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Help my "friend" find a game.
Posting this for a... "friend". Yeah, totally for a friend. Not for myself.
Anyhow, my friend is an MMO veteran since vanilla EQ. He (or she, mind you) is currently subbed to WoW, more out of habit than an actual desire to log in and play WoW. My friend isn't opposed to sticking it out with WoW, but feels that there is probably a better game for himself (or herself), and needs some help finding it out there in the crowded MMO scene.
My friend doesn't care about PvP. My friend likes the PvE game, and a good story or lore is key to drawing him (or her) into the game. My friend has obligations outside of the game, so I... err... he (or she) plays off-peak hours on US/North American servers. My friend is unavailable for long stretches of time, and is often called AFK, meaning that he (or she) isn't a raider. End-game for my friend is some sort of random group tool, like a Looking For Dungeon/Raid tool.
My friend is social to the point of helping others when their goals align, but seldom goes out of his (or her) way to help someone with something half a world away, when it would take longer to actually get to that other person than it would to accomplish whatever goal. When my friend logs on to play, he (or she) wants to play. For that reason, my friend often plays a class with a tanking spec available, to get into random dungeons and raids more quickly.
My friend is a soloer. Along with that tank spec there needs to be an amount of survivablity to allow my friend to solo effectively, as well as a certain amount of versatility so that being a tank doesn't completely gimp his (or her) ability to solo well. My friend leans more toward the paladin/druid/warden (LotRO) style of play.
My friend likes cosmetic wardrobe changing, so he (or she) doesn't look like every other race X class Y in the game. Additionally, my friend likes some place to customize and call his (or her) own in that particular game world, like housing. My friend also like meaningful crafting and other elements that exist outside of main gameplay that serve as a distraction or horizontal progression aside from the main thrust of gameplay.
My friend has no problem moving that WoW sub to another game, but will first try to get as much free out of whatever game as possible, so if there is a f2p option, I... err... he (or she) will exhaust that avenue first. Cost of entry into any established games, like expansions and the like, are a factor but not a deal-breaker.
Above all, my friend wants to be entertained. My friend is a tab-target gamer, not one of these newfangled action MMO players. Gameplay needs to be engaging and visually pleasing. It doesn't matter if the game looks cartoony like WoW or more photorealistic like LotRO, it needs to be immersive, look good, and play well on both a higher end machine and an old gaming laptop.
So, based on the above, what game do you recommend for my friend?
Comments
So essentially you are looking for a WoW clone.
Hmm where do I begin?
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
RIFT just feels lifeless. There's nothing particularly wrong with it, per se, but nothing particularly appealing about it, either.
That he (or she) is.
I'll go a bit further...
WoW, like I said, is more of a habit now than an engaging playtime. LotRO is very visually appealing and feels like it should be a contender to take my friend's subscription dollars, but he (or she) feels like there's some sort of hidden "gotcha" just waiting around the corner there. RIFT, as I mentioned, is missing something... maybe it's an appealing story, I don't know. Whatever that "it factor" is, RIFT ain't got it, no matter how great their f2p model might be.
SWTOR should be higher up in consideration, but the movement and combat and controls just feel wrong. It feels to stiff, if that makes sense. EQ2 is another one that seems like a possibility, but it looks and feels very dated. Plus, as with LotRO, there's this feeling that I'm... I mean, my friend... is gonna get gouged in the wallet at some point in order to play the game at a competitive or competent character level or gear item level.
FFXIV might be worth a look. I... err... he (or she) bought it at re-launch, so I'm not sure if a free trial or re-try/welcome back is available.
Hmm, yes LoTRO is definitely a pay to play game, I agree with you there. And FFXIV is sub. They do have a 2 week trial on at the moment, but you're gonna pay there too.
I see you as kind of between a rock and a hard place at this stage. There might be a game out there for you but judging by the things that are currently turning you off games, I think you are suffering a mild case of MMO burnout. When things like "dated graphics" and "controls feel wrong" and the big one ...."something is missing" are bothering you, these are sure symptoms of said diease.
Bsically you are focusing on the little details of the game and not just having fun with the game itself.
I can think of plenty of things wrong with the games I play too, but I try not to let em bother me too much. Good luck in finding that game, would be nice if you could return and tell us what you chose to play. That way it can be suggested to others with the same symptoms.
Oh and just to add, if you realy want to improve any game, try being less "solo". A good group of friends or guild will make any MMO enjoyable despite the flaws.
FFA Nonconsentual Full Loot PvP ...You know you want it!!
I can't tell if you're attempting to be snarky or not... sarcasm doesn't translate well into the written page, and my BS filter is acting a bit fritzy right now, so I'll address your response as though you were trying to be helpful in the hope that was what you were going for.
Like I said, I'm not opposed to paying to play a game. I'd love to find something I could move the dollars I spend on WoW over to. That might be FFXIV or another game with a f2p option and a suscription option. When I play a game, I like to at least touch on most of it at some point. I don't like content hidden behind a pay wall, and will gladly pay a sub in order to access the full gamut of content. But, if I can play the first 20 levels fine as a f2p player, then I'll do that first. An early trial followed by a subscription period where eventually I need to purchase expansions or content in order to be "current" with the game is absolutely what I expect to experience, wherever I land.
I don't feel like I'm burned out on MMOs. I've played MMOs, so-op games, competitive games, and single-player games over the summer, on various consoles and PC. I've been burned out on a particular genre before and know what that feels like, and this is not that case. If I was burned out on MMOs, then I wouldn't be here asking for suggestions.
MMOs, as I see it, are entertainment. Money I spend on MMOs --- on any game --- is money I'm not spending on other entertainment avenues. So, I want to get the biggest bang for my buck. I want to be entertained. I want to feel connected to the game world, just like I feel connected to characters, places, and events when watching my favorite TV shows or films. When there is an element of a game that breaks that immersion, then yes, it is a problem for me, not an indictment that I'm burned out on a particular genre.
Again, with RIFT, I don't feel any connection to the character, the game world, etc. It feels like generic character of a generic race (near-dwarf, near-elf, human, whatever) in a generic world where you get to go hack away at generic stuff. That's the way it feels to me. It's the difference between watching Jaws on the big screen and watching Uncle Jack's videos shot on his cell phone of his fishing trip this summer.
SWTOR's engine doesn't feel right. The character feels to rigid. The class stories are entertaining... I played the game at release as an Imperial Agent. I forget what scene it was --- somewhere in my upper teens or early level 20s --- when the interaction between my Agent and his handler had a moment that made me smile. It was totally a Connery as James Bond and Bernard Lee as "M" moment. That was a great exchange. But, I fought through close to 20 levels of feeling like my character was a higher-resolution port of a Minecraft character into the Star Wars universe. His movements and reactions felt robotic, not fluid, and it was one of the things that broke immersion for me. Maybe that makes me a hard-to-please, nitpicky customer, but that's just me... err... I mean, my "friend".
EQ2 looks and feels dated. That's not saying it's a bad game, but it is immersion breaking for me. I can still play old games. I've been tooling around with iOs ports of Final Fantasy this summer, and those 8-bit games are obviously far more dated, but it works in that platform without taking you out of the game. We even dusted off the NES at one point so I could show my son what it was like to rock Super Tecmo Bowl. Talk about dated! But, in it's arena, it works. But, I don't want that in my MMO home. I want something that is visually and aurally appealing enough to keep me engaged, and I simply can't look at EQ2 on my monitor for any length of time.
LotRO has all the right "feelings" to it, for me. I guess I'm just unsure whether to commit my wallet there or if there is something out there in the market that I am missing. It looks good and sounds good and has a lot of content I can tool around through at my own pace. There's a long quest line (perhaps "THE QUEST" line, as far as books, film, and gaming goes) that takes place around me. There is crafting and housing, though housing is pretty basic and I'm not sold on how valuable crafting is in this game. This is probably where I'm heading, but not completely sold yet.
My being a solo player is a condition of my life outside of the game. I don't have time to sit for an hour or two and play for a stretch. I log in early in the day (for US servers) and knock out some dailies before getting the kids up and ready for school. Once they're gone, I generally log back in and stay logged in throughout the day and most of the evening, so it looks like I play a lot. Tons of /played time. Most of it is sitting AFK in a relatively safe location. When I get to snatch a few minutes of play time, I'll do whatever... finish a quest, go collect 20 more badger pelts, run a dungeon, etc. Then, I get pulled away and may not get back to the computer for an hour or two. When I have time to play, I want to play. If I see someone else killing and skinning badgers, I'll be the first to say hi and ask them if they would like to group up and make it go quicker/easier (not just sending an invite without speaking, killing alongside them, then disbanding once I have my 20 badger pelts). But, I won't go help defend the city from players of the opposing faction when I'm on the other side of the zone turning in those badger pelts. I don't have time for that. My game time is a commodity, and I don't want to spend it chasing down something that'll be over before I even get there.
My gaming friends are more typical of the general gaming population. They log on in the evening during prime time, get together with their guild, and raid or run some PvP, because that's where end-game design sits right now with most MMOs. When they're logging on and getting everyone together for a raid, I'm logging off for the day. Thus, I am not anti-social. I'm not opposed to being in a guild, even if I'm not the best guild member --- I'm never going to make it to a Thursday night raid, and I'm not going to help you with that guy ganking you on the other side of the world, but I'd be happy to make you that cloak you need, no charge. Thus, I am a solo gamer, and I tank because I don't have 15 minutes to wait in queue for a dungeon group... my play time might be over in 15 minutes. Until the next hour. Or two.
The Secret World:
1. Good story and lore -- yes (modern day supernatural).
2. Versatility -- yes. A single character will eventually unlock all of the skills so that your friend can be a soloer one minute and a group tank the next.
3. Cosmetic wardrobe -- yes. Large variety of clothing options.
4. Housing -- no.
5. Meaningful crafting -- not really. There is some crafting, but there is no crafting skill progression and crafting is not a big part of the game. Mats come from loot drops from mob kills; there are no resource nodes to be gathered.
6. Cost -- b2p (and optional updates to purchase), optional subscription, not p2w.
7. Tab-targeting -- yes.
8. Fun and immersive -- yes imho.
9. System requirements --I don't know whether TSW would play on your friend's old gaming laptop.
10. Other -- Funcom ran into hard times economically and updates have been slow in coming. Their latest update (Tokyo) introduced the AEGIS system, which I personally hate as a huge grind. In a nutshell, the demons have shields so that only 5% of your damage gets through, and you are supposed to run the same few Tokyo missions over and over to gradually increase that percentage in small increments. The good news is that the demons are only in the Tokyo expansion content, so you don't have to worry about AEGIS for the rest of the game (at least so far).