I'm looking for a starting MMO, but I have played a lot of games.

Games I like:
 

Battleforge, Old school RPG's (Final Fantasy, FF Tactics, Suikoden,etc), RTS (warcraft, starcraft, etc)
 

What I'm looking for:
 

-Not a steep learning curve. Nice guides/support/forums.
-Easy to solo if needed.
- Can do something meaningful in an hour or two playing each day.
- Not having to kill the same thing over and over and over again to level up.
- Interesting story/ quests , feeling like you are going somewhere.
-Not being nickeled and dimed with micro transactions (some is ok, fine with paying monthly fee)
 

Games I have been looking at right now(some interest but not decided):
 

-Warhammer
-Atlantica Online

Thanks for any help

Well, i'd say you should look into Lord of the rings online, Everquest2 or Atlantica then. Warhammer online isn't that great of a deal considering the population is rather low.

Lotro, Eq2 and Warhammer do have trials so you could check them all out. But i recommend the two first for lore, quests and immersion. And for the rest of the forum guys, be specific what you wanna do. Pvp, pve crafting etc.. It'll be much easier for them :p

Cheers

warhammer is awsome, some of the quests can be repetative BUT

the pvp is some of the best i have seen, u can join scenarios which give exp( u can level off doin pvp matches)

also there are castles in each area which can be sieged and taken and defended which was my favorite part of the game

(post a dwarf engineer on the top of the castle and start shootin) >:)

i didnt go into too many details but its a good game and there is a free 14 day trial definetly check it out.

 Warhammer is PVP centric, if you don't mind that its a pretty casual MMO, but id doesn't have interesting quest, the world doesn't feel  connected the way it's instanced.
 

Atlantica Online will be riddled with micro transactions since it's a free to play.

Maybe give  Warcraft or Everquest 2 a go if you've never ever played a MMO and looking for casaul to jump in and out of with loads of quests.  Maybe check out  one of the grand daddy of MMO's that's still going strong and recently had a new expansion and a new enhanced game client which is Ultima online. If you like old school RGP element's you'll be at home with this.

Or if you a Star Trek fan wait until Feb 2010 for Star Trek Online, later in 2010 a new Star Wars MMO is being released too.

I'm interested in both PvE and PvP, but from my understanding a lot of the PvP centric games will come with some long or specific time commitments for Raids,etc.

I'm currently playing Atlantica Online and for me it's a great game. Whatever you're looking for, whether pve or pvp, Atlantica has it. One great feature of it is the strategic turn-based system. I recommend Atlantica! ^^v

 For ease of play and getting into I would play World of Warcraft.  For ease and the feeling of going somewhere with quests I would play Lord of the Rings Online.

I haven't played enough WAR to give an opinion other than it is very PvP centric.  I have played Atlantica and enjoyed it and can say unless you enjoy the free-to-play mt games it probably isn't for you.

Honestly, I'd recommend runescape believe it or not.  It's a good starter mmo in my opinion, and it's what got me interested in mmos in the first place.  From the looks of it matches almost all of your requirements, though while it wont be the best game you ever play(To be honest, some would argue it's the worst RPG), it makes other games feel a bit more interesting.  In my opinion questing and pvp are it's strong points, but you don't have to engage in pvp if you don't want to.

But, if you're going with something else, don't go for warhammer.  Don't know too much abount Atlantica to have an opinion.  Try to start off with a mmo that's as different to WoW as possible.  Warhammer, from the looks of it, is fairly similiar to WoW.  What that is exactly, I'll let you decide.  I'm not saying never play WoW, just don't start off with it or a game like it.

Originally posted by backlash01

I'm looking for a starting MMO, but I have played a lot of games.

Games I like:
 

Battleforge, Old school RPG's (Final Fantasy, FF Tactics, Suikoden,etc), RTS (warcraft, starcraft, etc)
 

What I'm looking for:
 

-Not a steep learning curve. Nice guides/support/forums.
-Easy to solo if needed.
- Can do something meaningful in an hour or two playing each day.
- Not having to kill the same thing over and over and over again to level up.
- Interesting story/ quests , feeling like you are going somewhere.
-Not being nickeled and dimed with micro transactions (some is ok, fine with paying monthly fee)
 

Games I have been looking at right now(some interest but not decided):
 

-Warhammer
-Atlantica Online

 

Thanks for any help

 

 

 

 

I think you might like Atlantica Online the best, but I would just go for both really. One is free to play and the other has an "unlimited free trial" so you can easily try both without making a commitment. 

 World of Warcraft

 I've got to agree with raystanz. MMOs are a whole new experience from the rest of the world of gaming. It'd be good to start with a more casual MMO and decide if you really like the idea of an MMO rather than jump straight into EvE, per say.

Good starting games would be:

*World of Warcraft

*Alganon (I know someone's going to troll this idea but from CB reviews, I discovered it's a great entry level MMO and it has a trial server that you can make a character with unlimited access but your character gets deleted after 30 days. You can't transfer to the main server either, if I recall. You'd have to buy it and start over on the main server)

*maybe Everquest, though don't quote me on it. I just know plenty of people that started with EQ

*any of various F2Ps like DOMO

*anything casual

 yeah, John is right.. for a new player..

World of Warcraft, Everquest 2, Runes of Magic, Alganon, Lord of the rings Online are all good choices.

Lotro or WoW.

Atlantica online was really fun.  Unfortunately the game fails at higher levels, where it becomes a true asian grindfest that has pvp tournaments dominated by those who spend literally $1000s on the cash shop/buying money.

If you aren't a PvPer and are looking to make the switch to MMORPGs for the social aspect while still being able to keep single player RPG aspects, try out EQ2 or LOTRO.  Both have a free trial.

If you want a PvP based game try Warhammer out.  However, be aware that while the game is heavily PvP based, the PvP action is not of the highest quality.

follow xfire.com listing to have a good representation,number arent accurates but they reflect where the gamers are for english speaking country.if you from asia you WILL have to ask asia since they got their own gamiong fix they play by million

and often those arent as popular in english speaking country,

some exemple.lineage 2 big in asia in english speaking country not so popular

100 player in asia vs .01 player in english .yes its that big a gap

asia has begun to stop bothering with other market are are just publishing in asia like

china korea,india japan ,austria.lot of very good game maker from asia tried to satisify english market

but lets face it ,asia game are so different from english title that ,asian game maker wont bother to send game

soon they ll will just change the way they make it and after that say to gamer come on our asian server

but the game on player end will be in english.

and a move like that WILL be good for everybody ,because right now lot of game play the langage game,battlegroup game ,server game

what its does is divide the divide that divided the divide.

dont know what the game will be like but asian have so many successfull title and server i would rater play on asian server as long as i can get my info on my game in english

it can be done guild wars maker arenanet made a version of it and they didnt take decade to come with it