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Suggestions for a good MMORPG based on my tastes.
naldy
Member Posts: 26
Hi,
I was wondering if you all can help me pick what is the best MMORPG for me. I have played EQ1, EQ2 and FFXI and they are all great in their own way. Of course there are pros and cons on each, which I will mention later. Below is what I would like in an MMORPG (in order of importance to me):
1. Ability to solo:
This is one of my primary "likes". Most people would say "why don't you get a non-MMORPG game then?". Well, two reasons: 1) From what I've seen, a good stand-alone RPG (a la Might & Magic, Wizardry or similar) hasn't come out in a long time (someone correct me on this one), and 2) I do enjoy interacting with other people, however I don't like to have to group to get stuff done all the time (I do understand that at some point I have to group, and I'm okay with that). Ideally, a game where you can either solo, group or do both on your way to high-levels is ideal.
2. Excellent gameplay:
Excellent 3D graphics does not necessarily make a good game. For me, gameplay is what it's all about. Easy control of your character and a user-friendly interface are key. FFXI supports gamepads and that's awsome, however the interface is a little complex, while EQ1/EQ2 does not support joysticks/gamepads (that I know of) but have excellent interfaces.
3. Nice variety of classes and races:
EQ1, EQ2 and FFXI all excelled in this. The more the merrier.
4. Good crafting system:
A system where you can benefit from newbie to high-levels. The crafting system in EQ1 was good, the one in EQ2 is too complex, and the one in FFXI falls in-between. I heard that the system in WoW is easy, but I don't know since I have never played it.
5. Nice graphics and sound:
Notice this is #5 on my list. I'm old-school and have been spoiled by old games like the Might & Magic series (too bad 3DO went bankrupt). As I mentioned before, excellent 3D graphics does not necessarily make a good game. It's one of those things that it's nice to have, but not essential for me. Don't get me wrong, I like graphics a lot, however I would never trade better graphics/sound for gameplay.
6. Quick customer service turn-around:
I almost never deal with customer service, but if I do, it would be nice of them to acknowledge my existence. This falls under "nice to have, but not essential".
7. Reasonable system requirements:
FFXI has what I would call "reasonable system requirements" by today's standards. EQ2 does not have reasonable system requirements in my opinion. While I understand their reasoning, I don't necessarily agree with it. The system I have is the following (considered old by today's technologies, but I consider it "reasonable"):
AMD Athlon XP 2400+, 512 megs SDRAM, on-board sound (AC97), 128-meg Nvidia GeForce FX5200 AGP
The reason why this is #7 is because I would be willing to upgrade if I think it's worth doing so just to play a game I like. I did this for EQ2 when I upgraded my video card and CPU.
8. Monthly fee:
While this is the least of my wants, everyone will agree the less you pay the better. If the game itself costs $50, I shouldn't have to pay almost half that amount (I'm exaggerating a little, no MMORPGs charge that much from what I've seen) every month to play it.
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That's it. Right now, I'm not playing EQ1, EQ2 nor FFXI. The reasons are as follows:
EQ1:
It's just a little old. I enjoyed it very much during the time I played it though. Also the people whom I know and played with all moved to other MMORPGs. Not surprisingly, this is the game that runs best on my system.
EQ2:
Lately I haven't had the time to dedicate to it, plus my system can barely run it. Not to mention that my hard drive recently crashed, so I have to reinstall it again. It's no fun when you have to set your graphics options to minimum settings. It detracts from the game experience, especially in EQ2.
FFXI:
I deactivated my account and more than 3 months have elapsed. This means, according to the manual, that I have to go and purchase another copy of the game to be able to re-register it. Not to roast SOE, I think they are a great company, but this must be one of the unwisest business decisions they have made for FFXI. If they want to charge me a fee, say $5-10, for them to issue me a new CD key, that would be fine, I'll pay it. To force me to pay another $30 for something I already have just so I can type some characters during the registration process is ridiculous. They should look at the way EQ2/EQ1 does its account handling. They have an excellent system for creating new accounts and stuff. It ran pretty good on my system, but there were occasional lag issues.
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So based on the above, which of the many MMORPGs should I consider? Any suggestions will be appreciated. Thanks, and sorry for the long post.
Comments
scientology
I just wanted to make a correction. I want to play an MMORPG on my laptop, and here are the specs:
HP Pavilion ze4300
AMD Athlon XP 2400+
512 megs DDR RAM
60 gig HD
ATI Radeon 320M IGP with shared memory (up to 128 megs)
DirectX-compatible sound
It seems from what I've read in other forums is that I might be paddling up the creek without a paddle. Any suggestions on what MMORPGs can run on my laptop? Thanks.
By the priority of what you are demanding. I really think World of Warcraft would be a good choice.
I am not a big fan of WoW like some are on here. However I was more for the EQ2 until I actually tried WoW.
Unlike you I first played UO then bought EQ and AC when Babbage's use to offer a 10 day trial with full refind. I returned EQ. However after buring out on AC playing it for over 2 years, I left for DAoC then Shadowbane, then FFXIO. out of them 3 I played DAoC the longest.
However I pre ordered EQ2 since with my specs I can handle EQ2 well, Well atleast I thought so until I was in groups in the Vermin Snye hunting the Rat Queen to see a frame go by every 5 seconds. Then I realized even balanced settings was too much for even a P4 3.4 Ghz, 2gb DDR2 RAM and a Nvidia FX 6800.
Well that wasn't the only thing that bothered me about EQ2... I have a very long list of distasteful reasons why I don't like EQ2, which I am sure most of your reasons are probably listed in there. Don't get me wrong, I love a good quest and enjoy what most think is work in a RPG. But I think SOE ran too fast to beat Blizzard to the shelves.
Anyway, just two weeks ago I purchased WoW and I haven't had this much fun since the good ol' days in UO and my first 6 months of AC. After reading your post and seeing what you are looking for and the priorities they are in. All I could say was yep, wow, yep wow. I really think you should give it a try.
Infact if you know anyone that plays WoW, ask they still have their 10 day free pass. I heard the original order didn't have it, but the current boxed ones do. I would give you mine, but I gave it to a friend and he is even addicted as well, hehe. It isn't just a simple game as most that don't play it think. You may start off simple and the quests are more fun than a task like EQ2, but as you go it becomes more diverse and when you get to 10th level you then get to really refine your char with talents which make you really unique compared to all the others of the same class. I thought it was going to be a walk in the park, whci it was at first, but after I got more involved the more I was spending time reading the manual and researching on the forums and other sites for knowledge about my char and etc...
Well, that's my 2 coppers. Hope it is worth it's weight in gold for ya.
I'm posting this becuase I don't think my last post didn't work.
Several people have suggested this WoW game. I might consider it if my laptop meets its requirements.
My main concern is that my laptop has an ATI Radeon 320M IGP, which after a lot of research, it does not seem to support hardware T&L. If anyone believes this is untrue and knows what drivers to use to "enable" T&L, please let me know. Anyways, I updated my video drivers (I'm using the latest ones from the HP web site), and it seemed to load Everquest 2 okay (no tricks or errorrs). The sad thing is that since I was using 384 megs of RAM because I dedicated 128 megs for video, it ran slow, plus there were some graphics issues like bad colors and some glitches. But it did load it, which to me is a step forward.
Assuming that my video hardware does not support T&L, which MMORPGs can I play? The only one I know for sure I can play is EQ1 because 1) it supports my video hardware and 2) I have the installation CDs. It's sad, but it's an option.
I hope to hear some replies from you guys soon. Thanks.
Why havent you played WoW yet.
Get with the program, WoW is the current king of MMORPG's, you need to play that.
From what i read, go with WoW. It pretty much matches all your requests. It should run on your laptop as well.
wow system req.
800 MHz or higher CPU256 MB or more of RAM
32 MB 3D graphics card with hardware transform and lighting, such as GeForce 2 or better
4 GB or more of available hard drive space
DirectX® 9.0c or above
A 56k or higher modem with an Internet connection
1. Ability to solo:
World of warcraft, you can solo VERY easily and do alot of the quests alone. I like to solo as well. More loot, more money, and you don't have to worry abotu healing or tanking for someone else.
2. Excellent gameplay:
world of warcraft, Has excellent and easy gameplay. I was able to learn the game very quickly and easily with out any problems.
3. Nice variety of classes and races:
well for this you want eq or somehting
because wow has 4 races for alliance, and 4 for horde. and every race only have a choice of 3-6 classes.
4. Good crafting system:
world fo warcraft, IMO has an awesome crafting system. becasue blacksmiths, tailors, and leather workers can becoem l;ike a prestige crafter. weapon smiths, armor smiths, tribila leather worker. and I like this aspect of their crafting system.
5. Nice graphics and sound:
WoW, IMO I love the sounds and the graphics of wow.....if you have a good vid card, then you can make the game look REALLY nice.
6. Quick customer service turn-around:
WoW, they have a quick and decent customer service.
7. Reasonable system requirements:
WoW, Not very demanding here.
8. Monthly fee:
WoW, $15 a month, like every game.
---------------------------------------------
WoW
-Rhalon 85 B.E. rogue
-Rhalon 81 UD Mage
-Doneski 85 Orc death knight
"Everyones life has a beginning and an end, No one can change that."-Hiko
"If you wish to taste the ground, then feel free to attack."-Kenshin Himura
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WoW is definitely a fun game, but the crafting system is actually very poor for anyone who actually likes MMO crafting. It's very fun for someone who wants crafting as a sidelight because it is not that time consuming, there is no quality differential or failure rate and there are not many combines. For someone who likes a crafting system that differentiates between crafters based on achievement, level, expertise, etc., the WoW system is really, really dumbed down and not rewarding. Blizzard created a crafting system that would be accessible for people who do not generally like MMO crafting for various reasons. In my opinion, the crafting systems of SWG and EQ2 are both much better than WoW's for a player who wants to spend a significant amount of their game crafting -- WoW's is easier and more accessible for the average player who wants to be an adventurer and craft every so often.
Well its not the best but i do like it....I think the items that can be created are pretty good.
IMO I thilnk the game that had the BEST crafting system waas horizons....but that game didn't really make it which REALLY sux.....I mean i enjoyed the game but alot of people didn't.
But in Horizons had an awesome system...need a forge to smelt...walk over to an anvil to flaten the metal then put it all together....
but IMO I think wowhad a decent crafting system.
---------------------------------------------
WoW
-Rhalon 85 B.E. rogue
-Rhalon 81 UD Mage
-Doneski 85 Orc death knight
"Everyones life has a beginning and an end, No one can change that."-Hiko
"If you wish to taste the ground, then feel free to attack."-Kenshin Himura
---------------------------------------------
Thank you all for your replies. Seems like my friend was correct, WoW seems like the best fit for me.
However, I don't think I may be able to run it on my laptop simply because my video hardware (ATI Radeon 320M IGP with UMA memory) does not seem to support hardware T&L. However, even without T&L I was able to load EQ2 (though too slow and too graphically bad to be playable). For all you guy's benefits, I will list the specs of my laptop again:
HP Pavilion ze4200 (not 4300 as mentioned before)
AMD mobile Athlon XP 2400+
512 megs PC2100 DDR memory (currently 128 megs of it going for video)
ATI Radeon 320M IGP (using 128 megs)
Conexant SB-compatible sound
60 gig hard drive
Windows XP Home Edition with all updates and service packs
If WoW does indeed require T&L, I would be leery of purchasing it. I really want to play a MMORPG on my laptop. So far, the only one I know will run is EQ1 (or EQLive as some people are starting to call it). It's too bar the video is not upgradeable. If any of you know whether the 320M does support T&L and a way to enable it if it does, please let me know.
Maybe a question I should ask is: are there any recent MMORPGs that do NOT require T&L support? I seriously don't think there are, but I'm hoping some of you may tell me.
Again, thanks to all for your responses.