General Discussion

I am looking for a good online game to play. Generally I like strategy games, but am open to plenty of other things. I have tried a few of things before... EverQuest 2 which I thought was horrible, Second Life, which I just never got (I never really figured out how to do anything), and Sims Online, which I liked at first, but it got boring. I also played puzzle pirates, but that gets boring as well, as for an online game, there's very little socialization, and you do the same puzzles over and over.

I am hoping for something which doesn't take a huge amount of time to learn how to play at all. If some aspects of the game take time to learn, that's fine, but I don't want to have to read a manual before being able to do anything.

Also, I'm not a big fan of games where the focus is on combat of any sort (unless it's purely strategic). The "hack 'n slash" genre doesn't appeal to me. Generally I see this in RPGs, and this is what Everquest 2 was, more or less.

I don't have a problem spending any amount a month, but I don't want to play some boring game.

Any suggestions?

I also like early Dragon Warrior/Quest games (which have the same battle style as early FF games I think), but I've never seen one like that professionally done.

Try Lotro.

Everquest is one of the few MMO's that involved a lot of strategy for solo, team and raid play.  Only a few classes can solo effectively, so I am not sure whether the population is there now at lower levels to start with a new toon.  It is not like EQ2.

When not playing MMO's I like Civization IV and its expansion Beyond the Sword.

Might and Magic 6, 7, and 8 are old single player games that I also like.  The installation process is bugged for some of them, and I had to edit the windows registry to fix this for a couple of the games to get the game to run.  The games are old and the graphics dated.  Combat is best inturns based mode and needs strategy/tactics, there are quests and a main quest.  I wish I could find a game like these with modern graphics.

Is there a particular 'theme' towards which you are looking? IE sci-fi, historical, fantasy?

The problem is that there are not many MMO's that focus on strategy, at least not as a core part of the game. Most strategic systems are tacked on as some part of RvR or PvP game play; as such combat will always be a major contributing factor

Civ4 is more or less all I play, I was hoping to get into online gaming (the civ4 online system is horrible, I only play it single player).

As for themes, I am open to plenty of themes, though if there's no shortange of strategy games (which was contradicted in your post - so I know there isn't) I would prefer either Historical or Fantasy (or a sort of blend).

As for combat, I like the turn-based combat just fine, but I don't really like the one where I just have to hit the mouse a bunch of times to knock enemies down. In general if I have to be really focused to do well, I don't want to play it. If there's not much strategy, I would prefer it just be something I could do passively.

Sadly, 4x games (eXplore, eXpand, eXploit, and eXterminate) in an MMO format still has not been done successfully. The only game that comes to mind is Face of Mankind, although I think that may be due to be shut down.

Good luck in your search.

When I said turn-based combat I meant like early Dragon Warrior/Quest or Final Fantasy games. Are there any like those?

I saw a post the other day suggesting Aegis.  It is a turn based kingdom management online game.

I have not tried it myself but bookmarked it as I was considering trying it.

I have never heard of this game before I saw that single post.  Being paranoid about the internet, I still need to do some background searches to make sure it is a real gamesite and not a front for something more sinister.

Aegis is at http://www.worldofaegis.com/help/index.php

Originally posted by Qwertykey

I am looking for a good online game to play. Generally I like strategy games, but am open to plenty of other things. I have tried a few of things before... EverQuest 2 which I thought was horrible, Second Life, which I just never got (I never really figured out how to do anything), and Sims Online, which I liked at first, but it got boring. I also played puzzle pirates, but that gets boring as well, as for an online game, there's very little socialization, and you do the same puzzles over and over.

I am hoping for something which doesn't take a huge amount of time to learn how to play at all. If some aspects of the game take time to learn, that's fine, but I don't want to have to read a manual before being able to do anything.

Also, I'm not a big fan of games where the focus is on combat of any sort (unless it's purely strategic). The "hack 'n slash" genre doesn't appeal to me. Generally I see this in RPGs, and this is what Everquest 2 was, more or less.

I don't have a problem spending any amount a month, but I don't want to play some boring game.

Any suggestions?

I also like early Dragon Warrior/Quest games (which have the same battle style as early FF games I think), but I've never seen one like that professionally done.

DDO is still kicking around, and may be what you are looking for. Has a very in depth character creation system, if you get on a good server, has good socialization since most of what you do is group for quests. The focus is more on finishing quests then the grind of killing mob after mob. It sounds to me that you may want a caster or rogue or cleric/healer for that. Casters make you think about what spell to cast in the situation whether it is damage/Crowd Control/heal, etc. If you make a melee class, all you do is button smash. The storyline is good, it starts with you killing one kobold at level 1 and then it arks into major quests. There is always something to do, and is very easy to learn (maybe 20 minutes tops)The graphics and interface and sharp, not as good as AoC, but for an older game, pretty impressive.  Most of the people on DDO are older since the kids play WoW or AoC. They have a 10 day free trial, I would try it, see what you think.