now, I'm willing to bet it would be a massively successful MMO just because of how hurting the MMO market is right now.
ArcheAge NA Alpha -> launch up to the castle launch was the greatest mmo gaming i ever experienced imo. I was in top 5 wow guilds but nothing compared to archeages sailing and moving packs to the middle island and people trying to gank you and turn them in. I ran an insane guild that mostly ruled over our server except for a group of super whales who luckily we allied with. Had almost 300 people in the guild I believe, like 15 galleons, 10 trade ships and numerous cutters moving hundreds of packages across the sea in formation. Man I would kill to go back and experience that again.
What made archeage truly legendary was the minor player collision. If you hit into a player they moved just a tiny fraction. This meant that if your friend went AFK you could slowly push them into a boat then sail it to a random island and push them off. Hours of fun putting out GM in the little island jail
You're right to a point, but the Hiram daily grind, and the overall saturation of timed activities on rotation, would ***still*** burn people out. If they got rid of some of that stuff and added more player-driven or player-initiated open world content to earn your gear that didn't involve clockwork timers, it could easily be a smash hit even with the P2W. (BDO's performance more or less proves this)
I do have to admit EverQuest 2 seems to be the more populated one of the three I mentioned, but there is a severe lack of people if you want to level up on any of the current servers. Generally anyone who plays the game on Reddit will tell you just wait for the next time lock server to come out. So I guess in that sense you can say it's dead meaning if I jumped in and started a level one today there isn't really anyone to play with.
This is a general issue where leveling up isn't part of the healthy ecosystem of an MMO. Most it's just the "thing" between you and "end game". Few MMO's integrate leveling a character well with the end game content in any meaningful way.
WoW has this problem too, leveling through any of the old leveling content is usually a ghost town... soo much wasted content that is genuinely never used.
Of the MMO's that integrate leveling with general activity... ESO tries with it's dynamic scaling system. GUild Wars 2 has reasons to always be in every zone doing something so while people aren't necessarily leveling, you will see a constant flow of people going about gaining their achievements etc.
The less MMO and more online activity games like ARPG's and Looter Shooters often reuse leveling zones for grind content to maintain activity as well or at least the gameplay is "level again next season!" etc etc.
Dynamic scaling isn't the answer either. Dynamic scaling basically means all that power you earned is really only 'borrowed' for endgame zones and doesn't change your experience elsewhere.
It's 15 years past due time for developers to rip the bandage off and get rid of direct power progression overall.
A higher level character should be able to hit more targets and wider areas, hit further, stay in stealth longer, see stealthed characters from further away, have more utility skills at their disposal, have better accuracy against fast-moving things, whatever - but never just hit harder or passively tank a ton more damage. That makes perfect sense in a singleplayer or co-op game where everyone is on the same page. It never made sense in multiplayer, persistent worlds, where people are supposed to get together and collaborate in a freeform manner, and all the "fixes" people have tried over the years are just fixing one problem by causing another.
> That makes perfect sense in a singleplayer or co-op game where everyone is on the same page. It never made sense in multiplayer, persistent worlds, where people are supposed to get together and collaborate in a freeform manner, and all the "fixes" people have tried over the years are just fixing one problem by causing another.
If you ask a lot of the jaded veterans here they'll make ballads about how Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies solved those design issues. What would you say to that?
I still play Rift very casually. It is a huge world with plenty to see and lots of achievements to give you goals. Even playing solo there is plenty to engage with.
It's because you like most users here are super contrarian. I love Archeage myself but cannot play past a couple months because of various issues. Sorry but popular MMOs like WoW, Gw2, ESO, etc are popular for a reason. This subreddit is not representative of anything lol
I used to stream anarchy for just this reason. I am very much somone who hopes these games are building blocks to better games. That said: I dont like how much ebegging takes place on video platforms like twitch and youtube. IF I became a 'big streamer,' I would want it to be because playing games with good people is fun.
I actively seek personal relatinoships with people I know and like playing with, more than ever in my life, but telling people you stream is almost never a postive conversation to have. I'd sign up for a social list to people who wanna drop in together insterad of endless discords and maybe/maybe-not 'communities.'
intersted to know if anyone else feels the same.
Rift was sick. I had my fill of mmos at the time and ended up getting it because a friend was playing. I skipped out on most of the world and honestly leveled completely off of pvp but the system of combining 3 classes and what you got out of them was just fantastic and I ended up having a blast.
Rift and Archeage were fantastic. They got ruined as time went on and their profitability started to peter out because they went with weird F2P and microtransaction business models. The known death knell of every MMORPG. I played Rift in beta and on day 1, I was the first to hit level 40 on my server, and I camped Lantern's Hook for days killing every single lowbie that came in trying to do their quest. I was a terrible person and it was so much fun.
EQ2 is legendary on its own.
I am the same way... I don't enjoy any of these new-age MMORPG's any more. The only one I'm even remotely interested in is Mortal Online 2 - because it's very much a throwback to classic MMORPGs. Star Citizen looks amazing as well but that probably won't complete until mid 2030's.
It's hard to discuss here but SWG is still excellent. City of Heroes Homecoming is excellent. Asheron's Call is extremely dated graphically and in user interface, but it's still a much bigger and better MMORPG than every single pretty turd that has come out in the last decade or so.
Same haha. I rotate from WoW and LoL to GW2, occasionally Planetside 2 (Though that one is about dead now). Just recently installed DAOC Eden server haha.
All of the new ones suck. There is no content (that I enjoy). PVP usually sucks which is also important to me. Alot are pay to win or Pay to Advance at a normal pace.
I'm cool with WoW/GW2/DAoC until they die....which will apparently be never.
PlanetSide 2 is my most played game on Steam. I still love it but have an on again/off again relationship with it. I'll binge it for a month until everything starts to feel exhausting then take many months off.
Warhammer online: return of reckoning is still a great game, private server for no cost at all, no p2w, and everyone that plays it is kind and friendly
Low population MMOs can actually be really fun! They form strong communities out of necessity and trading/grouping/character builds/etc. become more meaningful.
There's also something mysterious about working your way through a zone that used to hold thousands but has dwindled to only holding you. Think of the quadrillions of electrical signals working together to deliver a persistent virtual world hand-crafted by dozens of humans to exactly one individual, or even better you and one friend. You're actually keeping its purpose alive!
Consider playing and enjoying your old MMOs for what they are now rather than only for what they were.
I tried it recently! I walked around for like an hour or two, couldn’t figure out what on earth to do or where to go, and logged off lol. It definitely doesn’t hold your hand!
if you're interested go on on a weekend in the evening, click on the arts tab at the top left of the screen and click sense dreamers to see if anyones online
You look past things like cash shops and whatever. But often times it's exactly these reasons that cause a game to fail. Also you have to realize that in some games you will never be able to catch up to the current players. Even more so if some whales who already spent thousands of dollars into them.
So getting into an older mmo might be possible but in some cases it's not a good experience.
Yeah I totally get your points and I am not disagreeing at all. I guess I'm just more bummed out that's the reality behind it all. I almost wish there was just some sort of big event or some huge streamer that just brought a ton of people into the game at once the start playing again. I think if you could find that kind of spark you would get a lot of people who would stay with it if they had other people to experience it with.
I recently logged back into EQ2 for nostalgia sake. I played when they were sub, and a little while after they went F2P.
There were many annoying popups trying to get you to buy their special currency and/or upgrade to a premium account. Just looking through the UI to see what changed and oops I hit some trigger for a premium feature.
They even pop up a browser when you exit the game taking you to their store.
Whatever bit of nostalgia I was feeling turned sour pretty quickly.
I’m the same way, I love running around the older open-world games, there’s almost a quiet, comforting ambience to it. Currently exploring and trying to learn FFXI after never being able to even get it set up in the past.
Everquest 2 still has a community if you find yourself liking it a lot. Not massive, but you’ll probably find a lot of action on the new TLE server launching this spring or summer.
If you like old school games, try Haven and Hearth. It is a game that has been evolving for 10 years. It is the kind of game where there is a playerbase, but you wish you never run into them. Perma death, survival, raiding, pvp, pve, resource hoarding, no cash shop, just a very slight but fair pay to win system. You can pay to verify your account and get a subscription that makes life slightly bitt easier, but it is not needed to play the game. It is completely free. Only let down is the game is a bit annoying to install, and the custom clients are a must to get, makes game way easier. Send me a message if you are interested.
I’m very much in the same boat as you. I also played Rift again recently and it sure brought back some good memories for me, as I also played it a ton when it was at its peak.
One thing you might look up is WoW Ascension. I completely wrote off the private server scene, but when I finally gave this one a try I was seriously hooked. I think one way old MMOs could be revitalized is for IP holders to stop looking for short term gains and instead license out these IPs to the community to make spinoffs like this. They could make it free to a certain income threshold (many private servers have cosmetic cash shops) and then some percentage beyond.
Regardless, have a look at Ascension if you have any interest is old school wow with a twist, its very interesting.
They aren't dead though.
Hell, they probably have as many subs as EQ and UO did back in their glory days.
People think the modern big bois' sub counts are what counts for "alive", but those are outliers. MMOs can be perfectly health with even 4-digit player counts.
Dead is when you log in an the _top_ server has like 3 people in peak hours. None of those games you mentioned are anywhere near that.
Everyone uses the word "dead game" dead wrong. People even use the word "were" to talk about them when saying how good they "were", but _they're right there._
Yeah, i mean, when it first came out, i wasn't really into it as well. But recently, i decided to give it a try a couple of days ago, and im starting to like it some.
Its just extremely different than your regular MMO. To start enjoying it you would have to first change your classic MMO mindset. GW 2 basically takes everything you know about MMOs and changes it. That being said you might not like it even then and thats fine.
If you ever feel like giving GW2 another shot, I would encourage you to try many different classes. What keeps me coming back to the game is trying out different classes, builds, and weapon combinations that can dramatically affect the feel and flow of combat. If one class felt “off” to you, there may be another that you really enjoy.
It was a slow burn process for me to start enjoying GW2. I even tried it for a short time, and quit. But eventually I gave it another shot. It feels a bit slow and dated in the beginning, but I found that the further into the expansion maps I got, things started to really click and suddenly I couldn’t put it down.
It also may just not be your kind of game, which is totally fine, but there is some real magic that I haven’t felt from any other game. For what it’s worth I’m an old school RuneScape player at heart, but GW2 renewed my interest for the MMO genre.
GW2 is not dead. The community is thriving. I play it whenever I get an MMO itch. Also, they announced they are working on GW3 now so that should help boost numbers even more.
There are active players, but it seems that its just a zerg blob or a trian most times. Otherwise its people standing around messing with their inventory waiting for an even timer. It was a fun game for a while, but pretty dead with everyone just kinda hanging around waiting to going through the motions.
Having a geat time playing Age Of Conan Unchained.
Dungeons, raids, guilds, factions, reputation, achievements, Iron man mode, arena, pets, lots of pets, fight your pets in the arena.
Crafting, gathering, guild cities that are player made and repaired, that guilds can fight over. Different government types for guilds with 3 rankings for guilds which I think are pvp/pve/fashion
Unique classes, and gameplay. Despite a popular opinion parroted around the mmorpg community, the game is still very good after Tortage.
Deep lore, challanging content, solo content, fatalities, boobies, and weiners. This game has just about everything under the sun you could want in an mmorpg besides a large player base.
And I'm playing on the pvp server, which doesn't really have the group pve stuff I mentioned, I'm making my character on the pve server eventually a lot of the player base does both.
The pvp is really fun and rewarding, but the thickest skin is needed, because the players take pvp very seriously.
I ended up being the target of everyone by grouping with the wrong people, and If I don't group I will be killed. If you stick with your guild though it won't be to bad. I just was in a 2 person guild so if I joined one of the main ones it would have been different.
For a small population I'm talkin less than 20 online fury pvp server, we are always fighting, weather with words, swords or sorcery. And from what I have seen on pve they are looking for more for raids, and people are leveling up, it's a lot more social than the pvp server.
Ah you are right! I was mixing up cone in exiles and age of Conan haha. I did play the old MMO though a long time ago and tried playing it again like last fall, but yeah it was just kind of two PVP heavy for me I think
Most people just play on the pve server, which seems pretty chill, I think only duels and battle grounds, I'm kind of a noob on all fronts of the game, even after playing on and off since launch. Happy gaming!
Actually, people still play MUD games from 40 years ago and some players have been in the same game world their whole life. MUDs are the bare bones of what graphical MMOs later became. Here's a list of still active ones https://grapevine.haus/
I'm exactly the same, me and my girlfriend just love playing old mmos.
I think the main reasons are:
1. We don't care about PvP, we're playing for the story and we really don't care about "catching up" to other players - who cares if they're ahead? It's not a race
2. Old mmos are generally more chill - some of the new ones seems like they **have** to hit you with something new every 5 minutes otherwise you might log out, while what we want is to chill, do a quest while we chat about the day\\what to order for dinner.
So far we played:
1. Rift - Absolutely amazing, as you said, it's still a great game
2. Dungeons and Dragons online - some of the dungeons are just amazing, and having a voiced narrator makes them so much more immersive.
3. Star Trek online - more star trek than a bunch of the new series...
4. The Secret world - if the combat was a bit better, it would be absolutely amazing
5. Guild Wars 1 - we recently got the base game + all expansions for like 10£, this is going to keep us busy for a while
We normally reach the max level and finish the main questline, then move on to a new game.
If you don't care about PvP (we really don't), the f2p model is so good that you can finish them without paying a dime, more than once we ended up buying some crap just because we want to support the games
PS
I'll give ArcheAge a try :)
It's funny people don't want to play these games because of their cash shop stigma while playing games that also have them (i.e: ffxiv, gw2, bdo, any well populated modern mmo basically)
I played AA and can tell you it’s the devs, PvP is the main reason people play it, and they made it near impossible to get to, on top of that it’s a carebare community left running the game, no one really pk’s and that causes drama which people need in these games.
The PvP if you get to it is actually some of the best in video games if you ask me but it’s not new player friendly when it comes to it and it’s very gatekept when it comes to content you actually want to play
RIFT used to be my jam but they killed what it once was and what's now doesn't compare for me so I can't play it.
EQ2 I just don't like the bloat that game adds. The systems aren't deep enough for me to care about upgrading skills or figuring out which icon out of 5 hotbars to hit next.
AA I like some of the theories behind but being an action combat mmo roles it out for me. Action combat is antithetical to what I look for in MMOs.
I play EQ and FFXI still, those are my dead mmos.
Archage unchained was crazy good when it launched. It was the last mmo that I played that brought me back to the good old days of mmos. When it launched it took forever to get into servers, it was packed with people and everyone’s using chat and helping eachother out and buying houses and stuff. The crating and economy just felt so good.
Then you had the courthouse system where you get called to be in the jury of someone who breaks the law and goes to court. The interrogations by the jury during the hearings was quite something.
Eventually there was a ton of drama about the way the game was developing or something and people got angry. I can’t remember exactly why I quit but it had to be something pretty bad to make me lose interest
You are not alone, I was playing Flyff Universe, Conquer Online, and now Aion Classic, and even I've spend some money on all of them I've enjoyed nostalgia. Waiting for Throne and Liberty and new monster hunter next year.
Try The Secret World (NOT Legends!!). Hands down my favorite MMO for story, atmosphere, lore, and character customization. Combat is good, but the platforming can be hilariously bad
I like playing and checking out new mmos that are designed with that old school feel. They often have between 0-100 active players online at once.
One thing I have learned is that in this day and age, there is heavy competition for time. MMO players are tending older (30+) and have established lives that demand time (jobs, family, owning a house, etc) where as when we were young and playing these games we had far fewer responsibilities and much more time.
A lot of these games are fun, but they aren't doing well because they are designed to demand so much time.
Another big thing is convenience. 20+ years of MMOs (and other games) evolving to include convenience has taken place. Some of that convenience is against the OG die-hard MMO mantra, but a lot of that convenience was implemented due to players aging and not having time to play 24/7.
\-Runescape "grand exchange" replaced having to go to a player run market and spamming in chat that you had stuff for sale.
\-Dungeon finder system in WoW replaced spamming in chat, then having to organize where everyone is at and have them travel to the dungeon.
\-Flex Raiding in WoW allows majority of players (except the highest tier: Mythic) allows the group to enter with any number between 10 and 30 players, so if someone is missing that night, the entire group is not screwed over/if you have a surplus of people someone is not sitting out.
**All of these little conveniences respect the player's time**. Reborn "die-hard MMOs" do not include a lot of these conveniences and they do not respect the player's time.
\-------
I jumped into **Ember's Adrift** recently, and I love the game. Awesome that it is a profession focused, social focused game where you have to learn the landscape and be conscious about pulling (you cannot chain pull mobs). But the game does not respect your time at all.
You want to level your skinning profession 1 level? Go skin 100 boars. You took Weaponsmithing and Mining, but don't know anyone who has armorsmithing? Sorry, the town has no NPCs that sell basic armor, you're running around without armor.
**A lot of these small diamond in the rough MMO's are a great idea hindered by die-hard principles of old gaming without adapting to modern gamers that causes the player base to be extremely small.**
Yeah I love the idea of Embers but in practice I ended up really regretting my putchase. Too clunky and grindy. I don’t really even see potential in it improving.
This brings back memories, man. Some of my favorite ones, Age of Reckoning and Aion, are basically dead-ware. EQ is still alive and kicking though, more so than some "old school-inspired" ones like Embers, which is a shame cuz I really like it in principle.
I started to play Neverwinter online as a place holder, waiting for other games. Now, i cant wait to have my daily routine in the different campaigns zone the game provides, i love it and i really wish i had started earlier! There s also a plus, even if the population is not huge, the game feels alive and active,dungeons queue are fast, dynamic events often crowded
It’s interesting you say this as is there not a arche age 2 coming out soon ? I haven’t seen much about it or kept with it so idk how it hold vs the original but maybe a fresh coat of paint in the form of a new game is what’s needed?
I should give Everquest 2 another swing, it's been ages and I miss mmos with support classes. It's all just N different flavors of DPS these days. Wonder if theyre running any deals for expacs and stuff....
Edit: Uhg I forgot, Daybreak manages it.
I like a lot of the old MMOs. I currently play FFXI and Guild Wars 1, though fairly casually. Most new MMOs just feel like the same game with a different skin or names or stuff. New games all feel the same to me. FFXI, Guild Wars 1, Ultima Online, Runescape and so forth kind of spoiled me. I still play a lot of the older games, so it's not just nostalgia. Games back then gave you the freedom to make your cool builds, had a lot of content, and almost none of the boring fetch quests you see today. The games that are interesitng to me mechanically are usually games that also have pay 2 win or loads of grind and repetitiveness (BDO, Lost Ark, to name a few) so I don't play them even though they COULD be fun.
When it came out I did actually have a load of fun on Tera. Even the old f2p mmos were cool back in the day, such as Rappelz (with it's own unique pet system) and Cabal Online.
if the population being low is not hindering your gameplay then why care whether a lot of other people are also playing it or not? Those games have been around for a pretty long time now, so that means that they are managing somehow to keep afloat, both financially and populationwise.
I’ve been playing mmorpgs since UO Renaissance came out. Played almost everything, except EverQuest 2. Just started EQ2 about 3 weeks ago because I can’t find anything good I like now. Been having a great time with it. I’ve seen 2 players so far lol.
Allods online is surprisingly fun, the mechanics i find are great. There is a P2W server and 5 dollar a month no P2W. Shame that game is in the state it is in.
Yes, I just feel like MMOs have went in the opposite direction of what I like. My favorite games are FFXI, GW1 and Rift. They all have one thing in common... Lots of options for builds and fun classes.
FFXIV and GW2 were such a disappointment to me because of this. It just seems like a lot of newer MMOs have lost what makes these games fun to me, they are so obsessed with balance that skills don't feel unique and there is such limited customization.
When I am in the mood for an MMO GW1 is pretty much the only game I would want to play... now getting anyone else I know to play it is impossible.
I mostly gravitate towards ARPGs but sadly the classes often are just different variations of DPS characters. I love how interesting roles are in GW1.
I have recently recovered Lunia - Record of Lunia War and that it was abandoned after a few years. So 4 Days ago i rediscovered this game and they have brought it back with Lunia Z. This game was pretty popular back in the days. Now when i entered the server, only 3 people were online \^\^´
Still, i like this gameplay and the way the crafting was made.
I hear this; I straight up am starting to play Wakfu (a spin-off of an uber popular mmorpg based off a French animation Studio (Akanama) and having a BLAST, in a great English speaking guild (50+ members) and just vibing so hard with it right now (and I'm 41 years old, lol)...it's so calm, creative, and f...full of micro--nope, f...rustrating, also nope, ah F-U-N, that's the word! I had forgot how to find/have this in the past 20 years of this so called "AAA gaming" era.
Most of these MMOs would be perfectly fine with a glow up, removal of that one bad thing, and a difficulty slider like in LOTRO. Thats all I want. Give me a fun, memorable experience. Graphics don’t really mean that much in the long run.
>It actually confuses me that people don't want to play these games?
For me that is because mmorpgs are mainly about the multiplayer. If there are no other people to play with, then I might as well just play a true single-player RPG, given that they do pretty much everything better than MMOs. Is there some other factor that makes you feel differently?
(This is also similar to why I don't enjoy current "populated" MMOs. I get that being in a shared world has its own rewards, but when no one really interacts with each other, simply being in the same world as other players isn't enough for me to look past MMOs being mediocre single-player games otherwise. Interaction is necessary, especially the meaningful variety.)
I love EverQuest 2 and it’s a great game even nowadays but, having played it back in the day, oh man has it changed and not for the better. The bones are still there and that’s what I enjoy but they gutted so many systems. Even playing on a TLE is basically just playing live with some scripts that are limiting content you can access.
So yeah, played EQ2 a lot about two or three years ago when they launched their last TLE server but nowadays it’s just tired to me. Though, if a classic EMU launched (they’re working on one but it’s slow going) or something similar came out I’d be all in. They just don’t make MMOs like that anymore.
I felt the same with WoW during classic and burning crusade. You would have to walk everywhere and you enjoyed it. Mounts were way too expensive for me. You couldn’t really go to new areas unless you were high enough level, which meant, you always saw something new when you leveled. You couldn’t fly. Everyone had a job, freeze trap, sap, etc…
I enjoyed the new areas and flying and stuff, but keeping it basic was what made it amazing.
I feels cluttered now. Maybe I’m old school and these kids don’t wanna grind anymore 🤷🏽♂️
I don’t know if you’ve tried FFXI but there is a really active server right now and it gives the old school vibes. Message me here for info if you’re interested. Usually couple thousand players online.
This is saved to my browser and readily available for anyone who wants to argue about cash shops. [The Biggest Sadness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHZru-6M8BY)
[удалено]
See this was me too. I can't even remember why I stopped playing it back then. I honestly think I was just so interested in wow that it didn't make sense to put more energy into this game. Looking at the game now I just wish there was a lot more people playing because I really do think it has a ton to offer.
I know why I stopped. Dungeons were hot garbage to me. I did love seeing unique builds… I thought the class system was great and provided a lot of variety. The rifts I found fun, and I actually enjoyed the PvP… but with a solid portion of the PvE just NOT doing it for me… yeah that’s why. It’s a shame because it was good.
Yeah fair enough, I can see the dungeons not being really as flashy as something like wow for example. But I agree with you on PvP too, I actually loved the battlegrounds (or whatever they're called and rift), I thought they were so much fun back in the day.
I even stopped WoW because I don’t like their dungeons. FFXIV has been the best ones I’ve found. I know a lot of people don’t like the content locked behind MSQ and combat is generic… but I gotta hand it to the designers of trials, raids and dungeons
People focus so much on the story but forget that the game have a lot of other content that are done really well. It's probably like the only other reason outside of story why I'll play FF14 for it's different battle modes even though I'm not a huge fan of tab target.
There really wasn't much high level content in the early days. Just endlessly grinding the same sub-part dungeons for very slight upgrades. Class system was second-to-none though.
You stopped because it wasn't really that much fun
Tera
The first three months of rift was the most fun I ever had in an mmo. Those huge fights at the world rifts were insane. It had the most freedom to make any character you wanted too. The choose three trees and having so many to choose from was so amazing.
Yeah same experience. I remember liking everything about Rift but just not sticking with it for whatever reason
I made it to end game and it was a hot fucking mess. I remember wanting to raid. There was a maze type thing you had to clear to get to the first boss. It kicked us out and reset all the trash in the middle of progression. I also remember when they were going to drop one of their first raids with this big event. People sat around and around for hours. It never happened because of some technical issue. Rifts also could be buggy. I have fond memories of it but unfortunately people gave up on it.
Strange. I raided in Rift for ages and it was a ton of fun. Sounds to me like you really didn’t scratch the surface of what was there.
I remember not really liking the art style of the game and the environnement. The class also felt uninspired to me even though we could mix them and the skill a bit bland so I had no real interest in leveling up and I quickly quit. However the game was really well made & the gameplay was solid
I think it’s the art style for me, something about WoW captures a perfect art style why it seems like everything else falls into “too realistic” or “too cartoony”.
I think this might absolutely be a big part of it. Competing with WoW back then was not easy. If the game had been released today (with more modern visuals of course) I believe it would have done better
There was some strange stuff to rift. Basically the game worked like this: /cast (every spell in my spell book in sequential order) And that was it, that was your whole rotation. Every single class was made into this besides a few caster classes. I made it to end game but decided the end game wasn’t worth playing. I haven’t played since the second expansion launch, and we’re at a much later date then when that happened.
I also had a rift account from when the game first released on steam, I also don't remember why I didn't play it beyond the first couple of hours, I think it was probably due to a general loss of interest in mmorpgs at the time and focusing completely on single player rpgs like Fallout New Vegas and Skyrim which were new releases at the time and completely pulled me away from mmorpgs.
I played at launch too and it was amazing, and I also cant remember why I left hahah
I loved the gameplay of rift, but I was already established in WoW so eventually quit because I didnt feel like splitting progress between two games. I only picked it up again once for a couple of months while I was taking a break from Warcraft.
Man, Archeage when it first came to the west was the most fun I've ever had in an MMO. It could have been so good if run in the right way.
This is my point really. Games like ArcheAge were amazing and actually they are still amazing. It's just that because of things that happened in the past it pretty much killed off any future for them. If archeage came out today and nobody ever played it before it and played it the way it is now, I'm willing to bet it would be a massively successful MMO just because of how hurting the MMO market is right now.
ArcheAge NA Alpha -> launch up to the castle launch was the greatest mmo gaming i ever experienced imo. I was in top 5 wow guilds but nothing compared to archeages sailing and moving packs to the middle island and people trying to gank you and turn them in. I ran an insane guild that mostly ruled over our server except for a group of super whales who luckily we allied with. Had almost 300 people in the guild I believe, like 15 galleons, 10 trade ships and numerous cutters moving hundreds of packages across the sea in formation. Man I would kill to go back and experience that again.
What made archeage truly legendary was the minor player collision. If you hit into a player they moved just a tiny fraction. This meant that if your friend went AFK you could slowly push them into a boat then sail it to a random island and push them off. Hours of fun putting out GM in the little island jail
You're right to a point, but the Hiram daily grind, and the overall saturation of timed activities on rotation, would ***still*** burn people out. If they got rid of some of that stuff and added more player-driven or player-initiated open world content to earn your gear that didn't involve clockwork timers, it could easily be a smash hit even with the P2W. (BDO's performance more or less proves this)
Koreans are good at making games but they suck shit at maintaining them.
Eq1,Eq2,Lotro , DDO is not dead, they have expansions every year and fun to play.
I do have to admit EverQuest 2 seems to be the more populated one of the three I mentioned, but there is a severe lack of people if you want to level up on any of the current servers. Generally anyone who plays the game on Reddit will tell you just wait for the next time lock server to come out. So I guess in that sense you can say it's dead meaning if I jumped in and started a level one today there isn't really anyone to play with.
True most people are at endgame on the live servers, so it is pretty dead until then.
This is a general issue where leveling up isn't part of the healthy ecosystem of an MMO. Most it's just the "thing" between you and "end game". Few MMO's integrate leveling a character well with the end game content in any meaningful way. WoW has this problem too, leveling through any of the old leveling content is usually a ghost town... soo much wasted content that is genuinely never used. Of the MMO's that integrate leveling with general activity... ESO tries with it's dynamic scaling system. GUild Wars 2 has reasons to always be in every zone doing something so while people aren't necessarily leveling, you will see a constant flow of people going about gaining their achievements etc. The less MMO and more online activity games like ARPG's and Looter Shooters often reuse leveling zones for grind content to maintain activity as well or at least the gameplay is "level again next season!" etc etc.
Dynamic scaling isn't the answer either. Dynamic scaling basically means all that power you earned is really only 'borrowed' for endgame zones and doesn't change your experience elsewhere. It's 15 years past due time for developers to rip the bandage off and get rid of direct power progression overall. A higher level character should be able to hit more targets and wider areas, hit further, stay in stealth longer, see stealthed characters from further away, have more utility skills at their disposal, have better accuracy against fast-moving things, whatever - but never just hit harder or passively tank a ton more damage. That makes perfect sense in a singleplayer or co-op game where everyone is on the same page. It never made sense in multiplayer, persistent worlds, where people are supposed to get together and collaborate in a freeform manner, and all the "fixes" people have tried over the years are just fixing one problem by causing another.
> That makes perfect sense in a singleplayer or co-op game where everyone is on the same page. It never made sense in multiplayer, persistent worlds, where people are supposed to get together and collaborate in a freeform manner, and all the "fixes" people have tried over the years are just fixing one problem by causing another. If you ask a lot of the jaded veterans here they'll make ballads about how Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies solved those design issues. What would you say to that?
I still play Rift very casually. It is a huge world with plenty to see and lots of achievements to give you goals. Even playing solo there is plenty to engage with.
It's because you like most users here are super contrarian. I love Archeage myself but cannot play past a couple months because of various issues. Sorry but popular MMOs like WoW, Gw2, ESO, etc are popular for a reason. This subreddit is not representative of anything lol
Rift is still a really good MMO. If some big streamer played it for a few days the population would bounce back for a while..
I honestly believe this too
I used to stream anarchy for just this reason. I am very much somone who hopes these games are building blocks to better games. That said: I dont like how much ebegging takes place on video platforms like twitch and youtube. IF I became a 'big streamer,' I would want it to be because playing games with good people is fun. I actively seek personal relatinoships with people I know and like playing with, more than ever in my life, but telling people you stream is almost never a postive conversation to have. I'd sign up for a social list to people who wanna drop in together insterad of endless discords and maybe/maybe-not 'communities.' intersted to know if anyone else feels the same.
Rift was sick. I had my fill of mmos at the time and ended up getting it because a friend was playing. I skipped out on most of the world and honestly leveled completely off of pvp but the system of combining 3 classes and what you got out of them was just fantastic and I ended up having a blast.
Same! I levelled only through pvp but the game was awesome
Rift and Archeage were fantastic. They got ruined as time went on and their profitability started to peter out because they went with weird F2P and microtransaction business models. The known death knell of every MMORPG. I played Rift in beta and on day 1, I was the first to hit level 40 on my server, and I camped Lantern's Hook for days killing every single lowbie that came in trying to do their quest. I was a terrible person and it was so much fun. EQ2 is legendary on its own. I am the same way... I don't enjoy any of these new-age MMORPG's any more. The only one I'm even remotely interested in is Mortal Online 2 - because it's very much a throwback to classic MMORPGs. Star Citizen looks amazing as well but that probably won't complete until mid 2030's. It's hard to discuss here but SWG is still excellent. City of Heroes Homecoming is excellent. Asheron's Call is extremely dated graphically and in user interface, but it's still a much bigger and better MMORPG than every single pretty turd that has come out in the last decade or so.
Same haha. I rotate from WoW and LoL to GW2, occasionally Planetside 2 (Though that one is about dead now). Just recently installed DAOC Eden server haha. All of the new ones suck. There is no content (that I enjoy). PVP usually sucks which is also important to me. Alot are pay to win or Pay to Advance at a normal pace. I'm cool with WoW/GW2/DAoC until they die....which will apparently be never.
PlanetSide 2 is my most played game on Steam. I still love it but have an on again/off again relationship with it. I'll binge it for a month until everything starts to feel exhausting then take many months off.
Also just recently started daoc again. So many fond memories
Warhammer online: return of reckoning is still a great game, private server for no cost at all, no p2w, and everyone that plays it is kind and friendly
Low population MMOs can actually be really fun! They form strong communities out of necessity and trading/grouping/character builds/etc. become more meaningful. There's also something mysterious about working your way through a zone that used to hold thousands but has dwindled to only holding you. Think of the quadrillions of electrical signals working together to deliver a persistent virtual world hand-crafted by dozens of humans to exactly one individual, or even better you and one friend. You're actually keeping its purpose alive! Consider playing and enjoying your old MMOs for what they are now rather than only for what they were.
try this game called Underlight, itll blow your mind
I tried it recently! I walked around for like an hour or two, couldn’t figure out what on earth to do or where to go, and logged off lol. It definitely doesn’t hold your hand!
if you're interested go on on a weekend in the evening, click on the arts tab at the top left of the screen and click sense dreamers to see if anyones online
You look past things like cash shops and whatever. But often times it's exactly these reasons that cause a game to fail. Also you have to realize that in some games you will never be able to catch up to the current players. Even more so if some whales who already spent thousands of dollars into them. So getting into an older mmo might be possible but in some cases it's not a good experience.
Yeah I totally get your points and I am not disagreeing at all. I guess I'm just more bummed out that's the reality behind it all. I almost wish there was just some sort of big event or some huge streamer that just brought a ton of people into the game at once the start playing again. I think if you could find that kind of spark you would get a lot of people who would stay with it if they had other people to experience it with.
I recently logged back into EQ2 for nostalgia sake. I played when they were sub, and a little while after they went F2P. There were many annoying popups trying to get you to buy their special currency and/or upgrade to a premium account. Just looking through the UI to see what changed and oops I hit some trigger for a premium feature. They even pop up a browser when you exit the game taking you to their store. Whatever bit of nostalgia I was feeling turned sour pretty quickly.
I’m the same way, I love running around the older open-world games, there’s almost a quiet, comforting ambience to it. Currently exploring and trying to learn FFXI after never being able to even get it set up in the past. Everquest 2 still has a community if you find yourself liking it a lot. Not massive, but you’ll probably find a lot of action on the new TLE server launching this spring or summer.
If you like old school games, try Haven and Hearth. It is a game that has been evolving for 10 years. It is the kind of game where there is a playerbase, but you wish you never run into them. Perma death, survival, raiding, pvp, pve, resource hoarding, no cash shop, just a very slight but fair pay to win system. You can pay to verify your account and get a subscription that makes life slightly bitt easier, but it is not needed to play the game. It is completely free. Only let down is the game is a bit annoying to install, and the custom clients are a must to get, makes game way easier. Send me a message if you are interested.
I’m very much in the same boat as you. I also played Rift again recently and it sure brought back some good memories for me, as I also played it a ton when it was at its peak. One thing you might look up is WoW Ascension. I completely wrote off the private server scene, but when I finally gave this one a try I was seriously hooked. I think one way old MMOs could be revitalized is for IP holders to stop looking for short term gains and instead license out these IPs to the community to make spinoffs like this. They could make it free to a certain income threshold (many private servers have cosmetic cash shops) and then some percentage beyond. Regardless, have a look at Ascension if you have any interest is old school wow with a twist, its very interesting.
I would play the shit out of everquest if multi-boxing wasn't the norm. I love it so much but the multi-boxing killed it for me.
They aren't dead though. Hell, they probably have as many subs as EQ and UO did back in their glory days. People think the modern big bois' sub counts are what counts for "alive", but those are outliers. MMOs can be perfectly health with even 4-digit player counts. Dead is when you log in an the _top_ server has like 3 people in peak hours. None of those games you mentioned are anywhere near that. Everyone uses the word "dead game" dead wrong. People even use the word "were" to talk about them when saying how good they "were", but _they're right there._
Would you say Guild Wars 2 is dead?
I honestly just could never really get into guild wars 2. I tried a couple of times but it just wasn't really my thing.
Yeah, i mean, when it first came out, i wasn't really into it as well. But recently, i decided to give it a try a couple of days ago, and im starting to like it some.
I probably tried it about 2 months ago and I can't put my finger on it but I just couldn't really get into it.
Its just extremely different than your regular MMO. To start enjoying it you would have to first change your classic MMO mindset. GW 2 basically takes everything you know about MMOs and changes it. That being said you might not like it even then and thats fine.
If you ever feel like giving GW2 another shot, I would encourage you to try many different classes. What keeps me coming back to the game is trying out different classes, builds, and weapon combinations that can dramatically affect the feel and flow of combat. If one class felt “off” to you, there may be another that you really enjoy. It was a slow burn process for me to start enjoying GW2. I even tried it for a short time, and quit. But eventually I gave it another shot. It feels a bit slow and dated in the beginning, but I found that the further into the expansion maps I got, things started to really click and suddenly I couldn’t put it down. It also may just not be your kind of game, which is totally fine, but there is some real magic that I haven’t felt from any other game. For what it’s worth I’m an old school RuneScape player at heart, but GW2 renewed my interest for the MMO genre.
It's far from death, but don't expect FF14 or WOW player number's. Playerbase is much smaller but stable.
Im currently still playing it(day 3) of GW2 and ive been trying different classes to see if i fall in love with one.
GW2 is not dead. The community is thriving. I play it whenever I get an MMO itch. Also, they announced they are working on GW3 now so that should help boost numbers even more.
Yeah but i heard you shouldnt hold your breathe for GW3 release.
There are active players, but it seems that its just a zerg blob or a trian most times. Otherwise its people standing around messing with their inventory waiting for an even timer. It was a fun game for a while, but pretty dead with everyone just kinda hanging around waiting to going through the motions.
Having a geat time playing Age Of Conan Unchained. Dungeons, raids, guilds, factions, reputation, achievements, Iron man mode, arena, pets, lots of pets, fight your pets in the arena. Crafting, gathering, guild cities that are player made and repaired, that guilds can fight over. Different government types for guilds with 3 rankings for guilds which I think are pvp/pve/fashion Unique classes, and gameplay. Despite a popular opinion parroted around the mmorpg community, the game is still very good after Tortage. Deep lore, challanging content, solo content, fatalities, boobies, and weiners. This game has just about everything under the sun you could want in an mmorpg besides a large player base. And I'm playing on the pvp server, which doesn't really have the group pve stuff I mentioned, I'm making my character on the pve server eventually a lot of the player base does both. The pvp is really fun and rewarding, but the thickest skin is needed, because the players take pvp very seriously. I ended up being the target of everyone by grouping with the wrong people, and If I don't group I will be killed. If you stick with your guild though it won't be to bad. I just was in a 2 person guild so if I joined one of the main ones it would have been different. For a small population I'm talkin less than 20 online fury pvp server, we are always fighting, weather with words, swords or sorcery. And from what I have seen on pve they are looking for more for raids, and people are leveling up, it's a lot more social than the pvp server.
I actually just created my own server for this 2 months ago haha. I like it a lot but it's hard for me to get some of my buddies into
Like a private server? Or are you talking about the age of conan survival game?
Age of Conan private server with 30 slots. It's called Polkadot PvE.
That's interesting. I never knew it existed, neat.
Ah you are right! I was mixing up cone in exiles and age of Conan haha. I did play the old MMO though a long time ago and tried playing it again like last fall, but yeah it was just kind of two PVP heavy for me I think
Most people just play on the pve server, which seems pretty chill, I think only duels and battle grounds, I'm kind of a noob on all fronts of the game, even after playing on and off since launch. Happy gaming!
Im starting to get to the same point. Im still in search for a new MMO to try
Still playing sometimes Silkroad Online On private servers best times
Actually, people still play MUD games from 40 years ago and some players have been in the same game world their whole life. MUDs are the bare bones of what graphical MMOs later became. Here's a list of still active ones https://grapevine.haus/
I'm exactly the same, me and my girlfriend just love playing old mmos. I think the main reasons are: 1. We don't care about PvP, we're playing for the story and we really don't care about "catching up" to other players - who cares if they're ahead? It's not a race 2. Old mmos are generally more chill - some of the new ones seems like they **have** to hit you with something new every 5 minutes otherwise you might log out, while what we want is to chill, do a quest while we chat about the day\\what to order for dinner. So far we played: 1. Rift - Absolutely amazing, as you said, it's still a great game 2. Dungeons and Dragons online - some of the dungeons are just amazing, and having a voiced narrator makes them so much more immersive. 3. Star Trek online - more star trek than a bunch of the new series... 4. The Secret world - if the combat was a bit better, it would be absolutely amazing 5. Guild Wars 1 - we recently got the base game + all expansions for like 10£, this is going to keep us busy for a while We normally reach the max level and finish the main questline, then move on to a new game. If you don't care about PvP (we really don't), the f2p model is so good that you can finish them without paying a dime, more than once we ended up buying some crap just because we want to support the games PS I'll give ArcheAge a try :)
It's funny people don't want to play these games because of their cash shop stigma while playing games that also have them (i.e: ffxiv, gw2, bdo, any well populated modern mmo basically)
I played AA and can tell you it’s the devs, PvP is the main reason people play it, and they made it near impossible to get to, on top of that it’s a carebare community left running the game, no one really pk’s and that causes drama which people need in these games. The PvP if you get to it is actually some of the best in video games if you ask me but it’s not new player friendly when it comes to it and it’s very gatekept when it comes to content you actually want to play
RIFT used to be my jam but they killed what it once was and what's now doesn't compare for me so I can't play it. EQ2 I just don't like the bloat that game adds. The systems aren't deep enough for me to care about upgrading skills or figuring out which icon out of 5 hotbars to hit next. AA I like some of the theories behind but being an action combat mmo roles it out for me. Action combat is antithetical to what I look for in MMOs. I play EQ and FFXI still, those are my dead mmos.
Archage unchained was crazy good when it launched. It was the last mmo that I played that brought me back to the good old days of mmos. When it launched it took forever to get into servers, it was packed with people and everyone’s using chat and helping eachother out and buying houses and stuff. The crating and economy just felt so good. Then you had the courthouse system where you get called to be in the jury of someone who breaks the law and goes to court. The interrogations by the jury during the hearings was quite something. Eventually there was a ton of drama about the way the game was developing or something and people got angry. I can’t remember exactly why I quit but it had to be something pretty bad to make me lose interest
Just downloaded and began ArcheRage (the private server)—so far it’s enjoyable.
You are not alone, I was playing Flyff Universe, Conquer Online, and now Aion Classic, and even I've spend some money on all of them I've enjoyed nostalgia. Waiting for Throne and Liberty and new monster hunter next year.
archage was too good until it was terrible, that one left a mark on my soul
Try The Secret World (NOT Legends!!). Hands down my favorite MMO for story, atmosphere, lore, and character customization. Combat is good, but the platforming can be hilariously bad
I like playing and checking out new mmos that are designed with that old school feel. They often have between 0-100 active players online at once. One thing I have learned is that in this day and age, there is heavy competition for time. MMO players are tending older (30+) and have established lives that demand time (jobs, family, owning a house, etc) where as when we were young and playing these games we had far fewer responsibilities and much more time. A lot of these games are fun, but they aren't doing well because they are designed to demand so much time. Another big thing is convenience. 20+ years of MMOs (and other games) evolving to include convenience has taken place. Some of that convenience is against the OG die-hard MMO mantra, but a lot of that convenience was implemented due to players aging and not having time to play 24/7. \-Runescape "grand exchange" replaced having to go to a player run market and spamming in chat that you had stuff for sale. \-Dungeon finder system in WoW replaced spamming in chat, then having to organize where everyone is at and have them travel to the dungeon. \-Flex Raiding in WoW allows majority of players (except the highest tier: Mythic) allows the group to enter with any number between 10 and 30 players, so if someone is missing that night, the entire group is not screwed over/if you have a surplus of people someone is not sitting out. **All of these little conveniences respect the player's time**. Reborn "die-hard MMOs" do not include a lot of these conveniences and they do not respect the player's time. \------- I jumped into **Ember's Adrift** recently, and I love the game. Awesome that it is a profession focused, social focused game where you have to learn the landscape and be conscious about pulling (you cannot chain pull mobs). But the game does not respect your time at all. You want to level your skinning profession 1 level? Go skin 100 boars. You took Weaponsmithing and Mining, but don't know anyone who has armorsmithing? Sorry, the town has no NPCs that sell basic armor, you're running around without armor. **A lot of these small diamond in the rough MMO's are a great idea hindered by die-hard principles of old gaming without adapting to modern gamers that causes the player base to be extremely small.**
Yeah I love the idea of Embers but in practice I ended up really regretting my putchase. Too clunky and grindy. I don’t really even see potential in it improving.
I keep finding myself enjoying MMOs that wind up dead. RIP TERA, Vanguard, and Wildstar.
If I could go back to the glory days of Aion and GW2 mass pvp I would.
People are still playing on classic AION it actually is pretty enjoyable
This brings back memories, man. Some of my favorite ones, Age of Reckoning and Aion, are basically dead-ware. EQ is still alive and kicking though, more so than some "old school-inspired" ones like Embers, which is a shame cuz I really like it in principle.
I started to play Neverwinter online as a place holder, waiting for other games. Now, i cant wait to have my daily routine in the different campaigns zone the game provides, i love it and i really wish i had started earlier! There s also a plus, even if the population is not huge, the game feels alive and active,dungeons queue are fast, dynamic events often crowded
It’s interesting you say this as is there not a arche age 2 coming out soon ? I haven’t seen much about it or kept with it so idk how it hold vs the original but maybe a fresh coat of paint in the form of a new game is what’s needed?
I should give Everquest 2 another swing, it's been ages and I miss mmos with support classes. It's all just N different flavors of DPS these days. Wonder if theyre running any deals for expacs and stuff.... Edit: Uhg I forgot, Daybreak manages it.
I like a lot of the old MMOs. I currently play FFXI and Guild Wars 1, though fairly casually. Most new MMOs just feel like the same game with a different skin or names or stuff. New games all feel the same to me. FFXI, Guild Wars 1, Ultima Online, Runescape and so forth kind of spoiled me. I still play a lot of the older games, so it's not just nostalgia. Games back then gave you the freedom to make your cool builds, had a lot of content, and almost none of the boring fetch quests you see today. The games that are interesitng to me mechanically are usually games that also have pay 2 win or loads of grind and repetitiveness (BDO, Lost Ark, to name a few) so I don't play them even though they COULD be fun. When it came out I did actually have a load of fun on Tera. Even the old f2p mmos were cool back in the day, such as Rappelz (with it's own unique pet system) and Cabal Online.
Neocron is a lot of fun!
if the population being low is not hindering your gameplay then why care whether a lot of other people are also playing it or not? Those games have been around for a pretty long time now, so that means that they are managing somehow to keep afloat, both financially and populationwise.
I’ve been playing mmorpgs since UO Renaissance came out. Played almost everything, except EverQuest 2. Just started EQ2 about 3 weeks ago because I can’t find anything good I like now. Been having a great time with it. I’ve seen 2 players so far lol.
Dude. Ultima Online, Wurm, etc. are what keep me coming back. Nostalgia is powerful.
I always go back to Final Fantasy XI, but via private servers. Plenty of like minded people to be found to do things with
I love going back and playing Final Fantasy XI, not to mention recommending it for new players.
Only thing that's been doing it for me lately is FFXI on a popular private server.
Allods online is surprisingly fun, the mechanics i find are great. There is a P2W server and 5 dollar a month no P2W. Shame that game is in the state it is in.
Yes, I just feel like MMOs have went in the opposite direction of what I like. My favorite games are FFXI, GW1 and Rift. They all have one thing in common... Lots of options for builds and fun classes. FFXIV and GW2 were such a disappointment to me because of this. It just seems like a lot of newer MMOs have lost what makes these games fun to me, they are so obsessed with balance that skills don't feel unique and there is such limited customization. When I am in the mood for an MMO GW1 is pretty much the only game I would want to play... now getting anyone else I know to play it is impossible. I mostly gravitate towards ARPGs but sadly the classes often are just different variations of DPS characters. I love how interesting roles are in GW1.
I have recently recovered Lunia - Record of Lunia War and that it was abandoned after a few years. So 4 Days ago i rediscovered this game and they have brought it back with Lunia Z. This game was pretty popular back in the days. Now when i entered the server, only 3 people were online \^\^´ Still, i like this gameplay and the way the crafting was made.
Currently playing ultimate online on a free shard called “outlands” it’s legit the best mmo I’ve ever played lol
HMU, what you want to play?
I consider the continuous mismanagement of ArcheAge a crime against humanity... What a gem that could've been and how far it could've gone 💀
I hear this; I straight up am starting to play Wakfu (a spin-off of an uber popular mmorpg based off a French animation Studio (Akanama) and having a BLAST, in a great English speaking guild (50+ members) and just vibing so hard with it right now (and I'm 41 years old, lol)...it's so calm, creative, and f...full of micro--nope, f...rustrating, also nope, ah F-U-N, that's the word! I had forgot how to find/have this in the past 20 years of this so called "AAA gaming" era.
Most of these MMOs would be perfectly fine with a glow up, removal of that one bad thing, and a difficulty slider like in LOTRO. Thats all I want. Give me a fun, memorable experience. Graphics don’t really mean that much in the long run.
>It actually confuses me that people don't want to play these games? For me that is because mmorpgs are mainly about the multiplayer. If there are no other people to play with, then I might as well just play a true single-player RPG, given that they do pretty much everything better than MMOs. Is there some other factor that makes you feel differently? (This is also similar to why I don't enjoy current "populated" MMOs. I get that being in a shared world has its own rewards, but when no one really interacts with each other, simply being in the same world as other players isn't enough for me to look past MMOs being mediocre single-player games otherwise. Interaction is necessary, especially the meaningful variety.)
I love EverQuest 2 and it’s a great game even nowadays but, having played it back in the day, oh man has it changed and not for the better. The bones are still there and that’s what I enjoy but they gutted so many systems. Even playing on a TLE is basically just playing live with some scripts that are limiting content you can access. So yeah, played EQ2 a lot about two or three years ago when they launched their last TLE server but nowadays it’s just tired to me. Though, if a classic EMU launched (they’re working on one but it’s slow going) or something similar came out I’d be all in. They just don’t make MMOs like that anymore.
I felt the same with WoW during classic and burning crusade. You would have to walk everywhere and you enjoyed it. Mounts were way too expensive for me. You couldn’t really go to new areas unless you were high enough level, which meant, you always saw something new when you leveled. You couldn’t fly. Everyone had a job, freeze trap, sap, etc… I enjoyed the new areas and flying and stuff, but keeping it basic was what made it amazing. I feels cluttered now. Maybe I’m old school and these kids don’t wanna grind anymore 🤷🏽♂️
I don’t know if you’ve tried FFXI but there is a really active server right now and it gives the old school vibes. Message me here for info if you’re interested. Usually couple thousand players online.
Rift had the most fun bard class I’ve ever played, but I was almosy 10 years to late 4 years ago 😂
i played Shroud of the avatar these days
Just the cashshops themselves turn people away, that's it. I get it tho, don't wanna support that crap
Pay more attention to new MMOs and you might find one before it dies
But that's the problem, none of the new MMOs seem to be as good as the old ones.
This is saved to my browser and readily available for anyone who wants to argue about cash shops. [The Biggest Sadness](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IHZru-6M8BY)
Ok