I’m back for my annual month on FFXIV, but I honestly admit I’m growing a bit tired of the gameplay loop, the “omg you’re the main hero !!” story and the sometimes very weird community. I love the world setting though, so I usually stick around anyway.
I would love to give GW2 more chances, but I’m not totally vibing with the combat system; plus, I wish art direction went a little differently, the game is not exactly holding up well these days (but I admit that square-enix is quite a high standard in that regard: even FFXI still looks artistically coherent, two decades and a half later).
GW2 is my jam. I love the painterly art style, Charr are the best beast-race out there, I like the combat system (WoW drove me crazy! Hated not being able to dodge). So… don’t listen to me.
Ive been playing Final Fantasy 14, but I keep getting distracted by other games that are not MMORPGs recently. I kinda rotate around different genres and games and stuff. I’ll try to stay on topic tho.
Guild Wars 2 was good. Idk if it still is because I haven’t played it in a very long time. I do have fond memories of Guild Wars 2 though.
The only other one I got my eye on right now is “WoW Ascension: Conquest of Azeroth”. They recently put out a new server with new classes and stuff in alpha I think. They have youtube videos of the new classes and it looks pretty cool. I’m watching that one for if/when it does an official release. Cause I’ve grown up on WoW and used to play it a lot. Wow Ascension does have other servers too but I’ve already played those.
I literally just got an email from ascension. Its hard to say if its just regular marketing stuff but it seems to imply the new server is out and ready to be played on. I plan to check it out as well.
There’s different ones depending on what kind of experience you want to play.
- The default ascension server is “Classless”. Abilities are randomized from the base game content. And maybe some new abilities have been added too. I’ve already played this one and it’s kinda fun. Highly recommend. ;-)
- There’s one called “Project Ascension Classic+” which was just announced a few days ago. It’s a fresh start with the original classes and abilities and some extra ascension content. I don’t know if this one is available yet.
- And then there’s “Project Ascension Conquest of Azeroth”. This is the one im most excited for right now. It is technically available free on beta for a limited time i believe. But if you wish to play further you’d have to donate $35 to gain alpha access.
Right now, I can’t buy into the alpha due to budget concerns. And I’ve been quite busy during the holidays. But somewhere down the line in the future I’ll definitely try playing it.
All of the servers are free to play. And any alpha access I believe is just a one time donation to gain access.
Tombstone is out! Skilling MMO (So think runescape) with a retro-future wild west type theme and pixel gfx that can be played from steam, its own client (available on itch), a browser, or android. Runs on anything, obscenely fast update pace, developers on discord respond to issues dummy fast. I’m currently playing tombstone.
I tried GW2, but I’m just not a fan of the graphics. There are also numerous clipping issues throughout the world. With a game as old as GW2, it worries me that simple vertex issues still exist. I need to see what end-game looks like, though. Maybe it’s worth it, idk.
Project: Gorgon is my forever home MMO, I’m not super active currently but am online for events and such. I’ve found it to be the only title on the market that feels like a world you join instead of a game you log in.
Old school runescape. I just get addicted to the grind until I need a couple month break.
Brighter Shores! It’s a new game by Andrew Gower on his new game engine (just came out last month).
It’s a point and click game similar to RuneScape that’s mostly a second screen game. It’s in early access and a lot will probably change in the coming months based on feedback (they’ve already confirmed they’re rethinking some of their combat design and adding action queuing).
Unlike RuneScape it’s been designed out of the gate to provide people with a way to engage without sinking a ton of time. You can do fully offline training in this game, so you can be gaining XP while you sleep.
The game runs like a dream, has a very well done sound track, tastefully simplistic graphics, and just generally is a cozy/feel good MMO with light humor and puns.
No micro transactions, generous amount of free to play content, and a $6/mo subscription for all content.
Huh I heard about his new game but didn’t realize it was already in some sort of early access. Cool!
If you’re interested, now is a good time to start playing. There are some limited edition hats being dropped for the holiday!
GW2 is probably one of the best MMOs out there, but it just no longer grabs me as it used to. I play sometimes, but in bursts. As soon as I run out of story content, I just fall off.
Lately I’ve played Corepunk and quite enjoyed it but it has ways to go still. And the servers are down for like a week now due to tech issues.
Last MMO that really grabed me long term in the last fee years was New World, but I feel the devs just don’t know what game they want. And there was huge content drought with them focusing on launching console version. I’m playing with an idea of getting the expac and make a leap of faith that it has a future because I’d really love that.
Also keeping my eye on Soulframe. It’s (or is supposed to be) a MMO lite but it looks like something that could definitely scratch an itch for me. Still in pre-alpha but I like what they are aiming for and it already plays quite well.
Ultima Online the OG mmorpg. There’s a private run server that launched 6 years ago and took the community by storm. They’ve reworked almost everything and it’s amazing. Outlands is the name of the server. UO outlands is like the UO2 we never got.
Outlands pisses me off because I exclusively bank thieve and townkill. How am I supposed to get my rocks off when they Trammelize?
I haven’t played for almost two years. Are they making more PvE friendly?
Beats me I haven’t played in years
Not playing it, but AoC seems to have a lot of potential.
I’m not playing it at the moment but the most recent one i was actively subscribed to was ffxi. I find that now when I want to pay an MMO I stray away from the wow likes (if i want that style it’s xiv for me though). I like the older ones that use more archaic combat systems because they’re often very unique on a genre where everything now feels very similar.
Also here’s an obligatory “I miss Wildstar”
Wildstar was cool. I got a free shirt and Logitech keyboard out of their booth at PAX one year. (Never played the game, though.)
FFXI ruined all other MMORPGs for me, because there is nothing like it and probably never will be again.
What made it so special and unique? I missed out on it back in the day and it feels a little late to try and solo it (if that’s even possible).
In addition to the community-aspects others have noted, the combat system is a bit slower-paced and extremely strategic. The jobs(classes) are all extremely unique and the sub-job system allows you to play them differently as needed. You can switch jobs on one character so you really grow attached to your specific character rather than making different characters for different classes.
You can swap-gear mid combat which gives you a lot of situational flexibility that makes it feel like you’re actively contributing to your success or failure. As an example you might have a set of great for a specific ability, or switch to defensive gear if you draw the enemy’s attention.
Additionally, the story is really nuanced and the side-characters are often very realistic in their choices, motivations, and there is a sense of consistency throughout the world that really makes it feel “lived-in” in a way a lot of other MMOs don’t bother with.
Honestly I could go on and on. It’s just a really special world and will stick with me for life. Even a few years out from playing I still get the itch to go back constantly. Vana’diel is like a second home for me.
Beautifully written and spot-on
Actually, nowadays it’s very soloable: you can experience all of the story by yourself thanks to the Trust system. I only recently tried it, and control scheme wasn’t as bad as I expected (but you do need some patience). From what I gather you don’t really need to learn about macros and gear swapping mid fight in order to clear story content.
You had to team up to accomplish anything, so it was easy to make friends. The game also had zero handholding, which made it incredibly immersive. You can still experience the game as it was in 2004 on the private server HorizonXI. It’s popular and has thousands of people online at all times.
Horizonxi. It’s set in CoP era and has a population of near 2k during primetime. It’s been hella fun.
Played many over the years and while playing think of how GW2 implemented this specific thing and become nostalgic for GW2 and start playing that again. New world was fun for a while, but I missed magic (literally), so I started gw2 again and went through two expansions over 4 months, burned out and am now 1.5 years MMO sober.
GW2 is cool like that. No subs, respects your time, many players drop in and out every few years. It’s getting old but I hope it never dies. I might start it up again this weekend…
Palia, which is the closest I can get to a cozy, friendly MMORPG with a decent community. The lack of enemies doesn’t bother me, and I like feeling that I don’t need to grind for gear or status. That being said, the game desperately needs more content. I’m on hiatus at the moment.
As far as the others go, Everquest and World of Warcraft were/are still my favorites but I haven’t played them in years. MMORPGs are a dying breed, and today most if not all of them bring very little to the table. They don’t make 'em like they used to, that’s for sure.
These days, I prefer single player RPGs where choices matter, or games that have base-building elements and open world survival. I really don’t care for playing with other murder hobos anymore.
I started playing GW2 at the end of 2023 an been having a blast with it! I played WoW for a decade until the combo of Shadowlands and the Acti-Blizz allegations soured me on that company forever. I tried FFXIV with everyone going over to that game and the story was good but the button bloat pushed me away from really getting into it. I then had that MMO itch at the end of 2023 again and decided to try GW2 and it’s been great. Fun story, good gameplay and most importantly no subscription. It’s so nice to be able to play with breaks and come back whenever you want to with no need to open up your wallet every time, just buy the expansions and Living Worlds once and you are done!
I don’t usually like MMORPGs because I haven’t yet found one that hasn’t been spoiled with microtransactions and a toxic playerbase, so I just play Outside. I’m much more a fan of singleplayer, or multiplayer with friends games like Terraria, Stardew Valley, or Minecraft.
