Hmm, I think Westfall is kind of a weird choice, one of the more basic zones in WoW with little variation imo, Stranglethorn would be my personal favorite I think.
My favorite zone would be Dathomir in SWG I guess, I got lost there once as a complete newbie and forgot to buy a return ticket, suffice to say I wandered around that planet cluelessly and continuously getting chased by angry Rancors until I somehow made enough money for the return ticket to a starter world
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I would also like to state that WAR could easily have more on this list if not for a few persistent factors that keep it from being quite good. No.1- it wastes so much of its beautiful spectacle because scenery is superfluous and linear. No. 2 very little is interactive (due to no.1). If they actually encouraged exploration or pve (other than for titles and such), more people would see some of the awesome designs. As it is, it’s just relegated to the occasional traveler who happens upon it. So much of it is buggy and serves little purpose.
I agree. The game has a lot of beautiful terrain and architecture.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
I want to start off with a personal opinion about this column: I'm finding it pretty stale when every week it's just Bill's Favorite this or Bill's favorite that and I really felt the quality of The List having gone down since this whole thing started about 3-4 weeks ago.
Are you just running out of actual cool ideas because this whole Bill's Favorite series can literally last forever, same can be said for anyone else here if they were to do the same thing. I'm starting to read less and less of it since I believe it lacks a lot of substance.
Please next week, not another "Bill's Favorite...<insert whatever you feel like this week here>". I'm not going to care about you're favorite In-Game Events or you're favorite brands of toothpaste. Why not 5 Most Popular Video Game Characters or something to that strain and make it more about video gaming industry/history in general and less about yourself? In a way it can come off as selfish as well.
I'm not trying to be sour or troll or anything, it's just an honest opinion towards a website I really have enjoyed especially The List until recently. I think you can do better with a little more effort
In regards to the article, I know what you mean about pre-SWG. I didn't learn to appreciate it until it was too late. Maybe it was because I was only 18 or 19 and didn't fully understand how much fun business dynamics can be as a master Weaponsmith, but I kind of wish we can have something similar to that experience today.
The closest being EVE Online and it doesn't bring me as close to that as some people might think. What other game can I split profits with a partner hunting for high quality metals needed in a game where crafting material has its own stats?
EDIT: I wrote "narcissistic" when I really meant "selfish".
Westfall was one of my least liked areas in WoW; so bleak and barren and boring, to me. My #1 hateda rea is the Barrens - and not because of "barrens chat"; I'm speaking entirely geographically. It's too frigging big, so bland, and you can spend so damn much time there.
My favorite area in WoW would be Feralas.. Love the huge forest setting. I also agree with someone earlier in this thread in their listing Storm Peaks as a favorite, and for the same reason - the huge sense of scale to everything. One of my long-time complains about WoW is that the world feels "small"... Not in terms of square miles... but in term of nothing feeling really huge. Storm Peaks is the first area that obliterated that feeling. Some of the instance area designs are incredible as well... especially later on.
In FFXI, my favorite zone to this day is Sanctuary of Zi'tah. The music is awesome, and there's this mystic, misty feel to the place. Always enjoy going through there. Some of the areas in the past in FFXI, like West Sarutabaruta, are fantastic, too.
LoTRO, I'd have to say Trollshaws... again... forest region. I'm a sucker for forests, and the way they designed it, it *feels* like a living forest. Turbine has done a fantastic job with the world design in that game all around; I can't think of a single area I *don't* like the look or design of. Well... Lonelands might come close, because it kinda approaches the same "bleak and barren" feel in large part that the Barrens does in WoW... but it's broken up far better with smaller "points of interest"... Weathertop being an obvious one... the large swampy area... the area with the blood pools, etc..
"If you just step away for a sec you will clearly see all the pot holes in the road, and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
It's wierd that out of all the iconic zones in LOTRO my most memorable one is one that was only a blurb in the appendix of the books.
I'm talking about Forochel. I LOVED that zone...
I have to agree with you. Forochel is beautiful. You can tell the artists put a lot of work into that zone. Compaired to the Misty Mountains( another snowy zone in LOTRO) there is no contest. Forochel has so many little touches here and there. I don't think I've seen a winter zone dont quiet as well in any other mmo. Stormpeakes is pretty decent in WoW. I just like the artistry behind Forochel better.
I've been playing mmos for over 10 years, and I have to say the first area that ever took my breathe away was Rivendell. Traveling down the mountainside for the first time and seeing the valley was just stunning.
Some of the instance area designs are incredible as well... especially later on.
A lot of the WoW dungeons look really good. My favorite is actually RFC. I'm sure part of that is nostalgia, as that was my first WoW instance, but I went back many times on alts and really enjoyed the feel and appearance of the place.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Favorite places? Probably from AC, the Acid Vault.
I can't believe that any AC players would label Arwic, that pit, that sewer of a town as any kind of a favorite place. It should have been destroyed long before it was. Fort Teth and Qalabar were two other "wretched hives of scum and villainy" in that game.
I still remember hanging out in Qalabar where people spammed 'portal 2 teth plz!!' and obliging those folks by summoning portals to the top of Black Hill. Good times.
#5 Quarterstone? - The Chronicles of Spellborn. Not sure about the name but I mean the first city you got into. I simply loved the game, the graphics and all the zones. What a beautiful game, shame there isn't too much players and there will be no updates for a while.
#4Howling Fjord - World of Warcraft. I've never enjoyed WoW too much but in January I decided to start it once again and level one character to 80 and raid a little. Well, the leveling was decent to 68 or so and then I went to Borean Thundra and leveling became little more fun but still kinda boring. Finally after two levels in Borean I decided to go to Howling Fjord and I loved it since I got there from Wetlands. It was fun from the beginning to the end. Shame other zones in Northernd weren't that much fun though.
#3T1 Dwarf place - WarhammerOnline. I'll take only one zone from Warhammer but every single starting zone would be more awesome than any of the ones I've listed above. Highest I got in Warhammer online was level 18 or something but dam, I had so many level 10 characters because I enjoyed the starting zones, those are the best things I remember from Warhammer.I would've played more but I had lots of bsods in Warhammer.
#2Forochel - Lord of the Rings Online. Lots of snow and ice. What's better than zone with lots of snow and ice? I'm from Finland and that place had many npcs with finnish names etc. I enjoyed questing there too.
#1Tortage - Age of Conan. Tortage has awesome storyline with voice acting and so many fun quests there. Age of Conan's graphics are also great and makes Tortage even better place.
I have no problem with WoW being number one but I wouldn't pick Westfall of all places.. there are so much more better zones in WoW.. like almost all of them.. Tauren, Blood Elf, and Dranai starting areas, that haunted area right by Westfall was my favorite but i forgot the name... the area that has shadowfang keep.. anyway whatever though
I have no problem with WoW being number one but I wouldn't pick Westfall of all places.. there are so much more better zones in WoW.. like almost all of them.. Tauren, Blood Elf, and Dranai starting areas, that haunted area right by Westfall was my favorite but i forgot the name... the area that has shadowfang keep.. anyway whatever though
Most of the items in this list may be from WoW, namely because it's the only P2P MMO I've played, and also because I really, really love the art style in it. No. Seriously. If the game didn't rely solely on gear and instances were more about fun and less about having my hands spazz out to do good dps knowing that if I'm even slightly out of it I get trolled to death, I'd play again.
6) Undercity - WoW. Finally, a dark art style that isn't brown! Honestly, I don't know why I fell in love with this place, but it's where you could find me if I was afk/multitasking but still partially there for whispers.
5) Ashenvale - WoW. It may not be that great of a zone to quest in, but I fell in love with it. The art style was, sure, sickly, but I just have so many fond memories of this place.
4) Shadowfang Keep (I think) - WoW. Ah, my first... no, second instance memory, but the first one where I kinda knew what was going on. My initial memory of this still pisses me off to this day, but I'm still fond of it.
3) Tunnel - S4League. Okay this is a shooter map, but, I love it. It's simple, it's a bloodbath, and I know how to run it.
2) Plains of Doleful Melody - Space Cowboy Online/Flysis/Phi-Doi/AirRivals/Ace Online. In this zone, that game became fun for me. I can't really explain this one, but it was more than just the art style.
1) Nagrand - WoW. Listen: I'm sick the sickly style TBC liked oh so much. Hellfire may have been intended as an initial masterpiece, but Nagrand carried this... charm to it. I remember when I levelled my mage, I was so sick of Zangarmarsh and zones like it that I all but skipped Terrokar (however it's spelled) Forest, and levelled to 68 in the wonderful, non depressing zone. I loved it and still do. Just the sightseeing in it alone was awesome! Seriously... just... everything about it was perfect to me.
And a few more I can't remember...
People that put themselves above others put me in a bad mood. http://www.surrealtwilight.com/index.php ^Has nothing to do with that retarded Vampire Novel Series, I swear!^
What about Zul'Drak in WoW I LOVE that place. It's my favorite zone even after 5 years..I mean look at all the detail put into that zone. The entire zone is basically an outdoor temple!
Hm, Westfall. It was there my low level warrior found a wodden board with a nail through it and used that to beat up any bandits darring to cross my way. It had good stats.
I started WAR as a greenskin and thought the area was so good that I could easily have done ten more levels there.
Suprised not to find any DAOC zones on this list. Darkness Falls and Emain Macha will remain 2 of the funnest zones in any MMO. Pre BG TM-Southshore would be a fun 2nd. It made the world feel big.
Favorite places? Probably from AC, the Acid Vault.
I can't believe that any AC players would label Arwic, that pit, that sewer of a town as any kind of a favorite place. It should have been destroyed long before it was. Fort Teth and Qalabar were two other "wretched hives of scum and villainy" in that game.
I still remember hanging out in Qalabar where people spammed 'portal 2 teth plz!!' and obliging those folks by summoning portals to the top of Black Hill. Good times.
It's the nostalgia of it. Had this been '99 and you asked me what I thought of lagging f*n Arwic I would have responded with a string of four letter words that'd likely get me a ban, but looking back now it was great. It was my first experience with the Massive part of MMOs.
Fort Teth definately deserves an honorable mention, but I listed the entire Obsidian plains, so I figured it was covered.
Comments
No mention of Grieg's End?!
That was a brilliant zone back in the day,, come to think of it few zones can beat the old eq1 classics in any modern MMO
Butcherblock is a strange choice, since there are way better zones. I like Tenebrous Tangle the most, Steamfont Mountains are great too.
Also Im missing AoC-Tortage! Great place
Hmm, I think Westfall is kind of a weird choice, one of the more basic zones in WoW with little variation imo, Stranglethorn would be my personal favorite I think.
My favorite zone would be Dathomir in SWG I guess, I got lost there once as a complete newbie and forgot to buy a return ticket, suffice to say I wandered around that planet cluelessly and continuously getting chased by angry Rancors until I somehow made enough money for the return ticket to a starter world
Feel free to use my referral link for SW:TOR if you want to test out the game. You'll get some special unlocks!
I agree. The game has a lot of beautiful terrain and architecture.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
The first thing that impressed me was the Orcas swimming off the coast. Beautiful underwater areas in northrend.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
darkness falls-daoc. it nevr lost its allure. it was fun solo, small group, large group, multi groups for the epic mobs.
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Surprised no one mentioned Darkshire in WoW, since the quests tie in nicely with the area. My top 5:
EQ - Firiona Vie - Damn those Drachnids.
EQ2 - Nek Castle - loved the way the story was told through that instance
WoW - Nagrand - Really one of the most well done zones in the whole game (Woltk included).
EQ - Tower of Frozen Shadow - who doesn't remember the dead wedding on the 5th(?) floor?
EQ - Greater Faydark - Only because the first time you saw Kelethin it was incredible. A city in the trees.
I want to start off with a personal opinion about this column: I'm finding it pretty stale when every week it's just Bill's Favorite this or Bill's favorite that and I really felt the quality of The List having gone down since this whole thing started about 3-4 weeks ago.
Are you just running out of actual cool ideas because this whole Bill's Favorite series can literally last forever, same can be said for anyone else here if they were to do the same thing. I'm starting to read less and less of it since I believe it lacks a lot of substance.
Please next week, not another "Bill's Favorite...<insert whatever you feel like this week here>". I'm not going to care about you're favorite In-Game Events or you're favorite brands of toothpaste. Why not 5 Most Popular Video Game Characters or something to that strain and make it more about video gaming industry/history in general and less about yourself? In a way it can come off as selfish as well.
I'm not trying to be sour or troll or anything, it's just an honest opinion towards a website I really have enjoyed especially The List until recently. I think you can do better with a little more effort
In regards to the article, I know what you mean about pre-SWG. I didn't learn to appreciate it until it was too late. Maybe it was because I was only 18 or 19 and didn't fully understand how much fun business dynamics can be as a master Weaponsmith, but I kind of wish we can have something similar to that experience today.
The closest being EVE Online and it doesn't bring me as close to that as some people might think. What other game can I split profits with a partner hunting for high quality metals needed in a game where crafting material has its own stats?
EDIT: I wrote "narcissistic" when I really meant "selfish".
It's HIS favourites, not yours.
You are free to write your own list and post it.
FWIW:
1 - T1 Dwarves/Greenskins - WH Online.
2 - Nordland - WH Online. New Emskrank is the best open PvP I have ever played.
3 - Durotar - WoW. I love all that red clay and no rain or fog. I hate the weather effects in WoW.
4 - Shimmering Flats in Thousand Needles (about to become Thousand Islands?) - WoW. Nice quest grinding area. Flat terrain. No bad weather.
5 - Nagrand - WoW. Hemit Nesingwary's quests and Ogre camps to gring for XP and Neatherweave.
Honourable mention - I'm a Horde loyalist, but I really enjoyed the Dranei starting area. Some good questing there.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Interesting list...
Westfall was one of my least liked areas in WoW; so bleak and barren and boring, to me. My #1 hateda rea is the Barrens - and not because of "barrens chat"; I'm speaking entirely geographically. It's too frigging big, so bland, and you can spend so damn much time there.
My favorite area in WoW would be Feralas.. Love the huge forest setting. I also agree with someone earlier in this thread in their listing Storm Peaks as a favorite, and for the same reason - the huge sense of scale to everything. One of my long-time complains about WoW is that the world feels "small"... Not in terms of square miles... but in term of nothing feeling really huge. Storm Peaks is the first area that obliterated that feeling. Some of the instance area designs are incredible as well... especially later on.
In FFXI, my favorite zone to this day is Sanctuary of Zi'tah. The music is awesome, and there's this mystic, misty feel to the place. Always enjoy going through there. Some of the areas in the past in FFXI, like West Sarutabaruta, are fantastic, too.
LoTRO, I'd have to say Trollshaws... again... forest region. I'm a sucker for forests, and the way they designed it, it *feels* like a living forest. Turbine has done a fantastic job with the world design in that game all around; I can't think of a single area I *don't* like the look or design of. Well... Lonelands might come close, because it kinda approaches the same "bleak and barren" feel in large part that the Barrens does in WoW... but it's broken up far better with smaller "points of interest"... Weathertop being an obvious one... the large swampy area... the area with the blood pools, etc..
and the cash shop selling asphalt..." - Mimzel on F2P/Cash Shops
Karnor's Castle in Everquest! Oh no train zone out! Loading please wait.... /tell you damn it someone trained the other side of KC.
"Its better to look ugly and win than pretty and lose"
My favortite zones are listed in the way which one gaves most fun!
CoH: Grendel's Gulch
EQ1: Crushbone and Blackburrow
VG: There was one funny dungeon with stockpiled goblin shacks near a big human city but I can not remember its name.
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I have to agree with you. Forochel is beautiful. You can tell the artists put a lot of work into that zone. Compaired to the Misty Mountains( another snowy zone in LOTRO) there is no contest. Forochel has so many little touches here and there. I don't think I've seen a winter zone dont quiet as well in any other mmo. Stormpeakes is pretty decent in WoW. I just like the artistry behind Forochel better.
I've been playing mmos for over 10 years, and I have to say the first area that ever took my breathe away was Rivendell. Traveling down the mountainside for the first time and seeing the valley was just stunning.
"" Voice acting isn't an RPG element....it's just a production value." - grumpymel2
Favorite places? Probably from AC, the Acid Vault.
I can't believe that any AC players would label Arwic, that pit, that sewer of a town as any kind of a favorite place. It should have been destroyed long before it was. Fort Teth and Qalabar were two other "wretched hives of scum and villainy" in that game.
I still remember hanging out in Qalabar where people spammed 'portal 2 teth plz!!' and obliging those folks by summoning portals to the top of Black Hill. Good times.
#5 Quarterstone? - The Chronicles of Spellborn. Not sure about the name but I mean the first city you got into. I simply loved the game, the graphics and all the zones. What a beautiful game, shame there isn't too much players and there will be no updates for a while.
#4 Howling Fjord - World of Warcraft. I've never enjoyed WoW too much but in January I decided to start it once again and level one character to 80 and raid a little. Well, the leveling was decent to 68 or so and then I went to Borean Thundra and leveling became little more fun but still kinda boring. Finally after two levels in Borean I decided to go to Howling Fjord and I loved it since I got there from Wetlands. It was fun from the beginning to the end. Shame other zones in Northernd weren't that much fun though.
#3 T1 Dwarf place - Warhammer Online. I'll take only one zone from Warhammer but every single starting zone would be more awesome than any of the ones I've listed above. Highest I got in Warhammer online was level 18 or something but dam, I had so many level 10 characters because I enjoyed the starting zones, those are the best things I remember from Warhammer.I would've played more but I had lots of bsods in Warhammer.
#2 Forochel - Lord of the Rings Online. Lots of snow and ice. What's better than zone with lots of snow and ice? I'm from Finland and that place had many npcs with finnish names etc. I enjoyed questing there too.
#1 Tortage - Age of Conan. Tortage has awesome storyline with voice acting and so many fun quests there. Age of Conan's graphics are also great and makes Tortage even better place.
I have no problem with WoW being number one but I wouldn't pick Westfall of all places.. there are so much more better zones in WoW.. like almost all of them.. Tauren, Blood Elf, and Dranai starting areas, that haunted area right by Westfall was my favorite but i forgot the name... the area that has shadowfang keep.. anyway whatever though
Vanguard - areas near Khal, Tursh Village
WoW - Elwynn Forest, Stranglethorn Vale, Lakeshire, Grizzly Hills
LoTRO - Shire, Evendim
AoC - Tortage
That'd be Silverpine Forest.
Most of the items in this list may be from WoW, namely because it's the only P2P MMO I've played, and also because I really, really love the art style in it. No. Seriously. If the game didn't rely solely on gear and instances were more about fun and less about having my hands spazz out to do good dps knowing that if I'm even slightly out of it I get trolled to death, I'd play again.
6) Undercity - WoW. Finally, a dark art style that isn't brown! Honestly, I don't know why I fell in love with this place, but it's where you could find me if I was afk/multitasking but still partially there for whispers.
5) Ashenvale - WoW. It may not be that great of a zone to quest in, but I fell in love with it. The art style was, sure, sickly, but I just have so many fond memories of this place.
4) Shadowfang Keep (I think) - WoW. Ah, my first... no, second instance memory, but the first one where I kinda knew what was going on. My initial memory of this still pisses me off to this day, but I'm still fond of it.
3) Tunnel - S4League. Okay this is a shooter map, but, I love it. It's simple, it's a bloodbath, and I know how to run it.
2) Plains of Doleful Melody - Space Cowboy Online/Flysis/Phi-Doi/AirRivals/Ace Online. In this zone, that game became fun for me. I can't really explain this one, but it was more than just the art style.
1) Nagrand - WoW. Listen: I'm sick the sickly style TBC liked oh so much. Hellfire may have been intended as an initial masterpiece, but Nagrand carried this... charm to it. I remember when I levelled my mage, I was so sick of Zangarmarsh and zones like it that I all but skipped Terrokar (however it's spelled) Forest, and levelled to 68 in the wonderful, non depressing zone. I loved it and still do. Just the sightseeing in it alone was awesome! Seriously... just... everything about it was perfect to me.
And a few more I can't remember...
People that put themselves above others put me in a bad mood.
http://www.surrealtwilight.com/index.php
^Has nothing to do with that retarded Vampire Novel Series, I swear!^
What about Zul'Drak in WoW I LOVE that place. It's my favorite zone even after 5 years..I mean look at all the detail put into that zone. The entire zone is basically an outdoor temple!
I have to admit... I'm guilty of being one of those fans of 'snow' areas.
Good list though, westfall is ok I guess, I just hated questing there. :P
Hm, Westfall. It was there my low level warrior found a wodden board with a nail through it and used that to beat up any bandits darring to cross my way. It had good stats.
I started WAR as a greenskin and thought the area was so good that I could easily have done ten more levels there.
Suprised not to find any DAOC zones on this list. Darkness Falls and Emain Macha will remain 2 of the funnest zones in any MMO. Pre BG TM-Southshore would be a fun 2nd. It made the world feel big.
It's the nostalgia of it. Had this been '99 and you asked me what I thought of lagging f*n Arwic I would have responded with a string of four letter words that'd likely get me a ban, but looking back now it was great. It was my first experience with the Massive part of MMOs.
Fort Teth definately deserves an honorable mention, but I listed the entire Obsidian plains, so I figured it was covered.