An MMO for someone busy with RL

sacredfool

I am looking for a game that I can play for 30 minutes at a time. Some days I do have 3-4 hours to sit down and play, but it's rare.

I played: Anarchy Online, The Secred World, EVE, Allods, Path of Exile, Therian Saga, Realm of the Mad God.

I am still playing Therian Saga, I love the crafting focus of that game. 

I need something to play while my Therian Saga character is crafting!  

I don't mind a heavy focus on story (The Secret World) but I want my games to be relaxing and TSW is not. It requires me to think and pay attention constantly. It's also really gloomy which doesn't make me want to turn it on when i come back home very tired.

I don't mind if the game is quite "hardcore" like EVE, but I simply don't have the time to play EVE properly - it's not a game where 30 minutes a day will get me anywhere since it requires a lot of planning. 

 

I loved Path of Exiles HC mode with it's perma death, but it's not an MMO. I still plan to play it from time to time.  Realm of the Mad God was similar, even if much simpler.

 

Any recommendations?

Pepeq

Originally posted by sacredfool

I am looking for a game that I can play for 30 minutes at a time. Some days I do have 3-4 hours to sit down and play, but it's rare.

I played: Anarchy Online, The Secred World, EVE, Allods, Path of Exile, Therian Saga, Realm of the Mad God.

I am still playing Therian Saga, I love the crafting focus of that game. 

I need something to play while my Therian Saga character is crafting!  

I don't mind a heavy focus on story (The Secret World) but I want my games to be relaxing and TSW is not. It requires me to think and pay attention constantly. It's also really gloomy which doesn't make me want to turn it on when i come back home very tired.

I don't mind if the game is quite "hardcore" like EVE, but I simply don't have the time to play EVE properly - it's not a game where 30 minutes a day will get me anywhere since it requires a lot of planning. 

 

I loved Path of Exiles HC mode with it's perma death, but it's not an MMO. I still plan to play it from time to time.  Realm of the Mad God was similar, even if much simpler.

 

Any recommendations?

You remind me of my Dad, he plays an MMO in which he has his character read a book for hours on end,  I'm like, how is that playing a game?  Staring at a character reading a book?  The funny thing is, he could actually be reading a book too... but I guess the game's subtlety flew right over his head.

WoW will waste 30 minutes a day easy.  Hell you can even play it for free.  Just keep leveling new toons of every build faction under the sun to level 20.  If you're brave, enter a battleground.  Prepare to be owned by all the twinks and imbalance though.  It's why its free, LOL.

sacredfool

What MMO does he play? Sounds intriguing!

 

PS: I was thinking of something newer then WoW. 

Dave3161

Hi sacredfool,

I was going to suggest The Secret World for casual play. I'm currently trying World of Warcraft and having fun. (Although the dungeon runs can feel like a courtroom where they fight and you're in the jury trying to dodge bullets.)

If you can't find something casual then I would suggest the following two games:

Dragon Age: Origins

Great story-line. Feels like an MMO after a while. You get to play 4 classes at once to gear, pick talents and you can swap and chose between characters. Some crafting etc.

Skyrim

Great for that open world feeling. Really get lost in the open nature and the fantastic "mods" (addon community). Build houses, craft... even create a family and neglect them!

Fallout New Vegas

Just an excellent post-apocalyptic war game, open world, crafting, fun.

Good luck.

d4rkwing

Archeage is fun if you like crafting. The questing you can do in small chunks of time. The farming stuff you can plant your trees one day and harvest them the next. You will need a subscription though (patron status) so you earn labor points (LP, the game's crafting resource) while you are offline.

Edit: For non-crafting centric I also recommend Guild Wars 2.

sacredfool

Originally posted by Dave3161

Hi sacredfool,

I was going to suggest The Secret World for casual play. I'm currently trying World of Warcraft and having fun. (Although the dungeon runs can feel like a courtroom where they fight and you're in the jury trying to dodge bullets.)

If you can't find something casual then I would suggest the following two games:

Dragon Age: Origins

Great story-line. Feels like an MMO after a while. You get to play 4 classes at once to gear, pick talents and you can swap and chose between characters. Some crafting etc.

Skyrim

Great for that open world feeling. Really get lost in the open nature and the fantastic "mods" (addon community). Build houses, craft... even create a family and neglect them!

Fallout New Vegas

Just an excellent post-apocalyptic war game, open world, crafting, fun.

Good luck.

TSW does too good of a job at creating a horror mood. I am playing games to excapes the horrors of real life, not add new ones on top!

 

DA, Skyrim and Fallout I've played and done everything I wanted in them so i consider them finished. Skyrim even made me redownload Morrowind - "finished" that too, just 3 days ago (became Grandmaster of House Hlaalu, which was fun but somewhat anti-climatic). 

 

How is WildStars combat, compared to TSW?

likwidsage

As a former player I recommend Guild Wars 2. It's practically made for casual players. You can hop in, 30 minutes a day, do a quick event, get some loot, a good amount of XP as well as some items that are used for special event items, and log out. I used to play it a lot, but after getting to end game, all it takes is 30-60 minutes to finish what I need for my dailies, and I'm done for the day.I stopped playing because I needed something a bit more, but for your circumstances, I'd say it fits the bill.

Azaron_Nightblade

Since you seem to like games with a story focus, I'd recommend SWTOR and ESO (if they have to be MMO's).

Both are casual friendly, and the combat is less brutal than TSW's. Just like TSW they are also both fully voice acted with a focus on story. You can play SWTOR for free, but ESO you'd have to buy.

Dave3161

Originally posted by sacredfool

How is WildStars combat, compared to TSW?

Sorry haven't tried Wildstar yet.

rodingo

I think D&D online might float your boat.  It's mostly F2P and from what I remember of the earlier levels, your "quests" are actually solo dungeons mixed with a few group dungeons.  You can usually run through a dungeon in about 15-30 minutes which makes it easy to log in, do a quick dungeon, then log out.

Azaron_Nightblade

Originally posted by likwidsage
As a former player I recommend Guild Wars 2. It's practically made for casual players. You can hop in, 30 minutes a day, do a quick event, get some loot, a good amount of XP as well as some items that are used for special event items, and log out. I used to play it a lot, but after getting to end game, all it takes is 30-60 minutes to finish what I need for my dailies, and I'm done for the day.I stopped playing because I needed something a bit more, but for your circumstances, I'd say it fits the bill.

^Also a good choice.

Xyire

Originally posted by Dave3161

Originally posted by sacredfool

How is WildStars combat, compared to TSW?

Sorry haven't tried Wildstar yet.

Not relaxing.  while I enjoy wildstars combat, I would not recommend it to anyone who wants to relax.

StarS0ft

Originally posted by sacredfool

I am looking for a game that I can play for 30 minutes at a time. Some days I do have 3-4 hours to sit down and play, but it's rare.

I played: Anarchy Online, The Secred World, EVE, Allods, Path of Exile, Therian Saga, Realm of the Mad God.

I am still playing Therian Saga, I love the crafting focus of that game. 

I need something to play while my Therian Saga character is crafting!  

I don't mind a heavy focus on story (The Secret World) but I want my games to be relaxing and TSW is not. It requires me to think and pay attention constantly. It's also really gloomy which doesn't make me want to turn it on when i come back home very tired.

I don't mind if the game is quite "hardcore" like EVE, but I simply don't have the time to play EVE properly - it's not a game where 30 minutes a day will get me anywhere since it requires a lot of planning. 

 

I loved Path of Exiles HC mode with it's perma death, but it's not an MMO. I still plan to play it from time to time.  Realm of the Mad God was similar, even if much simpler.

 

Any recommendations?

Definetly GW2 is a best choise

Sevenstar61

Try SWTOR

rojoArcueid

Not sure if it was already suggested but if you just want a game to play while your crafting in Therian Saga is done, why not give Hearthstone a shot? Its well worth the time while waiting on something else.

Dreamo84

ESO is really good for half hour play sessions. You can do a lot in short chunks and the leveling is slow enough(but not too slow) that you will be busy for quite a while. The quests are really well done.

GW2 is another one you can play really casually and accomplish things. It's B2P which is perfect for casual.

FFXIV is pretty good for short play sessions too I'd say. I never got to end game so I don't know how hard it is to do that stuff in a short amount of time. But there seems to be quite a bit to do to keep you busy. Especially if you like leveling multiple classes, you can do every class on one character.

sacredfool

Thanks! I actually haven't considered GW2 before, but do now. 

Bladestrom

Pretty busy here with work and kids etc and find GW2 a perfect game in that I don't have to keep with the gear race that you find in other games. I'd you do join, spend time to find a big active guild, it makes all the difference.

Kyleran

Yeah, GW2 if you haven't played it yet.