General Discussion

I have played a few MMO's in my time and have finally decided that short of going back to the good old days, I need a knew game with some depth and maturity to it. My most recent MMO venture was WOW My biggest mistake ever lol. It was fun for quite some time but a couple of months ago i suddenly came to the realization that i hated it and everything it was: The immaturity of virtualy the entire playerbase, the completely sensless grinding that just plain sucked (took me till 70 to realize that ), and the fact that the crafting in that game is at times so meaningless and silly its kinda frightening. Anyways enough of my ranting, i simply had to prove a point i guess.

Now i have been searching and looking for about four days now and am torn on what to do or which game to choose. Now on the one hand you've got a game like EVE. A sandbox with lots of depth and so much to explore and discover. Intruiging? Yes, but i have also learned that this game can be a bit time intensive and daunting; taking months of play just to really get into... This worries me as i will be working and going to college full time this fall semester. On the other hand there are things like AoC that look intruiging for an obivuosly adult based content set and from what i have seen at my friends house mature players and interesting classes etc. But here again we have lost some of the crafting and the sandbox aspect. I could go on to things like Lotro, EQ2, etc., but the main point being that i need something that i can play at a leisurly pace while still mainting a mature deep level of gameplay. Any recommendations?

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes has the most in-depth crafting experience in my opinion. It can be considered a grind, but its quite a crafting experience.

They also have the Diplomacy aspect as well, where you 'argue' with NPCs via a card game to advance in the conversation or story. The benefits are buffs for yourself, or buffs for an entire city that anybody gets when they enter the area... and more. Like supplying your Guild with diplomacy only items to construct a guild hall.

So, you have...

Combat/Diplomacy/Crafting, all of which 1 character can tackle at the same time. It also has one of the more mature communities you will see.

No zones, just one big open world with 3 continents, extremely fun game to explore. You can manually control a flying mount, etc.

I would check it out, just make sure you get your PC up to speed and ready. For some people, Vanguard shows no mercy for your PC.

Another good game with an amazing community is Everquest 2.

I love the crafting (Well, before they turned it into more arcade style now) and the community is still very helpful.

Filled with quest and depth.  Not just about "phat loot" and raids.

Both Vanguard and Everquest 2 provide a much more involved crafting process where you actually have to be there dealing with "problems" that occur during crafting. Vanguard was the most fun I've ever had crafting in a game to be honest, although I left a few months after release. They have crafting gear, crafting factions that you build up and you can level crafting without wasting millions of gp on resources.

EVE would probably be better for you than you think though. Because you gain skills in EVE while you are offline the time constraint is reduced considerably. Although I know the crafting is not as challenging as its similar to WoW in the aspect of "clicking go". But yes EVE has a sharp learning curve and the game is quite inforgiving.

Just trying to keep the thread HOT

Vanguard and EVE seem like pretty good games, but both are on almost every person's list in the "YOUR WORST 5 MMORPG'S" thread. It scares me knowing that many people hate them.

So can we get some positives+negatives on both of those, please?

Originally posted by Korby

Vanguard and EVE seem like pretty good games, but both are on almost every person's list in the "YOUR WORST 5 MMORPG'S" thread. It scares me knowing that many people hate them.

 

So can we get some positives+negatives on both of those, please?

I tried to get into EVE and it's just not for me. For one, the gameplay is slow. And when I compete in PvP - I try to be the best of em all - and I know I'll never stand a chance against the Veterans - sort of discouraging. It's mainly just too slow for me. I mean, upgrading a single skill can take 30 real days - I can't get passed that.

If you have the time and you really want to put forth the effort and dedication - you probably could be very successful in that game, but you will never catch up to the veterans.

I tried Vanguard with a buddy key and it wasn't what I was expecting. And the population was really low. It was impossible to get a group to go through the first dungeon. Maybe it's because the world is so big that everyone is just scattered around, but I only saw one other person questing in my area. So if you're looking for population - in my experience (and it's not much), Vanguard is definitely lacking.

Aside from that, it felt too much like WoW for me. I didn't feel the need to restart from scratch when I already have a level 70 UD Warrior.

The one big thing that really impressed me was their 3 spheres system. You could basically just be crafting and level that way. They give you quests to craft items and reward you with experience points. The same goes for the diplomacy sphere. You can litterally just play the diplomacy game and level your character.

But other than that, the game really felt empty, in terms of population, to me. And while there are a ton of quests (at least as far as I played), it still feels like a chore to level up - it's a problem I have with a lot of MMOs.

I liked this thread alot and it got a fair number of hits but i would like to see more posts here so im gonna try puting it out there again and see if i get some more advice or input. These forums are by far some of the best online by the way. Thanks for any imput you feel like posting here.

Most people hate eve because of it's complexity....but i still think its one of the best mmorpgs out there. EVE has the most in depth gameplay and social/politcal structure of any game out there.

Crafting is not crafting per say...it is production. A tad different than your traditional crafting.