Looking for MMORPG with strong grouping

Hawkaya399

I'm looking for a comparatively strong grouping element. I don't like the MMO's where soloing is so strongly emphasized and how everybody essentially is doing the same quests. I realize I won't find something like original Everquest, since even modern Everquest isn't like that. I don't expect forced grouping.

Think I'd prefer a sandbox Questing system to a themepark or railroaded system. Dislike instances, but I know they're the norm so I can accept them, although I'd demand some open non-instanced places too.

In this past I've played a LOT of PvP. But I'm not looking striclty for that now.

I'm trying to save time, so I'm first reviewing modern Everquest, Everquest 2, LOTRO and Neverwinter. They're all downloaded. Still unsure what to expect. It's hard to judge a MMO based on the lwoer levels. And ti's tiring to post in the forums to ask members what ot expect in the higher levels.

Anybody played NEverwinter? It's interesting to me since it's so obscure. Not heard about it much from others. I've played only a small amount. So far it's raildroaded Quests. Boring, but maybe if groups become a bigger part I'll like it.

These're hte MMORPGs I've played, ordered by length of playtime:

Everquest (years)

Wurm Online (years)

UO (years)

Anarchy Online (months/years)

Shadowbane (months/years)

DDO (couple months on different alts)

MUDs (too many to list.. most for only weeks or months)

Everquest 2 (less than DDO; about a month)

Ryzom (about a month)

(insert random MMORPGs I played for days or weeks)

...Villagers and Heroes (played on iphone; fairly solo-focused so far; cartoonish-theme)

...Celtic Heroes (played on iphone; actually not bad, since some grouping and less instances)

...Darkfall: Rise of Agon (not bad; the population is very low; i may go back eventually; no instances!)

...Shroud of the Avatar (UI and skill-use is cumbersome; too much solo-emphasis)

...Eternal Lands (interesting, but too amateurish; clunky)

...(many others)

Played a lot of Diablo 2 in its day. It's not really an MMORPG. Even though II'm interested in Paht of Exile for the same reason I was itnerested in Diablo 2, it's not an MMORPG, so it's not part of this thread.

Cryomatrix

ESO/FF14 seem to be more railroad like than anything else.

There's a recent review article on entropia universe, but has the most unique monetization in the industry.

EVE would be good if you like space. Project gorgon is old school but hideous graphics
 

Hawkaya399

I have anothe request.

Any MMORPG with items that actually are different for a particular slot? Like for the neck for example. For a specific class. Items that have a different role. Like dps or hp or support or utility or something else. I hate linear spreadsheet item systems where everything is defined by level and nothing beyond that. Sooooo boring.

Quizzical

Neverwinter is your idea of "obscure"?

One other game I'll throw out for you that probably wasn't on your radar is Elsword.  It's almost entirely group content, with PUGs formed by a group finder.  It's also heavily instanced (loosely, group content is instanced and solo content isn't, so nearly everything is instanced) and very heavily on rails, so it might not be to your liking.  But it is likely the most group-heavy PVE MMORPG on the market at the moment.

MightyUnclean

Quizzical said:

Neverwinter is your idea of "obscure"?

One other game I'll throw out for you that probably wasn't on your radar is Elsword.  It's almost entirely group content, with PUGs formed by a group finder.  It's also heavily instanced (loosely, group content is instanced and solo content isn't, so nearly everything is instanced) and very heavily on rails, so it might not be to your liking.  But it is likely the most group-heavy PVE MMORPG on the market at the moment.

And you'll probably end up grouping with the same people over and over and making friends, because there are only 10 people playing this game!  :P

Po_gg

"(I don't like the) MMO's where soloing is so strongly emphasized" - that is kinda the norm now...

Your best bets are on the older games, unless you are bored with them already. EQ, AO, etc. The EVE suggestion above is good as well, if you lean on more to the sandbox side and also like pvp.

Neverwinter is railroad questing, at least until the campaigns start. Grouping is optional, but if you like you can spend your whole time in dungeons and skirmishes with random players.

Open world grouping is quite frequent as well (dragons for example, for Tiamat which is the first campaign you get access to, at level twenty-something).

There is a guild stronghold system with building and maintaining your guild's castle, that offers a lot of group content, both PvE and against other guilds. 

All of those are optional of course, like most games of today you can play full solo if you want.

LotRO, similar. Was built with groups in mind, it had forced grouping even within the main storyline, but was changed to optional. The group content and elements are still there, just optional now, so it's up to you whether you play it solo (you can) or with groups all the time (you can too).

Not as frequent open world grouping as in Neverwinter, but there are a few world bosses. Much more group content with instances (skirmishes, dungeons, raids), and more variants too in regards of group size. Most of them are scalable and you can adjust their levels to your group size and strength for the proper challenge.

The world is a lot more open, and wider options with the questing compared to Neverwinter's practically one main quest on the rails with a few optional sidequests. LotRO is an old-fashioned questing game like EQ.

Neither of them "enforces" grouping, but both have the tools for a good group play if you like that way. Maybe LotRO is better for it, due to the older, more mature playerbase, easier to find likeminded players.

Neverwinter is more solo-focused, grouping is mainly random PUGs, quick, for the rewards, in and out. Except the guilds, if you join a good guild you can have a lot of group content with them, around your stronghold.

Amathe

Project Gorgon maybe?

Hawkaya399

Cryomatrix said:

ESO/FF14 seem to be more railroad like than anything else.

There's a recent review article on entropia universe, but has the most unique monetization in the industry.

EVE would be good if you like space. Project gorgon is old school but hideous graphics
 

I would think--or hope--ESO would be less railroaded questing? By that I mean the game is less strict about guiding you down a particular questline, and gives you enough quests you don't end up doing what everybody else does.

Entropia Universe is terrible as an RPG, IMHO. It's expensive. I forgot to put that on my list, but I've played that maybe for a couple months in total, spread out over years. I worked on a program just to compete dps and cost for weapons.

I haven't played Eve. Project Gorgon looks interesting, but I'd like to have a better idea how mcuh gropuing is going on before trying it. It also looks like I have to spend $20 or $30+ just to try it?

Any word on the sandboxxiness of the item system? I don't like linear item systems. Linear systems are like Sword +1, sword +2 and sword +3... In MMORPGs this typically means you choose the item with the highest level, or highest dps--if it's a weapon--or hp/ac for armor. More non-linear systems involve other stats, so you might pick the gloves with a higher magic resistance over the gloves with a dps bonus. I think the reason many MMORPGs choose lienar systems is because most players don't like to think about their items and don't want to hunt for them. I actually like to hunt for items and manage my gear. This is why I liked the Diablo random item system--and gear sets too. It made you hunt for items and there wasn't one single best item or set, generally, since there're so many kinds and circumstances you might be in.

Thanks.

Quizzical

Hawkaya399 said:

I have anothe request.

Any MMORPG with items that actually are different for a particular slot? Like for the neck for example. For a specific class. Items that have a different role. Like dps or hp or support or utility or something else. I hate linear spreadsheet item systems where everything is defined by level and nothing beyond that. Sooooo boring.

I could pretty much guarantee that itemization in Uncharted Waters Online is wildly different from anything you've ever seen, unless you've played that particular game.  For a given slot in personal gear, it would be fairly trivial to find 20 different items that you could credibly argue are best in slot for some particular purpose--and that the other 19 in your list are mediocre or outright useless for that purpose.  It's not due to class restrictions, either, as the game has no class restrictions on gear.

And no, not everything is defined by your level.  There isn't a single, primary character level in UWO.  Rather, there are three, for different purposes.  It's decently common for people to focus on one of the three and let the other two lag far behind, though that's not required.  Few things have level requirements other than ships.  That best in slot gear that I mentioned above?  You can equip it almost immediately after creating a character, if you can get it.

Actually, a lot of things in UWO are wildly different from anything in any other MMORPG ever.  That means that the game has a steep learning curve, so if you try it, don't give up the first time you get stuck on some stupid thing for half an hour.  If you've played another game made by Koei, you have some idea of how they do everything wildly differently from the rest of the industry.

Cry0

If you are downloading and playing everquest again - I'd go play p99 if you haven't already given that a whirl. Haven't been to these forums for a long time so not sure where that falls in the rules of discussing private/emulated services given the current state of EQ.

Hawkaya399

Po_gg said:

"(I don't like the) MMO's where soloing is so strongly emphasized" - that is kinda the norm now...

Your best bets are on the older games, unless you are bored with them already. EQ, AO, etc. The EVE suggestion above is good as well, if you lean on more to the sandbox side and also like pvp.

Neverwinter is railroad questing, at least until the campaigns start. Grouping is optional, but if you like you can spend your whole time in dungeons and skirmishes with random players.

Open world grouping is quite frequent as well (dragons for example, for Tiamat which is the first campaign you get access to, at level twenty-something).

There is a guild stronghold system with building and maintaining your guild's castle, that offers a lot of group content, both PvE and against other guilds. 

All of those are optional of course, like most games of today you can play full solo if you want.

LotRO, similar. Was built with groups in mind, it had forced grouping even within the main storyline, but was changed to optional. The group content and elements are still there, just optional now, so it's up to you whether you play it solo (you can) or with groups all the time (you can too).

Not as frequent open world grouping as in Neverwinter, but there are a few world bosses. Much more group content with instances (skirmishes, dungeons, raids), and more variants too in regards of group size. Most of them are scalable and you can adjust their levels to your group size and strength for the proper challenge.

The world is a lot more open, and wider options with the questing compared to Neverwinter's practically one main quest on the rails with a few optional sidequests. LotRO is an old-fashioned questing game like EQ.

Neither of them "enforces" grouping, but both have the tools for a good group play if you like that way. Maybe LotRO is better for it, due to the older, more mature playerbase, easier to find likeminded players.

Neverwinter is more solo-focused, grouping is mainly random PUGs, quick, for the rewards, in and out. Except the guilds, if you join a good guild you can have a lot of group content with them, around your stronghold.

Thanks a lot for this info.

Neverwinter has very good gfx. I was surprised how good it looks on my lone and meager i3 8100. I think I will be getting something like a GTX 1050, however. I wanted to wait until sometime in 2019 before getting a gfx card because I read ram prices will fall by almost 30%. I build this pc in september 18'. So far it's working, but I think the front panel USB is pugged. I'm crossing my fingers something isn't wrong with the PSU--if so, it hasn't given me obvious trouble yet.

Beyond that, Neverwinter is boring so far. I just follow the rainbow lights and the fights are drool worthy. Nothing like Alganon. And that's what's so sad. Alganon is old and amateur, and its population is so small it wouldn't fit on a pinhead. But one thing it did right was the level of difficulty in the low level quests. At least I died several times, and there was the opportunity to group during that time in open zones.

So far my loremaster on LOTRO is level 5. It's ok so far, and at least I can ocassionaly see other players. I realize at this point I have no idea what the game offers later on. I know a MMO/game can't be judged this early. So far the difficulty is equally weak as Neverwinter. I wish it wasn't that way. Why do game makers have to be so afraid of scaring new players. Not all of us are taht way.

Ungood

Open World group play.. that's gonna be a trick.

I'd say give GW2 a try, they have some fun PvP modes like WvW and sPvP. They have some fun group content like Dungeons, Fractals, and Raids.

They also have Dynamic Events, which may or may not be group stuff, they also have World Bosses, which are group events, they have Guild Events (Races, Bounties, Etc)

They have a "Personal Story" but you can opt to ignore it if you like.. that's on you. They also have Living World updates.

It's one of those games that you can make of it what you want.

I'd advise to join a guild early, and get involved in what they do for social and group stuff.

Hawkaya399

Cry0 said:

If you are downloading and playing everquest again - I'd go play p99 if you haven't already given that a whirl. Haven't been to these forums for a long time so not sure where that falls in the rules of discussing private/emulated services given the current state of EQ.

I played that for several months between 2010 and 2012, off and on. Believe me, I wanted it and it was everything I thought it would be. But I left in 2012 and vowed to play new things. I played Wurm Online soon after and stayed for years. I don't feel like going back. I get hte itch now and then, but if I go bakc to anything with Brad Mcquaid behind it, it'll be Pantheon. Original Everquest is just too old for me now. I hate to say it. I've seen almost everything pre-LDON and quite a lot of pre-Underfoot. Raid content is the only thing I didn't touch much. I'd compare it to my local community. Sure there might be one or two roads I haven't been down, but tha'ts not enough. While it wouold make an excellent--and immediate--gropu simulator, sicne I know what to expect, and I know hte content and could lead grops, it wouldn't offer me much more.

grndzro

skadad said:

p99 is "ok":ed by daybreak. Jump onto a Progression server in everquest, 2 new coming out in march. Otherwise PoP just released on Coirnav.

https://www.everquest.com/news/eq-selo-mangler-progression-server-20th-anniversary-2019

Oops had last years on there

That looks like it could be a lot of fun.

We should all start a Mangler guild to wait out the MMO apocalypse.

Po_gg

Hawkaya399 said:

Beyond that, Neverwinter is boring so far. I just follow the rainbow lights and the fights are drool worthy.

[...]

So far my loremaster on LOTRO is level 5. It's ok so far, and at least I can ocassionaly see other players. I realize at this point I have no idea what the game offers later on. I know a MMO/game can't be judged this early. So far the difficulty is equally weak as Neverwinter. I wish it wasn't that way. Why do game makers have to be so afraid of scaring new players. Not all of us are taht way.

That is also the norm of today, unfortunately... Neverwinter never was a "leveling" game, even at launch it was a fairly smooth and fast ride to the level cap, but over the years they've made it more easier - latest change was in the previous year, before Ravenloft launched Cryptic eased up the leveling between 60 and 70 since that was still a bit of a slog.

You can safely say Neverwinter is the prime example of the phrase real game starts at the cap... thus they make all they can to get you there quickly. If you drop a few dungeons and skirmishes into your questing, you can easily skip zones even, you will level up that fast (and main story isn't mandatory). Pvp gives a lot of xp as well. It isn't unheard of, that players level up to 70 in days...

LotRO ended up there from a different direction, it is simply old - lots of level cap raises, lots of new content and system added into the mix, which have made the lower region a faceroll. You can find quite a few threads even here about the lack of difficulty in LotRO (delete5230 comes to mind ) There's a tweaking going on right now, for the legendary servers they're trying to make the low levels more challenging.

Level 5 is very much the start though, until that point you are in the tutorial and you only see the other fresh-started players. Bree is maybe the best indicator on the lower areas.

When you reach Bree (around level 13 if you do the quests, or even right now if you just run there, dodging the mobs), you can see how well your server is crowded at around your playing hours.

ed: you can skip a few quests and play above your level, if you find the challenge lacking. 2-3 levels above yourself the game becomes more difficult (artificially so, there is a penalty system), many players and even guilds play that way during the first 60-70 levels. When you get around Rohan, you will find the challenge somewhat normalised.

grndzro

How bad could it be? I played vanilla FFXI for 6 years.

I was playing Starfleet command 1/2/OP during EQ early years, moved to FFXI, and then WOW till the Cataclysm changes killed most of my toons off.

Never really got into EQ, but it sounds like the progression servers could fill that gap belatedly and give the full experience of living through the expansions.

cheyane

DMKano said:

Cry0 said:

If you are downloading and playing everquest again - I'd go play p99 if you haven't already given that a whirl. Haven't been to these forums for a long time so not sure where that falls in the rules of discussing private/emulated services given the current state of EQ.

P99 has all end content on 100% lockdown by a few guilds.

If you are not in one of those guilds (good luck ever getting in) - you will be blocked from being ever to do anything end game.

That's the big downfall of open world design - organized high level players can simply gate the game and keep all end game raid content for themselves.

And nope P99 mods won't do anything about this - its been like this for years.

Precisely why I left in the end.

Cry0

DMKano said:

Cry0 said:

If you are downloading and playing everquest again - I'd go play p99 if you haven't already given that a whirl. Haven't been to these forums for a long time so not sure where that falls in the rules of discussing private/emulated services given the current state of EQ.

P99 has all end content on 100% lockdown by a few guilds.

If you are not in one of those guilds (good luck ever getting in) - you will be blocked from being ever to do anything end game.

That's the big downfall of open world design - organized high level players can simply gate the game and keep all end game raid content for themselves.

And nope P99 mods won't do anything about this - its been like this for years.

OP said he realized he won't find something like the original EQ. Was simply pointing out p99 since I felt the experience of leveling was very enjoyable and really hit the nostalgia for me.

Yeah, the end game is a mess. I was in the "lesser" guilds pre-velious. Came back recently for velious and did the hardcore thing to scratch my raiding itch. Killed everything, quickly got bored again

The best part of p99 is the initial experience of leveling to 60 (or however far you get). Meeting new people, going through the shared experience of the grind, etc.

That said, OP said he already did p99

Is FFXIV group heavy? I never played it - I know FFXI was very similar to EQ from the grouping to level perspective. 

Hawkaya399

Almost CAUSEd a serious accident today. F*** me. Ugg (should I share this?)

So last night I was trying Everquest 2 again on a Warden. I do like all the quests. I recall my warden (i played somewhere between 2012 and 2014) got up to 20+ on the pvp server. I quite enjoyed hte content, but something about seeing other players "power level" AA's and the quest locations being shown on the map made me angrily leave. Insofar classes go, I don't like the change to the Ranger between Eq1 and Eq2. BUT there're other classes. The trobadaur or illusionist looks interesting. Not sure yet what the item system is like or what the mid to higher level game is like.

There's just so much I don't know right now. I'll just float around between these MMO's for now until I figure out where I belong.

Hawkaya399

Po_gg said:

Hawkaya399 said:

Beyond that, Neverwinter is boring so far. I just follow the rainbow lights and the fights are drool worthy.

[...]

So far my loremaster on LOTRO is level 5. It's ok so far, and at least I can ocassionaly see other players. I realize at this point I have no idea what the game offers later on. I know a MMO/game can't be judged this early. So far the difficulty is equally weak as Neverwinter. I wish it wasn't that way. Why do game makers have to be so afraid of scaring new players. Not all of us are taht way.

That is also the norm of today, unfortunately... Neverwinter never was a "leveling" game, even at launch it was a fairly smooth and fast ride to the level cap, but over the years they've made it more easier - latest change was in the previous year, before Ravenloft launched Cryptic eased up the leveling between 60 and 70 since that was still a bit of a slog.

You can safely say Neverwinter is the prime example of the phrase real game starts at the cap... thus they make all they can to get you there quickly. If you drop a few dungeons and skirmishes into your questing, you can easily skip zones even, you will level up that fast (and main story isn't mandatory). Pvp gives a lot of xp as well. It isn't unheard of, that players level up to 70 in days...

LotRO ended up there from a different direction, it is simply old - lots of level cap raises, lots of new content and system added into the mix, which have made the lower region a faceroll. You can find quite a few threads even here about the lack of difficulty in LotRO (delete5230 comes to mind ) There's a tweaking going on right now, for the legendary servers they're trying to make the low levels more challenging.

Level 5 is very much the start though, until that point you are in the tutorial and you only see the other fresh-started players. Bree is maybe the best indicator on the lower areas.

When you reach Bree (around level 13 if you do the quests, or even right now if you just run there, dodging the mobs), you can see how well your server is crowded at around your playing hours.

ed: you can skip a few quests and play above your level, if you find the challenge lacking. 2-3 levels above yourself the game becomes more difficult (artificially so, there is a penalty system), many players and even guilds play that way during the first 60-70 levels. When you get around Rohan, you will find the challenge somewhat normalised.

Your information has helped me a lot. I want to thank you for that. I did see the legendary servers. LOTRO still interests me. I may level up my loremaster some more tonight, and maybe play Eq2 tomorrow.

madazz

Your gaming history shows a pattern and a truth about modern gaming. Group finder does not make for a strong community. It weakens it. All the games you (op) have played for a lengthy period of time required communication with other players rather than clicking a LFG finder and running through a dungeon/instance as fast as possible.

Basically, todays games do not support a community unless you create a guild and make your own. And even then, your community revolves around that small one rather than a server wide one like your games from previous years.

It will be awhile before another game with proper grouping arrives. Who knows how long. Could be a very long time. Many gamers today didn't get to experience what games were like before group finders were introduced. They just know instant gratification which actually cheapens the experience further. Sometimes it was a bummer when people weren't around to do a task you've set out to complete. But that is also why we got to know people back then too. It's what drew us to find others with similar goals and likes. We'd talk to them since we grouped so often.

Now a days its: Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG, Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG.

Hawkaya399

Playing Everquest 2 at the moment. Playing a Troubador (ugg, try spelling that after being away). I'm level 17, and /played is 15 hours. So far all my deaths are tied to falling from a height. I've come close to dying to opponents only about once or twice. Opponents are ridiculously easy. The progression is very linear. I don't like that. I have to say i'm somewhat enjoying it anyway because I wnat to see what the later game is like. I played this in 2013 and eventually quit after my Warden reached level 21. I can't remember the exact reasons, but I do recall being angry at the hand holding and neglect towards the lower level experience (they seemed to think speed is all that matters; i was looking for quality). It was the same thing that made me leave Anarchy Online. It seems like devs, when contemplating new players or leveling players, all that's on their mind is how to speed up leveling. I was looking for something deeper than that. I felt ignored. It's like asking for a sedan with better speakers and a brown interior, and they give you a Formula 1 racecar. Speed is the only thing they know.

My loremaster on LOTRO is level 6 or 7.

On the subject of CC:

https://www.mmorpg.com/blogs/staffblog/122010/21227_community-spotlight-the-death-of-crowd-control

I'm glad these MMORPGs at least try to have some crowd control. It's sad crowd control has been diminished somewhat over the years. I think the deeper and more varied the roles, the better. That's just my opinion though. I do have a fallback atm. I got a level 86 Enchanter in EQ1.

I'm contemplating the legendary server in LOTRO or the TLE server being launched in Everquest 2 in March.

Sephiroso

madazz said:

Your gaming history shows a pattern and a truth about modern gaming. Group finder does not make for a strong community. It weakens it. All the games you (op) have played for a lengthy period of time required communication with other players rather than clicking a LFG finder and running through a dungeon/instance as fast as possible.

Basically, todays games do not support a community unless you create a guild and make your own. And even then, your community revolves around that small one rather than a server wide one like your games from previous years.

It will be awhile before another game with proper grouping arrives. Who knows how long. Could be a very long time. Many gamers today didn't get to experience what games were like before group finders were introduced. They just know instant gratification which actually cheapens the experience further. Sometimes it was a bummer when people weren't around to do a task you've set out to complete. But that is also why we got to know people back then too. It's what drew us to find others with similar goals and likes. We'd talk to them since we grouped so often.

Now a days its: Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG, Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG.

You say communication, i remember spam. I'm sorry but fuck pre-group finder days. Spending over an hour trying to fill a 10man group to do dungeons just to have 1 or 2 key people leave after 1 wipe and waste all that time.

The spam, my god the never ending spam of people looking for healer or tank or non leather dps in town.

Game i'm talking about in particular is WoW pre group finder btw.

Sephiroso

ikcin said:

Sephiroso said:

madazz said:

Your gaming history shows a pattern and a truth about modern gaming. Group finder does not make for a strong community. It weakens it. All the games you (op) have played for a lengthy period of time required communication with other players rather than clicking a LFG finder and running through a dungeon/instance as fast as possible.

Basically, todays games do not support a community unless you create a guild and make your own. And even then, your community revolves around that small one rather than a server wide one like your games from previous years.

It will be awhile before another game with proper grouping arrives. Who knows how long. Could be a very long time. Many gamers today didn't get to experience what games were like before group finders were introduced. They just know instant gratification which actually cheapens the experience further. Sometimes it was a bummer when people weren't around to do a task you've set out to complete. But that is also why we got to know people back then too. It's what drew us to find others with similar goals and likes. We'd talk to them since we grouped so often.

Now a days its: Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG, Join PUG, run instance, leave PUG.

You say communication, i remember spam. I'm sorry but fuck pre-group finder days. Spending over an hour trying to fill a 10man group to do dungeons just to have 1 or 2 key people leave after 1 wipe and waste all that time.

The spam, my god the never ending spam of people looking for healer or tank or non leather dps in town.

Game i'm talking about in particular is WoW pre group finder btw.

That is why people made constant groups. But it was more important in the groups focused games. I never spammed in L2, as I had a clan. Random groups are promoted from games where the multiplayer content is peripheral - like instant dungeons. 

Pre-group finder WoW was very much NOT a game where multiplayer content was merely peripheral. Yet there was still a bunch of spam. There was a bunch of spam in FFXI as well. So your comment is factually untrue as FFXI did not have instant dungeons yet still had the spam of people LFG/LFM.

Scorchien

LOTRO new server or FF14

Hawkaya399

I used to keep informal text-based journals when I played single player games like Eschalon: Book I, Fallout 1, Anachronox, and Baldur's Gate. I want to do that with the MMORPGs I'm playing. The difference now is I want them to be available on the web somehow, and I want to be able to insert screenshots. For example, my character in Everquest 2 is in Frostfang Sea. I'd like to get a screenshot and put that in a journal before I leave for another place and level up more. But what kind of format can do that? I know HTML can do it, but I need somethign can easily (and conveniently) insert pictures into my text. Anybody have suggestion? I can of course start up wordpad and insert pictures, but I can't also copy/paste into a forum without losing the picture(s). Something like a blog, or a format I can easily put in a post so I can share with others if desired. I know hte screenshtos would have to be stored remotely somehow and linked. My number 1 concern is it's easy and essentially thoughtless.

When I frst started playing MMORPGs, I never did screenshots. I always regretted not doing them, so I started getting in the habit of doing them for single player games and MMORPGs. Now I"m in the habit where I also want to keep a informal journal. Do you see the progression here?