Played most out there. Starting with MUD text based, then Ultima Online, of course few wasted years in WoW too, along the way.

Dungeons & Dragons Online is my favortite. Never played better mmorpg. When  I came back to WoW to try WotLK, at first it felt silly there... then absolutely laughable, pointless and crappy.

It really makes me sad that so many bought and play this game (WoW) just because it's popular and friends already play it... Believe me, there are much better games out there even for you. You just don't know about them, or can't understand that mmorpg doesn't need to be anything like that popular game of a very rich developer. Yes, Blizzard was rich before WoW, and now the circle of advertising is almost unstoppable.

LOTRO

Immersive, relaxed, deep, fun, great community...lifetime subscription option.

LoTRO

I have WAY too many things to do when I log into that game and I love that feeling:)

And the visuals and audio in that game are EXCELLENT!! I am instantly soothed and calmed down when I log into that game and that didn't happen to me in AC or WoW.

And the funny thing is I never wanted to play the game! I am the most UN-Tolkien fan there is! I saw a screenshot on this forum when they were taking Beta apps. The SS was so dang pretty! I applied so I could see the Hobbit houses and been playing in it ever since LOL!

For now , it's City of Heroes/ Villains.  Still one of the most fun games to group in,  IMHO.  Gonna be checking out Champions Online though when it releases in June (I hope).  And also waiting for Diablo 3 which won't be out till 2010 probably.

SQO is my all time fav

DOAC and COX.  

GuildWars

 EQ2 at release was AWESOME(until they replaced overland mobs with mostly solo mobs a few months in)

Guild Wars is beautiful, the art direction (and music by Jeremy Soule) simply can't be touched by anything else. Yes, it is an MMO to me.

EVE is simply an incredible game. The amount of content is astounding. 6 years old and has never lost players, it's been growing steadily for 6 straight years. Each year more devs are hired and the game just keeps on developing faster, in another 3 years it's going to be the sci-fi simulator that they set out to make in the design documents a decade ago.

Of all time?

A tie for number one with me is EQ1...it gave me the rush. It was new it was fresh. I had never seen anything like it. I wasn't a DND player or anything like that but that game hooked me. DAOC because well I felt like I sorta hit my MMO prime there. I played EQ a long time but I realized i was still just a sucky  newbie sorta with alot to learn but with DAOC I started day 1 got with the right crowd and played at a high level for 3 years. I still wasn't leet myself  but all my friends where and they never called me out :)

AO a close second. played it a boat load also. I liked the setting and the game play itself even though it was a little different. Had some weird quirks and they never got that engine completly smoothed out.

Now? I been game hoping like alot of you. I will get all excited about a MMO not only new ones but ones I have tried before more than once even. I will download it get my account setup give it a good go and meh I will quit. They just don't hold my attention like the older MMO's

I will go with EVE though I did about 4 trials over the years and I finally started getting it. I like it I like the concepts but I still don't find my self powergaming it. Here lately I log on and set  my skills and I might do a mission or something but I will probably play more when I get  my character trained how I want him.

My DAOC account is also open it has seen an influx after WAR released( I won't get into it too much but I will say "Mythic I might forgive you soon!" Its still fun and still plenty of people to fight and do stuff with. Im still not sure if they will sink a few dollars into it here and there or if  tomorrow they  pull the plug! You never know with big companies( EA).

Originally posted by John.A.Zoid

Originally posted by Maendauron

Originally posted by rewindgamers

WoW is the most fully developed game out there. I mean look at the player population, its not just people said look new game lets play that, WoW has 11,000,000 active players, no one else has that there's a reason. Admit it

 

Just because Britney Spears is popular and sells tens of millions of albums, does that make her music good?

I would argue that Jacqueline Du Pre created better music but was far less popular for example.

This is just a case in point.

 

Difference is that most gamers are adults and can think for themselves and I'm willing to bet most WoW players are over 16 and not kids like everyone says. Mmorpgs require a subscription and people wont continue to play a game unless they're having fun and if a game is fun then it is good. Music however is different because you don't play the same song over and over again for years unless you think it is good. Alot of it is bought as a gift and it's just one quick and easy purchse that people will buy cause they looka t the charts or their kids love it.

Thats why these whole arguments make no sense because for WoW to have all these millions of subs this long after release obviously means the game is good. The whole Mc Donalds argument is dumb because people eat for convenience on lunch breaks and what not and Mc Donalds tastes alright so people buy it. THe whole quality of the food doesn't even make sense anyways in the argument because the quality of WoW is much better than anyother mmorpg on the market, it is much more polished.

Everyone has their own opinion but you can't deny that it is good.

I never said it wasn't good but I never said it was the best either.  Many games have come after it which were better and yet they aren't as popular.  Who knows what people are looking for.  I guess it's a moot point really.

But having said that, my Britney example still stands and your arguement has many flaws in it.  I like your McDonalds example.........but it doesn't prove mine wrong.  Oh and McDonalds isn't actually food even though it's something you can put in your mouth. 

So until someone can prove my Britney example wrong I will consider my example appropriate.  Like I said before, just because a lot of people like Britney Spears, doesn't make it good music.  Just because WoW is popular doesn't make it the best either.  Surely you can come up with a better arguement than the one above?

4 words.  Dark Age of Camelot!

From a nostalgic "introduced me to the genre, and sucked up an insane percentage of my free time", I'd have to go with Everquest.  I literally had binders filled with zone maps and notes for that game...

From an overall "the first game to do just about everything right, perfectly melding PvE (which I love) with PvP (which I typically don't care for)", I'd have to go with Dark Age of Camelot.  RvR actually gave PvP a point, and thus made me interested in playing that apsect of the game.

 Im on a free trial for EVE right now. It's EPIC.

I'd have to say Helbreath.

It may take a bit of grinding to get into the game, but the PvP system is amazing and the best I've ever played.

Too bad the game is outdated and the community is not what it used to be.

It would be awesome if someone would do a remake of the game or maybe even Helbreath 2.

This is my personal opinion so theres no point in starting an arguement about the things I've said in this post.

I have to say L2.

It's got me hooked right now.

Not a Hijack but I have thought about L2 is it point and click movement?

I love my fantasy MMOs but my go to game now when the new shiny MMO shatters is CoX.

blizz never said "active" 12 million, i would say there's roughly 5-6 active

WoW is crap anyway

Britney's music is getting pretty good now :(

And the reason for WoW's success is mostly because of who made it. Most of the players from  WC3/other Blizzard Titles gave it a big start and it only went uphill from there.

 Puzzle Pirates is by far the best MMORPG Game Outhere. It sounds kinda newby at first, but its addicting and adventureous.

Originally posted by Maendauron

Originally posted by rewindgamers

WoW is the most fully developed game out there. I mean look at the player population, its not just people said look new game lets play that, WoW has 11,000,000 active players, no one else has that there's a reason. Admit it

 

Just because Britney Spears is popular and sells tens of millions of albums, does that make her music good?

I would argue that Jacqueline Du Pre created better music but was far less popular for example.

This is just a case in point.

Sorry, but Britney Spears is a much more complete package than Jacqueline Du Pre. You could argue that Jacqueline's music is more refined, however Britney is more fun to listen to, more fun to watch and  much more attractive. Seems people actually want their entertainment to entertain them for some reason, with Britney as well as WoW.

I've played MMOs for almost 10 years now. I've raided in every single game that had any kind of raiding to it.

Here's the list

UO: on and off

Everquest: 6 years

Everquest 2: 1 year

Matrix: lol

City of Heroes: lol

Star Wars Galaxies: lol

World of Warcraft: 3 years

Lord of the Rings Online: lol

Age of Conan: lol

Warhammer: lol

My favorite of all, is the one game that I made some really good friends. I even met my current wife (we have 2 children together now). I've laughed and cried with this game and it defined me all throughout my college years. The game??

EVERQUEST!

<<<< INC : Fippy Darkpaw:  INC>>>>

Edit: lol=less than 6 months

Mine simply has to be DarkSpace. Primarily because I started out like anyone else, and have now ended up as a Developer for it.

Now that's what you call character development :-P

P.S. The game play is fun too.

Gonna agree with Draf there, although I'm not a developer. The game is a ton of fun with 1.5

Originally posted by Sarr

Played most out there. Starting with MUD text based, then Ultima Online, of course few wasted years in WoW too, along the way.

Dungeons & Dragons Online is my favortite. Never played better mmorpg. When  I came back to WoW to try WotLK, at first it felt silly there... then absolutely laughable, pointless and crappy.

It really makes me sad that so many bought and play this game (WoW) just because it's popular and friends already play it... Believe me, there are much better games out there even for you. You just don't know about them, or can't understand that mmorpg doesn't need to be anything like that popular game of a very rich developer. Yes, Blizzard was rich before WoW, and now the circle of advertising is almost unstoppable.

Sarr,

Aside from what we think is fun, MMORPG's can be compared by their features (that actually work) to see which game is better, if better = more features that are complete. In that sense, DDO lags far behind WoW. How are you going to tell a person who likes turn based combat, BG's, Arena's, and playing in an open world that DDO is a better game than WoW. They'll just laugh your face off.

What game out there actually offers more features that are complete and functions as smoothly as WoW? People buy and play WoW because it's a well polished game that offers a variety of things to do for almost every playstyle.

I can put it another way too. In the world of software, the best is those applications that serve their purpose and have the least amount of bugs compared to their competitors and offers the most amount of applicable features. Throwing in features that no one uses isn't a good feature, it's a useless feature.

I thought DDO was a fantastic game that suffers from poor design decisions. There's nothing really wrong with the game now, except that it doesn't offer what most people want out of a MMORPG. Like any other product, people look at value for the money. Considering that MMO's are products people invest money into, people are likely to only invest money into one game. So they'll pick the one game that has the brightest future, most/best features, healthy population, good customer support, good development team, a good community, their gameplay preference, accessibility, and if the game is fun (subjective).

If you thing WoW isn't the best MMORPG out there, name another game that has every feature WoW has and implements them better and without bugs or performance problems.