Due to an increase in free time ( in a couple weeks), and an increase in boredom with this genre (always), I'm seriously considering an utterly pointless experiment: can I jump into the typical quest train-to-level-to-raiding MMO and ignore the intended playstyle? Ok, obviously I can do this, but can I actually stay entertained this way? Will it be fun?

My first choice would be LOTRO. I played the game for a few months from open beta and eventually burned out on the linear quest thing, although there were some high points to the game ( great community, beautiful areas, nice atmosphere...). The basic idea would be to avoid questing as much as humanly possible (ie. just kill shit to level) and to farm mats for sale on the AH so that I can pile up lots of moneys and shiny stuff.

Will it work? Who knows. Sounds entertaining enough to me though. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks, but in the mean time I'll try to catch up on the game, pick a class, pick a server, etc.

Lotro's major selling point is its involving story and deep quests, if you dont want to do those i would suggest playing another game isntead, actually why don't you just play a sandbox?

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Lotro's major selling point is its involving story and deep quests, if you dont want to do those i would suggest playing another game isntead, actually why don't you just play a sandbox?

Darkfall isn't really a sandbox, it's like a siegebox, because everything you do revolves around the eventuality of sieging.

Mortal Online is still in beta/not anywhere near done.

And LOTRO is too similar to WoW.

Originally posted by Tatum

Due to an increase in free time ( in a couple weeks), and an increase in boredom with this genre (always), I'm seriously considering an utterly pointless experiment: can I jump into the typical quest train-to-level-to-raiding MMO and ignore the intended playstyle? Ok, obviously I can do this, but can I actually stay entertained this way? Will it be fun?

My first choice would be LOTRO. I played the game for a few months from open beta and eventually burned out on the linear quest thing, although there were some high points to the game ( great community, beautiful areas, nice atmosphere...). The basic idea would be to avoid questing as much as humanly possible (ie. just kill shit to level) and to farm mats for sale on the AH so that I can pile up lots of moneys and shiny stuff.

Will it work? Who knows. Sounds entertaining enough to me though. Unfortunately, I'll have to wait a couple of weeks, but in the mean time I'll try to catch up on the game, pick a class, pick a server, etc.

The only person that can answer that question is you.  If you enjoy grinding and a slower than intended pace of leveling, but love to gain lots of money then it may be enjoyable.  However, the entire point of LOTRO in particular are the quests and I'm not sure you can entirely forego questing as the storyline progresses you to new areas (may be wrong).

Originally posted by mrroboto40

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Lotro's major selling point is its involving story and deep quests, if you dont want to do those i would suggest playing another game isntead, actually why don't you just play a sandbox?

 

Darkfall isn't really a sandbox, it's like a siegebox, because everything you do revolves around the eventuality of sieging.

Mortal Online is still in beta/not anywhere near done.

And LOTRO is too similar to WoW.

There's EVE, fallen earth, ryzom, UO , wurm and some other sandbox games too, darkfall isnt the only sandbox game thankfully.

Originally posted by Gabby-air 

There's EVE, fallen earth, ryzom, UO , wurm and some other sandbox games too, darkfall isnt the only sandbox game thankfully.

Darkfall isn't really a sandbox game, it just have some of the aspects. It might become one eventually however but now it is some kind of hybrid.
 

To the OP: Try Aion instead, LOTROs strength is the quest and lore of it. If you will ignore those you will miss the good part of the game, Aion have other strengths instead. 

Yea, that's the thing.  the "sandbox" end of the spectrum is extremely thin.  Most of those are either really old or really indie.  EVE is the closest thing to a quality sandbox and it's not exactly a sandbox.  Thats the idea here though, to see if you can impose your own playstyle on one of these games.

Yes, I have played LOTRO and I know what the game is all about...questing, story, yea yea.  Funny thing is, I had the most fun in that game during open beta, when I hit the level 15 cap and spent my time just farming mats and bull shitting on chat. 

So, any recomendations for a fast killing, solo class?  Hunter?  RK?  Champion?  Are any of these not extremely gear dependant?

Did he just say EVE isnt exactly a sandbox?

Originally posted by Gabby-air

Did he just say EVE isnt exactly a sandbox?

It's not.  EVE is an "open", skill based game, and from all I know it's the best one of those out there.

But, in a sandbox you have to have the ability to build and create within the game world.  Early SWG is about the best example of a sandbox MMO that I can think of.

Of course, if you want to be really picky you could say that only games like Second Life are true sandboxes...but we're talking about MMORPGs here.

Well, I picked up a box copy (MoM) for $9.99 and jumped back in.  Started a hobbit hunter, got out of the noob instance as fast as possible, and made to level 10 just mob hunting.   I'll say one thing, you make fast money mob grinding, much faster than I remember with the quest train.

Still trying to come up with an entertaining play style for the game.  I'll continue to avoid any form of questing.  I might just try to horde as much gold as possible...but there's really not much to spend it on.  Mob grinding and harvesting all the way to the level cap could be entertaining enough.  Not sure what I'll do once I hit the cap. 

Like I said, this is more of an experiment to see if you can have fun inspite of the controlling game mechanics.  The RP crowd seems to have fun no matter what game their in, so I'll keep looking for weird/interesting ways to entertain myself.  So far, I haven't worn any armor, other than a hat.  Haven't had any problems yet, don't expect to, the hunters seems pretty easy to play.  Maybe I'll come up with some more ridiculous handi-caps...

Fair choice Tatum, just keep in mind that the game wont let you in the mines of moria area without the quest for it. I decided to go for some good old fashioned exploration, and was barred at the invisible gates of moria, because I didnt have the quest (was too low level for it anyway).

it kinda bummed me out at the time, but I got over it.

Yea, I'd heard that.  No big deal, if I want into a zone I'll knock out what ever quests I need to get in there.  I've never really been into dungeon crawling any way, so as long as I can find mobs to kill some where.

just go play aion you can grind to your heart content without any need to do a quest ?