I started GW2 recently and it's awesome! I work a 9-5 and I feel like I don't miss out on anything by only playing an hour or so a day. The players are really sweet and it's very nice to see people gather to attack random event bosses.
@@Isekai770 The base game is completely free. If you are just chilling with exploration, world bosses and dungeons, you can play it free. Most disadvantage for f2p is that they don't have mounts and don't have access to the shop (where you can buy skins and materials). So if you want to play it like an MMO, you might want to buy at least one expansion.
SWTOR, especially the Knights of the Fallen Empire and knights of the fallen throne xpacs for solo story content, those 2 xpacs are peak (only surpassed by ffxiv's 2 newest xpacs) in terms of story, ive never been so immersed in the star wars universe than with those 2 xpacs. I would recommend everyone just go for playing those 2 xpacs as a solo rpg experience, its incredible
@yamaddie SWTOR was one of the first games I downloaded when I first bought my PC. It was a dream come true for me, everything I wanted in a star wars multiplayer game is in SWTOR
Ive just got into Guild Wars2 after 15 years of wow and its incredible. Pvp is smooth, quick but revarding at any lvl. No subscription, you buy the game and thats it. Mounts are amazing, dungeons, raids, mechanics feel great. I couldnt stick with anything after wow but this game at this stage is amazing. And you dont have to worry about being left behind since everything stays relevant…
Gw2 has been my favourite for 5 years now. What I love about it is the customization, the fashion, the end game challenging content, the movement being so smooth thx to mounts and also the community is amazing. it's easy and accessible from start, but gets harder yet more enjoyable throughout your journey of understanding the game. And the best part is, it's getting progressively better and better. Definitely give Guild Wars a chance, if you want perfect balance between solo and group content, plus very neat pvp with the world vs world system. it's also always easy to pick up on the game if you take a break. 9/10
@@johnnywick1110 true, i have not played many, what I thought was, that at least in my case all I really care about in mmos is the sense of fashion in making characters. Not a roleplay, just fashion. I have played WoW for 12 years, and even tho I enjoyed progressing and being in one of the best pve guilds, I have still cared more about what my char looked like than anything else. xd
actually can't wait to check a series of you trying oldschool runescape. It seems very overwhelming yet shallow at first, but when you really dig in, i think it has the best combat, exploration, and immersion. Bad is grind times.
if you start playing oldschool runescape there is no way going back, you can never quit the game (only breaks) - it's addicting and you can spend hundreds/thousand of hours grinding the game and enjoying your time there :)
@@MrAnalyptic I'd recommend you take a look at examples of high level bossing. Nightmare of Ashihama and Wardens are examples of boss fights that are involved, require precise timings and inputs, and feel very rewarding. Far more complex and interesting that my experiences of raiding in WoW.
eh good luck getting a new player to enjoy runescape combat.. it still works in osrs but rs3 is really being held back by the tick system. and osrs is just using runelite and knowing which tiles to run to.@@pmApostic
@@pmAposticas someone who’s spent years in both versions of the game, it’s not worth playing. You’ll find yourself trying to optimize xp rates by finding ways to get xp with the most little about of attention you can give the game, and in return, if you’re playing a game without trying to pay attention to it, it’s not fun.
Runescape was a huge part of my life. The one thing I would say is stand out for the game is its quests. It's been almost 2 decades since I last played it, but I still remember details of many of the quests I've done in the game when talking to a friend that's still playing it. I am currently only playing Guild Wars 2 when it comes to MMOs. The combat is what makes me stick by it. I've played almost all the MMOs that was talked about in the video, and while there are games that feel better at first in terms of combat. GW2 follows the same philosophy as Pokemon imo. Very simple gameplay mechanics, but the depth is there for people that look for it. In Pokemon, you can easily just pick a team with high stats, and use moves with high power and sweep through the story. There is however, a lot of depth when it comes to team synergies, and battle strategies when actually fighting against another player. The same goes for Guild Wars. You can easily just use the weapon with the highest numbers in their skills (usually greatsword or scepter), and just treat it like a typical action RPG. If you want more engaging and deeper gameplay, you can think about combo fields and finishers, as well as trait and skill synergies. the team synergy is also extremely good. Unlike most MMOs where team play is basically a trinity system or 4-5 ppl playing a single player game, GW makes it rewarding to think about team composition. Some things that come to mind are things like a trait for Guardians makes it so you gain an extra 25% crit chance when you have the Resolution boon. It is hard for a Guardian focused on DpS to supply that much for themselves, but there are some support classes that can provide you that boon if they change their build for it. Another example would be Chronomancers with the Slow debuff. Similarly, they gain 15% crit chance against slowed enemies. Someone else in your party can trait for slow application to increase your contribution.
Eve Online pros: 1) A huge social system, including group missions, extensive corporation systems and massive alliance battles. 2) Player driven economics. Nearly everything that you buy and sell was created by a player, excluding some PVE loot which can drop. 3) Meaningful penalties when you die. You lose a battle and you lose everything, making every decision during an encounter important. Eve Online con: 1) You WILL be ganked within 15 seconds of undocking...
Honestly, Guild Wars 2 is just amazing. I've been playing it for a few weeks already, and I haven't found a single toxic player. Everybody was so helpful and friendly, I really like the GW 2 community, and of course how big the game is, the freedom you have in it. If you don't care about graphics and you just want to have fun and mostly make new friends while exploring, this game is for you :)
I agree GW2 toxic players arent as common IN open world, people are very toxic in PVP though and sometimes in like Fractals/raids but rarely, for whatever reason they arent toxic in WvW though. An example of toxicity i've had was people thinking i was cheating bcuz of 1shotting squishy ppl on my thief which led to people threatening to DDOS me and make bomb threats, which i reported them for and sent screen shots and Arenanet said they couldnt do anything unless the people went through the actions and actually did it.(pretty shitty service imo) IDK if they go off IP though bcuz my roomate got banned a few times for whispering and swearing at ANET mods before then.
I loved the levelling experience in GW2, sadly the complex builds and difficulty to get gear resulted in me quitting. It's just too difficult to do anything post level cap, and yes, I had a guild that tried to help. You're just too locked out of a lot of things.
I wish we had truely social MMO's again like the 2000's. Limited to No action or combat. Just casual world building or social gathering with minigames, housebuilding/decorating themes and things to do. Closest thing now is VRchat, but while an open room world, its options are so limited.
Great video i do agree that level scaling is one of the worse things ever added in mmorpgs, takes away the whole point of leveling when everything becomes the same lvl as you. - Also nice to see Embers Adrift be mentioned as it's a great game just lacks the players and its pretty much in early access still but 100% worth it now that it's b2p in my opinion.
Aye, I have SUPER fond memories of FFXI the brutality of its leveling system was downright amazing it actually challenged you to learn and be better at your chosen class
I don't agree, i hate when devs release new expansion and then throw the rest of the game out of the window, and that's usually the case without scaling...
I guess it depends on the person as i myself enjoy that you need to get better gear/level in every expansion but i hate the fact that now it's all focused on end game and with a level scaling added to it just makes no sense at all to level when you can stick to one zone alone making the world feel dead, making again the point of the world/leveling useless when you may as well just start a max level and do end game. @@raven5323
I keep coming back to LOTRO and FFXIV. LOTRO's world just puts you in a headspace where you don't need to rush, it's like the retirement stage of an MMO player, and I'm currently completing all of the story books (of which there are tons) at my own pace, taking it like a real adventure. It's an exercise in immersion and you feel yourself getting invested in lots of small tasks and making your own priorities as to what you want from your stay on Middle Earth. In FFXIV I enjoy the social aspect, the world, as well as the MSQ, but I only find my self returning a couple months a year or every two years, and I tend to be an expansion behind in terms of story, taking my time. Ultimately, these two games don't make you feel guilty for playing them casually and I'm happy to give them money when I feel the urge to revisit them as someone in his 30s without the drive to no-life an MMO like I used to when I was in a race to server first raiding guild on WoW.
My experience with LOTRO: Hear good stuff. Download game. Turns out its a microtransactions-ridden festering mess right from the char creator, where most is locked off behind a paywall. Uninstall
Be nice if LOTR ONLINE Remodel the 3D characters, the Environment looks perfect/beautiful and age well , best part of the game in LOTR online.. it just the model of the characters look too 2007 PS2ish out dated, hopefully they pick up on that and remaster the characters..
@AlexQuartz There is only like 2 very niche races and classes that are paywalled... and the store is mostly cosmetic and easily ignored. Its nowhere near as microtransaction ridden as you want to portray. You can still be what amounts to a warrior, a healer, a wizard, a druid, a dual wielder (by different names).. you can still be a human, an elf, a dwarf, a hobbit. The most recognizable races and classes are all free to play.
@@Redbeardflynn Its a little annoying, im running the steam version on a steam deck and didnt have much issue. Other then accidentally applying the full game CD key wrong.
Haven't seen a frost giant is 25 years. So happy to see its still going. I played on Bristlebane, long live Pouty, leader of Club FU. So many fond memories.
I've played pretty much every MMO that's been released (I'm 48 years-old) and I can safely say that The Lord of the Rings online is probably my personal favorite because you are never in a rush and there is a TON of lore friendly content in it. The world is massive and there are always things to do, the pvp is lacking but other than that the game is nearly perfect. I've played World of Warcraft, Everquest 1+2, Star Wars Galaxies/The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, Ultima online, Runescape, Guild Wars 1+2, The Secret World, Ragnarok, ArcheAge, Mabinogi, Runes of Magic, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion, Rift, Anarchy Online, among many others and none of them quite scratched the itch for me. Lord of the Rings online has a beautiful world, a lot to do, great quests, the best MMO community, and a fun profession system that is actually useful.
I'm pretty much in your situation, only 5-6 years older :) I've played them all. GW2 easily becomes my main game and I daily visit LOTRO and DDO as secondary worlds. I used to love EQ2, but the skeleton crew left working on it need put in to much p2w mechanics to survive - making playing retail unbearable for me :(
Dark age of Camelot, one of the longest running MMORPG that started in 2000 (beta) launched retail in 2001 and has never stopped and still going strong today, DAOC is still one of if not the best PVP based MMO ever made and really should have been on this list!
The FFXI disrespect! :D Its essenitally Japanese EQ that was made by Square-Enix in its heyday and made available on PS2, 360, & PC that could be played with a controller and/or keyboard. (Or K+M if you're a masochist.)
Funny enough when people play FFXIV for long enough to get to know other people, create (or join) Free Company, start doing content together, eventually it leads people to realise the amount of player-driven content in that game and amount of social aspect there
Please do a video on Anarchy Online, Shadowbane (both steam and emulator), Earth & Bryond emulator, the different UO and SWG emulators, etc.. so many great forgotten games that people dont realize they can still play. Love your videos keep up the great work!
OSRS and RuneScape 3 honestly have some of the best story in any game you'll ever play. They have hundreds of quests that can take 20-40 mins to complete without a guide and a few massive quests that can take hours. They don't have any gather x of y quests and the quests are truly a masterpiece when it comes to storytelling. I've spent approx. over 300hrs questing exclusively and I haven't even completed half of the quests
what really does it for me is the dialog. it feels like a genuine conversation to me. we don't talk the way we write and i think they nailed it in this aspect
To be honest.. while it's still alive, if you haven't tried Age of Conan, I think it's well worth putting a bit of time into. Especially if you're just looking for another world to explore, even if it's just for a short time. Very enjoyable game, immersive, great combat, detailed environment etc.
Ultima Online... It might not have been my first, but I invested a lot of time in this a long time ago... God, it has been many, many years. Well, Guild Wars 2 is my go to MMO these days (on and off since 2012 actually).
been playing BDO for two years i love it i really only spent money on the tent and inventory weight i feel like both those make the grinds far more bearable. i have full pen gear and tet accessories at the moment.
I tried to play New World again after playing it 300 hours at star and I must say game is gooooood. I'm not satisfied with fishing but still do it :) Everything else is pretty cool. Sounds of chopping a tree & mining ore still gives me gousebumps
@@Ghazala_1984 Yeah completely different in the wrong way. There's nothing to do in the game except collecting shit. Raiding is more or less dead, and M+ is a toxic nightmare one should steer well clear of unless one has friends to play with.
@@jabzilla21 im the last of my group of original friends that started in 99 that still plays. But thats ok i have made lots of friends over the years and am in a guild that feels like family at this point still raiding 4 days a week.
As someone who has spend most of my time playing mmos, playing gw1 and gw2 i feel like i rarely hear the complaint about the direction the game takes, and i 100% agree, the main reason i quit was because of the direction, i feel like the parts of the game that are in a bad state often never get looked at, and the parts people care about sometimes get ignored or altered to a point where people dont care, they dont seem to be in touch with the community and thats unfortunate
You should definitely play Old School RuneScape. Constant new updates and QoL updates. New content is constantly being developed. Funny and kind community. Give it a go, once you get hooked on it. You won’t possibly be able to quit. Only take breaks…
There is sure alot Id like to comment on here, but I just picked a couple of things. #1 Albion Online: I just loved this game at launch. It was so much fun until the later levels where you were forced to go into pvp zones to progress your crafting skills. In my older age, I have nothing against pvp, it did indeed have its time and place for me. However, I much more prefer consensual pvp now. I would jump back into this game in a heartbeat if they made a pve (or consent pvp) server. #2 Project Gorgon: I played this one for a few months. I have to say its an old school gem of a game. What was fun about this game was the learning curve. You grind and struggle only to find out a week later you could have made it easy by talking to a certain NPC, or doing something simple you never thought of. The player base is pretty friendly and helpful but there is alot of know/learn. If it goes on sale, I highly recommend it. The starter island seems a bit dull, but once you get to the main game, it picks up and opens quite a few possibilities for character advancement.
EQ2 - vastly overlooked. Amazing graphics, polished UI, Endlessly diverse map and enemy content, group role specific and solo specific classes. 14 different classes and 14 races to choose from, some simple roles, some complex. A skil tree to amplify or modify chosen abilities or add new ones. Named bosses with specific loot tables. "God mode" - a system for leveling down to take down lower level bosses you might have missed. A crafting market where you can use supply and demand to create profit or get gear for alts. Adventure, strategy, teamplay, questing. Still simply amazing.
EQ2 continues to be my favorite solo MMO experience. Low populations means that grouping isn't great, but you can level up your toon to max 125 and never have to group once. Great quests, good alternative advancement system, hundreds of hours of gameplay. i've played dozens of MMOs, and EQ2 continues to be my absolute favorite. Hints: 1. Get an all access pass, as it's more than worth it. 2. Join a friendly guild with a lot of helpful, established veterans. They love to see new blood, and you will get loads of helpful advice.
Quarm just released and is an emulated EQ progression server going up to PoP. Super popular with 1800 people on atm. Also, chainbreaker is an insane EQ emulated server where you can mix and match your classes. It is insanely fun to play on and theorycraft.
Back when I tried it the Trooper story was a mess with outcomes of choices that made no sense where the objectively correct option was the Dark side choice and the combat was a poor derivative of WoW. It was so obviously a reskinned WoW with a few additional bells and whistles that overall gave a worse experience.
Glad you speaking about Project Gorgon. Also i'd liek to add Broken Ranks to the old school VIBES MMORPG category, it's a modern MMORPG disguised as a Baldur's Gate/Neverwinter Nights old school game
Gw2 only seems aimless before reaching level 80, because aside from doing personal story every 10 level, you have a ton of choices to level up to get to those story contents. You can do hearts quests, crafting, open world events, and meta events to level up, even map completion could do that.
@@potheadraccoon8536 Compared to WoW and alike that doesn't make any sense. GW2 is one of the few which mechanics actively make people come together, working together towards the same goal with how the event system works and so. If that wasn't enough to not have you feel like playing a single player game, then it's up to you as the individual to get in touch with people... Yes, the game is not pushing you to make a group necessarily, but it doesn't stop you doing it either. It lets you make the choice as it should be (I think).
@@Replect The players in events may as well be NPCs, trying to defend GW2 as a social game is just laughable. Events are the only thing that people bring up, which shows how solo-oriented the game really is. MMORPGs are meant to, for lack of better words, force players together. Otherwise, you get what we have today: everyone takes the solo route.
EverQuest is pure nostalgia I know for a lot of people DandD started it all but for me it was EverQuest turning my self needlessly into a tree was the coolest thing ever!
I feel like Warhammer Return of Reckoning deserves a mention. While it might seem like a complete WoW clone it's pvp experience is one of the best out there.
I dedicated a video to Warhammer, both the original and Return of Recoking about a month before this video here: ruclips.net/video/HNZ8WYYB9PE/видео.htmlsi=C-yXPYTmPRFDrBu9
I am a dedicated ESO player and have been for five years now. My take on pros vs cons of the game is drastically different than yours; so much so that I wonder if you really have spent much time digging into it. I have played most major MMOs out there but not GW2 which I plan on trying at some point. So I am going to list the qualities of ESO I like best and what I don't like so much. 1. The PVP is really the best of any game out. Unlike you, I really like the combat system which has more of a real time feel to it and is very skill-based rather than gear-based or level-based. By that I mean as you play more you get better and better at the mechanics and while having the gear and the bonuses from champion points (levels) matters, in the end your skill at the keyboard makes the most difference. 2. The world and graphics. I simply cannot get over how much detail the developers have put into every nook and cranny and how realistic much of it looks. And all that detail on a vast, huge open world that is literally filled with players adventuring. I almost never find any empty zones even in off hours. 3. The never-ending leveling system with NO GRIND. It takes a very long time to get to 3600 champion points(levels) so no one becomes a super meta player overnight. You can get most of what you need to compete in pvp by reaching 1500. But that takes a few years if you have a job and work. But the no grind part is great. I do ten or twenty different things when I play and almost all of them give experience. I quest, craft, pvp, raid, solo dungeons, and unearth artifacts. Now what I don't like. 1. Many of the quests are really corny and only a few are not including the Main Quest which I thought was pretty neat. 2. There are not enough mid-level dungeons. They are just super easy and super hard. I disagree when you said the dungeons are easy even on veteran mode. Did you try veteran March of Sacrifices and how many times did your group go down? It's not easy at all. And the trials are also tough. I also don't like that the high level pve content relies too much on mechanics, meaning you have to know some trick about where to stand and when to dodge or block or else you die one-shot. But my dislikes of the game are fairly small compared with what I like.
It is sad that DDO gets looked over in many of these lists. It's game mechanics were way ahead of its time. In fact, I am puzzled why many new mmo's can't or don't really employ these mechanics. Good vid. (Not a complaint lol)
It's an unfortunate absence. The intricate dungeon delving it provides is something I haven't seen elsewhere. It's the closest I've come across to the table top experience in a MMORPG.
I have played DDO on and off since beta and I think it has a large learning curve and very niche game play. I loved it one of the best character building games available I have ever played.
Probably because it's not actually an MMORPG. It's something more akin to Warframe, Destiny, or Vindictus. And other lobby/instance based games with limited shared world to explore.
correction, i would argue that EQ has 6 class roles - puller, tank, healer, dps, crowd control and damage mitigation. as someone who've play this game for years, without a good puller like a monk, you will not only wipe out your group, but literally cause the entire zone to to evacuate away from the train of mobs. likewise, without a shaman, most healers cannot keep up with the amount of damage the tank takes against a mob that not been slowed by a shaman. that is ultimately the demise of the game, because it is very difficult to gather a person from each of these classes and often players will have characters of multiple classes.
I'm a huge fan of ESO but I never liked the One Tamriel update, nor the removal of hostility from enemy faction guards. I always felt like being able to interact with npcs, and pick up quests in enemy territories, WHILE having to avoid what is basically enemy military was more compelling gameplay than just being able to go anywhere and do anything. Also, I hyped for Necromancy myself, and fyi OSRS has a magic book that is commonly called the necromancy book.
I was in the alpha for ESO because I am a huge Elder Scrolls fan. I played it for a bit after launch but I was heavy into hard core raiding in SWTOR and then moved to FFXIV.
On the games I've played the biggest points for me are class choice and tradeskills. Obviously FFXIV hits both those points being able to play all on one character. I love BDO because there are so many classes to choose from not to mention the graphics. ESO is next with class choice and TS, both great. New World imo hit a homerun on TS and the rest is ok. WoW was good when I played and the TS were good, but cannot do all on one character, class choice not so much and quit during SLs. EQ is good with good TS and class choice, havent played in quite a while. Dabbled in Lotro, Albion, and Lost Ark, but not much else, so really cant comment. One more point I'd like to mention is lore. For me WoW is tops since I have been so deeply entrenched in it since the beginning, with EQ second. I am sure I will try others as they come out and maybe come back to old favorites.
As someone that played most of these games that were mentioned i can say that you nailed most of the info pros/cons and as for rs3/osrs the game has so much content, has so many skills that can literally take you weeks or months to max each as a new player. The playerbase does kind of has this (doing quests is exp waste) mentality and sorry but i am also one of them lol! Dont get me wrong i do a new quest once a blue moon and i dont even got half of them done. Theres just so much to do and on top of that you can get into the market system of it and learn to basically understand its economy and get to meet other people that have unique setups for bosses or even grinding exp. You can literally go and just be free and do whatever you want and reap benefits one way or another but most importantly you get to learn what weapons and combos work best on each NPC and just have tons of fun. I know you didnt mention DCUO or ASE but those 2 are literally dying specially ASE. I played those 2 for years and ASE is getting its official servers shut down but the unofficial/dedicated servers are still fun. Just wouldn't attach myself to it if i were new to it. The new game ASA is coming out as well but im kind of boycotting it so please dont buy hehe. As for DCUO it was great when it had a bigger playerbase but i believe that changed when they "adjusted" the pvp side years ago. They only made it so those who can exploit can easily kill you while you stand no chance as abilities do no pvp dmg on public areas unless youre in a pvp arena. All 3 of those games for sure require you to be social to do end game stuff but playing solo is still very possible! FINAL FANTASY!! That game was just amazing when i played it years ago. I believe i only quit it because my ex girlfriend hacked into it and stole all my stuff in it but if it wasnt for that i would of probably kept on playing! Amazing story and content all around for sure!! Only bad side was the pvp like you said..it just felt empty.. like even if you died or killed lots of the pther team playrrs it never felt like it was a accomplishment. The market in all of the games above were super fun to mess with as well. Im still pretty active on rs3 and ASE until they shut the servers down at the end of September. All ive been doing is giving my tamed dinos to those who never even probably got the chance to tame one or use one in official server so it feels nice to see and hear people 's joy as they ride a maxed out giga or mana or even just going in to kill bosses and then using TEK to mess around and punch t rexs with it 😂
I could go on and on about every game but the ones I mentioned are the ones I have the most experience/time on. I'm still waiting for the perfect console (PS5) cross platform game that has amazing content and story and economy/trading along with great PVP. sometimes all a guy needs to love something is to fight to the death vs another just to hope they get to keep the other's stuff lol 😅😅
Just found ur channel. First upload of urs ever watched by me.. and I’m an instant sub. Good stuff. Watched it til’ the end. And although there was no mention of FFXI (🤣) ur delivery of the info was fantastic 👏 👏 👏
I got my introduction to MMOs with City of Heroes/villains back in 2005. I played that game for 7 years until they shut down the servers. However, now there is the Homecoming server which hosts city of Heroes/villains that is public facing so anyone can play it again for free. They only ask for donations for operating expenses.
As a long time mmo player, I think WoW has the best balance between social and solo content. Great video! Just found your channel about an hour ago and have been enjoying your videos.
New World developers have no plan, and no idea where they are going. They throw spaghetti at a wall, waiting for something to stick, and if it does they clean the wall removing anything being enjoyed. They said a ten year plan, but at the current rate it will not even be ready for release in 10 years( yes I know it has been technically released). It also has so many bugs, issues, and exploits, that it's real hard to enjoy things it does correctly. They do not play to their strengths, but they have become real good at highlighting the weaknesses. There are no joke multiple bugs and issues in every single territory in the game, and each patch brings more, like missing terrain(not kidding). Pair this with using discord and having """"NO FORUMS""" it's hard to get them to fix anything. It took me a solid six months of complaining and reports, to get them to fix a Faction mission in weavers that was broken for an entire faction after the weavers update. We are talking Crowfall, and Anthem level game development. It's sad because it does have potential, it will just never be realized.
@@CHOP874not completely. Ppl drop because out of expectation. The game pretty chill tbh for dads who just login and hang out for awhile. Doing short content and not getting serious for the system
@@nuvynavy999 we must have 2 different experiences. I got kicked from dungeon groups for using a bow and GS and when I said I'll switch man just let me back in I've been trying to increase my gear score all this week, the guy got the whole server to start harassing me in both chat and voip in towns. Community is pretty crap tbh.
@@kingcaesar3693 thats very sad thb. What server it is. On eu maybe yes. I roll to tank or heal thats kinda most everyone don't wanna play. Easy to fill tho
I think Classic Era (not WotLK) deserves a separate mention. It's almost a completely different game from Retail, without many of the BS systems that are a plague upon modern gaming.
@@lovropeter9988 Retail has an upfront cost and and a monthly sub, yet it has all of the monetization systems that F2P games have. Buing a WoW Token fo 20$ gets you about 350k gold and you can buy gear with that gold. You can get high level gear without ever setting your foot in a raid or dungeon. On top of that there's a cash shop where you can buy for real money mounts, pets and transmogs that should have been a challenge or quest reward. There's also this "boosting" business that Blizzard now officially endorces. They made a separate channel for "boosting services" yes, but it's curious it's turned on by default.
Mabinogi! It offers more to do both in and out of combat compared to other MMOs, and will be revamped to UE5 soon. Wanna do a music jam session with others in a town? Go for it! Wanna relax on a hit-air balloon ride? You can! Want responsive combat? Mabinogi has it! Want to tend to farms? Yep, you can do that too! Exploration? Heck yeah!
Guild Wars 2 is always my go to MMO to relax. Totally agree with Guild Wars 2 bringing the most value. I understand that you can't repeat a game in 2 separate categories, but from personal experience I would also put Guild Wars 2 at the top for the 'Social' category as-well.
3 good things and 1 bad about OSRS: 1. Thriving player base who are extremely helpful and kind 2. 1300 hours+ of simply maxing the characters skills at extreme efficiency (so a bunch of content), 3. any type of mmo you want it to be (pvp, pve, questing, skilling, raiding, collecting, money making/merching, ect) 1 bad thing: no linear story line or hand holding, finding friends, and total progression fully depends on what you want to do which can be limiting and overwhelming for some players! :)
Very good video. it may be because I'm getting older so perhaps I "lucked out" on the timing, but for FFXIV, ARR felt like worldbuilding (fine, well done, enough that I felt like I couldn't skip story), Heavensward felt fun but a cliche MMO story (tons of fun though, it wasn't bad), Stormblood had a really really good story (post-Stormblood content being a step up to what was coming so much so that there was a boss fight with literal story content going on during it), and Shadowbringers was the pinnacle of MMO storytelling for me. As far as the older bit, as corny as it sounds, I very much remember thinking and being serious when doing so "I better live long enough to see the end of the Hydaelyn saga/Endwalker completion because this is going to feel sad otherwise" and then Endwalker, much like Shadowbringers, did an excellent job of doing callbacks to earlier content and just bringing everything to a satisfying conclusion. Which was one thing I hated about WoW's story and to an extent EQ's (though admittedly, I was late high school/early twenties when playing EQ so I may be downplaying EQ on story), but WoW always felt like we were getting better and better and then we kill the big bad and then we're back to square one: all the stuff we did was fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Comparing that to FFXIV where, sure, there's new stuff with the next expansion, but everything you did felt like it was getting your side into better position to combat the other side. Just beautiful stuff, honestly. Stormblood and on, masterwork. Endwalker was the conclusion of the previous story so I'm kind of hoping the next expansion is just, well, fun maybe. Maybe an expansion without life or death stakes would feel like a nice palate cleanser for whatever comes next. The PvP can be pretty meh though, you are right. I do mildly enjoy the Crystalline Conflict stuff though. But it feels like a very fun mode held back by the skill system a bit (though can kind of tank in it, even as a healer, if everyone is focusing you which is kind of interesting)
Glad you enjoyed it! I'd recommend giving many of these MMOs a chance just to see what they're like, especially ones like ESO that make it pretty easy to get started. The two games that are probably the closest to each other are going to be ESO and GW2.
I just can't get away from EQ, I come back to it almost every year. P99 is defiantly fun for a while, but if you've played lots of progression or emulated servers it can get kind of old. I personally prefer p2002 or Wayfarers Haven emulator. I allows you to 3 box and has a few more expansions (notably Planes of Power and recently added Omens of War.)
Every aspect of outlands is super in depth and you can spend months on just one specific aspect, just when you think you have a grasp on something and you decide you want to try something else on the server you find out its another super deep system you can spend hours and hours learning and advancing in.
The game I come back to is BDO - it's the easiest to leave and come back to and there is always a new character to try. New World might be worth another try by me - it was ok just not really a reason to stick around. With more PVE it might be better. Archeage is another one that I've been back a couple of times and now that it has a stable publisher I might try again. Archeage 2 is also on the horizon. Another game I dive back into every other year or so is EQ2 -- I have never been able to play EQ1, the controls are weird. EQ2 I dive back into as a new Gnome Monk and level my way up to the point of fighting Giants by kicking their big toes. I usually get a couple of levels past that point and then I'm good for a couple of years. I also dive back into GW2 every couple of years - slowly making my way through each of the races, once I get one levelled I take a long break so it is fresh when I come back. Looking forward to Pax Dei and a few others that are in the works. I don't mind playing in a world with PVP (good thing since BDO is one of my favs) but I prefer PVE. Also you forgot A Tale in the Desert (ATITD)- which is a very small old school non combat MMORPG that takes place in Egypt and wipes everything occasionally and makes everyone restart.
i totally agree with ur gw2 points. it's a pretty good game and you really don't need to pay money after u buy it, save perhaps for some inventory space to make your life easier or to unlock the living stories, which is a fair trade for not having a sub and are also things u can unlock with in-game money if you grind. my problem with the game was the same as yours, i honestly felt purposeless in it after finishing the story and doing some strikes and fractals and gearing up a few characters. i know there are plenty things to do in the game, i know people that have been playing for many years and still find motivation for things to do in the game but i'm not that type of person and i know many others aren't either, which is why gw2 was never a massive success, which is a shame really cuz many other mmos have stolen a lot from this game, which just shows how much potential the game has. i had the same problem with eso too but that game was much worse in every aspect compared to gw2, i even have that sort of problem with ff14, which is my favorite mmo. i'm not saying these mmos need to hold ur hand all the way through and tell u do this or do that or force u to play and do chores like wow but i do believe there needs to be a balance between freedom and some direction and not forcing people to play but giving them reason to do so if they please.
Gamers just forgot how to find their own way of doing things. Over a long period of time games taught their gamers that they would need a pre-set carrot in front of them, to feel like they were doing something worthwhile, even if the content to get them to the carrot maybe wasn't even any fun... Now that is kind of burnt in to the peoples DNA as a requirement, to not get lost (in the sense of not knowing what to do, to not get bored). Instead of just playing the content they would enjoy, independent of whatever loot there might be involved, they NEED that guidance and what to do next, and what (better) loot next is waiting for them. "giving them reason" you said... the reason should simply be enjoying the content you are playing... and I mean, in the moment, not just once you got the loot. MMO gamers especially lost that "mindset"... If there is no loot or the loot is trash, the way to get there was just the same is the feeling they get. It's unfortunate... There are plenty MMOs which follow that "carrot" system, but I'm glad GW2 is not one of them.
@@Replect i don't think that it's that we are conditioned to play a certain way but more so that people have different preferences and ways of getting motivated because of their character. some like to freely explore and some need a structure, for some gameplay alone is enough to motivate them but others need rewards. for me it's very hard to get motivated just for the gameplay when it's not a pvp game, whereas i will spend hours grinding some content that i hate just to get that one reward that i like. ofc i'm not advocating for games to force you to grind, what i'm saying is that there needs to be a certain balance between those two, to hook players and also keep them playing. from what i have noticed going heavily on one way or the other is what leads people to not start games like gw2 or quit games like wow.
@@metalface_villain I still think that (as you put it well) conditioning is a thing here, but still, I get what you are saying and can't fully disagree. But it gets to be an issue if that "reward that you like" is something which makes you more powerful, instead of just being a minor convenience or different skin... The latter I'd think you'd still find plenty in GW2 with the achievement system today... but the first would result in something soon ending up as an requirement/standard for any group to be equipped with... and once you got that? What's next? The next reward that makes you even stronger than the ones before? I'm not going into the (obvious) issues and chain of events that results in.
EVERQUEST, the game that started it ALL. Best game ever. Have over 16k hours on steam, lol. Have over 240 krono. Did a ton of RuneScape, but my god, Too MANY BOTS>>>>>>>
The pvp aspect of ffxiv is not a concern for me or anyone i know, because ffxiv never wanted to really do pvp. It was never a priority of any kind. Id not say it is an actual negative, just not what the game is about. Some games focus on pvp, some focus on pve.
Unfortunately, pvp is a daily roulette and something a lot of people like to do with their side time. I don’t think ff14 needs to focus on pvp, but fixing what they currently have would go a long way for a lot of people.
Great list, although sometimes your choice of games for categories sometimes feel a bit weird, I can mostly agree with the pros and cons of the games I know.
@@Redbeardflynn In general I was thinking about just going through the games and apply the appropriate categories to them, because this way you can really assign several categories to a game that qualifies for more than one instead of having to make the hard choice. In addition to that you could apply tiers to them in their categories and add a section where you quickly go through the categories after briefly introducing each game. You could also use each category to make such a tier list video. The social MMO category is the one I struggled the most with, but maybe because we have different definitions of "social" in mind. You used it for MMOs that require a group in order to do content. I would use it for games that bring people together and encourage social interactions in general and not only for group content. And within this category GW2 is a strong contender (even though it doesn't require deep social interaction for open world stuff) and Palia aims to be in that category as well but has some work to do in order to achieve that (in my opinion). Sadly I failed to get Everquest running, so I can't judge that one. Hot take: The only way WoW encourages social interaction is by having systems that create toxic environments so that you want to avoid that by joining a guild instead.
Great video! Thank you! I tried a lot of MMORPG's. But waiting, when somebody will realise game with getting older characters by playtime and possibility to extend lifetime or reincarnation storyline. With loosing of some stats- talents after dying in any circumstances, but not so hard total death like in WOW Hardcore, when after couple weeks of levelling you feeling really dead.😂 The breevity of life, what makes the world to move.😊
I'm simultaneously surprised and not that SWTOR did not make the list. Like I expected to see it, but also understood why it didn't make the cut. Which is a shame because it's a pretty amazing fully voice acted "choices matter" mmo, but may be going into maintenance mode (allegedly) so meh. I'm glad I saw WoW even though I get the hate some people feel for it lol, it's had it's claws into me for the last 20 years and even though I don't play it nearly as much I also can't imagine my life without it. Blizzard refuses to sign the divorce papers, what can I say. 😂
EVERQUEST. I started in 1999 and ended in 2006. I put WELL OVER 10,000 hours. If you can complete and MMO, I came as close as one can come. Every character class, Maxed. Every "skill" of those classes. Maxed. Every Crafting Skill, including those limited to certain classes. Maxed. When I quit, I had over 800,000 plat. and could make every item in the game. I loved this MMO, only ESO (Elder Scrolls Online) has come close. Like Everquest, in ESO, All character classes maxed as well as all crafting maxed, with 50 million gold? Something like that. When you were level 60 in Everquest, people KNEW you seen some crap, it was NOT easy to get there. ESO has one of the best communities out there for an MMO. Those are my 2 best choices.
Daoc is still live through EA but its population is gone. Private servers are good like Eden but the population on those is still super low around 1.3k peak euro times
I miss EQ except for the corpse runs. Or waiting hours for a rare mob that had a quest item to pop . That actually made me quit the game. My time is valuable!
Ok so for OSRS: good thing 1: Your freedom of choise. There are 23 (maybe soon 24) skills in the game, many of them go hand in hand and feed into other skills, there are usually many different ways to level those skills and you have full freedom to do it in any order you'd like and use any method you like. 2: The way you explore the game. Many areas in the game are locked behind quests, some armours and weapons are locked behind quests or minigames, you can unlock new spellbooks with quests. It doesn't mean you have to do all the quests, but if you want to try out something new, there probably is a quest that will lead you there or make it easier for you. 3. The player driven economy. Not everything can be bought with gold, but most items can, and you will be buying and selling stuff all the time, and the best gear in the game isn't locked behind group content, it's probably alot easier to get it if you have friends who do group content with you, but if you know how to make money you can just go make money and buy the gear you want. Some people even play the game for the sole purpose of roleplaying as a merchant and invest in rare items like in the stock market. The bad thing about the game: The grind. You better have some spare time if you want to play this game, because everything is a grind. This game will eat your time like I eat my tacos.
Biggest issue with OSRS as someone who has played alot of it, is that at the end of the day everyone is the same account, sure u can have PVP acc's but all mid/high pures are still the same etc and pvp is dying. the game lacks diversity but there is alot to do in terms of minibosses etc. not having dedicated healers or tanks and everyone essentially being a DPS with max STR gear etc is just sadly what the game is at endgame.
the more harder content you do in wow, the more you have to talk with people. in reality when I play tlps in EQ i spend more time watching netflix than communicating with people in EQ, compairded to group content in wow.
good stuff brother! I too started in EQ1 in 2000, my first MMO. Played for a few years, sold my character for $1k, in a rage quit, because it was discovered the guild leader were selling our turn in gear for RMT. (was on FV, rp server, had minimal loot rules, loot council forced you to turn in old gear if they awarded you with a new piece of loot). went to SWG for a bit, then wow. played wow off and on since, but can't tolerate it anymore. SWTOR is another interesting one you didn't mention, I played at launch, then on / off a few times over the years. 3 years ago, a friend reminded me of FF14, and since then, pretty much solidly playing it. (tried wow with dragon flight for a few weeks, but the people are just too toxic for me.. Im older now.. 61.. less tolerant.) Played New World for a bit, but meh, Diablo 4 recently for a bit, but it just cant hold my attention. FF14 main character is well developed. and ya, the MSQ of ff14 is the very best, for us.
Just a quick comment RE: FFXIV's "Slow combat" because of the 2.5s GCD (for outsiders looking in)--That's not truly indicative of the overall experience. There are skills on the GCD and skills off the GCD, and some classes have a lot of oGCD skills that you are supposed to be weaving in between GCD skills, and some have fewer. Some classes give themselves Haste to decrease their GCD as well. So it's not like ALL classes play slowly, but speed and pacing is something you can control by playing different classes. But it's also true that EVERY class starts slow, and generally all feel slow up to like level ~50 or so. All classes speed up, a lot or a little, as every expansion adds new dynamics to your overall kit design. But the slower start is by design. If you're an MMO vet, you already understand how the core of combat works, nothing to learn other than how FFXIV does it their way. But for the Final Fantasy fan who has never played an MMO..? They need a little more time to come up to speed to be awesome like you. So it's a slower experience to start for MMO vets, but it comes up to speed based upon your preferred job and job level. It does get better, and so many would love to help you start down the path that sounds best for you. But feel free to try them all out if you're feeling it, so many people main swap because the grass actually was greener to them! (And yes--it is not the MMO to play for PvP.)
I feel you may have missed one of the BIGGEST MMO to date ... Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (SWG) Heralded for having THE most comprehensive, in depth, detailed and intertwined crafting system of ANY game ever made thus far. The adventure of wandering around the galaxy Far Far Away between the events of Episode IV and Episode V. Not to mention... Lightsabers ? Yeah, the original SWG had a very unforgiving Jedi unlock system, but the adventure of wielding one of the fabled weapons was a most satisfying feeling.
As much as I love swg it was hard to narrow it down to one of the post-closure servers but when I do one of these on sci-fi mmos it'll be front an center. Don't worry.
The best mmos ive played out of these were OSRS and WoW. Between combat, pvp, and game design, these 2 gave me that fresh, adventure feeling from the start. They both have there problems, but they get u hooked.
Global cooldown is really only an issue in earlier levels. Once you get to near max level you’ll need to press enough buttons on your rotation that GCD isn’t noticeable
As far as #1 Social game goes, theres no contender out there that comes anywhere near EvE Online, seriously if your looking for a social game, EvE Online is it, it even holde two world records for the most players in online battles (largest multiplayer video game PvP battle (8,825 players)) and (most concurrent participants in a multiplayer video game PvP battle (6,557 participants)), if thats not social, i dont know what is :)
I have always been a free2play player in BDO for like 5 years now and even though I play other mmo whenever a potential good one is released, I don't know man, i still find myself going back and logging in to BDO from time to time. There's something about the feeling of playing bdo that other new mmo's doesn't have. The p2w elements advantage just doesn't really apply fo most of the player because it doesn't affect the game experience at all except if your that dude that really cares about being on the top of PVP which majority of us doesn't really care. Of course we still want to progress the gears but, it's only being used to massacare more monsters lol
My only complaint here, is that nobody ever talk about FF11 as an MMO to check out. It's grindy, but hella customizable and filled with incredible lore and story telling. Somehow, it suffers more from the Shadow of FF14, than GW1 does from GW2.
FF11 definitely gets the short end of the stick a lot. I want to expand this to focus on sub-genres in MMOs and I think I'll do one just on older MMOs where I could include FF11.
They should totally port UO to tablet…🎉 you touched on so many of my classic favorites. Older and shorter time plays my favorite of all time is Chimeraland. Unfortunately closing down next month. It is so perfect in so many ways, but had maybe too difficult for the massive amount of game mechanics…so deep, but the most beautiful and literally limitless. 😢 I’ll miss that experience.
Casual UO on a tablet might actually work really well, especially since so much of it is mouse clicking. They could probably find a way to make custom macros work with on screen taps, too. Would be interesting. Sorry to hear that your virtual home is closing down, that's always brutal (I still remember it with SWG and Vanguard) Hopefully you can find a new one, soon!
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Thanks for wasting my time! People should let that dead horse be dead (WoW). Also, New World, will be free or get canceled.
I started GW2 recently and it's awesome! I work a 9-5 and I feel like I don't miss out on anything by only playing an hour or so a day. The players are really sweet and it's very nice to see people gather to attack random event bosses.
Can i play solo peacefylly?
@@Isekai770 yes! I am a solo player :)
@@flobah plz tell me one more thing........is the game completely free or i have to buy some of the games dlc or expansion
@@Isekai770 is has expansions and such but you can be a completely f2p player and still get hours of gameplay
@@Isekai770 The base game is completely free. If you are just chilling with exploration, world bosses and dungeons, you can play it free. Most disadvantage for f2p is that they don't have mounts and don't have access to the shop (where you can buy skins and materials). So if you want to play it like an MMO, you might want to buy at least one expansion.
SWTOR, especially the Knights of the Fallen Empire and knights of the fallen throne xpacs for solo story content, those 2 xpacs are peak (only surpassed by ffxiv's 2 newest xpacs) in terms of story, ive never been so immersed in the star wars universe than with those 2 xpacs. I would recommend everyone just go for playing those 2 xpacs as a solo rpg experience, its incredible
@yamaddie SWTOR was one of the first games I downloaded when I first bought my PC. It was a dream come true for me, everything I wanted in a star wars multiplayer game is in SWTOR
Happy Friday, RED!
EverQuest Live, TLP and P99 - this is more than enough gaming for me! 😺
Ive just got into Guild Wars2 after 15 years of wow and its incredible. Pvp is smooth, quick but revarding at any lvl. No subscription, you buy the game and thats it. Mounts are amazing, dungeons, raids, mechanics feel great. I couldnt stick with anything after wow but this game at this stage is amazing. And you dont have to worry about being left behind since everything stays relevant…
Wait! Isn't GW2 free-to-play?
@@alyasVictorioyes, the original game that came out over a decade ago is free. Expansions are not free.
@@Stdeo7what is expanscion?
Gw2 has been my favourite for 5 years now. What I love about it is the customization, the fashion, the end game challenging content, the movement being so smooth thx to mounts and also the community is amazing. it's easy and accessible from start, but gets harder yet more enjoyable throughout your journey of understanding the game. And the best part is, it's getting progressively better and better. Definitely give Guild Wars a chance, if you want perfect balance between solo and group content, plus very neat pvp with the world vs world system. it's also always easy to pick up on the game if you take a break.
9/10
Just started playing GW2. Its much better. Bloody I can run and just mount on my raptor and that guy can even leap. Love it.
there is no endgame content besides fashion
@@johnnywick1110 correct, as in every mmo
@@MInorek5 every mmo? you probably havent played anything besides gw2.
@@johnnywick1110 true, i have not played many, what I thought was, that at least in my case all I really care about in mmos is the sense of fashion in making characters. Not a roleplay, just fashion. I have played WoW for 12 years, and even tho I enjoyed progressing and being in one of the best pve guilds, I have still cared more about what my char looked like than anything else. xd
Played WoW since July-2007 until December-2021.
But, been playing GW2 since january-2022 until now and I am loving it.
Great job with the list! I especially liked the honorable mentions.
actually can't wait to check a series of you trying oldschool runescape. It seems very overwhelming yet shallow at first, but when you really dig in, i think it has the best combat, exploration, and immersion. Bad is grind times.
if you start playing oldschool runescape there is no way going back, you can never quit the game (only breaks) - it's addicting and you can spend hundreds/thousand of hours grinding the game and enjoying your time there :)
Best combat? It's so boring
@@MrAnalyptic I'd recommend you take a look at examples of high level bossing. Nightmare of Ashihama and Wardens are examples of boss fights that are involved, require precise timings and inputs, and feel very rewarding. Far more complex and interesting that my experiences of raiding in WoW.
eh good luck getting a new player to enjoy runescape combat.. it still works in osrs but rs3 is really being held back by the tick system. and osrs is just using runelite and knowing which tiles to run to.@@pmApostic
@@pmAposticas someone who’s spent years in both versions of the game, it’s not worth playing. You’ll find yourself trying to optimize xp rates by finding ways to get xp with the most little about of attention you can give the game, and in return, if you’re playing a game without trying to pay attention to it, it’s not fun.
Runescape was a huge part of my life. The one thing I would say is stand out for the game is its quests. It's been almost 2 decades since I last played it, but I still remember details of many of the quests I've done in the game when talking to a friend that's still playing it.
I am currently only playing Guild Wars 2 when it comes to MMOs. The combat is what makes me stick by it. I've played almost all the MMOs that was talked about in the video, and while there are games that feel better at first in terms of combat.
GW2 follows the same philosophy as Pokemon imo. Very simple gameplay mechanics, but the depth is there for people that look for it. In Pokemon, you can easily just pick a team with high stats, and use moves with high power and sweep through the story. There is however, a lot of depth when it comes to team synergies, and battle strategies when actually fighting against another player. The same goes for Guild Wars. You can easily just use the weapon with the highest numbers in their skills (usually greatsword or scepter), and just treat it like a typical action RPG. If you want more engaging and deeper gameplay, you can think about combo fields and finishers, as well as trait and skill synergies.
the team synergy is also extremely good. Unlike most MMOs where team play is basically a trinity system or 4-5 ppl playing a single player game, GW makes it rewarding to think about team composition. Some things that come to mind are things like a trait for Guardians makes it so you gain an extra 25% crit chance when you have the Resolution boon. It is hard for a Guardian focused on DpS to supply that much for themselves, but there are some support classes that can provide you that boon if they change their build for it. Another example would be Chronomancers with the Slow debuff. Similarly, they gain 15% crit chance against slowed enemies. Someone else in your party can trait for slow application to increase your contribution.
Guild wars 2 is going to be my backup mmo if new world flops after S3
Eve Online pros:
1) A huge social system, including group missions, extensive corporation systems and massive alliance battles.
2) Player driven economics. Nearly everything that you buy and sell was created by a player, excluding some PVE loot which can drop.
3) Meaningful penalties when you die. You lose a battle and you lose everything, making every decision during an encounter important.
Eve Online con:
1) You WILL be ganked within 15 seconds of undocking...
Honestly, Guild Wars 2 is just amazing. I've been playing it for a few weeks already, and I haven't found a single toxic player. Everybody was so helpful and friendly, I really like the GW 2 community, and of course how big the game is, the freedom you have in it. If you don't care about graphics and you just want to have fun and mostly make new friends while exploring, this game is for you :)
I agree GW2 toxic players arent as common IN open world, people are very toxic in PVP though and sometimes in like Fractals/raids but rarely, for whatever reason they arent toxic in WvW though. An example of toxicity i've had was people thinking i was cheating bcuz of 1shotting squishy ppl on my thief which led to people threatening to DDOS me and make bomb threats, which i reported them for and sent screen shots and Arenanet said they couldnt do anything unless the people went through the actions and actually did it.(pretty shitty service imo) IDK if they go off IP though bcuz my roomate got banned a few times for whispering and swearing at ANET mods before then.
its trash. The only decent options nowadays are 20+ years old. P99 being my favorite
Wait till youre going pvp
@chickenadobogaming I did, and it is the same. People are great and helpful :) I tried both wvw and 5v5
I loved the levelling experience in GW2, sadly the complex builds and difficulty to get gear resulted in me quitting. It's just too difficult to do anything post level cap, and yes, I had a guild that tried to help. You're just too locked out of a lot of things.
I wish we had truely social MMO's again like the 2000's. Limited to No action or combat. Just casual world building or social gathering with minigames, housebuilding/decorating themes and things to do. Closest thing now is VRchat, but while an open room world, its options are so limited.
Everquest was my first mmo.
I was instantly addicted. 1999 - 2000 was a good time. Quake arena was also on 🔥
Played in 2003, started with my Dad and was the greatest experience. Hoping for Everquest 3
Great video i do agree that level scaling is one of the worse things ever added in mmorpgs, takes away the whole point of leveling when everything becomes the same lvl as you. - Also nice to see Embers Adrift be mentioned as it's a great game just lacks the players and its pretty much in early access still but 100% worth it now that it's b2p in my opinion.
Aye, I have SUPER fond memories of FFXI the brutality of its leveling system was downright amazing it actually challenged you to learn and be better at your chosen class
Eh I disagree
I respectfully disagree. Level scaling balances the game. If the enemy’s were lower level than you then the game would be too easy and boring.
I don't agree, i hate when devs release new expansion and then throw the rest of the game out of the window, and that's usually the case without scaling...
I guess it depends on the person as i myself enjoy that you need to get better gear/level in every expansion but i hate the fact that now it's all focused on end game and with a level scaling added to it just makes no sense at all to level when you can stick to one zone alone making the world feel dead, making again the point of the world/leveling useless when you may as well just start a max level and do end game. @@raven5323
I keep coming back to LOTRO and FFXIV. LOTRO's world just puts you in a headspace where you don't need to rush, it's like the retirement stage of an MMO player, and I'm currently completing all of the story books (of which there are tons) at my own pace, taking it like a real adventure. It's an exercise in immersion and you feel yourself getting invested in lots of small tasks and making your own priorities as to what you want from your stay on Middle Earth.
In FFXIV I enjoy the social aspect, the world, as well as the MSQ, but I only find my self returning a couple months a year or every two years, and I tend to be an expansion behind in terms of story, taking my time. Ultimately, these two games don't make you feel guilty for playing them casually and I'm happy to give them money when I feel the urge to revisit them as someone in his 30s without the drive to no-life an MMO like I used to when I was in a race to server first raiding guild on WoW.
My experience with LOTRO: Hear good stuff. Download game. Turns out its a microtransactions-ridden festering mess right from the char creator, where most is locked off behind a paywall. Uninstall
@@AlexQuartz Also the UI dose not support 4k. Even on 1440p the icons are blurry.
Be nice if LOTR ONLINE Remodel the 3D characters, the Environment looks perfect/beautiful and age well , best part of the game in LOTR online.. it just the model of the characters look too 2007 PS2ish out dated, hopefully they pick up on that and remaster the characters..
@AlexQuartz There is only like 2 very niche races and classes that are paywalled... and the store is mostly cosmetic and easily ignored. Its nowhere near as microtransaction ridden as you want to portray. You can still be what amounts to a warrior, a healer, a wizard, a druid, a dual wielder (by different names).. you can still be a human, an elf, a dwarf, a hobbit. The most recognizable races and classes are all free to play.
The game is sadly too outdated. Not easy to get into these days.
You did really good in this. I see top channels do the same video but give nowhere the same amount of depth of info.
Hey, we have a celebrity in the comments, whats up IonBlaze!
Ayonic in the house
Started playing retail FFXI a few months back. Haven’t been this into a game in a while. Probably the most soulful game ever made.
Did you have any difficulty getting started? I've heard there's some difficulty downloading and running the game but that may be outdated info
@@Redbeardflynn Its a little annoying, im running the steam version on a steam deck and didnt have much issue. Other then accidentally applying the full game CD key wrong.
@@theremix54 Great, thank you so much for the info! I want to try it eventually.
@@Redbeardflynn Please do so your are educated on some of the key things we are missing in older mmos. You will get a group fast and have alot of fun.
Haven't seen a frost giant is 25 years. So happy to see its still going. I played on Bristlebane, long live Pouty, leader of Club FU. So many fond memories.
I've played pretty much every MMO that's been released (I'm 48 years-old) and I can safely say that The Lord of the Rings online is probably my personal favorite because you are never in a rush and there is a TON of lore friendly content in it. The world is massive and there are always things to do, the pvp is lacking but other than that the game is nearly perfect. I've played World of Warcraft, Everquest 1+2, Star Wars Galaxies/The Old Republic, Star Trek Online, Ultima online, Runescape, Guild Wars 1+2, The Secret World, Ragnarok, ArcheAge, Mabinogi, Runes of Magic, Age of Conan, Warhammer Online, Aion, Rift, Anarchy Online, among many others and none of them quite scratched the itch for me.
Lord of the Rings online has a beautiful world, a lot to do, great quests, the best MMO community, and a fun profession system that is actually useful.
Love me some lotro. Just wish there was less lagging/rubberbanding otherwise I'd play it nonstop
I'm pretty much in your situation, only 5-6 years older :) I've played them all. GW2 easily becomes my main game and I daily visit LOTRO and DDO as secondary worlds. I used to love EQ2, but the skeleton crew left working on it need put in to much p2w mechanics to survive - making playing retail unbearable for me :(
Dark age of Camelot, one of the longest running MMORPG that started in 2000 (beta) launched retail in 2001 and has never stopped and still going strong today, DAOC is still one of if not the best PVP based MMO ever made and really should have been on this list!
The FFXI disrespect! :D Its essenitally Japanese EQ that was made by Square-Enix in its heyday and made available on PS2, 360, & PC that could be played with a controller and/or keyboard. (Or K+M if you're a masochist.)
I ❤ FFXI
Still nothing that touches it from back in the day
Yeah but where do you play it now
@@punkdlaugh4234 it’s only available on PC now.
Funny enough when people play FFXIV for long enough to get to know other people, create (or join) Free Company, start doing content together, eventually it leads people to realise the amount of player-driven content in that game and amount of social aspect there
Please do a video on Anarchy Online, Shadowbane (both steam and emulator), Earth & Bryond emulator, the different UO and SWG emulators, etc.. so many great forgotten games that people dont realize they can still play.
Love your videos keep up the great work!
Someone bothered to make an Earth & Beyond emulator? That thing was just horribly boring.
AO ftw! Just got back in, first started '03. Unbeatable.
OSRS and RuneScape 3 honestly have some of the best story in any game you'll ever play. They have hundreds of quests that can take 20-40 mins to complete without a guide and a few massive quests that can take hours. They don't have any gather x of y quests and the quests are truly a masterpiece when it comes to storytelling. I've spent approx. over 300hrs questing exclusively and I haven't even completed half of the quests
I'm really excited to try it honestly.
Maybe an MMO game, but certainly not in a Single-player universe.
what really does it for me is the dialog. it feels like a genuine conversation to me. we don't talk the way we write and i think they nailed it in this aspect
Don't have any Gathering quests? Sir have you forgotten One Small Favour?? Shit haunts me
@@paulthompson7787 he forgot rag and bone man 1& 2 aswell 🤣
finally someone mentions project gorgon, ive been having alot of fun on it.
UO will always always pull at my nostalgia. Thanks for adding it to the list.
My wife and I host a private UO server. Seems inappropriate to share the link to our site here, but feel free to reach out.
To be honest.. while it's still alive, if you haven't tried Age of Conan, I think it's well worth putting a bit of time into. Especially if you're just looking for another world to explore, even if it's just for a short time. Very enjoyable game, immersive, great combat, detailed environment etc.
25 players on steam charts, game is not alive unless you just wanna solo i guess
I've been so curious about Conan. Just might give it a whirl!
I saw an article about an Everquest 1 remake. I know the Everquest 2 remake was a scrapped. If they remake Everquest 1, then I'll definitely play it.
This is the best video about the MMORPG genre I have even seen, well played there! Keep up the great work, subbed =)
Wow that's so kind of you to say. Thank you so much and welcome to the channel
Eve online. A space MMO 20 years old and still gorgeous. Varied PvE and constant PvP. Maybe the ultimate sandbox MMO, so much player driven content.
Makes me sad when Eve is never mentioned in these lists. It's only catering to the typical sword and sorcery vibes.
I just started playing Ultima Online again and I am hooked. That game will always have a special place in my heart ❤️
I love seeing comments like these. Thank you for sharing. UO was my first mmo too! The menu music still hits all these years later.
Is that a subscription or free 2 play game?
How is the social aspect? Does it have clans and raids?
@@majorgear1021 The official servers is subscription, but the there are dozens of free shards out there.
Ultima Online... It might not have been my first, but I invested a lot of time in this a long time ago... God, it has been many, many years. Well, Guild Wars 2 is my go to MMO these days (on and off since 2012 actually).
been playing BDO for two years i love it i really only spent money on the tent and inventory weight i feel like both those make the grinds far more bearable. i have full pen gear and tet accessories at the moment.
I tried to play New World again after playing it 300 hours at star and I must say game is gooooood. I'm not satisfied with fishing but still do it :) Everything else is pretty cool. Sounds of chopping a tree & mining ore still gives me gousebumps
I can't play New World cause game stutters to me.
Started playing WoW in Dezember 2006 and I will not stop playing until they shut it down at some time. It's the only game I really love! ❤
Hard to find another game to scratch that itch other than WoW
Just started wow for the first time a few months ago and just.......WOW!!!!! Lol. Im addicited
So you support rapists?
@@RequenaSLG Shadowlands was one of the worst addons, if not the worst. You should try DF, it's completely different 😉
@@Ghazala_1984 Yeah completely different in the wrong way. There's nothing to do in the game except collecting shit. Raiding is more or less dead, and M+ is a toxic nightmare one should steer well clear of unless one has friends to play with.
Loved the video! It was super nostalgic hearing about Everquest in 2023. The music and sound design for FFXIV and New World are absolutely fantastic.
My family still plays EQ lol going on 25 years I think.
@@jabzilla21 im the last of my group of original friends that started in 99 that still plays. But thats ok i have made lots of friends over the years and am in a guild that feels like family at this point still raiding 4 days a week.
As someone who has spend most of my time playing mmos, playing gw1 and gw2 i feel like i rarely hear the complaint about the direction the game takes, and i 100% agree, the main reason i quit was because of the direction, i feel like the parts of the game that are in a bad state often never get looked at, and the parts people care about sometimes get ignored or altered to a point where people dont care, they dont seem to be in touch with the community and thats unfortunate
You should definitely play Old School RuneScape.
Constant new updates and QoL updates.
New content is constantly being developed.
Funny and kind community.
Give it a go, once you get hooked on it. You won’t possibly be able to quit. Only take breaks…
Living my best eq life on Thornblade right now!
There is sure alot Id like to comment on here, but I just picked a couple of things.
#1 Albion Online: I just loved this game at launch. It was so much fun until the later levels where you were forced to go into pvp zones to progress your crafting skills. In my older age, I have nothing against pvp, it did indeed have its time and place for me. However, I much more prefer consensual pvp now. I would jump back into this game in a heartbeat if they made a pve (or consent pvp) server.
#2 Project Gorgon: I played this one for a few months. I have to say its an old school gem of a game. What was fun about this game was the learning curve. You grind and struggle only to find out a week later you could have made it easy by talking to a certain NPC, or doing something simple you never thought of. The player base is pretty friendly and helpful but there is alot of know/learn. If it goes on sale, I highly recommend it. The starter island seems a bit dull, but once you get to the main game, it picks up and opens quite a few possibilities for character advancement.
Albion online as a season game would be pretty damn great aswell, I loved the race and the economy on release and the weeks/months after :)
Albion pretty dying. Pvp its dumb content to progress. Need high spec and alot trees. You'll ended always broke and swipe more. Greed devs as always
@nuvynavy999 I think the boting and greedy devs are the big problems because without them, a lot of issues wouldn't be present.
EQ2 - vastly overlooked. Amazing graphics, polished UI, Endlessly diverse map and enemy content, group role specific and solo specific classes. 14 different classes and 14 races to choose from, some simple roles, some complex. A skil tree to amplify or modify chosen abilities or add new ones. Named bosses with specific loot tables. "God mode" - a system for leveling down to take down lower level bosses you might have missed. A crafting market where you can use supply and demand to create profit or get gear for alts. Adventure, strategy, teamplay, questing. Still simply amazing.
Probably my favourite MMO still and never featured in these videos make me sad
EQ2 continues to be my favorite solo MMO experience. Low populations means that grouping isn't great, but you can level up your toon to max 125 and never have to group once. Great quests, good alternative advancement system, hundreds of hours of gameplay. i've played dozens of MMOs, and EQ2 continues to be my absolute favorite. Hints: 1. Get an all access pass, as it's more than worth it. 2. Join a friendly guild with a lot of helpful, established veterans. They love to see new blood, and you will get loads of helpful advice.
What server are you on? I'm on Skyfire, Antonia Bayle, Maj'Dul and Thurgadin.
I almost want to login just to visit my house one more time.
I am at Varsoon, it is TLE and tons of people playing. Easy to get grps.
I agree. Too often overlooked but one of the best.
You sound 68 years old
Quarm just released and is an emulated EQ progression server going up to PoP. Super popular with 1800 people on atm. Also, chainbreaker is an insane EQ emulated server where you can mix and match your classes. It is insanely fun to play on and theorycraft.
Can SWTOR get an honorable mention? Great story, voice acting, good combat UI, ok social, and ok pvp but definitely a value game
Back when I tried it the Trooper story was a mess with outcomes of choices that made no sense where the objectively correct option was the Dark side choice and the combat was a poor derivative of WoW. It was so obviously a reskinned WoW with a few additional bells and whistles that overall gave a worse experience.
Its in maintanence and got moved to Broadsword games. They are keeping Dark age of camelot alive and not being updated.
sorry same old cartoonish graphics and bugs.
@@nielsjensen4185 Trooper is prob my least fav story.
@@DriplessShrimp love dark age of Camelot
Glad you speaking about Project Gorgon. Also i'd liek to add Broken Ranks to the old school VIBES MMORPG category, it's a modern MMORPG disguised as a Baldur's Gate/Neverwinter Nights old school game
I need to check out Broken Ranks. I know Ser Medieval has covered it a lot.
Gw2 only seems aimless before reaching level 80, because aside from doing personal story every 10 level, you have a ton of choices to level up to get to those story contents. You can do hearts quests, crafting, open world events, and meta events to level up, even map completion could do that.
felt like i was playing a single player game up to level 30 so i just quit
boring ass game that looks so generic
@@potheadraccoon8536 Compared to WoW and alike that doesn't make any sense. GW2 is one of the few which mechanics actively make people come together, working together towards the same goal with how the event system works and so. If that wasn't enough to not have you feel like playing a single player game, then it's up to you as the individual to get in touch with people... Yes, the game is not pushing you to make a group necessarily, but it doesn't stop you doing it either. It lets you make the choice as it should be (I think).
@@Replect The players in events may as well be NPCs, trying to defend GW2 as a social game is just laughable. Events are the only thing that people bring up, which shows how solo-oriented the game really is. MMORPGs are meant to, for lack of better words, force players together. Otherwise, you get what we have today: everyone takes the solo route.
EverQuest is pure nostalgia I know for a lot of people DandD started it all but for me it was EverQuest turning my self needlessly into a tree was the coolest thing ever!
I feel like Warhammer Return of Reckoning deserves a mention. While it might seem like a complete WoW clone it's pvp experience is one of the best out there.
I dedicated a video to Warhammer, both the original and Return of Recoking about a month before this video here: ruclips.net/video/HNZ8WYYB9PE/видео.htmlsi=C-yXPYTmPRFDrBu9
I am a dedicated ESO player and have been for five years now. My take on pros vs cons of the game is drastically different than yours; so much so that I wonder if you really have spent much time digging into it. I have played most major MMOs out there but not GW2 which I plan on trying at some point. So I am going to list the qualities of ESO I like best and what I don't like so much. 1. The PVP is really the best of any game out. Unlike you, I really like the combat system which has more of a real time feel to it and is very skill-based rather than gear-based or level-based. By that I mean as you play more you get better and better at the mechanics and while having the gear and the bonuses from champion points (levels) matters, in the end your skill at the keyboard makes the most difference. 2. The world and graphics. I simply cannot get over how much detail the developers have put into every nook and cranny and how realistic much of it looks. And all that detail on a vast, huge open world that is literally filled with players adventuring. I almost never find any empty zones even in off hours. 3. The never-ending leveling system with NO GRIND. It takes a very long time to get to 3600 champion points(levels) so no one becomes a super meta player overnight. You can get most of what you need to compete in pvp by reaching 1500. But that takes a few years if you have a job and work. But the no grind part is great. I do ten or twenty different things when I play and almost all of them give experience. I quest, craft, pvp, raid, solo dungeons, and unearth artifacts. Now what I don't like. 1. Many of the quests are really corny and only a few are not including the Main Quest which I thought was pretty neat. 2. There are not enough mid-level dungeons. They are just super easy and super hard. I disagree when you said the dungeons are easy even on veteran mode. Did you try veteran March of Sacrifices and how many times did your group go down? It's not easy at all. And the trials are also tough. I also don't like that the high level pve content relies too much on mechanics, meaning you have to know some trick about where to stand and when to dodge or block or else you die one-shot. But my dislikes of the game are fairly small compared with what I like.
It is sad that DDO gets looked over in many of these lists. It's game mechanics were way ahead of its time. In fact, I am puzzled why many new mmo's can't or don't really employ these mechanics. Good vid. (Not a complaint lol)
It's an unfortunate absence. The intricate dungeon delving it provides is something I haven't seen elsewhere. It's the closest I've come across to the table top experience in a MMORPG.
I have played DDO on and off since beta and I think it has a large learning curve and very niche game play. I loved it one of the best character building games available I have ever played.
Probably because it's not actually an MMORPG. It's something more akin to Warframe, Destiny, or Vindictus. And other lobby/instance based games with limited shared world to explore.
correction, i would argue that EQ has 6 class roles - puller, tank, healer, dps, crowd control and damage mitigation. as someone who've play this game for years, without a good puller like a monk, you will not only wipe out your group, but literally cause the entire zone to to evacuate away from the train of mobs. likewise, without a shaman, most healers cannot keep up with the amount of damage the tank takes against a mob that not been slowed by a shaman. that is ultimately the demise of the game, because it is very difficult to gather a person from each of these classes and often players will have characters of multiple classes.
I'm a huge fan of ESO but I never liked the One Tamriel update, nor the removal of hostility from enemy faction guards. I always felt like being able to interact with npcs, and pick up quests in enemy territories, WHILE having to avoid what is basically enemy military was more compelling gameplay than just being able to go anywhere and do anything. Also, I hyped for Necromancy myself, and fyi OSRS has a magic book that is commonly called the necromancy book.
I was in the alpha for ESO because I am a huge Elder Scrolls fan. I played it for a bit after launch but I was heavy into hard core raiding in SWTOR and then moved to FFXIV.
On the games I've played the biggest points for me are class choice and tradeskills. Obviously FFXIV hits both those points being able to play all on one character. I love BDO because there are so many classes to choose from not to mention the graphics. ESO is next with class choice and TS, both great. New World imo hit a homerun on TS and the rest is ok. WoW was good when I played and the TS were good, but cannot do all on one character, class choice not so much and quit during SLs. EQ is good with good TS and class choice, havent played in quite a while. Dabbled in Lotro, Albion, and Lost Ark, but not much else, so really cant comment. One more point I'd like to mention is lore. For me WoW is tops since I have been so deeply entrenched in it since the beginning, with EQ second. I am sure I will try others as they come out and maybe come back to old favorites.
Ff14 got boring gameplay .... boring msq only talk talk teleport talk talk teleport kill 2 mob , talk talk talk ....
As someone that played most of these games that were mentioned i can say that you nailed most of the info pros/cons and as for rs3/osrs the game has so much content, has so many skills that can literally take you weeks or months to max each as a new player. The playerbase does kind of has this (doing quests is exp waste) mentality and sorry but i am also one of them lol! Dont get me wrong i do a new quest once a blue moon and i dont even got half of them done. Theres just so much to do and on top of that you can get into the market system of it and learn to basically understand its economy and get to meet other people that have unique setups for bosses or even grinding exp. You can literally go and just be free and do whatever you want and reap benefits one way or another but most importantly you get to learn what weapons and combos work best on each NPC and just have tons of fun. I know you didnt mention DCUO or ASE but those 2 are literally dying specially ASE. I played those 2 for years and ASE is getting its official servers shut down but the unofficial/dedicated servers are still fun. Just wouldn't attach myself to it if i were new to it. The new game ASA is coming out as well but im kind of boycotting it so please dont buy hehe. As for DCUO it was great when it had a bigger playerbase but i believe that changed when they "adjusted" the pvp side years ago. They only made it so those who can exploit can easily kill you while you stand no chance as abilities do no pvp dmg on public areas unless youre in a pvp arena. All 3 of those games for sure require you to be social to do end game stuff but playing solo is still very possible! FINAL FANTASY!! That game was just amazing when i played it years ago. I believe i only quit it because my ex girlfriend hacked into it and stole all my stuff in it but if it wasnt for that i would of probably kept on playing! Amazing story and content all around for sure!! Only bad side was the pvp like you said..it just felt empty.. like even if you died or killed lots of the pther team playrrs it never felt like it was a accomplishment. The market in all of the games above were super fun to mess with as well. Im still pretty active on rs3 and ASE until they shut the servers down at the end of September. All ive been doing is giving my tamed dinos to those who never even probably got the chance to tame one or use one in official server so it feels nice to see and hear people 's joy as they ride a maxed out giga or mana or even just going in to kill bosses and then using TEK to mess around and punch t rexs with it 😂
I could go on and on about every game but the ones I mentioned are the ones I have the most experience/time on. I'm still waiting for the perfect console (PS5) cross platform game that has amazing content and story and economy/trading along with great PVP. sometimes all a guy needs to love something is to fight to the death vs another just to hope they get to keep the other's stuff lol 😅😅
while there are a lot of efficiencyscapers nobody says doing quests is a waste lol. quests are like the most important thing
Just found ur channel. First upload of urs ever watched by me.. and I’m an instant sub. Good stuff. Watched it til’ the end. And although there was no mention of FFXI (🤣) ur delivery of the info was fantastic 👏 👏 👏
Great video, Can tell you have done alot of research and game play. I wish 4 story was in here! Huge game back in the day
I got my introduction to MMOs with City of Heroes/villains back in 2005. I played that game for 7 years until they shut down the servers. However, now there is the Homecoming server which hosts city of Heroes/villains that is public facing so anyone can play it again for free. They only ask for donations for operating expenses.
CoH and homecoming are fantastic.. Play there often :)
I love your review on GW2 here.
As a long time mmo player, I think WoW has the best balance between social and solo content. Great video! Just found your channel about an hour ago and have been enjoying your videos.
dookie pvp
😂😂😂
I disagree. PvP is my favorite part about the game.@@ostrogothiccyoutube8118
New World developers have no plan, and no idea where they are going. They throw spaghetti at a wall, waiting for something to stick, and if it does they clean the wall removing anything being enjoyed. They said a ten year plan, but at the current rate it will not even be ready for release in 10 years( yes I know it has been technically released). It also has so many bugs, issues, and exploits, that it's real hard to enjoy things it does correctly. They do not play to their strengths, but they have become real good at highlighting the weaknesses. There are no joke multiple bugs and issues in every single territory in the game, and each patch brings more, like missing terrain(not kidding). Pair this with using discord and having """"NO FORUMS""" it's hard to get them to fix anything. It took me a solid six months of complaining and reports, to get them to fix a Faction mission in weavers that was broken for an entire faction after the weavers update. We are talking Crowfall, and Anthem level game development. It's sad because it does have potential, it will just never be realized.
The game was SO much fun at launch for the first.. week.. then it died COMPLETELY..
@@CHOP874not completely. Ppl drop because out of expectation. The game pretty chill tbh for dads who just login and hang out for awhile. Doing short content and not getting serious for the system
@@nuvynavy999 we must have 2 different experiences. I got kicked from dungeon groups for using a bow and GS and when I said I'll switch man just let me back in I've been trying to increase my gear score all this week, the guy got the whole server to start harassing me in both chat and voip in towns. Community is pretty crap tbh.
@@kingcaesar3693 thats very sad thb. What server it is. On eu maybe yes. I roll to tank or heal thats kinda most everyone don't wanna play. Easy to fill tho
I think Classic Era (not WotLK) deserves a separate mention. It's almost a completely different game from Retail, without many of the BS systems that are a plague upon modern gaming.
This was something I considered putting down in the same section as outlands and p99
Maybe you can make an addendum or a follow up video?
💯
What are the BS systems in retail currently?
@@lovropeter9988 Retail has an upfront cost and and a monthly sub, yet it has all of the monetization systems that F2P games have. Buing a WoW Token fo 20$ gets you about 350k gold and you can buy gear with that gold. You can get high level gear without ever setting your foot in a raid or dungeon. On top of that there's a cash shop where you can buy for real money mounts, pets and transmogs that should have been a challenge or quest reward. There's also this "boosting" business that Blizzard now officially endorces. They made a separate channel for "boosting services" yes, but it's curious it's turned on by default.
Upvote for being the only channel to not forget about ultima online :D Outlands is a marvellous server!
It was my first MMO ever! Could never forget UO.
Mabinogi! It offers more to do both in and out of combat compared to other MMOs, and will be revamped to UE5 soon. Wanna do a music jam session with others in a town? Go for it! Wanna relax on a hit-air balloon ride? You can! Want responsive combat? Mabinogi has it! Want to tend to farms? Yep, you can do that too! Exploration? Heck yeah!
You know this videos good when the most replayed part is the end of the WoW section and the start of the FFXIV section
GW2, ESO, and WOTLK is my current choice and i play them regularly
Guild Wars 2 is always my go to MMO to relax.
Totally agree with Guild Wars 2 bringing the most value.
I understand that you can't repeat a game in 2 separate categories, but from personal experience I would also put Guild Wars 2 at the top for the 'Social' category as-well.
There were definitely some games that could have applied to multiple categories and gw2 was perhaps the most difficult one to put in just one category
3 good things and 1 bad about OSRS:
1. Thriving player base who are extremely helpful and kind
2. 1300 hours+ of simply maxing the characters skills at extreme efficiency (so a bunch of content),
3. any type of mmo you want it to be (pvp, pve, questing, skilling, raiding, collecting, money making/merching, ect)
1 bad thing: no linear story line or hand holding, finding friends, and total progression fully depends on what you want to do which can be limiting and overwhelming for some players! :)
idk if u can say its 1300 hours of content when its clicking the same square 28 million times
Very good video.
it may be because I'm getting older so perhaps I "lucked out" on the timing, but for FFXIV, ARR felt like worldbuilding (fine, well done, enough that I felt like I couldn't skip story), Heavensward felt fun but a cliche MMO story (tons of fun though, it wasn't bad), Stormblood had a really really good story (post-Stormblood content being a step up to what was coming so much so that there was a boss fight with literal story content going on during it), and Shadowbringers was the pinnacle of MMO storytelling for me. As far as the older bit, as corny as it sounds, I very much remember thinking and being serious when doing so "I better live long enough to see the end of the Hydaelyn saga/Endwalker completion because this is going to feel sad otherwise" and then Endwalker, much like Shadowbringers, did an excellent job of doing callbacks to earlier content and just bringing everything to a satisfying conclusion.
Which was one thing I hated about WoW's story and to an extent EQ's (though admittedly, I was late high school/early twenties when playing EQ so I may be downplaying EQ on story), but WoW always felt like we were getting better and better and then we kill the big bad and then we're back to square one: all the stuff we did was fairly meaningless in the grand scheme of things. Comparing that to FFXIV where, sure, there's new stuff with the next expansion, but everything you did felt like it was getting your side into better position to combat the other side. Just beautiful stuff, honestly. Stormblood and on, masterwork. Endwalker was the conclusion of the previous story so I'm kind of hoping the next expansion is just, well, fun maybe. Maybe an expansion without life or death stakes would feel like a nice palate cleanser for whatever comes next.
The PvP can be pretty meh though, you are right. I do mildly enjoy the Crystalline Conflict stuff though. But it feels like a very fun mode held back by the skill system a bit (though can kind of tank in it, even as a healer, if everyone is focusing you which is kind of interesting)
Awsome video, really useful. I started playing ESO but had my doubts about if there were better options
Glad you enjoyed it! I'd recommend giving many of these MMOs a chance just to see what they're like, especially ones like ESO that make it pretty easy to get started. The two games that are probably the closest to each other are going to be ESO and GW2.
I just can't get away from EQ, I come back to it almost every year. P99 is defiantly fun for a while, but if you've played lots of progression or emulated servers it can get kind of old. I personally prefer p2002 or Wayfarers Haven emulator. I allows you to 3 box and has a few more expansions (notably Planes of Power and recently added Omens of War.)
Every aspect of outlands is super in depth and you can spend months on just one specific aspect, just when you think you have a grasp on something and you decide you want to try something else on the server you find out its another super deep system you can spend hours and hours learning and advancing in.
The game I come back to is BDO - it's the easiest to leave and come back to and there is always a new character to try. New World might be worth another try by me - it was ok just not really a reason to stick around. With more PVE it might be better. Archeage is another one that I've been back a couple of times and now that it has a stable publisher I might try again. Archeage 2 is also on the horizon. Another game I dive back into every other year or so is EQ2 -- I have never been able to play EQ1, the controls are weird. EQ2 I dive back into as a new Gnome Monk and level my way up to the point of fighting Giants by kicking their big toes. I usually get a couple of levels past that point and then I'm good for a couple of years. I also dive back into GW2 every couple of years - slowly making my way through each of the races, once I get one levelled I take a long break so it is fresh when I come back. Looking forward to Pax Dei and a few others that are in the works. I don't mind playing in a world with PVP (good thing since BDO is one of my favs) but I prefer PVE. Also you forgot A Tale in the Desert (ATITD)- which is a very small old school non combat MMORPG that takes place in Egypt and wipes everything occasionally and makes everyone restart.
Calling Classic WoW difficult instantly disqualifies you, I swear to god.
i totally agree with ur gw2 points. it's a pretty good game and you really don't need to pay money after u buy it, save perhaps for some inventory space to make your life easier or to unlock the living stories, which is a fair trade for not having a sub and are also things u can unlock with in-game money if you grind. my problem with the game was the same as yours, i honestly felt purposeless in it after finishing the story and doing some strikes and fractals and gearing up a few characters. i know there are plenty things to do in the game, i know people that have been playing for many years and still find motivation for things to do in the game but i'm not that type of person and i know many others aren't either, which is why gw2 was never a massive success, which is a shame really cuz many other mmos have stolen a lot from this game, which just shows how much potential the game has. i had the same problem with eso too but that game was much worse in every aspect compared to gw2, i even have that sort of problem with ff14, which is my favorite mmo. i'm not saying these mmos need to hold ur hand all the way through and tell u do this or do that or force u to play and do chores like wow but i do believe there needs to be a balance between freedom and some direction and not forcing people to play but giving them reason to do so if they please.
Gamers just forgot how to find their own way of doing things. Over a long period of time games taught their gamers that they would need a pre-set carrot in front of them, to feel like they were doing something worthwhile, even if the content to get them to the carrot maybe wasn't even any fun... Now that is kind of burnt in to the peoples DNA as a requirement, to not get lost (in the sense of not knowing what to do, to not get bored). Instead of just playing the content they would enjoy, independent of whatever loot there might be involved, they NEED that guidance and what to do next, and what (better) loot next is waiting for them.
"giving them reason" you said... the reason should simply be enjoying the content you are playing... and I mean, in the moment, not just once you got the loot. MMO gamers especially lost that "mindset"... If there is no loot or the loot is trash, the way to get there was just the same is the feeling they get. It's unfortunate...
There are plenty MMOs which follow that "carrot" system, but I'm glad GW2 is not one of them.
@@Replect i don't think that it's that we are conditioned to play a certain way but more so that people have different preferences and ways of getting motivated because of their character. some like to freely explore and some need a structure, for some gameplay alone is enough to motivate them but others need rewards. for me it's very hard to get motivated just for the gameplay when it's not a pvp game, whereas i will spend hours grinding some content that i hate just to get that one reward that i like. ofc i'm not advocating for games to force you to grind, what i'm saying is that there needs to be a certain balance between those two, to hook players and also keep them playing. from what i have noticed going heavily on one way or the other is what leads people to not start games like gw2 or quit games like wow.
@@metalface_villain I still think that (as you put it well) conditioning is a thing here, but still, I get what you are saying and can't fully disagree. But it gets to be an issue if that "reward that you like" is something which makes you more powerful, instead of just being a minor convenience or different skin... The latter I'd think you'd still find plenty in GW2 with the achievement system today... but the first would result in something soon ending up as an requirement/standard for any group to be equipped with... and once you got that? What's next? The next reward that makes you even stronger than the ones before? I'm not going into the (obvious) issues and chain of events that results in.
EVERQUEST, the game that started it ALL. Best game ever. Have over 16k hours on steam, lol. Have over 240 krono. Did a ton of RuneScape, but my god, Too MANY BOTS>>>>>>>
The pvp aspect of ffxiv is not a concern for me or anyone i know, because ffxiv never wanted to really do pvp. It was never a priority of any kind. Id not say it is an actual negative, just not what the game is about. Some games focus on pvp, some focus on pve.
I’m anti-pvp myself. PVE is the way to go.
Unfortunately, pvp is a daily roulette and something a lot of people like to do with their side time. I don’t think ff14 needs to focus on pvp, but fixing what they currently have would go a long way for a lot of people.
Respect for including EverQuest
Great list, although sometimes your choice of games for categories sometimes feel a bit weird, I can mostly agree with the pros and cons of the games I know.
I can see that, I struggled with some of them. Any changes you'd make?
@@Redbeardflynn In general I was thinking about just going through the games and apply the appropriate categories to them, because this way you can really assign several categories to a game that qualifies for more than one instead of having to make the hard choice.
In addition to that you could apply tiers to them in their categories and add a section where you quickly go through the categories after briefly introducing each game.
You could also use each category to make such a tier list video.
The social MMO category is the one I struggled the most with, but maybe because we have different definitions of "social" in mind. You used it for MMOs that require a group in order to do content. I would use it for games that bring people together and encourage social interactions in general and not only for group content. And within this category GW2 is a strong contender (even though it doesn't require deep social interaction for open world stuff) and Palia aims to be in that category as well but has some work to do in order to achieve that (in my opinion). Sadly I failed to get Everquest running, so I can't judge that one. Hot take: The only way WoW encourages social interaction is by having systems that create toxic environments so that you want to avoid that by joining a guild instead.
Great video! Thank you! I tried a lot of MMORPG's. But waiting, when somebody will realise game with getting older characters by playtime and possibility to extend lifetime or reincarnation storyline. With loosing of some stats- talents after dying in any circumstances, but not so hard total death like in WOW Hardcore, when after couple weeks of levelling you feeling really dead.😂 The breevity of life, what makes the world to move.😊
I'm simultaneously surprised and not that SWTOR did not make the list. Like I expected to see it, but also understood why it didn't make the cut. Which is a shame because it's a pretty amazing fully voice acted "choices matter" mmo, but may be going into maintenance mode (allegedly) so meh. I'm glad I saw WoW even though I get the hate some people feel for it lol, it's had it's claws into me for the last 20 years and even though I don't play it nearly as much I also can't imagine my life without it. Blizzard refuses to sign the divorce papers, what can I say. 😂
EVERQUEST. I started in 1999 and ended in 2006. I put WELL OVER 10,000 hours. If you can complete and MMO, I came as close as one can come. Every character class, Maxed. Every "skill" of those classes. Maxed. Every Crafting Skill, including those limited to certain classes. Maxed. When I quit, I had over 800,000 plat. and could make every item in the game. I loved this MMO, only ESO (Elder Scrolls Online) has come close. Like Everquest, in ESO, All character classes maxed as well as all crafting maxed, with 50 million gold? Something like that. When you were level 60 in Everquest, people KNEW you seen some crap, it was NOT easy to get there. ESO has one of the best communities out there for an MMO. Those are my 2 best choices.
Watching this video made me wonder how Dark Age of Camelot is these days. DAoC and EQ were my thing back in the day. Miss those days.
Daoc is still live through EA but its population is gone. Private servers are good like Eden but the population on those is still super low around 1.3k peak euro times
I miss EQ except for the corpse runs. Or waiting hours for a rare mob that had a quest item to pop . That actually made me quit the game.
My time is valuable!
theres a freeshard thats coming in december everyone will jump on it. We are expecting 1800-2000 population. It will be a BLAST.
Very cool video! Bunch of things I didn't know about
Ok so for OSRS: good thing 1: Your freedom of choise. There are 23 (maybe soon 24) skills in the game, many of them go hand in hand and feed into other skills, there are usually many different ways to level those skills and you have full freedom to do it in any order you'd like and use any method you like. 2: The way you explore the game. Many areas in the game are locked behind quests, some armours and weapons are locked behind quests or minigames, you can unlock new spellbooks with quests. It doesn't mean you have to do all the quests, but if you want to try out something new, there probably is a quest that will lead you there or make it easier for you. 3. The player driven economy. Not everything can be bought with gold, but most items can, and you will be buying and selling stuff all the time, and the best gear in the game isn't locked behind group content, it's probably alot easier to get it if you have friends who do group content with you, but if you know how to make money you can just go make money and buy the gear you want. Some people even play the game for the sole purpose of roleplaying as a merchant and invest in rare items like in the stock market. The bad thing about the game: The grind. You better have some spare time if you want to play this game, because everything is a grind. This game will eat your time like I eat my tacos.
Biggest issue with OSRS as someone who has played alot of it, is that at the end of the day everyone is the same account, sure u can have PVP acc's but all mid/high pures are still the same etc and pvp is dying. the game lacks diversity but there is alot to do in terms of minibosses etc. not having dedicated healers or tanks and everyone essentially being a DPS with max STR gear etc is just sadly what the game is at endgame.
305k views! Congrats. I wish we could pull those numbers every video lol. Frigging algo is an enigma to me.
the more harder content you do in wow, the more you have to talk with people. in reality when I play tlps in EQ i spend more time watching netflix than communicating with people in EQ, compairded to group content in wow.
Very helpful overview! Thanks!
You're so kind, thank you so much! Glad you found the overview helpful.
Love your EQ videos, please make more of them! Do you still play?
UO Outlands is just freaking awesome. Although I’m tempted to try ESO 😅
good stuff brother! I too started in EQ1 in 2000, my first MMO. Played for a few years, sold my character for $1k, in a rage quit, because it was discovered the guild leader were selling our turn in gear for RMT. (was on FV, rp server, had minimal loot rules, loot council forced you to turn in old gear if they awarded you with a new piece of loot).
went to SWG for a bit, then wow. played wow off and on since, but can't tolerate it anymore. SWTOR is another interesting one you didn't mention, I played at launch, then on / off a few times over the years.
3 years ago, a friend reminded me of FF14, and since then, pretty much solidly playing it. (tried wow with dragon flight for a few weeks, but the people are just too toxic for me.. Im older now.. 61.. less tolerant.) Played New World for a bit, but meh, Diablo 4 recently for a bit, but it just cant hold my attention. FF14 main character is well developed. and ya, the MSQ of ff14 is the very best, for us.
Just a quick comment RE: FFXIV's "Slow combat" because of the 2.5s GCD (for outsiders looking in)--That's not truly indicative of the overall experience. There are skills on the GCD and skills off the GCD, and some classes have a lot of oGCD skills that you are supposed to be weaving in between GCD skills, and some have fewer. Some classes give themselves Haste to decrease their GCD as well. So it's not like ALL classes play slowly, but speed and pacing is something you can control by playing different classes.
But it's also true that EVERY class starts slow, and generally all feel slow up to like level ~50 or so. All classes speed up, a lot or a little, as every expansion adds new dynamics to your overall kit design. But the slower start is by design. If you're an MMO vet, you already understand how the core of combat works, nothing to learn other than how FFXIV does it their way. But for the Final Fantasy fan who has never played an MMO..? They need a little more time to come up to speed to be awesome like you.
So it's a slower experience to start for MMO vets, but it comes up to speed based upon your preferred job and job level. It does get better, and so many would love to help you start down the path that sounds best for you. But feel free to try them all out if you're feeling it, so many people main swap because the grass actually was greener to them!
(And yes--it is not the MMO to play for PvP.)
Should make a part 2 covering the rest of the games out there. DDO, STO, Allods,etc.
I feel you may have missed one of the BIGGEST MMO to date ... Star Wars Galaxies: An Empire Divided (SWG)
Heralded for having THE most comprehensive, in depth, detailed and intertwined crafting system of ANY game ever made thus far.
The adventure of wandering around the galaxy Far Far Away between the events of Episode IV and Episode V.
Not to mention... Lightsabers ? Yeah, the original SWG had a very unforgiving Jedi unlock system, but the adventure of wielding one of the fabled weapons was a most satisfying feeling.
As much as I love swg it was hard to narrow it down to one of the post-closure servers but when I do one of these on sci-fi mmos it'll be front an center. Don't worry.
The best mmos ive played out of these were OSRS and WoW. Between combat, pvp, and game design, these 2 gave me that fresh, adventure feeling from the start.
They both have there problems, but they get u hooked.
Their *
shut up michael@@MikeF93
Global cooldown is really only an issue in earlier levels. Once you get to near max level you’ll need to press enough buttons on your rotation that GCD isn’t noticeable
I remember thinking the Samurai rotation felt just about right whereas the ninja rotation felt too complex but that was quite some time ago.
As far as #1 Social game goes, theres no contender out there that comes anywhere near EvE Online, seriously if your looking for a social game, EvE Online is it, it even holde two world records for the most players in online battles (largest multiplayer video game PvP battle (8,825 players)) and (most concurrent participants in a multiplayer video game PvP battle (6,557 participants)), if thats not social, i dont know what is :)
I know so little about Eve I didn't think about it until the end of my script and then I was like "shit, I should have included eve"
I have always been a free2play player in BDO for like 5 years now and even though I play other mmo whenever a potential good one is released, I don't know man, i still find myself going back and logging in to BDO from time to time. There's something about the feeling of playing bdo that other new mmo's doesn't have. The p2w elements advantage just doesn't really apply fo most of the player because it doesn't affect the game experience at all except if your that dude that really cares about being on the top of PVP which majority of us doesn't really care. Of course we still want to progress the gears but, it's only being used to massacare more monsters lol
My only complaint here, is that nobody ever talk about FF11 as an MMO to check out. It's grindy, but hella customizable and filled with incredible lore and story telling. Somehow, it suffers more from the Shadow of FF14, than GW1 does from GW2.
FF11 definitely gets the short end of the stick a lot. I want to expand this to focus on sub-genres in MMOs and I think I'll do one just on older MMOs where I could include FF11.
Amazing music too
They should totally port UO to tablet…🎉 you touched on so many of my classic favorites. Older and shorter time plays my favorite of all time is Chimeraland. Unfortunately closing down next month. It is so perfect in so many ways, but had maybe too difficult for the massive amount of game mechanics…so deep, but the most beautiful and literally limitless. 😢 I’ll miss that experience.
Casual UO on a tablet might actually work really well, especially since so much of it is mouse clicking. They could probably find a way to make custom macros work with on screen taps, too. Would be interesting.
Sorry to hear that your virtual home is closing down, that's always brutal (I still remember it with SWG and Vanguard) Hopefully you can find a new one, soon!