I was thinking of coming back but quickly noticed all these posts about being able to level to 80 solo now. 

That is not why I want to play a MMO. Has anyone ever come across an MMO that is hard to level and advance. 

I miss the days where someone with nice gear = someone who really put the effort into his game. 

Also miss the days where every kid on the block doesn't have 10 maxed chars. 

Perhaps todays market doesn't allow for old school or hardcore mmos anymore... 

UHHH, you need to go download Vanguard's trial isle, it is what your looking for!

 The GameTrailers review of vanguard would seam to indicate it leans towards hardcore... 

Darkfall was another one I was looking into BUT the bad reviews around that game scares me. 

Originally posted by inmysights

UHHH, you need to go download Vanguard's trial isle, it is what your looking for!

The dungeons arnt instance and the first one i came across wasnt fun at all. I was expecting better. =(

 Like eq2 are you able to swap to euro sided servers. 

My time zone plagues me when it comes to raiding in the west.

I'm -04:00 (Atlantic time) this means if the raid ends at 12am PST it's 4am for me. 

Originally posted by xcopymmo

 Like eq2 are you able to swap to euro sided servers. 

 

My time zone plagues me when it comes to raiding in the west.

I'm -04:00 (Atlantic time) this means if the raid ends at 12am PST it's 4am for me. 

Give DDO a try. It is very group orientated game.

 Ah yes DDO, I had forgotten about that one. 

Did it not go towards a cash shop business model... that scares me though.

You can just group in EQ2 and gain alot from it even though its possible to solo....  if you do actually enjoy the game i would look past the fact that you can solo, and just do what you actually want.... i find there to be plenty of people around if you are on a populated server. I thought i should add that one thing going for this game is it has ALOT of content so if you really decide to go full on with your character you can reap the benefits. Its always good to gear yourself up while going through the content with groups and tackling some harder dungeons etc

If you are really put off by EQ2 then try vanguard if you havnt i recommend it as it may be what your looking for, dont mock it until you have tried it. :)

Other hardcore mmorpg's....    if you didnt say about leveling i would of recommended Eve online (which has a skill system though), that can be brutal but ofcourse its scifi, not sure if thats what your looking for.

I hear Darkfall is getting better with the expansions and updates.... i havnt played that yet though.

only problem i have with vanguard is lack of end game contents, lack of developers, and lack of population=/ throw everything EQ2 has into Vanguard and that would probably be the best/hardcore game on the market.

Jump into the way back machine and play eq1.