General Discussion

So, having played MMOs since the dawn of time, or at least the era where MMO meant Ultima Online or Everquest, with a handful of kiddies playing these upstarts of Runescape and Ragnarok Online, I've been seeking a few things from the past.

What I want in an MMO consists of a number of things, so I'll rattle off a few in general terms of priority.

-Community.  A good community can make an average MMO enjoyable, just because messing around with friends makes things more fun.  It was a bit easier years ago, being pickier now makes it harder.  Average age is a difficult concept though, older MMO players often have the bad habit of taking things way too seriously, but pre-teens are insufferable.  Fluent English with minimal butchery of the language is at least a good starting point.

- Involved character system.  Characters should not be stuck in a single stat growth pattern, and there should be at least a couple of different viable specs for any given character.  This was probably Ragnarok's best feature.

- Involved noncombat system.  UO.  Need I say more?

- Combat and Landscape.  Basically, I don't want a system where I have to run around to find monsters more than I do actually hunting them (ROSE Online, anyone?), and with combat that's fluid.  If I feel like I can fight more efficiently with proper timing, but not so much that perfect timing is required for simple fights, it's more enjoyable.  Example- Pirate King Online felt a bit bulky, but really good timing still made a difference in a fight.  Pity it wasn't any smoother.

- Graphics.  Anime style is okay, realistic style is okay, but bad 3d is not okay.  To put in example- Trickster's simple 2d graphics are less distracting than Hero Online's clunky 3d, 9Dragons looks better than either, but only Hero suffers because it's distracting.

- Recent MMOs I've tried, and the turnoffs involved

Nostale- Needed a much stronger community to be fun.  Pity, lots of potential.  Okay, not so much, it was a bit too fluffy and felt like depth could have been there, but wasn't.
Hero Online- Graphics awkward, the game wanted inhuman amounts of system resources, grind felt more overwhelming than it actually was due to the visual turnoffs.
9Dragons- Didn't have much time for it after beta ended, felt a bit spread out.  Not sure how it is now.
Maple Story- Grind was designed for people who play the game like a full time job for years on end, community consists much of the same, interaction with other players imparted a concern for the future of humanity.  Might have given me cancer.
LaTale- A little bit awkward in controls, insufficient mastery of Japanese both by computer and player.
Trickster Online- Combat system slightly more advanced than that of Runescape.  Addictive card game though.
Pirate King Online- Community was SE Asia based.  Generally likable enough in most cases, but simply too much cultural difference to get along with beyond pickup parties.  Grind seemed to incline sharply by lv 35, even the Singaporean contingent complained that it got ridiculous around lv 60.

I know I ask for a lot.  I don't honestly expect to find everything I want in a game, or even close.  I'd like to try, still.  Right now, I'm giving Fiesta a shot.  I'd be open to p2p MMOs, but not EVE.

Have you considereed Eve-Online, or is it too far from the normal level-fairy-grinder?

Yes EVE is not pansy enough for us Fairy lovers!     praise the fairy lovers!

i want to play eve so fing bad but being jobless= no $$ :((  I think im gonna bye a knife and start selling drugs to the crack heads in the bad part of town to feed my mmo needs....

I already said that I would not consider EVE these days.  I don't mind if it's space, if it's not level-based, if it's not a grinder, if it's p2p, or any of the like.  Just specifically not EVE.  If you want the reasons, I'll give them to you in private, but I don't want some pro/anti-EVE war in this thread, just some suggestions for MMOs.