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MMOs to play with your noob gamer girlfriend.
udinthrik
Member UncommonPosts: 73
Hey guys, I appreciate any suggestions and hopefully this post will help others too.
My girlfriend is pretty new to gaming. She loves games like bioshock and borderlands, but she wants to get into a game with a more persistent world. It doesn't have to be an mmorpg, but I can tell she wants something more social than games like borderlands online can offer.
I am 10 years older than her, and have played mmorpgs since 1999 (asheron's call). This has created a few hurdles i've quickly identified.
-I play more than her, so I outlevel her quickly. (she's young and still enjoys going out with friends a lot)
-I love PVP, she does not.... yet.
-She doesn't like to manage gear, loot & crafting so I usually have to do it for her, but that kills me inside.
So basically, I'm looking for games that dont have levels, or have a system that lets people of different levels play together without reducing xp, like a sidekick or mentor system. I need a game that can be competitive & complex for me while at the same time being simplified for her. I don't really care about gear to be honest, so a game without loot / gear would be fine with me and serve her purpose. I do however need complex character progression or skill based combat to keep myself interested.
When I read all that back I think the best recommendations would be an mmofps, because leveling and gear are usually minimal in that genre.
I did do research on my own about this, tried games like wow, eso, neverwinter and a few other common recommendations but ran intot he problems listed above.
Thanks in advance guys
My girlfriend is pretty new to gaming. She loves games like bioshock and borderlands, but she wants to get into a game with a more persistent world. It doesn't have to be an mmorpg, but I can tell she wants something more social than games like borderlands online can offer.
I am 10 years older than her, and have played mmorpgs since 1999 (asheron's call). This has created a few hurdles i've quickly identified.
-I play more than her, so I outlevel her quickly. (she's young and still enjoys going out with friends a lot)
-I love PVP, she does not.... yet.
-She doesn't like to manage gear, loot & crafting so I usually have to do it for her, but that kills me inside.
So basically, I'm looking for games that dont have levels, or have a system that lets people of different levels play together without reducing xp, like a sidekick or mentor system. I need a game that can be competitive & complex for me while at the same time being simplified for her. I don't really care about gear to be honest, so a game without loot / gear would be fine with me and serve her purpose. I do however need complex character progression or skill based combat to keep myself interested.
When I read all that back I think the best recommendations would be an mmofps, because leveling and gear are usually minimal in that genre.
I did do research on my own about this, tried games like wow, eso, neverwinter and a few other common recommendations but ran intot he problems listed above.
Thanks in advance guys
Comments
Not sure if one would say it's complex but there is pvp so there is some competition there, you should be able to play in most areas with your girlfriend.
It's a shame you didn't like Elder Scrolls Online as they implemented a "One Tamriel" update that allows you to play with people everywhere and it evens out the levels in different areas to allow people of greater level disparity to play together.
Also, I'm 49 and I still go out with friends so I'm not so sure age has anything to do with being social.
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Redsalt... the other salt.
It does have gear but just gearing her up with mediocre stuff will last for at least 5 levels.
Rare gear is usually 5 levels above the common gear so that has even the potential to last for 10 levels.
Additionally.. let's be honest.. GW2 is not a very difficult game when you just do pve exploration.
Warning - 100% subjective suggestion incoming:
I love playing as Cho'Gall on Heroes of the Storm together with my gf.
I keep us alive - the woman whose map reading and movement skills aren't the best kills everything for us.
Ok I know that's kind of macho but it's mad fun to play that character as a couple.
Extremely Easy to Level.
Endgame is mostly about character fashion and that crappy 30 man dungeon.
The game has PvP by selecting the gametype and hoping to queue in.
Very easy to reach the point in power where most dungeons can be one-manned or two-manned. Ony drawback is that after a month it gets boring really fast.
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Another game I suggest is going out and buying a copy of Borderlands 2.
Borderlands 2 is a singleplayer FPS game with RPG elements and a Co-Op mode. Gearing does become important, but its not extremely complicated as the gear you will be after are stronger guns and shields mostly. Character Classes do level and a player can get in on the action immediately. There are also skill trees and you can progress at your own pace.
You guys might get a laugh out of that game.
I know I certainly did...
and the art style and form are different than most games!
We would casually do quests and finish each zone even when it no longer gave XP and as we travelled from place to place i would explain the lore behind the zone or the NPC we were interacting with.
Eventually she go so much into the lore she actually started buying the novels.
I think given enough time i would have gotten her into raiding and casual BG's but we broke up before anything like that happened.
I will say this though, i never had so much fun just casually leveling up in Azeroth. It was nice to just quest at our own pace and not give a crap about anyone. Sometimes we would just stand around and forget what quest we were even on because we got so caught up in talking about the lore and answering her questions about Vanila etc.
It might not meet your listed criteria but i would really recomend giving it another go.
Playing it the way we did, you've probably got a good couple of months of playing through all the expansions before you reach Legion, assuming she doesnt keep changing classes, which she probably will because they always do
And it does have very good PVP as well as PVE but it's segregated into one giant zone so she never has to see it if she doesn't want to but you can pop-in there if you're playing by yourself.
It's also full of cute non-combat pets, outfits, etc. that girly girls seem to like a lot.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
Could you go into more detail about the system you are talking about? I was max level about a year ago in ESO. I loved the game but she fell way behind.
would this system allow me to play her low level quests with her? I do remember the pvp area boosting levels so people could play together, but she is not ready for that kind of environment lol.
An yes I know im just introverted. I was simply trying to sound old and cranky.
So you can do any quests with her in any area in the entire game on any faction area.
http://www.elderscrollsonline.com/en-us/news/post/2016/10/05/update-12-brings-players-together-in-one-tamriel-for-pcmac
http://www.gamespot.com/articles/elder-scrolls-online-update-finally-lets-you-freel/1100-6444231/
http://www.inquisitr.com/3625093/the-elder-scrolls-online-one-tamriel-update-greatly-changes-eso-for-the-better/
Godfred's Tomb Trailer: https://youtu.be/-nsXGddj_4w
Original Skyrim: https://www.nexusmods.com/skyrim/mods/109547
Serph toze kindly has started a walk-through. https://youtu.be/UIelCK-lldo
Same system they first introduced in Wrothgar. All mobs are CP160, players are "seamlessly" boosted to CP160 if below. Rewards and gear scaled to level. Crafting nodes are scaled to level 50% of the time and crafting level 50% of the time.
ESO, GW2, and FFXIV all have pretty good mismatch level play. I haven't tried ESO, but I've been a pretty big fan of FFXIV, and GW2 was certainly worth the box price with no sub required and has much better PVP.
For something out of left field - Eve Online actually is really good to play together. As much (or little) PVP as you want, and level doesn't mean squat. Plenty of things to do as a couple no matter what the experience divide is. It can get pretty geeky though, depending on if you play it as a space sim, a pvp world, or a spreadsheet.
Planetside 2 is probably the only MMOFPS I can think of that would work (unless you want to jump to something smaller scale like Overwatch, COD or BF, which aren't really persistent worlds); Destiny and Defiance are pretty heavily level based from what I recall. That being said, I find Overwatch to be pretty fun with it's 5-10min matches and fast pace...
ESO is good also. Level in any ones starter zone. I leveled without crafting and using gear sets from drops only. Provided a nice challenge but you can pretty much steam roll through any PvE content if you mini-max.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
You can level very quickly as a tank and healer thanks to fast dungeon pops.
Priest is a fun class with a pretty low skill floor for nubs. Good open world damage compared to unbuffed classes (my priest solos bosses faster than my better geared sorcerer) but isn't a DPS class in instances. In dungeons healing is very enjoyable, probably my second favorite healing class in an MMO behind Rift's chloromancer.
Warrior can queue for dungeons as a tank even when specced as DPS and if you're decent you should be able to hold aggro and survive without much trouble, especially with a priest on voice comms.
Gear is very straight forward. Every dungeon drops a set of armor that is a straight upgrade over the previous, and weapon upgrades are handled through a pretty much automatic no frills relic system (everything you kill can drop a relic, when you have enough you automatically get the new weapon). When you hit 65 it holds your hand through the gearing process and even a hopeless newb can upgrade their gear to tier 9 +12 without a hitch.
If you just want to play with your girlfriend casually then wait for Nintendo Switch, which will surely have a lot more local couch coop games than the competition. Unless you find a cheaper wiiu or something like that.
Introducing a very casual person to the most complex type of games right away is like a slap in the brain (overwhelming). Play some couch coop games with her and build from there.
Also a nice idea, it has a "shooter mode" (reticule / mouse target), and has no levels, it's mostly about gear. Has 10 "soft levels" to gate how strong gear you can equip, but reaching 10 can be done in a couple weeks (based on your speed, after the last sale a new starter buddy rushed to that point in 3 days
Compared to other games ("regular" MMOs) in TSW there's almost no difference between a fresh player and a several years old, maxxed out one, if you dress the veteran in starter gear, he will be just a bit stronger than the newbie. (while in other games if you go back a few dozen levels, you can solo instance bosses with bare hands
The only drawback can be that it separates your duo quite some time in the early game, where most story instances are solo-only. From Tokyo you can take group members into story missions, but before that you both need to have a solo deck as well your regular duo setup.
I would recommend TERA too, a couple years ago. It's ideal for his situation for everything but level sync.
My girlfriend played TERA and enjoyed leveling her alt quite a bit. The combat system is action but it's very intuitive. The beginning and middle of the game are super linear and easy. Endgame pvp and pve is probably the hardest of any MMO I've played, which is nice because it's challenging but bad in a way because I think it's thinned the population (which is why I might not recommend it anymore- it's why I'm not playing it).
Blade and Soul is basically the same situation (although the population is thinned because of p2w and bots, not because it gets too hard).
I started her on BDO and she seems to enjoy that quite a bit playing a ranger. BDO can seem a bit intimidating though with all the subsystems when you're starting out, and the combat is not as intuitive as TERA or BnS, although it is easier when you get the hang of it. Problem with BDO is it's got a super annoying monetization system and no real endgame.
ESO or GW2 seem like logical choices but damn they are really just terrible games without any heart, imo. Maybe good for her but if you're like me, you'll kill yourself if you have to play them too long. FFXIV is kind of the same situation with it's combat.
Honestly, WoW is kind of the cure-all for this kind of stuff, but it's so old I'm not sure you'd enjoy it anymore.
Most important for her and you is this remains a fun thing for her as the fact you like it is a given. But once you add female loyalty to female friends they are hooked.
Personally I enjoy ESO for the adult crowd there, there are a lot of oldtimer guilds present, very busy also in all areas of the game. Helpful community in general.
People have mentioned the "One Tamriel" patch which gives you free hands to play together regardless of your lvls. So there is that.
I find it heaven for couples too, it is like the game is designed for couples in mind.
It is a perfect game in so many ways.
Peaceful, great for immersion.
I spice things up with WoW though, the contrast between ESO and WoW creates a great balance.
So if you like both the peaceful serenity when gaming and also loud and bonkers, I find those games matching each other really well.
Shame WoW does not have the lvling mentor design you are looking for.
With ESO f2p and WoW now possible to pay with gold, its just so perfect really, and there is no p2w in any of those games either.
GL. finding your match though! Best wishes.
Also it's just bad policy to do someone else's crafting, gear, etc. Just don't do it man. It's ok if their DPS is lower or whatever, just ignore it.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED