Hello all.

What MMO have you played lately that you had very low expectations going into, but actually turned out to be decent.

We all talk about good games that flop, but what about the other way around.

Four of the last five games I've tried I've gone in with low expectations and ended up pleasantly surprised.

I had heard horrible things about Vanguard, mainly because it had such a crappy launch and a dismal looking future. I tried it anyway because it looked fun, and it was light years better than I expected. An excellent PvE game.

Ryzom also had a seriously low population issue and the devs were in hard times, so I went in expecting little. The community was the best I've seen in an MMO and the game has the most "alive" world I've seen in any MMO to date.

Like VG, Darkfall had a crappy launch and has a haters club the size of Dallas. It's full loot PvP and I had read I'd be griefed relentlessly if I played. It still looked fun, so I subbed and had some of the most fun I've had in any MMO. The community has its share of asshats, but was better than I expected. The game has its issues, no doubt, but I still plan on subbing again when I get a good PC to run it on.

I'm currently playing City of Heroes and am really enjoying it. I had tried City of Villains before, but only stuck around for a month and soloed that whole time. I decided I'd try City of Heroes this time, and it's like my eyes have been opened. When I played CoV, I didn't know jack squat. I was expecting it to play like WoW, and didn't give it a fair shake. This time, I'm really getting into it and am having a lot of fun.

The one game out of the last five I didn't like, I went in with high expectations and had them kicked to the curb. Champions Online. You'd think it would be similar to CoH, but for some reason it's not. No one groups up in CO, which is what nearly everyone does in CoH. I stuck around in CO for a month and couldn't take it anymore.

The past two games I really got into I went in with low expectations but ended up loving.  Fallen Earth was the first,  I didn't know anything about it, just heard bad things (mostly from this site) and when I finally tried it, I was very surprised, and happy.  I subbed to that game for just over 3 months, and loved every minute of it.  I hadn't subbed to something for that long since SWG Pre NGE.

The next thing I tried was Global Agenda,  and I still play that game heavily.  No monthly fee, and some of the best PvP action I've ever had.  I didn't think it was going to be very good, hence never wanting to try it before,  but with the monthly fee dropped, and the good marks some users here gave it,  I gave it a try and have logged well over 200 hours and I've only been playing a couple months.

Originally posted by maskedweasel

The past two games I really got into I went in with low expectations but ended up loving.  Fallen Earth was the first,  I didn't know anything about it, just heard bad things (mostly from this site) and when I finally tried it, I was very surprised, and happy.  I subbed to that game for just over 3 months, and loved every minute of it.  I hadn't subbed to something for that long since SWG Pre NGE.

 

The next thing I tried was Global Agenda,  and I still play that game heavily.  No monthly fee, and some of the best PvP action I've ever had.  I didn't think it was going to be very good, hence never wanting to try it before,  but with the monthly fee dropped, and the good marks some users here gave it,  I gave it a try and have logged well over 200 hours and I've only been playing a couple months.

 People tend to bash most games on this forums sadly its true.. I never listen to bad reviews on this forum..

Fallen earth I been playing since CB it had its fair share of issues but turned into one of the better mMO's out there period,. I just took a break from it.. But I plan to go back.. But never listen to bad reviews from people on these forums as they been wrong most of the time, people even bash games that are not out yet...

LoTRO

I hated the books in school and had no plans to try the game. I was very bored with the game I was playing in 2006 and thought that maybe I was getting too mature to play MMO's altogether. None seemed fun to me anymore.

Then I saw an "LoTRO Open Beta"  promo on this site and it had the cutest screenshot of a hobbit house! It was so freaking adorable. I applied so I could see the hobbit houses and have been playing that game ever since- from Jan of 2007. I expected to be bored and it still hasn't happened. I thought the game would be silly and it's very complex with cool classes.  I thought the hobbits would look silly and....well they do look ridiculous LOL! So, I only play human chars:) I thought the game would be lame and it's not- it's brilliantly done.

I had zero expectations and hated the books. The lore means nothing to me but I really , really love the game.

Thank you mmorpg.com. I've had 3 years of fun because you showed a screenshot  of a hobbit house=)  You saved me from the agony of watching crappy TV shows these last 3 years:)

Lori

None of the MMOs that I have had low expectations haven't surprised me. I guess I do my homework before I tryout a game. Except for Vanguard where I practically jumped in blindly... I can't believe I actually payed for that crap. A fact which I regret to this day. I shall not make the same mistake again.

Outside of MMOs, plenty of games have surprised me like Tom Clancy's Hawx, Mount & Blade, Star Wars Republic Commando, Freelancer etc..

To be honest I go into most games with low expectations and thats something I learned to do years ago when I was playing Super Nintendo games, yes the same hype trains were around then as well its not a modern thing. But that doesn't mean all games are "awesome" to me far from it I just don't get the "ex-smokers syndrome" when they fail to please so the ones I liked are....

My present MMO

Sword Of The New World (Sword 2) : Its a grinder, its instanced but its got the best soundtrack I've ever heard, the combat is thrilling and RTS style as you control 3 toons in a team at once, it has over 40 UPC's that you can collect and level then add to your team at any time with special moves, spells and traits of their own so the combinations of teams is off the scale and combine that with the many stances you can have its mindboggling add to that PVP, Raids and lots of grouping stuff all through the game its a uniques experience. Finally its F2P (which in my book is a good thing).

Lineage 2 : Heard about it from reading it in a gaming mag saw a copy for £10 so snapped it up and played for about 6 months until the economy bit my arse big time and left in a hufff! But loved the world, creatures, PVP, music and all the classes and the ability to pick a class path on any of your characters. I just wish I'd picked it up a few years earlier.

Face Of Mankind: The complete antithesis to the modern template of MMO's. The best tutorial of any game in a cool video, logged in chatted to my faction got to my home world and was dropped in a war with another faction The Mercs so it was mental PvP for about 2 weeks until we called a truce. The only game where I truly felt part of something and I could pratice a bit roleplay when ever I wanted. Don't know why I left though probably taken by a new shinny coming out.

DDO: Heard all the negative stuff but saw a copy for £9 so went for it. Logged in played the island grouped up nearly straight away, learned to just log in stick myself up for some quests in the LFG tab and always had a group up within 15 minutes. The downsides really were a vet community that ran through the quests really quick, with only a few wanting to slow down so us newbs could learn how to play. The best dungeons I've ever played through as well but its not really an MMO its really just a dungeon crawler.

Everquest 2: Did not know much about this other than the obvious, its a successor to the granddaddy of MMO's Everquest. Logged in saw the amount of races and classes and thought this is more like it (I started with WOW by the way) got into the world, Darklight Woods and with its eerie soundtrack and sounds, loved it played for about 6 months as well but the top heavy community got to me in the end, no one to play with. Now I only wish they had kept to their original vision and not streamlined it to WOW the WOW crowd, shame though, still play on and off.

World Of Warcraft: have to give this an honorable mention, not really knowing what an MMO was I played this for about 10 months ran my own guild and loved playing in teams and learning all the MMO parlance but ultimately when my guild fell apart I saw a shallow gear grinder with a so so community (I'd been isolated for son long) and could  not be bothered with the effort to to find another cool guild, there was so many other games to check out.

There are a few others but those are the ones which left a mark. I'm looking to get in at the start of an MMO and grow with it tried that with Darkfall and Aion but both disappointed me so FFXIV is dropping through the door and day and going to give that a go, wish me luck. Also would just like to say there is diversity out there if you just have a good look around, you don't really know what will float you boat until you play it.

Cal.

Planetside: Like everyone else I too have trudged through the forum posts about SOE, you know the ones, SOE breaks into your house, steals you kids, gives your girlfriend over to terrorists, makes five year olds take heroine, causes global warming, sexually abuses baby pandas... yada yada yada. I never played SWG (I know... "you were'nt there man... you don't understand... SWG was like Salma Hyek covered in chocolate sauce in the golden times... SOE killed my inner child").

Anyhow... saw there was a free trial of Planetside, wasn't expecting much, but i used to love playing Tribes so I figured I'd risk the baby pandas and give an SOE game a go. Had an absloute blast, played it for almost 2 years, epic battles, loved flying my loadstar in to save the day. Setting up all my defensive turrets and mines, hunting down cloaked hackers, eventually calling in orbital strikes and the like... playing a support class has simply never been as much fun in any game before or since).

Unfortunately then came the hackers, and the extremely weak Black Ops and Rabbit "events" and the glory days of Planetside came to an end with a whimper.

RIP Planetside, I thought you would last 30 minutes on my hard drive with your crappy graphics and Evil Overlord publisher, but I was wrong... you were great. One day Planetside 2 might come along, and all will be right with the world again. ;o)

Originally posted by snoop101

Hello all.

What MMO have you played lately that you had very low expectations going into, but actually turned out to be decent.

We all talk about good games that flop, but what about the other way around.

Return to DAOC. 10yr old game....still one of the best

Guild Wars and Anarchy Online.