If you are looking for MMOs that are fun to play solo or just a couple people start with SWTOR (because it costs the least). If that is not your cup of tea try TSW (no sub fees!). If that isn't doing it for you, update 6 for ESO should be out by then so give that a try.
These games all have fully voiced quests that do a good job telling stories in the game world, which I think suits solo play the best. None of these have economies or industry that comes close to EvE, though. Really, nothing does. With how frequently EvE is updated, though, maybe go back and try it again after everything else. You are very right that it is a PvP centric game - hell the market is a lot more like economic warfare than simply trying to earn money. The fun thing is that if you have a friend you can get pretty creative with ways to make money. Solo the game can be just awful dull, though.
Also, consider giving Rift a try. I never enjoyed the questing too much, but the game does an amazing job of making your class fun to play. It really feels like you can play the class you always wished existed in other games, to the point that it makes up for some of the games shortcomings.
Final note, you may want to consider giving Co-Op games a try as well if you are really focused on solo to small group play.
Not sure how old the game can be for you to be interested in it, but have you considered EQ 1 or Anarchy Online? I think they both have a free to play option, so you can see if you like it before paying a sub.
Anarchy Online and EQ1 are as old as MMOs themselves almost. I'd like something more modern.
And...It is hard to explain.
But, WoW felt like an actual world. NPCs wandered around (sorta, most stayed in the same place), but the world was full of life. It was static though...but it felt really immersive. Its hard to explain, even if it wasn't WoW and was just a random setting...it would still feel like an actual immersive world. It may be themepark, but it has a lot of...atmosphere? But even the NPCs as static as they were, felt like they were always part of the world.
On the other hand. Take EVE, its a huge universe. But does not feel like a living universe. Sure players go by and occupy. But lets take X3 Terran Conflict...it feels like an actual living universe. I liked X3 a lot more. But I don't like space games, so I never played it that long. I think because in EVE, its actually rather...static except maybe in sov null space. I know WoW is, but...eve felt...empty...hard to explain again. It was a lack of life, except for the other players and that didn't really help that much to make it not feel like that to me.
The worst offenders I played recently are GW1/GW2. GW2 being the worst. The world feels too arcadey, and while NPCs in the cities had their conversations...WoW actually has better NPCs imo. In GW2 NPCs repeated the same dialogue over and over and over. They were like repeating dummies. The world feels very unimmersive. The events are worse than doing stuff in WoW. Would I live in the world of GW2? NO, it would be like being in the twilight zone. WoW may be static, but it feels...not real...but far more immersive. WoW world doesn't feel arcadey or gamey. Hard to explain though. GW1 world was far better than GW2 though. It felt a lot more immersive, so maybe I shouldn't completely include it. GW1 world was a lot less arcadey and gamey feeling. But to me, it has nothing to do with sandbox/themepark...its hard to explain why it feels like that. Maybe you can get what I'm trying to say from what I wrote
Also, Ryzom and SWG are only sandbox games I played that had a very immersive world. Asheron's Call as well from a long time back. Most sandbox MMOs are rather devoid of life (and I don't consider other players to help much. Thats too gamey. I don't like MMOs or multiplayer games that make it 100% of the players. In the real world, there is tons of life everywhere with people or no people). Ryzom has a really immersive world, and SWG did too but I didn't get too into that one. Funny enough, mostly themepark worlds feel more immersive to me and like living worlds even if most are really static. Though, RIFT is a themepark that also has a bad world to me. Really gamey and arcadey. And, sandbox MMOs don't ever give me that feeling except rarely. Hard to explain like I said.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
After thinking about it. I probably don't know 100% the type of MMO I like. But I do know I had most fun in City of Heroes, Tabula Rasa, Auto Assault, WoW and 1-20 tortage for Age of conan. Those were my top favorite MMOs. Except AoC...that was only good for tortage for me lol.
All of them had amazing worlds (except AoC overall) and were a lot of fun to play and were really unique. I guess all of the above are more themepark, but they were all really immersive. Sandbox MMOs only Ryzom and sorta SWG were most immersive sandbox MMOs for me. But guess I like themepark mostly with a good story. I guess its also partly because sandbox MMOs rely far too much on players and PvP, and SWG/Ryzom put a lot of focus in PvE with a lot of life in their worlds. Games like Archeage, EVE, Darkfall are so empty and barren as far as life goes.
Wonder what would be a good MMO fit for the above then. Still seems like the secret world might work, but its so darn expensive and I missed the sale for it (well skipped it actually).
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
Comments
If you are looking for MMOs that are fun to play solo or just a couple people start with SWTOR (because it costs the least). If that is not your cup of tea try TSW (no sub fees!). If that isn't doing it for you, update 6 for ESO should be out by then so give that a try.
These games all have fully voiced quests that do a good job telling stories in the game world, which I think suits solo play the best. None of these have economies or industry that comes close to EvE, though. Really, nothing does. With how frequently EvE is updated, though, maybe go back and try it again after everything else. You are very right that it is a PvP centric game - hell the market is a lot more like economic warfare than simply trying to earn money. The fun thing is that if you have a friend you can get pretty creative with ways to make money. Solo the game can be just awful dull, though.
Also, consider giving Rift a try. I never enjoyed the questing too much, but the game does an amazing job of making your class fun to play. It really feels like you can play the class you always wished existed in other games, to the point that it makes up for some of the games shortcomings.
Final note, you may want to consider giving Co-Op games a try as well if you are really focused on solo to small group play.
Anarchy Online and EQ1 are as old as MMOs themselves almost. I'd like something more modern.
And...It is hard to explain.
But, WoW felt like an actual world. NPCs wandered around (sorta, most stayed in the same place), but the world was full of life. It was static though...but it felt really immersive. Its hard to explain, even if it wasn't WoW and was just a random setting...it would still feel like an actual immersive world. It may be themepark, but it has a lot of...atmosphere? But even the NPCs as static as they were, felt like they were always part of the world.
On the other hand. Take EVE, its a huge universe. But does not feel like a living universe. Sure players go by and occupy. But lets take X3 Terran Conflict...it feels like an actual living universe. I liked X3 a lot more. But I don't like space games, so I never played it that long. I think because in EVE, its actually rather...static except maybe in sov null space. I know WoW is, but...eve felt...empty...hard to explain again. It was a lack of life, except for the other players and that didn't really help that much to make it not feel like that to me.
The worst offenders I played recently are GW1/GW2. GW2 being the worst. The world feels too arcadey, and while NPCs in the cities had their conversations...WoW actually has better NPCs imo. In GW2 NPCs repeated the same dialogue over and over and over. They were like repeating dummies. The world feels very unimmersive. The events are worse than doing stuff in WoW. Would I live in the world of GW2? NO, it would be like being in the twilight zone. WoW may be static, but it feels...not real...but far more immersive. WoW world doesn't feel arcadey or gamey. Hard to explain though. GW1 world was far better than GW2 though. It felt a lot more immersive, so maybe I shouldn't completely include it. GW1 world was a lot less arcadey and gamey feeling. But to me, it has nothing to do with sandbox/themepark...its hard to explain why it feels like that. Maybe you can get what I'm trying to say from what I wrote
Also, Ryzom and SWG are only sandbox games I played that had a very immersive world. Asheron's Call as well from a long time back. Most sandbox MMOs are rather devoid of life (and I don't consider other players to help much. Thats too gamey. I don't like MMOs or multiplayer games that make it 100% of the players. In the real world, there is tons of life everywhere with people or no people). Ryzom has a really immersive world, and SWG did too but I didn't get too into that one. Funny enough, mostly themepark worlds feel more immersive to me and like living worlds even if most are really static. Though, RIFT is a themepark that also has a bad world to me. Really gamey and arcadey. And, sandbox MMOs don't ever give me that feeling except rarely. Hard to explain like I said.
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul
All of them had amazing worlds (except AoC overall) and were a lot of fun to play and were really unique. I guess all of the above are more themepark, but they were all really immersive. Sandbox MMOs only Ryzom and sorta SWG were most immersive sandbox MMOs for me. But guess I like themepark mostly with a good story. I guess its also partly because sandbox MMOs rely far too much on players and PvP, and SWG/Ryzom put a lot of focus in PvE with a lot of life in their worlds. Games like Archeage, EVE, Darkfall are so empty and barren as far as life goes.
Wonder what would be a good MMO fit for the above then. Still seems like the secret world might work, but its so darn expensive and I missed the sale for it (well skipped it actually).
My Skyrim, Fallout 4, Starbound and WoW + other game mods at MODDB:
https://www.moddb.com/mods/skyrim-anime-overhaul