SWTOR Knights of a Fallen empire and Knights of the Eternal Throne, both not only renewed my interest in the game but made a lot of significant well needed changes.
EQ Kunark and Velious! Those two were when i would say EQ was at its peak. Such a cool feeling going to those areas, the dungeons, raids and all. It just killed on every level. EQ2 had some very solid xpacs as well.
I go with Kunark, also. The original release of EQ was losing/had lost many of its players. Kunark showed a way forward for Sony.
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
FFXIV Heavensward, Stormblood, and Shadowbringers were all amazing expansions, but none of them are one time only. While the expansions are released about two years apart, each of them comes with more content patches that are released in four month intervals over the next two years. So when you pay for an expansion, you're paying for two years worth of content.
Very few expansions have significantly (and, in the process, positively) altered almost every aspect of an MMO as much as EVE Online's Quantum Rise did.
CerberusUI - opened up the doors for localization, with German and Russian being the two first languages being added.
EVE64 - Upgrading server software from 32 to 64-bit.
PLEX - the ability to pay for a subscription with ISK (*cue the reply that dismisses everything else to write their PLEX doom/gloom post), a feature once
Orca - a step up for exhumer gangs that wanted to go big with their mining team but not capital-big.
Speed Nerf - a speed rebalance that completely changed what many pilots flew and how they kitted them out.
Weapon Grouping - one of the first of many steps to reduce the amount of clicking in battle
Alchemy - the stranglehold on rare minerals was broken making them more accessible to a broader range of the playerbase
The above are just some of the changes and additions in Quantum Rise, but they are features that fundamentally changed every level of interaction with EVE Online from payment to performance to the ships we piloted and how they equipped them, to the size/style of the UI font and the language they were reading it in.
"Expansions themselves can help define the lifetime of an MMO..."
Quantum Rise ushered in a whole new era of EVE Online.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
I feel like the common trend among MMO expansions is the first one or two are good then it is all downhill from there...
Agreed. And when you think of the underlying events, it's not hard to see why. Trials of Atlantis, Age of Shadows, Legacy of Ykesha... you can run down most of the major MMOs and find that about 3 or so expansions in you have players wondering "WTF were they thinking?"
Consider this....
- Any of the existing team has been doing the same stuff for about 6 years and they're BORED of it.
- Any of the new team members probably either want to proven they can deliver something exciting and new (in and of itself, not a bad thing) or is simply on a completely different page from the more entrenched devs.
- The veteran players are moving on and the new players are used to a newer style of game, so new content/mechanics have to try to retain the old and acquire the new.
There are too many targets to try to hit and usually a big split between the old guard and the new blood in hw to hit the bullseye on each.
That it gets staved off so long by some dev teams is pretty amazing, but it seems rather inevitable to happen.
-- Whammy - a 64x64 miniRPG - RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right? - FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Kunark for sure improved the game a great deal. I guess it was also my very first experience with an expansion so I think the novelty of it made all the more exciting. I was screaming a lot when I was moving around. Very, very excitedly. It was epic.
To me the best MMORPG expansion ever. With Ulduar, the best Raid of WoW, still valid today.
Second best: UO renaissance (2000).
The expansion that saved the game.
There's also "One Tamriel", which saved ESO and made it be the awesome game it is today, with a stable and loyal population.
For Anarchy Online, I think Notum Wars was the best - they added World PvP which was way superior to DAoC, sadly the game suffered back then from its bad launch and people ignored it.
Post edited by The_Korrigan on
Respect, walk, what did you say? Respect, walk Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me? - PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Did you know that Shadowlands was going to be Anarchy online 2? It was going to be set in that universe as its own mmo. But someone decided it would be to costly to do so that made it an expansion and threw off the old game completely making it unbalanced. That's why Rubi Ka became a dead planet and still is.
Funny enough I don't know if I ever played a MMO expansion. I usually play the base game and then stop. FFXIV stopped after Realm Reborn, beat ESO main story the game launched with and stopped, and I did the same thing for WoW back in the day. I don't know why that is because I do love the MMO genre. I think the first one I might play is one from Lord of the Rings Online though. I am loving the game and can't stop playing. I have feeling when I beat the main story of the base game I will want to continue.
Awesome to hear you are enjoying LoTRO. Let me just say that the introduction to its first expansion is an amazing quest chain. I recently did it again and still got goosebumps.
/Cheers, Lahnmir
'the only way he could nail it any better is if he used a cross.'
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
Guild Wars: Factions
LOTRO: Mines of Moria
Guild Wars 2: Path of fire (mouuuuuunts)
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King
Albion Online: Lands Awakened (no doubt)
City of Heroes : City of Villains
All of that are/were awesome and game changers for good.
clearly one of the classic mmo addons/DLCs, when they actually still added content to a game.
lately it seems they just have "seperated seasonal content" for their games, and scrap it after the season comes to an end.
DAoC for example had addons actually adding on content, deserving their name
never liked this whole approach WoW has going on the other hand, i mean. they have so much content, and it's basically just a timefiller and completely irrelevant for endgame (all but the actual DLC ofc) - unless your endgame is transmog obviously ^^
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"
Comments
Logic, my dear, merely enables one to be wrong with great authority.
Massively changed the game, but not necessarily in a good way.
All time classic MY NEW FAVORITE POST! (Keep laying those bricks)
"I should point out that no other company has shipped out a beta on a disc before this." - Official Mortal Online Lead Community Moderator
Proudly wearing the Harbinger badge since Dec 23, 2017.
Coined the phrase "Role-Playing a Development Team" January 2018
"Oddly Slap is the main reason I stay in these forums." - Mystichaze April 9th 2018
There is a lot of content I’ve enjoyed through xpacs. But usually I’m disappointed in the games direction.
"Be water my friend" - Bruce Lee
CerberusUI - opened up the doors for localization, with German and Russian being the two first languages being added.
EVE64 - Upgrading server software from 32 to 64-bit.
StacklessIO - greatly improved handling largescale wars.
PLEX - the ability to pay for a subscription with ISK (*cue the reply that dismisses everything else to write their PLEX doom/gloom post), a feature once
Orca - a step up for exhumer gangs that wanted to go big with their mining team but not capital-big.
Speed Nerf - a speed rebalance that completely changed what many pilots flew and how they kitted them out.
Weapon Grouping - one of the first of many steps to reduce the amount of clicking in battle
Alchemy - the stranglehold on rare minerals was broken making them more accessible to a broader range of the playerbase
The above are just some of the changes and additions in Quantum Rise, but they are features that fundamentally changed every level of interaction with EVE Online from payment to performance to the ships we piloted and how they equipped them, to the size/style of the UI font and the language they were reading it in.
"Expansions themselves can help define the lifetime of an MMO..."
Quantum Rise ushered in a whole new era of EVE Online.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Agreed. And when you think of the underlying events, it's not hard to see why. Trials of Atlantis, Age of Shadows, Legacy of Ykesha... you can run down most of the major MMOs and find that about 3 or so expansions in you have players wondering "WTF were they thinking?"
Consider this....
- Any of the existing team has been doing the same stuff for about 6 years and they're BORED of it.
- Any of the new team members probably either want to proven they can deliver something exciting and new (in and of itself, not a bad thing) or is simply on a completely different page from the more entrenched devs.
- The veteran players are moving on and the new players are used to a newer style of game, so new content/mechanics have to try to retain the old and acquire the new.
There are too many targets to try to hit and usually a big split between the old guard and the new blood in hw to hit the bullseye on each.
That it gets staved off so long by some dev teams is pretty amazing, but it seems rather inevitable to happen.
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
The End.
To me the best MMORPG expansion ever.
With Ulduar, the best Raid of WoW, still valid today.
There's also "One Tamriel", which saved ESO and made it be the awesome game it is today, with a stable and loyal population.
For Anarchy Online, I think Notum Wars was the best - they added World PvP which was way superior to DAoC, sadly the game suffered back then from its bad launch and people ignored it.
Respect, walk
Are you talkin' to me? Are you talkin' to me?
- PANTERA at HELLFEST 2023
Did you know that Shadowlands was going to be Anarchy online 2? It was going to be set in that universe as its own mmo. But someone decided it would be to costly to do so that made it an expansion and threw off the old game completely making it unbalanced. That's why Rubi Ka became a dead planet and still is.
This isn't a signature, you just think it is.
ESO - One Tamriel and Morrowind
SWTOR - KoTFE
"The Society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools."
Currently: Games Audio Engineer, you didn't hear what I heard, you heard what I wanted you to hear.
While technically the games first expansion, it launched here in the states with it so i didn't even know it was one at the time.
It was my fondest time in any MMORPG, as well as my most frustrating. Something about those two seems to go together well.
Lahnmir
Kyleran on yours sincerely
'But there are many. You can play them entirely solo, and even offline. Also, you are wrong by default.'
Ikcin in response to yours sincerely debating whether or not single-player offline MMOs exist...
'This does not apply just to ED but SC or any other game. What they will get is Rebirth/X4, likely prettier but equally underwhelming and pointless.
It is incredibly difficult to design some meaningfull leg content that would fit a space ship game - simply because it is not a leg game.
It is just huge resource waste....'
Gdemami absolutely not being an armchair developer
LOTRO: Mines of Moria
Guild Wars 2: Path of fire (mouuuuuunts)
WoW: Wrath of the Lich King
Albion Online: Lands Awakened (no doubt)
City of Heroes : City of Villains
All of that are/were awesome and game changers for good.
Guild Wars Factions
LOTRO: Mines of Moria
Guild Wars 2 Path of fire (mounts)
Star Wars Galaxies Jump To Light Speed
Utterly ruined the game
Star Wars Galaxies Combat "Upgarde"
LOTRO Gundabad
Top 3 MMO's PRE-CU SWG GW1 GW2
Worst 2 wow and Lotro Under standing stones it went woke
- RPG Quiz - can you get all 25 right?
- FPS Quiz - how well do you know your shooters?
Bad Addons:SWToR KotFE with making the Companion OP and all the same+ESO One Tamriel making the Game easy mode facerolling.
lately it seems they just have "seperated seasonal content" for their games, and scrap it after the season comes to an end.
DAoC for example had addons actually adding on content, deserving their name
never liked this whole approach WoW has going on the other hand, i mean. they have so much content, and it's basically just a timefiller and completely irrelevant for endgame (all but the actual DLC ofc) - unless your endgame is transmog obviously ^^
"I'll never grow up, never grow up, never grow up! Not me!"