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LF MMORPG - Have list of reqs, need help :(
jetepilepsy
Member Posts: 27
Hey there.
A friend and I recently bought Guild Wars: Prophecies, and upon reaching level 20, were interested in buying Nightfall as well. We enjoyed the first one a lot, but it didn't last us very long. We browsed around at other games and narrowed it down to two choices: Nightfall and Everquest II. We made our own list of pros and cons of both the games, but that didn't help. Can anyone tell us their opinions on which you enjoy more?
Which would we have the most fun with, as a duo, that would last us a long time? We also don't intend to raid, if that helps.
Are there any others, besides these two, you can suggest?
Things we're looking for in a potential game:
- The ability to two-man nearly all of the game.
- "WASD" movement.
- Good graphics.
- Variety in class/race.
- Interesting combat graphics.
- Wide selection of armor, and good armor even for non-raiders.
- Many quests.
- Something that will take us a while to reach endgame.
- When we reach it, something to do in endgame other than raid or PvP.
I know it probably sounds picky, but not all of these things are totally necessary. If I had to give a quick summary, I'd just say we want something that'll occupy and entertain us for a good while, that's pleasing visually, and like 90-95% of it can be successfully played as a duo.
Things we've already played:
- World of Warcraft
- Guild Wars: Prophecies
- Runescape
- Rappelz
- MapleStory
- Silkroad Online
The latter three we didn't really enjoy. WoW we enjoyed until we reached 70 and didn't wish to raid or PvP, made alts, rinse & repeat.
So, there you have it. Any advice or suggestions you can give us would be greatly appreciated! 
Comments
EQ2 fits most of your requirements. It may be lacking in endgame content, as most games are, but it should take a while to get there unless you are just blasting through the game. I played for about six months or so casually and made it to the mid-40's in level with my main. I also had several alts for crafting. There is also a good deal included with the latest expansion, all of the previous expansions are included in the $40 price.
I have not played Guild Wars, so I couldn't comment on Nightfall.
I would suggest Tabula Rasa, myself. It will only get better as they clear up the (relatively small amount of) bugs and add more content as they do in each patch. Here's the ones it meets and the ones it doesn't meet according to your list:
- The ability to two-man nearly all of the game. [check]
- "WASD" movement. [check]
- Good graphics. [thats opinion, my in my opinion definitely check]
- Variety in class/race. [theres 4 races with the difference being fairly large stat differences, but you have to unlock them. As for classes, theres a lot of variation in what each one does especially when you get to level 30.]
- Interesting combat graphics. [I think the combat graphics are pretty good. Being in a battlefield like in plains, theres hell all over the place, you can see 5-6 bane striders at any one point assaulting the main base with dropships flying overhead and ground troops trying to get past battlements. It can be really entertaining just to watch. This is pretty constant throughout the game]
- Wide selection of armor, and good armor even for non-raiders. [a lot of the armor looks the same within each type, but it begins to diversify more around level 20-25ish, armor is color customizable. Different armor types, like mech or bio or stealth armor look different than say motor assist or graviton armor though.]
- Many quests. [I've been questing the whole time I've played the game. I've heard that it becomes mostly grinding later in the game but mostly because they haven't yet added a lot of quests. They seem to be working hard on getting more stuff for higher levels to do.]
- Something that will take us a while to reach endgame. [This depends on the amount of time you play, but I'd say it takes fairly significantly longer than WoW or GW but less time than EQII.]
- When we reach it, something to do in endgame other than raid or PvP. [it seems like it's mostly going to be a PvP endgame, but who knows. There will definitely be good pvp to be had, but they also have said they want to have alternatives to PvP.]
So there you have it.
I would recommened Vanguard or LOTRO. Both are heavily quest oriented with nice graphics. Vanguard has free open probably the biggest non-linear world ever made for modern MMORPG. LOTRO is more story based and much more linear. VG in addition has 19 races 15 classes and many many different activities throughout the leveling and in the end game (crafting, diplomacy, non-instanced housing..)
REALITY CHECK
If Vanguard had fixed the names-being-obscured-by-the-environment bug and the performance among other things I might have suggested vanguard. I'm still somewhat hoping the new character models will solve a lot of performance problems when they replace them, but who knows.
If you can't always compete or beat your competitor (say WoW lol) on various characteristics you can always beat them on cost/price; hope to take away market share *if* you've got similar features/quality that consumers are looking for...
It was a long road to hoe for Sony and it's playstation to climb to the top in consoles; likewise it was a long haul for MS to become profitable with it's console/games division ..... i'm not saying anyone can or will topple WoW but if someone comes along with a better, more fun product at a considerably lower price-point they will eat into Blizz/Vivendi's cash cow carving out a chunk for themselves.
I dont want to get into the f2p/microtransaction arguments here - i think there is a solid middle ground with a low constant monthly fee and a par or above par game could grab up a nice chunk of users ... [think LOTRO was on the right track with its $9.99 founders deal but perhaps if it had gone a little lower such as $8 a month it might have had 1.25 million subscribers by Christmas 2007]
X
xkey was here
Thanks for everyone's suggestions.