Best MMORPG for for casual player

Surrection

Actually my own thoughts on that would be Guild Wars when it gets out, at least it can't become as heavy duty players oriented as EQ became lately...

Any other thoughts?

Knowledge

I haven't played it first hand thus far but I have read extensive reviews.  Along with a leveling bonus for being logged out of the game, I've heard many reasons why World of Warcraft has been tailored for both the casual and hard-core gamer.  I'm sure there are more people on these boards that can give you further information.  Watch out though, any mention of EQ2 and WoW attracts an extreme amount of immature flamers and fanbois.  Good luck with your search.

Connoisseur

City of Heroes and World of Warcraft are catered extremely torwards casual players.

JoeyNipps

It depends heavily on what YOU mean by casual player.  I have been in many discussions of MMORPGs on many sites and I find that it to be universally true that in any given discussion about "casual player" there are almost as many definitions as there are participants in the thread.

So, what do YOU mean by casual player - and you need to be fairly specific.

If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.

dizirgee

I think EVE-Online is right choice if you like sci-fi genre a lil.
Your skills are trained 24/7 no matter if you are online or not.
And in other ways its pretty cool game and theres also new expnason out.And what is best on that game that everybody plays on 1 server so you dont have to worry about what server to pick up when you want play with your friends.
btw avg number of players online is around 9-10k

*edit* here you can find nice info about game and also online player graph

Wu name dizirgee->Tough Destroyer

I`m Lawful Good Human Fighter Paladin
and you?

Surrection

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Originally posted by JoeyNipps
It depends heavily on what YOU mean by casual player.

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I mean by casual playing the ability to actually progress throughout the game without having to stay logged on for 8+ hours per session, having to make 100+ combinations of tradeskilling actions so that I can get me one skillup point, or having to collect flags through 50 players minimum raids so I can actually enjoy the game.

In brief, being able to casually enjoy full length of the game while actively staying connected to the real world

JoeyNipps

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Originally posted by Surrection


I mean by casual playing the ability to actually progress throughout the game without having to stay logged on for 8+ hours per session, having to make 100+ combinations of tradeskilling actions so that I can get me one skillup point, or having to collect flags through 50 players minimum raids so I can actually enjoy the game.
In brief, being able to casually enjoy full length of the game while actively staying connected to the real world

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What I think you mean is you want a game where advancement progresses relatively quickly (in terms of time put into the game).  SWG fits this bill - it is about the easiest to advance of any game I know of.

If all else in life fails you, buy a vowel.

kickassman

FOMK

 

when it comes out

 

www.fomportal.com

BigPeeler

best game for a casual gamer is EVE Online mostly due to the fact that you dont even have to be playing to train your skills...

Guild Wars is also supposed to be good for the casual gamers so you could always grab that when it comes out...

also, Tabula Rasa appears to have a good system worked out for casual gamers... bassically every player character gets a "job", and whenever you're not playing yourself, your character goes to work to pull in funds (and exp maybe?) even when you're not playing

--------------------------------
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Peeler: "I dunno man... thats just the way it is. ^.-"
Crazy Drunk Hindu: "Aye..."

BETTER RECOGNIZE!!!

Genjing

FOMK... with no skills or classes at all to level...

The only advancement is in faction rank, but even then thats not required to have fun or compete with anyone in the game. Its FPS combat so it'll come down to equipment and skill.

Anofalye

In CoH you can reach the TOP eventually.

 

It is casual friendly and very fun.

 

Folks that say WoW forget that you will lack(group and solo) in the high levels unless you become a full time raiding hardcore...so not THAT casual friendly.

- "Solo is, will always be, the main market. A MMORPG that succeed with little or no solo appeal is doing great considering they are ignoring the main player base.''

Elapsed

Personally, I'm looking forward to MEO. Real time skill advancement seems to be the thing for me now. I don't have the vast amounts of time to waste online as I used to. Since MEO isn't coming out for a couple more months, I say maybe try EVE? I haven't played it myself but it's the only other major game now with real time skill advancement (maybe someone else can list others?). It seems that would be the best thing for a truly casual player.

Croom

So it's like neocron 2  but without skills? But i recomend WoW, it realy is worth it:)

Volkmar

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Originally posted by dizirgee

I think EVE-Online is right choice if you like sci-fi genre a lil.
Your skills are trained 24/7 no matter if you are online or not.
And in other ways its pretty cool game and theres also new expnason out.And what is best on that game that everybody plays on 1 server so you dont have to worry about what server to pick up when you want play with your friends.
btw avg number of players online is around 9-10k
*edit* here you can find nice info about game and also online player graph

Wu name dizirgee->Tough Destroyer
I`m Lawful Good Human Fighter Paladin
and you?

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I hear that a lot, that EVE-online is casual friendly.

When i played it wasn't that casual friendly so please explain this to me.

Ok, the skills rises even when you are not in the game (actually time is the only thing affecting how your skill rise) and that is good But skills are not that important in that game, Money is. And if you are not logged you do no money.

It gives you no good at all to be a certified Battleship pilot for Gallente fleet when you have 500 kredits to your name, do it?

lotharr

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Originally posted by dizirgee

I think EVE-Online is right choice if you like sci-fi genre a lil.
Your skills are trained 24/7 no matter if you are online or not.
And in other ways its pretty cool game and theres also new expnason out.And what is best on that game that everybody plays on 1 server so you dont have to worry about what server to pick up when you want play with your friends.
btw avg number of players online is around 9-10k
*edit* here you can find nice info about game and also online player graph

Wu name dizirgee->Tough Destroyer
I`m Lawful Good Human Fighter Paladin
and you?

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EVE is better for some more Hard Core players

Hard Core elements in EVE :

Long lvling times

Big losses

Long mining times

Long times in all acutally and takes much time...

Casual elements in EVE:

Theres fast combats

You dont have to do nothing when lvling

You can be logged off when lvling

And much more...

I PLAY MYSELF EVE.

AND EQ2 is lovely but its kinda boring sometimes...

 

I would say WoW is for casual players

There is nicely done PvP

And smooth animation

Nice weaps

... but the graphics is from spungebob

BarryManilow

City of Heros and World of Warcraft.

dizirgee

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Originally posted by Volkmar
Originally posted by dizirgee
I think EVE-Online is right choice if you like sci-fi genre a lil.Your skills are trained 24/7 no matter if you are online or not.And in other ways its pretty cool game and theres also new expnason out.And what is best on that game that everybody plays on 1 server so you dont have to worry about what server to pick up when you want play with your friends.btw avg number of players online is around 9-10k
*edit* here you can find nice info about game and also online player graph
Wu name dizirgee->Tough Destroyer
I`m Lawful Good Human Fighter Paladinand you?
I hear that a lot, that EVE-online is casual friendly.
When i played it wasn't that casual friendly so please explain this to me.
Ok, the skills rises even when you are not in the game (actually time is the only thing affecting how your skill rise) and that is good But skills are not that important in that game, Money is. And if you are not logged you do no money.
It gives you no good at all to be a certified Battleship pilot for Gallente fleet when you have 500 kredits to your name, do it?

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Well skills are important coz without them it is nice that you have 2mil ISK but when you cant fly any decent ship for what you have money?
And you can always take NPC missions (killing,delivery) or even missions from player when they need to move their stuff from one place to another....nice ISK on this too.

If you consider that on start missions avg reward is 12-20k +loot it isnt bad.And when you log for hour or so you can always mine and thats nice money too but lil boring, though.

And i think in expansion there are more options for minning but i dunno about details coz i dont play eve now.

Wu name dizirgee->Tough Destroyer

I`m Lawful Good Human Fighter Paladin
and you?

Bhazir

I see the discussion went to if Eve is casual player friendly or not. Ok want to throw in my 2 cents as well.

Casual friendly points that most say is the offline skill training. In the short term that is right. You can train your skills up even when offline. But in the long run this works against you. You will need beter clones wich are much more expensive, your equipement you need will be also more expensive. So the more and higher skills you have the more ISK you need to be effective.

Now the point how do you get ISK, doing missions, crafting, mining, trading and perhaps some few other ways as well. But for all these way you need to be online. A class 3 frigate was around the 200k ISK in the time I played, a cruiser went from 2 million for lvl 1 cruiser up to 8 million for lvl 3 cruiser. The battleship started out at 60 million up to 110 million. As casual player you will reach the needed skills much faster then the amount of ISK you need to buy such a ship, and that is without the insurance you have to pay for them. And ofcourse the clone upgrades aren't in this price as well.

And in pvp you loose your ships regulary, wich is also a real moneysink. Yes you can insure your ship fully for the material cost, but that insurance isn't cheap either. And your equipement isn't insured so you always lose lots of ISK when you get blasted out of your ship and mostly in PvP it is followed by pod killing and means a new clone as well and losing all your implants. Good luck as casual player to keep up with this moneysink. Or hoping you find a corp of some hardcore players that can fund you.

"If all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm"

lotharr

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Originally posted by Bhazir

I see the discussion went to if Eve is casual player friendly or not. Ok want to throw in my 2 cents as well.
Casual friendly points that most say is the offline skill training. In the short term that is right. You can train your skills up even when offline. But in the long run this works against you. You will need beter clones wich are much more expensive, your equipement you need will be also more expensive. So the more and higher skills you have the more ISK you need to be effective.
Now the point how do you get ISK, doing missions, crafting, mining, trading and perhaps some few other ways as well. But for all these way you need to be online. A class 3 frigate was around the 200k ISK in the time I played, a cruiser went from 2 million for lvl 1 cruiser up to 8 million for lvl 3 cruiser. The battleship started out at 60 million up to 110 million. As casual player you will reach the needed skills much faster then the amount of ISK you need to buy such a ship, and that is without the insurance you have to pay for them. And ofcourse the clone upgrades aren't in this price as well.
And in pvp you loose your ships regulary, wich is also a real moneysink. Yes you can insure your ship fully for the material cost, but that insurance isn't cheap either. And your equipement isn't insured so you always lose lots of ISK when you get blasted out of your ship and mostly in PvP it is followed by pod killing and means a new clone as well and losing all your implants. Good luck as casual player to keep up with this moneysink. Or hoping you find a corp of some hardcore players that can fund you.
"If all magic fails, rely on three feet of steel and a strong arm"

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but  800 million ISK in eve, is 5 gold in EQ2 example..

go in a corp and you will get much money and free things...

just remember to mine with your corp.

vmoped

To the original poster, I believe, from reading and following the website, that Middle Earth Online looks like the best bet for a fantasy game that is tailored toward the casual gamer.  Their unique xp over time system, and lack of powergaming content (even tho I'm sure there will be something to farm) seems appealing to the adult/work/family crowd.