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best "casual" mmorpg for a family?
evilhuman
Member UncommonPosts: 55
Hey all,
So my kids are getting into the age where they are playing Fortnite nonstop, I want to introduce them to the awesome world of MMORPGs.
But I havn't kept up with the releases in years so would really appreciate any tips that you could provide.
* 4 players should be able to do most content in the game and most content as a group, dungeon crawling with bosses etc. (2 adults 2 kids)
* Casual, with this I mean not "korean grind" to lvl up. difficult game and difficult fights are more than OK.
* Don't care if it is f2p or not.
Neverwinter?
Elder Scrolls Online?
FFXIV?
Rift?
Kingdom under fire 2?
DDO?
I don't know how 4 man friendly these games are- or any other game suggestions you might have please feel free.
realle appreciate any input.
So my kids are getting into the age where they are playing Fortnite nonstop, I want to introduce them to the awesome world of MMORPGs.
But I havn't kept up with the releases in years so would really appreciate any tips that you could provide.
* 4 players should be able to do most content in the game and most content as a group, dungeon crawling with bosses etc. (2 adults 2 kids)
* Casual, with this I mean not "korean grind" to lvl up. difficult game and difficult fights are more than OK.
* Don't care if it is f2p or not.
Neverwinter?
Elder Scrolls Online?
FFXIV?
Rift?
Kingdom under fire 2?
DDO?
I don't know how 4 man friendly these games are- or any other game suggestions you might have please feel free.
realle appreciate any input.
Comments
If they're younger, then Wizard 101, but based on your list of games they're not that young.
It's been some time since I played, but I think Elder Scrolls Online's normal group size was 4 so that would be good for you.
It has WvW/PvP, so they can still get their PvP fix if they want.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
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- Neverwinter's normal content will be too easy as a 4 person group, heck it become's real easy just with a duo. Now it does have dungeons and if you're all the right class mix you'd be able to run them as a group, but you're talking about a lot of easy stuff, just to do a few dungeons.
- DDO. A good amount of content that's free (74 lvl 1-10 dungeons, 24 lvl 11-20 dungeons). This one you could probably get away with just having 1 person have a sub and just buy dungeon packs for the rest. Some people just want to level so they don't care about the content and others only play what they want to / like so you may or may not be looking at wanting to play all the content.
This would work great with your group, since D&D was originally set up for group play. So it's not too easy, the 1 sub would be able to unlock the content on the dungeons elite setting (2 levels above posted level) and you'd just run them that way. The game also has festivals through out the year with the Pirate one and the Halloween one's being fun to play.
I'd add Lord of the Rings Online to your list.
- LotRO has a feature (Fellowship maneuvers) that add's to group play. The F2p part is a bit lacking as it's just the first 4 regions and then you'd have to purchase regions or sub after to continue questing, so that one you might be looking at 4 subs to get the most out of it. Everyone has to buy the expansions, but the sub's will give you 500 store points each month you can use towards them.
I'd say base play will be really easy as a foursome, but there's bosses, skirmishes etc... that would challenge you.
It also has quite a few festivals through out the year for something to do. Plus if each player takes a different craft set you'd all be able to support each other.
Now I don't know about the maturity level of your kids but you might look at Age of Conan.
- Age of Conan. Rated M for mature for blood, content, nudity etc...
Totally f2p up to max level with some optional area's you can buy if you want to. And sadly you don't get a lot of extra's with a sub anyway although the standard, 'sub once to unlock those annoying f2p restrictions' is there.
Standard content would be easy as a foursome, but each region does have a harder setting so that would be an option if you want to challenge yourselves. It has raids, dungeons etc.... and there's content you have to group for so you'd have a ready made set up as players can be thin on the ground most of the while.
Has PvE and Pvp
And my last 2
- Pirates of the Burning Sea. Totally F2p up to max. Some content will be easy as a foursome, but there's group content and some of the normal content is fairly hard solo so there's that too. Has both PvE and Pvp.
- Star Wars Galaxies: Legends. This is a legit EMU that has the base game and all of the expansions from the original game and is the NGE version. Lot's of group content so while the base stuff will be a breeze you can find harder stuff. F2p.
Has PvE and Pvp, ground and space.
SWG (pre-cu) - AoC (pre-f2p) - PotBS (pre-boarder) - DDO - LotRO (pre-f2p) - STO (pre-f2p) - GnH (beta tester) - SWTOR - Neverwinter
Infact their so easy, if you popped a new born baby make him/her an account.
As long as they can see, they can play.
I honestly do not think the young generation of FN players will like any good mmorpg but who knows just maybe.Typically young people are attracted to popularity,if a game isn't popular they won't be interested so my gut would say that 90% of the kids would only be attracted to Wow because it is popular.If the kids were truly INTO playing a real mmorpg then great,you and your family will have some long enduring fun of trials and tribulations.
I am always biased towards FFXI,it just has way too much to offer ,so many unique classes but of course the end game is very difficult and would take time to learn the various class abilities and know what works and what is needed.
The cool thing is FFXI gives you Trust npc's to unlock doing mini quests and missions.You keep these forever and can summon them to fight with you and your group.
So 4 family can add in 2 trusts to form a 6 man group and trusts cover most classes you would need.Early on you'll have access to a max of 3 then unlock 4 and 5 so you could in essence solo early with you+3 trusts and as you unlock more you plus 4 or 5 trusts.
Once you get level 30 you can unlock more classes.A BST "Beastmaster" class can have a pet that around level 75-78 is VERY strong,making in essence you and the pet 2 total players.Beforehand you have to learn how to TAME pets,so in game creatures become your pet and they are just like they are in game.Summoner is another pet class,you summon Avatars but works different than BST with mp costs and such.
If was going to play a more linear questing game with dungeons i would pick EQ2 because you can also hire mercenaries albeit that might be locked behind a paywall but not sure.You see EQ2 is free to play so you could have 4 family and 2 mercs to form your 6 man party.The game is very much free to play aside from two things,you will be limited in baggage space and you cannot wear the elite gear which you would need to fight elite content.There is a workaround that most players were doing and that is play for FREE until you get to a point you need to use the best gear then people would pay small unlock fees to unlock each gear for a time period,i don't remember how long i think it is a month.
SO EQ2 is a very cost effective game to play that can also be played entirely for free and still play 80-90% of the game.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I'm not saying anything wrong with your comment. But it is a big denial most mmorpg actually offer hard challenge if people actually want hard challenge.
Where's the enjoyment ?
It's like being in a 28 mile marathon with a sports car, getting out and running the last 100 yards
Some of you people are out of your mind how you think.
EQ2 also can be played 90% for free without having to buy the game.Blizzard still wants a lot of money up front.I have played both and would never consider Wow over EQ2 other than 2 reasons.
1 Your friends are playing Wow
2 You just need to see other players hanging around but this is a double edged.You won't see many people aside from your group in a auto dungeon finder.
In reality,games like these Wow/EQ2 games can be soloed most of the time which defeats the purpose of a mmorpg and having your family in there,eq2 just reinforces the group idea a bit mroe than Wow.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
Wizard101 was built for children. It has tight chat settings and anyone who says they're under 13 can only say "canned phrases" like "Hi!", or "Want to group?", or "OK."
The gist of the game is that you play a young wizard in a magical world that was blown apart and created a spiral of separate worlds, each with its own theme. You join a magic school and learn spells (as cards) and go out and quest.
Wizard101 is a card deck building game. Your spells are your cards and use one each round of battle. It is quit slow paced and may not fit your kids' Fortnite frenzy. But then again, maybe it would?
Check it out and see what you think. I think it's $9.99/month for a subscription and they have special "family plans", or at least did when I played heavily 10 years ago. A couple of my Wizard101 friends used family plans
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
I keep reading all comments so you know.
they're early teen,I am not sure a game like Wizard101 since I am looking for a game all four of us can play and enjoy and not them on their own.
ESO sounds interesting since it has dungeons catered for 4 players. (there is also a "standalone" expansion coming out in May?)
NWN I have not played but it seems interesting from what you tell, would be able to handle endgame quests/dungeons on our own?
EQ2 was a huge lvl grind back when I played it at launch.
However! I am an old CoH/CoV player with hundreds of hours invested- what's this about new server? official?
thank you all!
You literally can spend 10-20 hours every week just doing dungeon/raids/pvp.
I'm not saying there are anything wrong with your comment. I get mmorpg are very time consuming. People don't want to waste time doing what they don't want to do. And usually leveling a character in an mmorpg isn't challenging.
As for City of Heroes, there are a few private servers, nothing "official." The story went that some person(s) had decoded the server code and was running a private, invite only server for about 6 years. Someone leaked that server out and all heck happened. They made their cracked server code available and a handful of private servers appeared.
Here is a link to the thread here that follows that a bit:
https://forums.mmorpg.com/discussion/480773/fully-functioning-city-of-heroes-code-released-public-server-now-open/p1
Here is a "CoH server list" on MassivelyOP:
https://massivelyop.com/2019/05/21/city-of-heroes-reddit-shards-homecoming-multibox/
Good luck
- Al
Personally the only modern MMORPG trend that annoys me is the idea that MMOs need to be designed in a way to attract people who don't actually like MMOs. Which to me makes about as much sense as someone trying to figure out a way to get vegetarians to eat at their steakhouse.- FARGIN_WAR
The issue with Wizard 101 is that if you have something like 15 year old boys they're unlikely to want a slow-paced game where you get quests to do stuff like save fairies in Unicorn Way. Adults are usually ok with it since there's a good enough game under that childish stuff, especially many older females seem to like it for whatever reason.
I would recommend either ESO or GW2 since they're much more modern with a limited number of skills to manage and are more action-combat oriented with active blocking and dodging.
Of those two ESO is more open class friendly. They still have classes but most of the skills in the game you can learn and use are available to all classes. GW2 is class-locked.
“Microtransactions? In a single player role-playing game? Are you nuts?”
― CD PROJEKT RED
I think you make a very valid point here, thanks!
Unless you want to try something like Destiny or Division those would have gameplay somewhat similar to Fortnite yet MMO elements. ESO, GW2 and other actiony MMOs are too far away from Fortnite.