You could run around in that world and just randomly discover an entire dungeon by accidently running through a wall. If not the biggest its deffinitly the best for just random discovery and fun. No mmo has ever topped it IMHO.
Most of you all forget one little MMO, the worst MMorpg.... Dark and light, in terms of land mass, its the biggest land mass in any MMorpg, next to that WWII mmo.
While EQ1 has tons of content, it is really not a big world. Entire expansions added little more than a few new zones. PoP looks really big until you realize zigzag paths do not a huge zone make.
Vanguard/Horizons/DnL huge worlds, at least they have added content to fill some of it in VG and HZ, no one cares about DnL... A run coast to coast in VG, mounted easily takes 30-40 minutes to cross thestra and there is a second just as big continent.
AC1 Felt huge, had a lot of dungeons, most dungeons were just clones of each other and all were seperate zones. However it only took me >20 minutes to run coast to coast with a moderate 120 run skill. Not that big at all.
Problem with EVE is every system is the same and for some reason every system has a Nebula and the same stations and stroid belts copy and pasted over and over again. Would be like saying Vanguard or Star Wars Galaxies have the biggest worlds........ yeh of nothing.
Irth online had a gigantic world. You could walk for hours and your map would hardly show any distance traveled. Think I read that traveling from the most western to the eastern coast would take you seven real days. No loading zones either, might have been the reason for the terrible lag players suffered through and in the end its demise.
Daoc also has a large environment if you add up all expansions and all three realms.
EvE is the biggest sci-fi game but empty space doesn't cut it in my books. SWG is next and the worlds were (surprisingly) pretty full of creatures and environment details. After those 2 i would say Vanguard is next and is pretty close to SWG in how populated the area is.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds -Solid non level based game -Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
What about darkfall? Heard the gamemap is about the size of the country of luxembourg.
Having run naked with my leafblade swinging in the wind halfway across Argon in about 20-25 minutes the other day to get from the newbie area to a town that my clan controls, I can attest that the answer is definitely not Darkfall.
I would say for this topic lets stick with actual navigation surface. On a side note, the other great thing about this topic is hearing about other games and experiences that people have had with them.
I would say for this topic lets stick with actual navigation surface. On a side note, the other great thing about this topic is hearing about other games and experiences that people have had with them.
An independent MMO under development called Infinity has a procedural galaxy with hundreds of thousands of stars with multiple planets each with each planet being procedurally generated down to the level of individual trees and so on. It would decidedly be the largest game universe if it ever actually gets published.
Note that Infinity's planet generators exist (including gas giants with rings) and I assume that the galaxy generator is running as well. So it exists, but not in the form of a game that you or I could go wandering around in.
Procedural universes will help eliminate the idea of 'expansions' and developers will acquire the ability to expand the game world on demand.
I would have to say EQ1, by a mile. Vanguard is very small compared to EQ1, both in size and the amount of content.
I do not consider EVE to be a real contender because although the size of their world might be huge, a lot of it is generated space and not really content.
The biggest mmorpg´s are probably EVE and for sure Battleground Europe. Alone in Battleground Europe you would need more than a real life time week to cross the whole map with any infantry unit....probably BE has the biggest world and the world has not any zones. So far i remember it has more than 230 Kilometer x 230 Kilometer, for example SWG has 15Km x 15Km with zones.
edit:
Wikipedia tells Battleground Europe has 350.000 km² (not sure how much EVE has), but its bigger than dark & light for sure.
All other mentioned mmorpgs i.e. EQ 1, AC1, VG... or whatever are small in comparison to the one i mentioned. If you have never tried the Battleground Europe Trial you did really miss what means a big world size in the mmorpg industry, but doesnt mean the world is also the most beautiful...thats a different story, but hey it was the first mmofps.
I'm surprised how many people are saying vanguard by far. I think the games incredible view distance (especially from tall heights) and lack of artificial borders make the game appear larger than it actually is. The chunks are not that big by themselves and can be crossed on the cheap level 10 mount in 3-4 minutes and felt a little smaller than typical zones in most games. Combined the game is big indeed, but I doubt it would be bigger than say original everquest + kunark.
Comments
I'm gonna say EQ1.
You could run around in that world and just randomly discover an entire dungeon by accidently running through a wall. If not the biggest its deffinitly the best for just random discovery and fun. No mmo has ever topped it IMHO.
What he says. At 15,000 square miles, Dark & Light is the winner: www.gamershell.com/companies/farlan_entertainment/227751.html
While EQ1 has tons of content, it is really not a big world. Entire expansions added little more than a few new zones. PoP looks really big until you realize zigzag paths do not a huge zone make.
Vanguard/Horizons/DnL huge worlds, at least they have added content to fill some of it in VG and HZ, no one cares about DnL... A run coast to coast in VG, mounted easily takes 30-40 minutes to cross thestra and there is a second just as big continent.
AC1 Felt huge, had a lot of dungeons, most dungeons were just clones of each other and all were seperate zones. However it only took me >20 minutes to run coast to coast with a moderate 120 run skill. Not that big at all.
I'd have to agree that Eve has the largest world to traverse but for largest world wthat's mostly filled I'd say Vanguard.
What about darkfall? Heard the gamemap is about the size of the country of luxembourg.
"You are the hero our legends have foretold will save our tribe, therefore please go kill 10 pigs."
Vanguard for sure. The world is huge and without instances.
My brain has 2 sides;Left and right. My left side has nothing right and my right side has nothing left...
Problem with EVE is every system is the same and for some reason every system has a Nebula and the same stations and stroid belts copy and pasted over and over again. Would be like saying Vanguard or Star Wars Galaxies have the biggest worlds........ yeh of nothing.
Irth online had a gigantic world. You could walk for hours and your map would hardly show any distance traveled. Think I read that traveling from the most western to the eastern coast would take you seven real days. No loading zones either, might have been the reason for the terrible lag players suffered through and in the end its demise.
Daoc also has a large environment if you add up all expansions and all three realms.
I remember it taking me weeks to travel across Project Entropia.
Alex Macen,
LotR. Middle Earth. The biggest realm I have experienced. Because I haven't finished it yet.
VG is the biggest game world i've experienced. Almost too big. There are ppl who play but you usualy don't bump into them.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
EvE is the biggest sci-fi game but empty space doesn't cut it in my books. SWG is next and the worlds were (surprisingly) pretty full of creatures and environment details. After those 2 i would say Vanguard is next and is pretty close to SWG in how populated the area is.
MMO wish list:
-Changeable worlds
-Solid non level based game
-Sharks with lasers attached to their heads
Having run naked with my leafblade swinging in the wind halfway across Argon in about 20-25 minutes the other day to get from the newbie area to a town that my clan controls, I can attest that the answer is definitely not Darkfall.
VG for sure.
Well obviously if your counting space games ,Eve will win out easily as space is unlimited,but for navigable landmass I will still stick with AC 1.
I would say for this topic lets stick with actual navigation surface. On a side note, the other great thing about this topic is hearing about other games and experiences that people have had with them.
http://www.massively.com/2009/04/27/eve-online-player-circumnavigates-the-games-world/
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
An independent MMO under development called Infinity has a procedural galaxy with hundreds of thousands of stars with multiple planets each with each planet being procedurally generated down to the level of individual trees and so on. It would decidedly be the largest game universe if it ever actually gets published.
Note that Infinity's planet generators exist (including gas giants with rings) and I assume that the galaxy generator is running as well. So it exists, but not in the form of a game that you or I could go wandering around in.
Procedural universes will help eliminate the idea of 'expansions' and developers will acquire the ability to expand the game world on demand.
World War II online has to be up there, it uses a zoneless half scale map of a big chunk of western europe.
daoc, 3 for the price of 1
SWG has ten planets that are each 25 x 25 km. Plus, the two expansion planets(although, they're very small/instanced).
That should come out to atleast 6,500 square kilometers that can all be walked across, built on, or kill(ed) on.
I would have to say EQ1, by a mile. Vanguard is very small compared to EQ1, both in size and the amount of content.
I do not consider EVE to be a real contender because although the size of their world might be huge, a lot of it is generated space and not really content.
The biggest mmorpg´s are probably EVE and for sure Battleground Europe. Alone in Battleground Europe you would need more than a real life time week to cross the whole map with any infantry unit....probably BE has the biggest world and the world has not any zones. So far i remember it has more than 230 Kilometer x 230 Kilometer, for example SWG has 15Km x 15Km with zones.
edit:
Wikipedia tells Battleground Europe has 350.000 km² (not sure how much EVE has), but its bigger than dark & light for sure.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II_Online
All other mentioned mmorpgs i.e. EQ 1, AC1, VG... or whatever are small in comparison to the one i mentioned. If you have never tried the Battleground Europe Trial you did really miss what means a big world size in the mmorpg industry, but doesnt mean the world is also the most beautiful...thats a different story, but hey it was the first mmofps.
I have to check BG Europe out. Didn't even know that existed.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Eve
WWII online
SWG
Everquest
Maybe dark and light, but I never played that.
others.
I'm surprised how many people are saying vanguard by far. I think the games incredible view distance (especially from tall heights) and lack of artificial borders make the game appear larger than it actually is. The chunks are not that big by themselves and can be crossed on the cheap level 10 mount in 3-4 minutes and felt a little smaller than typical zones in most games. Combined the game is big indeed, but I doubt it would be bigger than say original everquest + kunark.