Which of these should I go back to?

Jaldren

I'm terribly divided, a textbook case of analysis paralysis, so you are now my worthy rubber duck judges. Been playing MMOs since the mid 90s,and now with the plague forcing us to stay indoors, I want to restart my old love, but I have become a bit picky. Let me put some thoughts in text form, and let's find out together what happens.

What I care the most is the levelling process, and group pve. Don't care about minmaxing and pvp, as I just want to have fun without being ultra competitive. 

WOW: played since BC and left shortly after legion. Many hated BFA and everyone is pissed at Blizz. Thing is that the huge amount of content available teases me, but it just feels a. Bit generic right now. Also, with the new expansion coming out in a few months, it feels pointless to go back. Prove me wrong.

ESO: on and off since it came out. Last time (some months ago) I enjoyed it, but the fact that so many cheat the dungeon queue by lying that they are tanks or healers, thus failing the dungeon, makes me disinterested. I played basically for the story quests, but really hated weaving. 

FFXIV: max level on most classes. Not much left to do. Waiting for a massive patch

SWTOR: I'm a big SW nerd and thoroughly enjoyed this game. Group content is a bit meh before endgame, and without a sub, the later levels drag on forever. With two max levels, feels like I've seen most there is. Could start a new char on the opposite faction though...

GW2: I love the trinity system too much, and this game grouping is a bit too chaotic for my taste. Also, might sound weird, but it feels that there's too much to do at endgame that I get overwhelmed and lose interest.

LOTRO: adore this game, but the lack of players doing group content before endgame makes it mostly a solo experience. It's fine, but there are severe OPness spikes, especially right after Moría. Left my Champ and Guard cos it took forever to kill anything. Love that it's story driven, but the gameplay is a bit piano-like and repetitive

BDO: despise P2W and grinding mobs. Won't ever play this game

EVE: oh, used to love this, but the sheer amount of time necessary to play Spreadsheet Online worries me. Also, as I dislike pvp and have little interest in industry (let's face it: need several accounts and inject them constantly), I fear its not the game for me

Neverwinter: a bit P2W and the constant gameplay changes are annoying. Severe connection issues (spikes above 500ms) for several minutes, several times of every day, always made me stay away

OSRS/RS3: I dislike sandbox games. I like missions and goals, with a clear levelling system. Never stuck with me

OK, even after putting everything into words, I still can't make a decision. Thoughts?

TEKK3N

Have you tried WoW Classic?
Best trinity MMORPG right now.
Levelling is challenging and rewarding, and if you don’t like the competitive end game, just make an Alt or two.

Jaldren

Too slow and grindy for me. Sorry...

I like dynamic quests, events, and non static combat

Cryomatrix

SWG private server. 

Jaldren

Cryomatrix said:

SWG private server. 

Tried, and believe me, I played a lot of SWG back in the day. Now, everything feels terribly dated. Lasted a week on... What was the name... Legion, or Legends, or something like that

kitarad

Go back to SWTOR with a sub.

Iselin

Jaldren said:

ESO: on and off since it came out. Last time (some months ago) I enjoyed it, but the fact that so many cheat the dungeon queue by lying that they are tanks or healers, thus failing the dungeon, makes me disinterested. I played basically for the story quests, but really hated weaving. 

Coincidentally I just mentioned that in another thread as an example of PvE toxicity. That and the dungeons of the day tokens that puts people who just want to speed run it with others that may be new to the dungeon or just want to enjoy it is a big turn off. It's also frequent enough that you go into a PUG expecting the fake role or speed runner drama. The exception is when it doesn't happen.

Po_gg

Jaldren said:

What I care the most is the levelling process, and group pve. Don't care about minmaxing and pvp, as I just want to have fun without being ultra competitive.

LotRO, especially if you adore the game. For the group content between levels 20-100ish, you can ask around in chat / join a kinship. If you want to do them with players around your level, that's more difficult... there are slow-leveling kinships, but that will only help until their current level.

I'd add AoC as well, especially if you've skipped it so far. The leveling is great, and for PvE group play, it has some of the best dungeons/instances in the genre (according to a few threads here on the topic of best dungeons ).

However, it has the same issue as LotRO, very hard to find players around your level for leveling group content.

Can join guilds and ask them for help, many players have alts below the level cap somewhere on the road.

Jaldren

Unfortunately AoC is on life support, about to be plugged. I enjoyed it for a couple years and the bear shaman was a lot of fun, but can't feel good about playing a game with an imminent expiration date 

Po_gg

AoC is on maintenance mode since about 6 years now, and AO is on it since twelve... and they're still here.

I ain't telling to subscribe or anything, Funcom doesn't deserve any money, but the "imminent expiration date" is an exaggeration... you can safely level up a new character there and have your fun while the lockdown is in effect, without worrying the cancellation of the game.

Not to mention it still has a decent sized playerbase for company and groups.

(Shammy is my favourite too, great class)

Ungood

I have heard that if you are already towards the end game in FFXIV, that the game kicks ass, so if you already got there, I would suggests stopping in and keeping current.

I never made it that high, but I have friends that love the game, and I keep trying to log in and level up, just to play with them, so, if you got that going along, then I would keep that going.

Just my feels.

lahnmir

Jaldren said:

Too slow and grindy for me. Sorry...

I like dynamic quests, events, and non static combat

Based on this I would say Rift. Its not in the best hands right now but has plenty of content.

/Cheers,
Lahnmir

Theocritus

Except for Eve most of those are the same type of MMO.......I have burned out on all of the quest/story driven MMOs.....They just drvie me crazy now.

MightyUnclean

SWTOR and sub.  Try a class story you haven't done yet.  All of the stories are very different and most of them are well done.  Imperial Agent is generally considered to be the best.

Amathe

Have you though about Secret World? Fun stories and clever puzzles.

Jaldren

Amathe said:

Have you though about Secret World? Fun stories and clever puzzles.

Used to play the original. The new one feels limited. Also, despise Funcom with passion, especially now with the Tencent sellout

Tokken

I vote for these:

WOW

ESO

SWTOR

GW2

LOTRO

Here's an idea, make up your own mind?

Abimor

I am playing eso right now really enjoying it. 

KnightFalz

Try something new. There are an abundance of MMORPGs you can try with little to no upfront investment. You may find one you greatly enjoy that you had previously dismissed, or something obscure that you fancy but were previously unaware of. If the first doesn't suit, try another.

At some point during your exploratory journey one of the things you are waiting on in a game you do enjoy will come about and you can return to that. In the meantime you'll at least get to enjoy some distraction that will make that wait less burdensome.

GladDog

CoH private servers are a lot of fun IMO.

If not, I would try one of the many, many others that have come out fairly recently.  Blade and Soul is a lot of fun until you run into the P2W part, but that takes a while.

DCUO is also fun, until you run into the pay wall after a few weeks.  I like Star Trek Online as well, and you can play that a long long time without spending any money.

cheyane

Jaldren said:

Amathe said:

Have you though about Secret World? Fun stories and clever puzzles.

Used to play the original. The new one feels limited. Also, despise Funcom with passion, especially now with the Tencent sellout

Can't you still play the old game. I think those servers are still operating. Just not obvious how to get to them.

KnightFalz

cheyane said:

Jaldren said:

Amathe said:

Have you though about Secret World? Fun stories and clever puzzles.

Used to play the original. The new one feels limited. Also, despise Funcom with passion, especially now with the Tencent sellout

Can't you still play the old game. I think those servers are still operating. Just not obvious how to get to them.

You can, or at least could. I don't know if the involvement of Tencent changed this. The game client for TSW can be downloaded from the person's account page for that game if the option to play it remains available.

Scorchien

I see players forming groups all day for LOTRO low level content