Any MMORPG that's not a timesink??

Sorvahr

As the title says. I'm looking for a MMORPG that's not a timesink!

What i mean is, a game in which you don't need to spend months leveling / gearing before you can actually have fun.

Games i've played / considered playing:

World of Warcraft: Leveling to 80 is boring. And every time you are fully geared, a new instance / arena season appears, and you need to farm honor, arena points, gold for enchants, pve gear all over again. This game is just an endless grind and that's exactly what i don't want.

Ragnarok Online: It was fine until they added the advanced classes. Before that you could have fun in WoE's even if you weren't max level. After that you needed to get to lvl99, reborn, and level again. Not for me.

Guild Wars: Looks like the perfect game, but i heard GW2 is just around the corner. Is it worthy to start playing GW now? Or maybe i should wait for GW2?

Eve: I played a week and it was sooooo boring. Is it as boring as it seems?

Mabinogi: Sounded nice, but it's not available in my country.

Pirates of the Burning Sea: I like the idea of the game, but the sword combat system was awful. It seemed like and unfinished game.

Atlantica Online: Awesome turn based system, but it looked like the typical asian games that takes years to reach max level.

twiggy550

You said it yourself. "Guild Wars looks like the perfect game..." Yeah, GW 2 comes around sometime in 2009, but if you're interested in trying the game out you could get Guild Wars + the Eye of the North expansion for like forty bucks which is still a great deal. That or you could buy the original game for $20 and go from there.

As far as EvE is considered. Oh yeah, it's hella boring! xD Combat system is pretty awful but if you're into politics, tactical planning, or a strong player based community which effects the economy heavily -- You really wouldn't find a better game than EvE Online.

spinach8puff

What do you find fun in an MMO? I am asking because it sounds like your primary goal is to reach max level and have the best gear, but you what do you want to be able to do once you hit the top? Meaning do you want PvE or PvP raids?

Sorvahr

I'm mostly a PvP player.

Problem is, in most MMORPGS you need to have max level/gear to be competitive at it. For expample, in WoW you can't play arenas at all if you aren't lvl 80. And you need to have good gear if you don't want to die in 2 hits.

So i'm looking for a game that allows you to have fun at PvP without an endless grind before. RO was a great example of this until they added those stupid advanced classes.

I'm downloading GW, hopefully i'll be playing in a while

spinach8puff

If Guild Wars doesn't work out I suggest trying Atlantica Online.  You can start doing free leagues at level 20 which only takes a day or two to get depending how much you play. Gear isn't the ultimate factor on who will win, but of course it does help. If you don't enjoy AO check out Darkfall which will be out sometime in 2009. There's also Shaiya where you can pvp from level one, but I've read it's pretty grindy to reach the top.

I also suggest to not judge a game before playing it for yourself. AO is possibly the best F2P currently out that could rival some P2P games. A good review can be found at THIS blog.

kolek

 Hmmm, one of the best casual games in my opinion is Dungeon Runners.  It's pretty much just instanced dungeon crawling and a town to group with friends in, that's it.  The game is extremely well done and reminds me a mix of Diablo and WoW but stripped down and a lot of crude humor added to it .