I'd have to say Ironforge, and yes, I haven't any other games long enough to experience any of their true cities. Stormwind is a cool city, but it has some design flaws. Although the seperation and labelling of each section would seem nice, it also forces players to traverse the entire length of the city in order to acquire different things. Sure, it sounds lazy, but it's also just time consuming and a waste of time when you have things to do. Ironforge, on the other hand, is a giant circle, so going through the middle can get you to any section of the city easily.

My Top 5:

(5) NEW TORGONOR (Vanguard)

Purely by city design I always loved New Torgonor; it was really VAST, and built like some real, mediveal city. The only problem is, like all VG citites there is zero city life. I always thought VG with "soul" and really animated with details would be a blast.

(4)  TORTAGE (AoC)

While being small, they really made it dense with atmosphere, its so wonderful exotic and full of stories.

(3) BREE (LOTRO)

Another really beautiful MMO city.
 

(2) CITY OF HEROES - city (COH)

To my shame I must confess I dont recall how the City of Heroes - city is called, but I loved it, especially since it was so much like a modern city with all the gangs, parks, cars and whatnot. Never got enough of it.

(1) MOS EISLEY (SWG)

Ok, being a Star Wars fan I am biased, haha, but my most favoured city is Mos Eisley. You could always meet a greet people there, there were buzzing droids and shady traders, seminude dancers (including myself, haha), angry Stormtroopers yelling at me... what more could one want?

SPECIAL NEGATIVE MENTION:

Always hated the EQ2 cities. They were so... dead. All people ever did was run in, buy/sell and run out. I played EQ2 a long time, but none of those cities ever really felt alive in any way.

Elysium from Aion

and WoW cities don't have squat on L2's cities.

Neocron

No single city area stands out in any of the games I have played.

Some cities  I liked include:

• In Everquest, when I played the most popular city was Plane of Knowledge because it was the transport hub to  most places and also had bank and crafting areas.
• The elven tree city in Greater Faydwark in Everquest is worth a mention.
• In Istaria (aka Horizons), many towns were player built according to players' personal preferences.
• Rivendell in Lord of the Rings Online has beautiful scenery.
• The city areas in City of Heroes is consistent with the tone of the game.

Some of the things I did not like include:

• Lag in popular city areas in most games is annoying. 
• Downloading zone information can take longer for player made cities where the zone information cannot be cached because it is unique to that server at that particular time.
• Spread out cities that require lots of running around to do the essential basics for that world (banking, buying, selling, crafting, repairs etc).
• Cities that you have to visit regularly which can only be visited after long and tedious travel.

Stormwind

Originally posted by Ravanos

i think its safe to say that those that say WoW cities have never played any other MMOs. because I have seen the WoW cities and none of them are anything special.

At 38, I have played a ton of MMOs through the years, going back to the day Ultima Online was released.

Nothing has ever been more spectacular then when I first walked into Stormwind with that epic music playing.

Your dislike for WoW is obvious.

This is a great idea for a thread OP.

Although the layout was half cluster bleep. My favorite MMO city without a doubt was older SWG Coronet. When you went to the courtyard you found people. Go to the hospital you found medics and doctors, go to the cantina you found entertainers, and go to the market and you found crafters. I am not saying it was the best layed out or most beatiful city in SWG, but as a hub it was unequalled to anything I have seen since.

Also, not that I lasted very long in the game, I found the "capital" cities of WoW to be impressive in their scope and design. Running through them was frustrating, but I did enjoy the them nonetheless. I don't want to start a graphics "cartoon vs. realism" chain reaction here. I just remember my first impressions of them fondly. At the same time I also checked out Lineage 2 and EQ2, the cities did not leave the same lasting impression.

Originally posted by ganbee

Neocron

I almost forgot about playing Neocron. Poorly managed...but the setting was amazing.

Bestine, SWG

Mos Eisley, SWG

Orgrimmar, WoW.

I'm going to go in a different direction then most and throw out Black Moon Chronicles.  This is the only game that visually draws me back into playing now and then.  Sadly not many people play it nor even heard of it but it looks like it been ripped out of a comic book.  The detail within the cities are built around the plot/story so it all kinda adds up.  Hopefully it becomes more popular and people appreciate the artistry that was put into it ;)

1- Dalaran (WoW), although I wish it were larger.

2- Stormwind (WoW), although I wish it were HORDE. :P

3- Thunder Bluff (WoW...again), because the American Indian vibe is just COOL, and I like the whole "tiered" thing goin' on there.

4- Qeynos (EQ2), although I wish there weren't load screens between different parts of the city (or I'd have voted it first hands down, actually).

5- The Inevitable City and Altdorf (WAR), although I wish they weren't attached to a game that felt so stagnant and that ended up being one of my worst gaming disappointments of the past few years.

NOT COOL:

Neriak (EQ2)....uhm....no. In my opinion that was the most poorly laid out city in any game ever. Sure it looks cool. It also takes 10 hours to only SORT OF learn your way around in that hell hole. MAYBE, just maybe, Gorowyn is worse. Timorous Deep, however, as a starting zone, was very unique and pretty with a cool Asian/martial arts type vibe to it, and the soundtrack there was absolutely gorgeous. Shame they couldn't make Gorowyn somewhere you'd WANT to call home.

 Its gotta be Stormwind for me :)  The epic music and the gates at the front

Vanguard: Ca'ial Brael

Neocron is the best,

But  orgrimmars drums kept me fighting!

I am not impressed by any MMO citys, they just don't feel real. I will either vote for Altdorf (War) or Tortage (AoC). Altdorf is based on GWs maps from "Warhammer fantasy roleplaying game" and have been worked on for many years and Tortage do feel a little like a old pirate town.

I wish gamedesigners actually looked on existing citys from the period the game is from and then added some fantasy elements, then you would get a realer feeling in them. Real citys are always based on certain things, and logically the city grows with services and shops in a natural way, just plotting out houses a bit randomly so it is suppose to look cool isn't really working for me.

I do have hopes that CCPs "world of darness online" will give us a more realistic city, probably Seattle or Chikago knowing the WOD lore.

There are some games that have nice citys in them but isn't MMOs like Assasins creed and Neverwinter nights however, I hope citys is something MMOs will focus more in the future. Also I like when the city changes during the day and night, like in the classic Daggerfall from Bethesda.

So many posts, forgive me if I repeat anyone.  I won't vote for a best existing MMO city, but I will say what I wish existed for purely selfish reasons.  When I was a kid reading Isaac Asimov's Caves of Steel, and later the spinoff series by other writers called Robot City, I really felt immersed in, and drawn to, the imagined world.  It was very clear and smooth descriptive writing, almost like the plot just hung on what was really a fully realized (in narrative form) art design for a virtual world.   Wish sci-fi mmos would drop the blow up and shoot and gather model, and make it more about surviving encounters through insight into situations , in a social (and perhaps more urban) environment.  No reason it couldn't be done... interactions and their outcomes could be assigned numerical values just as melee and magic attacks are in mmos now.  I totally acknowledge the unlikeliness of such a thing ever being made.  Just dreaming out loud.

@girlgeek

Painkiller!  i'd love an MMO version of that  8)

you really should try the Vanguard free trial at least if not just resubbing.  its the best of the traditional MMOs if you love dungeons and hate instances (and maybe for many other reasons i don't care about so much 8) )

the seradon server is quite populated when i was there slightly less than a month ago 

oh em gee!

I don't believe it. You all forgot about Old Sebilis and Kael Drakkel in EQ! What the heck is wrong with you all!

Tir when the whompas where on FT, then Old Athens hill when Tir's whompas moved. Most memorable for me, at least.

*EDIT* this is Anarchy Online