Honestly? If you've got a bit of time before making your choice, Neverwinter.
I say this as someone who was burned out on the genre, went back to WoW, had fun, went to rift, couldn't get past 52, played it to death in it's prime, DDO, got to the dead levls between 10-12 and just couldn't take it, Vanguard I LOVE TO DEATH, but it's a game built for cooperative play, and the population is very, very dead.
i went a few good months hopping from mmo to mmo for a week or two, and neverwinter was the first thing that's hooked me, gotten me to stay long enough to cap out a character, and has me eagerly awaiting content patches in a LONG time.
There is currently a bad disparity between classes, but there is a MASSIVE class balance overhaul coming in the first balance patch which is due any day now, which will hopefully resolve the issues;
but It's got solid content, fun to group in, combat is inuitive action-y and fun, plenty of open world areas to quest in, plenty of instanced material, as well as one dungeon per zone (10? I believe, total, with the first raid and two new dungeons coming with the next content patch) -- all of which get an epic mode at the level cap.
Skirmishes, which are pve battlegrounds, short 15-20 minute "DEFEAT WAVES OF MONSTERS AND COMPLETE SIMPLE TASKS" in every zone, for those without time to do instances.
Cash shop prices are obscene,but you can easily get zen (cash shop currency) by trading in astral diamonds -- which is fairly easy, as there are a TON of astra diamonds on the market (people who bought the 200$ pack got 2 million of them, and the economy has grown enough for prices to be in the hundreds of thousands for rare/good items which can easily be obtained from endgame runs, and the average price on my server is 300 AD -> 1 zen (1 zen = 10 cents, essentially), so though the prices are obscene, everything from the cash shop can easily be obtained by playing long enough and getting lucky enough with lewt to exploit the economy to avoid spending money.
I'd say it depends what kind of game you enjoy. I've played all of them. I played WoW for 10 years, EQ2 for about 5. Vanguard and DDO I only beta tested, Rift I played for about 8 months and just recently returned.
I would vote Rift or WoW for just casual fun. Rift is going F2P on June 12.
If you want a 'deeper' gaming experience with player housing and great crafting systems go Vanguard or EQ2.
DDO is dungeon runs and I believe they either just put out a new expansion or they're getting ready to.
Neverwinter is also a great game that just came out, officially releasing the end of this month but is in free, open beta right now and it's a good time as well.
Comments
Honestly? If you've got a bit of time before making your choice, Neverwinter.
I say this as someone who was burned out on the genre, went back to WoW, had fun, went to rift, couldn't get past 52, played it to death in it's prime, DDO, got to the dead levls between 10-12 and just couldn't take it, Vanguard I LOVE TO DEATH, but it's a game built for cooperative play, and the population is very, very dead.
i went a few good months hopping from mmo to mmo for a week or two, and neverwinter was the first thing that's hooked me, gotten me to stay long enough to cap out a character, and has me eagerly awaiting content patches in a LONG time.
There is currently a bad disparity between classes, but there is a MASSIVE class balance overhaul coming in the first balance patch which is due any day now, which will hopefully resolve the issues;
but It's got solid content, fun to group in, combat is inuitive action-y and fun, plenty of open world areas to quest in, plenty of instanced material, as well as one dungeon per zone (10? I believe, total, with the first raid and two new dungeons coming with the next content patch) -- all of which get an epic mode at the level cap.
Skirmishes, which are pve battlegrounds, short 15-20 minute "DEFEAT WAVES OF MONSTERS AND COMPLETE SIMPLE TASKS" in every zone, for those without time to do instances.
Cash shop prices are obscene,but you can easily get zen (cash shop currency) by trading in astral diamonds -- which is fairly easy, as there are a TON of astra diamonds on the market (people who bought the 200$ pack got 2 million of them, and the economy has grown enough for prices to be in the hundreds of thousands for rare/good items which can easily be obtained from endgame runs, and the average price on my server is 300 AD -> 1 zen (1 zen = 10 cents, essentially), so though the prices are obscene, everything from the cash shop can easily be obtained by playing long enough and getting lucky enough with lewt to exploit the economy to avoid spending money.
I'd say it depends what kind of game you enjoy. I've played all of them. I played WoW for 10 years, EQ2 for about 5. Vanguard and DDO I only beta tested, Rift I played for about 8 months and just recently returned.
I would vote Rift or WoW for just casual fun. Rift is going F2P on June 12.
If you want a 'deeper' gaming experience with player housing and great crafting systems go Vanguard or EQ2.
DDO is dungeon runs and I believe they either just put out a new expansion or they're getting ready to.
Neverwinter is also a great game that just came out, officially releasing the end of this month but is in free, open beta right now and it's a good time as well.
Good luck to you.
No bitchers.