If you could only recommend ONE mmorpg...

raystantz

Which one would it be and why?

Out of the current slate of games you can play right now, which ones are still the best overall?

Can be themepark or not. Which ones are worth playing and which ones are worth staying away from?

MightyUnclean

Even after all these years, and all the MMO's I've played, I'd still recommend WoW.  It has so much content, so much lore, so many ways to spend your time either in PvE or PvP, all with the highest amount of polish of any MMO available.

Octagon7711

I agree about WoW, it's a classic and everyone should at least try it out. As to the second part, which ones are the current best to me, GW2, ESO, The Division. Which ones to stay away from, I can't think of any off hand. I believe it's best to give them a try and see if they match your play style, which is probably not the same as mine.

Eldurian

Wurm Online. It defies almost all norms and expectations of what an MMO should be. Everybody who's played MMOs has probably played something that is pretty much the same as WoW. You haven't played Wurm unless you have played Wurm.

deniter

Can't really think of any. I might recommend EVE Online even tho it's not my cup of tea.

Dzikuni

Darkfall

Elsabolts

EQ2

Agent_Joseph

Eve Online 

Bislobo

ESO because it is the best mmorpg all around atm. 9/10 PvE, 7/10 PvP no game in the genre score that high in my personal opinion. Black Desert is close second with slightly better PvP but way worse PvE and a VERY long leveling process.

Quazal.A

If I was to recommend a game to someone who hasn't played MMOs then Eve Online would rank highly , as would WoW and maybe even FF14arr - But like Kano said to recommend just one would not show them the diversity in MMO games - Each one of my three all excel at some aspects of the game and dont at others.

Phaserlight

Vendetta Online; it's very different from the WoW formula, it's a lot of fun to play, it has a great community, and it runs in VR. And on mobile. It's a ridiculously cross-platform game.

I've left a little bit of my soul behind in the game world in the form of mission trees.  It feels a bit strange, in fact: some of them have been up there for long enough that I no longer think of them as mine.  I wonder if my son will ever play them, and I wonder how I'll break the news to him that I had a hand in creating them.

Life seems to be about how one affects other people, or a big part of it anyway.  Video games have the capacity to affect people, obviously, but it's such a strange medium. It's not like a book or piece of music.

Thane

depends who you are talking to, a PvE player should surely get WoW recommended, for a PvP player... find something else :P

Kyleran

DMKano said:

Why omly one?

I am sorry, but when you are given the opporotunity to enjoy many games, picking only one seems very silly.

Play lots of games, you'll discover what you like, and are likely to have a lot more fun.

Its totally fine to like and have fun in multiple games.

Not sure why anyone would treat gaming as a marriage.

I've never understood why anyone would treat playing MMORPGs like meaningless one night stands.

As for one to recommend, has to be EVE, nothing quite like it out there.

Luiden

From a PvE perspective I would have said EQ2 a number of years ago, but man have they destroyed that game, talk about a complete meltdown from what it was.

Anyway, best all time has to be DAOC.  While other MMORPGs were sucking the PvE teat to death DAOC create the best PvP/RvR experience ever created in the industry and still today.. after what 15+ years it is still by far, hands down the best PvP experience of any MMORPG. 

Kyleran

Luiden said:

From a PvE perspective I would have said EQ2 a number of years ago, but man have they destroyed that game, talk about a complete meltdown from what it was.

Anyway, best all time has to be DAOC.  While other MMORPGs were sucking the PvE teat to death DAOC create the best PvP/RvR experience ever created in the industry and still today.. after what 15+ years it is still by far, hands down the best PvP experience of any MMORPG. 

Especially great is you can play DAOC as it was meant to be played on the freeshard with it's 2002 ruleset.

No messy TOA, New Frontiers or other expansions to deal with.

wanderica

For an MMO newbie?  Definitely WoW.  So many reasons to recommend that game for a new to MMOs player that I don't even know where to start.

However, for an MMO veteran, or someone not new to MMOs, I'd recommend FFXI.  I've had a blast in that game recently.  The final expansion has been out for a while now, so the story is complete.  On the right server, the pop. is still healthy, and it is so robust.  The world feels absolutely massive.  Certainly provides many things I've missed from MMOs the last few years.

I'd recommend staying away from most Asian MMOs as a first MMO.  Some of them can be fun, but I don't think they very well represent what I've come to expect from a quality MMO.

Iselin

If you like cartoonish graphics, pop culture references and goofy humor, WOW. If you like your art styles a bit more realistic and content a bit more serious, ESO.

Hothlove

You quite clearly have never played Neverwinter online..

Don't worry you won't miss anything.

Don't bother with BDO it's very boring and pointless after a couple of days coz it lacks complete any challenge besides duels with other players.

Don't bother downloading Eso.. The combat in ESO is very dissapointing. The Pvp is out of whack and games like these with only 7 skills in totalt is no a mmorpg its it's a mmog. The graphics in ESO is not very good, in many places the world is bland, soundtrack boring. And no I don't work for an anti-mmorpg agenda..lol.

Guild wars 2 is very close to ESO in terms of gameplay but again the combat is the killer. Tho the game is more fun than any of the above, the steering of you character totally kills this game. Let me explain why. You crank up the turning of you character to highest setting but yet it takes ages to turrn around, you even have to stand still to turn fast. That means you have to hold down right mouse button all the time.. Certainly not any pleasant.

The other NC soft games, don't ever touch them they are riddle with hackers, bots, spammers and and PvP is a joke in those games these days.

The we have lotro and dungeons andd dragon online. Once great games now ruined by game changes and laggy servers.

EverQuest is somewhat the granfather of games that never end, 23 expansion 3 servers loaded up full with player and even 5 medium pop servers. Some players still prefer that old feeling where you adventured together, created guilds and made friends - hence the progression servers. Unfortunately the graphics are not really that pretty many would say.

DAOC still online but once Unchained goes live, someone at EA-Broadsword might pull the plug.

Finally WoW a game we all enjoyed once upon a time. They should fix the leveling, it's broke and too easy, pointless. Might as well just delete the world and make a waiting perron where you can wait in queue for battlegroubds, dungeons etc.

rpmcmurphy

Another vote for EVE Online for a more dedicated MMO experience.  Elite if wanting a drop in/drop out MMO-lite experience.

Scorchien

DMKano said:

Why omly one?

I am sorry, but when you are given the opporotunity to enjoy many games, picking only one seems very silly.

Play lots of games, you'll discover what you like, and are likely to have a lot more fun.

Its totally fine to like and have fun in multiple games.

Not sure why anyone would treat gaming as a marriage.

   He asked a very simple question , and even put the ONE in bold , you once again are missing the spirit of the question .. And of course not a single person on this site only plays ONE game .. We all already know this ..

   So read the title/question again , but you insist on approaching every thread this way .. Its really a bad look ....


             Anyhow on Topic ..

  UO , still to this day offers more in game activities and challenges than any other MMO

itsover

WoW for EVERYTHING you need and want in an MMO

Raven322

for me Final Fantasy XIV, for a theme-park MMO  it just seems to have everything I wanted in a game, and it's soo beautiful

Theocritus

I think Im getting tired of the genre...almost all of the games suggested I didnt like....Eve and FFXIV especially.....WoW is probably the one I'd recommend too but i dont think any video game is worth $180+ a year.

Ridelynn

My pick would be to absolutely play more than one MMO at a time.

The one bad thing about the subscription model - people tend to tunnel in on whatever game they are subbed to at the time. It was nice when SoE allowed you to chat and have chat channels across EQ1 and EQ2. I wish there were more community=-building features that work across various games (apart from things like Discord and a few web-based communities).

There are a lot of MMOs out there that are very good, and good in different ways.

I really like chocolate ice cream, but if all I ate was chocolate ice cream I'd get sick of it after a while.

Viper482

The dude asked for ONE, just answer his question.

Personally I would say LOTRO. I am still amazed by the epic zone design for this game.