I'd stick with Rift were I you. A player can lower their level to play with someone of lower level, it's chock full of achievements and the soul system is complex enough that you can min max to your heart's content while allowing your son to go with a focused and simple tanking build in his choice of three of the four classes. Also it has content like crazy. It may not have blown the two of you away, but their F2P model is very friendly and that and the quality of the game make it a damn sight better than many of it's competitors in the F2P market. I don't think there's anything else there that would blow you away if Rift hasn't unless there's a niche you're looking for.
Another option which has probably been mentioned is GW2. It wasn't my cup of tea at all when I tried it on a free weekend but the price is right and it also allows for players of higher levels to scale down to a lowbie friend's level.
I appreciate what you're saying about RIFT and GW2, I really do. But for whatever reason, like EQ2, neither of us can get into those games. There's just something about the look and feel, the atmosphere and the way things move and flow, that just turned us off right away. For whatever reason, both WoW and LotRO hooked us right away with the atmosphere. Unfortunately, neither of those are very friendly to players in our situation, where I want to play on a single character both with my son when he is online and alone when he is offline.
For us, RIFT is at the same level as EQ2. Chock full of features that should (and do) appeal to us, but the game world is just devoid of a hook in those first few encounters that makes us want to log in and play and see what comes next.
Right up there with "needs to be able to run on our laptops" should have been "enjoyable to log in and play in that particular game world".
Veteran of many MMOs... most every major title since EQ. Spent the most time in WoW, but have unsubscribed (again). I simply don't have the time to devote to any game like I once did.
What I'm looking for now is a f2p MMO that I can play with my 9 year old son. We're playing on a pair of laptops that are a couple of years old, so nothing to system-intensive (most recent games we've played without issue were RIFT, SWTOR, and WoW:MOP). We're looking for something that we can play together, knowing that we'll seldom be the same level, so some sort of sidekick/apprentice system would be nice, but not necessary. It needs to be simple enough that he can click his hotbar buttons and DPS successfully, yet engaging enough that I can get into the min/maxing of my character. He like to DPS, I like to tank.
Also, I'm a bit of an obsessive completist... if I can get an achievement, an obscure profession recipe, a mount, whatever, then I will want to go get it. At the same time, I don't want to spend a crap-ton of cash in a cash shop to get stuff. I'll farm the free stuff and only drop cash on the "have-to"s.
We'll play an hour or so a night during the week and more --- like 4 to 5 hours --- on the weekends. We like to duo our way through as much content as we can and PUG the rest. We're not all that interested in raiding or PvP. We're especially looking to avoid world PvP.
Cosmetic stuff like character/clothing appearance, housing, etc. is a BIG plus.
We've tried SWTOR, RIFT, and LOTRO together and none of them have completely blown us away, but are willing to give any/all of them another chance if we felt there was something there to hook us that we simply missed at the lower levels when we gave those games a quick try. WoW was a good fit for us for a long time, but we're burned out and, like I said, not really wanting to drop a combined $30 a month on a game we're not playing all that much anymore.
Any and all suggestions are welcome!
playing with a 9 year old son? man, it reminded me the time when i had so much fun with my little bro on MAPLE STORY.
hanging around, fighting cute boars, shoping to make you look unique. great game for 9 year old kids if he havent played.
So, let's assume we get from level 1 to level 2 during our VIP month (I know, but go with me on this), then what would you buy and when?
There was an awesome LotRO site (mmorsel, r.i.p.) sadly it's gone for a while now. After the f2p switch they came up with the vip -> premium idea first, and made a great guide for getting the most out of the f2p model. It'd be much easier just simply link it, too bad it's not even on google cache or the net archive...
Basically you make your 2 characters you want to play. Level them up to 20, or if you don't mind the footwork, you can level them to 30 (but Lone Lands is huge, running around on foot could be a bit slow). Buy a 1 month vip. Go to the Hengstacer farm and get the riding skill for free (but it's only 95 TP anyways, and frequently on sale).
During the 1 month, level your characters to 50, with questing in every area you can to unlock the deeds in them. Any started deed can be finished after the vip is over, so if you have for example the advanced worm slayer deed in Forochel standing at 2/300, then you can leave. Later as a premium you can go back for grinding the rest of the 298 worms, and you get the +1 Zeal and 10 TP - without wasting your paid time for that. (Sidenote, yep, after some changes Zeal is a pretty useful virtue now, not that "meh" one it was years ago). At mmorsel there was an awesome deed guide too, with that you could plan ahead which deeds will be important for your character, and focusing this 1 month onto those areas.
Since nowadays the xp flow is accelerated, in 1 month you can easily level 2 characters fom 30 to 50. Actually if you play a few hours in a day, you'll be done in 2 weeks Before the vip expires it's worth to start a 3rd character, even if you don't want to play with him/her right now. That character will remain vip unlocked as well. (you have to log in, but you can leave him/her in the tutorial, after the login the character will be vip.)
After the vip expires, you'll have 3 character slots on the account (5 if you had the Moria box from earlier), with 3 unlocked characters (no gold limit, can swift travel, have all the bags, all the trait slots, etc.). If there's no expansion sale at that time, you can go back and finishing the opened deeds, it will net you some xp, a bunch of virtues and some TP on the side. Most likely you'll gather ~1000ish TP by then, with the 500TP you got for the paid 1 month.
From this point you need to focus only onto the expansions. You can get them for free (grinding the TP and buy from the ingame store) or for money - that is much easier, and in Moria's case it's better too, since you get the warden, the runekeeper and 2 character slots with it. From the ingame store you only get Moria unlocked.
After you finish Moria it's Mirkwood (either for TP or for money, both ways are fine), then Isengard (better for money, or else you need to buy Draigoch separately), then Rohan, and finally HD.
But those are still months away if you start playing now, probably there will be sales on them where you can buy those for cheap. Usually there's a big one around the Anniversary in April, and one at the end of the year (there was a huge one a few weeks ago, all 4 expansion for $20...)
edit: my bad, all I missed is the actual question so, if you level only from 1 to 2 during vip, the same applies as above, but of course then you won't have the areas between Lone Lands and Moria, so you need to buy at least Evendim and Angmar. (or leveling up with skirmishes, which is a viable route, many does that. I personally find skirmishes boring). Quest packs also are on sale pretty often, usually for a 25-30% discount. Once you buy a quest pack, it's open to every character on the account.
Ya sadly the best game to play for a father and a young son that claims to be free is anything but>>>>Wizard 101.The game offers ease of play so the youngster can learn easy enough but also has some complexity but it is not free.The subscription is not very much though,i think 5 or 7 bucks.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
From what you have described, Everquest 2 would be the perfect game for you.
To be honest, at end game its not completely free to play, as you will need to unlock some higher quality spells for less than 50c each. This usually works out to be $5-10 per character depending on how many valuable spells your class has, some require very few like the melee healers who get most damage skills through AA, and Beastlords where most of their important skills are not tier based.
There is a LOT of content in the game, probably overshadowing any other themepark MMO. Heaps of cool appearance and novelty items to farm. There is an achievement system. There is mentoring which boosts xp of the lower character and will help the other person catch up. Also there is chrono-mentoring where you can explore lower level content at the right level without having someone to mentor (this is the only way to farm lower level items as mobs stop dropping items once you out level them).
Also EQ2 has the best housing system in the genre. It is far superior to Rift and LOTRO.
Regarding combat simplicity for your son, the game takes a little bit of work to get going by setting up a macro and gearing appropriately, but once you set up a macro for your kid he will be able to DPS with the best of them by using only a few buttons. Some DPS classes require more thought (Beastlord) but others like Wizard can be top DPS with two macros - one for single target and one for AE damage.
Anyway its worth a shot, the game is free to try and you wont need to invest any money until you reach endgame.
The new starter areas aren't great to be honest, I preferred the old island, but if you stick with it until you reach the group zones (about level 15 starting in Splitpaw) its good fun.
I appreciate what you're saying about RIFT and GW2, I really do. But for whatever reason, like EQ2, neither of us can get into those games. There's just something about the look and feel, the atmosphere and the way things move and flow, that just turned us off right away. For whatever reason, both WoW and LotRO hooked us right away with the atmosphere. Unfortunately, neither of those are very friendly to players in our situation, where I want to play on a single character both with my son when he is online and alone when he is offline.
For us, RIFT is at the same level as EQ2. Chock full of features that should (and do) appeal to us, but the game world is just devoid of a hook in those first few encounters that makes us want to log in and play and see what comes next.
Right up there with "needs to be able to run on our laptops" should have been "enjoyable to log in and play in that particular game world".
Regarding the look and feel of EQ2, did you try using the alternative models? They were developed for the Asian market and appear more anime, rather than the original play-doh face models.
Anyone know about EQ2? Haven't looked at that game in years. Do they still have some sort of mentoring system? Is housing still very "OK"? Last I remember of it, it felt "boxy", if that makes sense... not very smooth.
They improved the housing interface significantly a while ago. Also the range of houses is quite large now, although many of the more open ones are premium store purchases. There are also guild halls (final tier is more like a castle), so if you set up a guild and have the money you can decorate one of those.
Again, choose Vanguard. If one of you plays somewhat more than the other then the one who plays more often can do crafting or diplomacy and retain the same adventuring level as their partner.
Comments
I'd stick with Rift were I you. A player can lower their level to play with someone of lower level, it's chock full of achievements and the soul system is complex enough that you can min max to your heart's content while allowing your son to go with a focused and simple tanking build in his choice of three of the four classes. Also it has content like crazy. It may not have blown the two of you away, but their F2P model is very friendly and that and the quality of the game make it a damn sight better than many of it's competitors in the F2P market. I don't think there's anything else there that would blow you away if Rift hasn't unless there's a niche you're looking for.
Another option which has probably been mentioned is GW2. It wasn't my cup of tea at all when I tried it on a free weekend but the price is right and it also allows for players of higher levels to scale down to a lowbie friend's level.
I appreciate what you're saying about RIFT and GW2, I really do. But for whatever reason, like EQ2, neither of us can get into those games. There's just something about the look and feel, the atmosphere and the way things move and flow, that just turned us off right away. For whatever reason, both WoW and LotRO hooked us right away with the atmosphere. Unfortunately, neither of those are very friendly to players in our situation, where I want to play on a single character both with my son when he is online and alone when he is offline.
For us, RIFT is at the same level as EQ2. Chock full of features that should (and do) appeal to us, but the game world is just devoid of a hook in those first few encounters that makes us want to log in and play and see what comes next.
Right up there with "needs to be able to run on our laptops" should have been "enjoyable to log in and play in that particular game world".
playing with a 9 year old son? man, it reminded me the time when i had so much fun with my little bro on MAPLE STORY.
hanging around, fighting cute boars, shoping to make you look unique. great game for 9 year old kids if he havent played.
http://www.nexon.net/games/
There was an awesome LotRO site (mmorsel, r.i.p.) sadly it's gone for a while now. After the f2p switch they came up with the vip -> premium idea first, and made a great guide for getting the most out of the f2p model. It'd be much easier just simply link it, too bad it's not even on google cache or the net archive...
Basically you make your 2 characters you want to play. Level them up to 20, or if you don't mind the footwork, you can level them to 30 (but Lone Lands is huge, running around on foot could be a bit slow). Buy a 1 month vip. Go to the Hengstacer farm and get the riding skill for free (but it's only 95 TP anyways, and frequently on sale).
During the 1 month, level your characters to 50, with questing in every area you can to unlock the deeds in them. Any started deed can be finished after the vip is over, so if you have for example the advanced worm slayer deed in Forochel standing at 2/300, then you can leave. Later as a premium you can go back for grinding the rest of the 298 worms, and you get the +1 Zeal and 10 TP - without wasting your paid time for that.
(Sidenote, yep, after some changes Zeal is a pretty useful virtue now, not that "meh" one it was years ago). At mmorsel there was an awesome deed guide too, with that you could plan ahead which deeds will be important for your character, and focusing this 1 month onto those areas.
Since nowadays the xp flow is accelerated, in 1 month you can easily level 2 characters fom 30 to 50. Actually if you play a few hours in a day, you'll be done in 2 weeks
Before the vip expires it's worth to start a 3rd character, even if you don't want to play with him/her right now. That character will remain vip unlocked as well. (you have to log in, but you can leave him/her in the tutorial, after the login the character will be vip.)
After the vip expires, you'll have 3 character slots on the account (5 if you had the Moria box from earlier), with 3 unlocked characters (no gold limit, can swift travel, have all the bags, all the trait slots, etc.). If there's no expansion sale at that time, you can go back and finishing the opened deeds, it will net you some xp, a bunch of virtues and some TP on the side. Most likely you'll gather ~1000ish TP by then, with the 500TP you got for the paid 1 month.
From this point you need to focus only onto the expansions. You can get them for free (grinding the TP and buy from the ingame store) or for money - that is much easier, and in Moria's case it's better too, since you get the warden, the runekeeper and 2 character slots with it. From the ingame store you only get Moria unlocked.
After you finish Moria it's Mirkwood (either for TP or for money, both ways are fine), then Isengard (better for money, or else you need to buy Draigoch separately), then Rohan, and finally HD.
But those are still months away if you start playing now, probably there will be sales on them where you can buy those for cheap. Usually there's a big one around the Anniversary in April, and one at the end of the year (there was a huge one a few weeks ago, all 4 expansion for $20...)
edit: my bad, all I missed is the actual question
so, if you level only from 1 to 2 during vip, the same applies as above, but of course then you won't have the areas between Lone Lands and Moria, so you need to buy at least Evendim and Angmar. (or leveling up with skirmishes, which is a viable route, many does that. I personally find skirmishes boring). Quest packs also are on sale pretty often, usually for a 25-30% discount. Once you buy a quest pack, it's open to every character on the account.
Ya sadly the best game to play for a father and a young son that claims to be free is anything but>>>>Wizard 101.The game offers ease of play so the youngster can learn easy enough but also has some complexity but it is not free.The subscription is not very much though,i think 5 or 7 bucks.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
From what you have described, Everquest 2 would be the perfect game for you.
To be honest, at end game its not completely free to play, as you will need to unlock some higher quality spells for less than 50c each. This usually works out to be $5-10 per character depending on how many valuable spells your class has, some require very few like the melee healers who get most damage skills through AA, and Beastlords where most of their important skills are not tier based.
There is a LOT of content in the game, probably overshadowing any other themepark MMO. Heaps of cool appearance and novelty items to farm. There is an achievement system. There is mentoring which boosts xp of the lower character and will help the other person catch up. Also there is chrono-mentoring where you can explore lower level content at the right level without having someone to mentor (this is the only way to farm lower level items as mobs stop dropping items once you out level them).
Also EQ2 has the best housing system in the genre. It is far superior to Rift and LOTRO.
Regarding combat simplicity for your son, the game takes a little bit of work to get going by setting up a macro and gearing appropriately, but once you set up a macro for your kid he will be able to DPS with the best of them by using only a few buttons. Some DPS classes require more thought (Beastlord) but others like Wizard can be top DPS with two macros - one for single target and one for AE damage.
Anyway its worth a shot, the game is free to try and you wont need to invest any money until you reach endgame.
The new starter areas aren't great to be honest, I preferred the old island, but if you stick with it until you reach the group zones (about level 15 starting in Splitpaw) its good fun.
Regarding the look and feel of EQ2, did you try using the alternative models? They were developed for the Asian market and appear more anime, rather than the original play-doh face models.
They improved the housing interface significantly a while ago. Also the range of houses is quite large now, although many of the more open ones are premium store purchases. There are also guild halls (final tier is more like a castle), so if you set up a guild and have the money you can decorate one of those.