I must say, I do love Pre-Searing Ascalon in Guild Wars.

Tarantia-AoC

And Lions Arch during halloween

I was going to say the main city from Champions, but then I thought that really was more of a map, or a zone rather than a city.

Layout wise, Stormwind from WoW. Everything was close together and easy to find.

As for NPC life, the Empire's main city from WAR. Again, don't care for the game, but the city is great. It's big, there's slums, palaces, docks, taverns, multiple auctioneers, a guild hall thing, statues of accomplished players, a college where lava flows through every, dungeons, and to top it all off, a drunk guy in the bar goes ape sometimes and offs players in one or two hits.

Visual stunning goes to Rivendell from LOTRO, becasue it is simply beautiful.

Player life goes to Bree, it's cool to see people just hanging in a tavern and actually not roleplaying, just talking about stuff, or bands playing in different spots.

I have yet to see a city that combines all of these things though.

When they were full I'll go with these.

Neocron - Felt alive when it was full of players wandering around.

Mos' in SWG was pretty nice when full of players

Stormwind was pretty but it felt empty most of the time. However, when it was full of players, it was totally a nice city to hang out at.

Originally posted by karat76

I would say Stormwind from WoW or Rivendell from LotRO.

UC from WoW (for ease of access) Rivendale from LOTRO for design, and the Inevitable City from WAR for sheer wtf-ness

Did anyone mentioned Halas from EQ1 yet?  I loved how remote it felt off in the north of the continent surrounded by snowcapped mountains.  It had such a unique feel to it with the snow everywhere in town and how the people huddled together in their huts and near the fires.  And the lake you had to cross to get in... very cool.

Honorable mention: Rivervale (again EQ1)

My favourite city is probably Trinsic from UO. There was just something about that place that felt alive when UO was in it's hayday.

I loved the feeling of impending doom I got leaving the gates of that city and the opposite feeling of relief upon entering.

great topic. This is bizarre for me but I might just say Freeport from EQ2. I don't like EQ2 but it had a couple of nice areas in it no doubt.

Gotta say probably Orgrimmar from WoW. It's hard to choose though, I'll tell you what WILL be the best though...

Coruscant , from SWTOR.

Kelethin in EQ 1. Lots of people still think of this as their mmo "home."

Either Paragon City or Rivendell, both were well-designed and memorable. Although I do have to give props to the Inevitable City and Stormwind, they are amazing as well.

My favourite would be Kaineng City in Guild Wars. I loved the feel of the city there, and since it was one of the main hubs, you could find basically everything there. The place was extremely beautiful as well, and it seemed like a very lifelike representation of an ancient Asian civilisation, which was what I loved about the place. It also had slumps and underground drainage systems, though those were instanced and crawling with gangsters, which added to the overall feel of the place.

It's not as populated as Lion's Arch or Kamadan, but in my opinion, it's the most beauitful.

Though I'd say I loved Tatooine in SWG as well, it really reminded me of the excitement I normally get whenever I was doing anything Star Wars related. I literally grew up on Star Wars so it's like a huge dose of nostagia for me. Though I did find the city extremely confusing.

I'm going to say Freeport in EQ2. I totally hate the place.

And that's why I'm calling it the best designed. I'll leave out the game aspects of zoning, since it's a way of life in EQ2 and just focus on the city itself as a whole. The place is simply oppressive. There's nothing comfortable about it. Nothing feels safe or inviting. It's cold. It's angry. It's a perfect architectural embodiment of the personality of the Overlord. In that, Sony hit the nail on the head. The fact that I hate it is proof, imo. I'm biased to the good guys, and no matter how much I try to roleplay an evil character, I just can't stand to stay in Freeport longer than absolutely necessary.

1. WOW: Dalaran - Simple in design.  Easy to get around in.  Looks amazing.  It floats.

2. EQ: West Freeport - Decent from a design standpoint, but it's oddly my favorite zone in any MMORPG.

3. EQ2: The Willow Wood - Super simple design.  Impossible to NOT find what you want. The first city zone I ever saw in EQ2.

4. VG: Khal - Large city, but it looks amazing and is easy to get around in unlike many of VG's other hub cities.

5. SWG: Mos Eisley - SWG may have blew, but if they got one thing right, it's the look of this city as it's easily the most immersive representation of the city ever seen in a SW video game.

Britannia in UO. You could go into every building and it was a very busy hub with lots and lots of character interaction. I also quite liked Moonglow as well.

Visually Altdorf in WAR is very nice - but it lacks the player interaction (even npc interaction) to make it a truly great city. Too much just make it big for bigs sake (like cities in wow)

Bree in LOTRO us another good example (tho not the prettiest place like a few mentioned above RIvendale looks much nicer)

Strange... my post seems to be missing, I said Kelethin (EQ1) too.

Hmm... Khal in Vanguard was indeed amazing. I would say New Targonor, but it was TOO big and confusing, and bereft of content. 

My favorite, and I think ONE of the best, is Camelot City. You have the defenders of Albion with their knights, the Guild of Shadows, with secret earthen passages underneath the buildings to find the more devious trainers, recreational buildings like the Ye Olde Mug bar, the merchants squares for arms and armor, the crafting area with the lathe, smithy,, the Church, with the amazing stained glass, clerics and paladins, the Academy with all the magicians, a beautiful guarden with a statue for Artorius Rex, then you get into the INNER city, the pristine white walls, the Round Table, the guild headquarters, Merlin's Tower with his giant guardians. It was amazing. We used to play hide and seek there. 

Dalaran. I love all the little shops with 'fun' things in them.

Isn't Moria in LotRO basically one huge dwarven city?  If so I'd have to say Moria is the best designed mmo city.  I mean it had a whole expansion dedicated entirely to it.

Originally posted by miagisan

i always had a soft spot for Mos Eisley in SWG, city felt like it planted you right into the movie.

enough said