What do you guys think the 2 most underrated Free to Play and Pay to play MMOs are?

Free to Play:

                     Age of Conan:    Honestly this is one of the best MMOs I have played period, great combat, great ability animations, though it drops off story-wise after the tutorial it is very fun for a few months at a time, though classes and such are pretty limited for free players I dont understand why this game didnt take off after it went free like other games. Better than most games out there in Graphics, story, combat, and great for adults that want a mature game.

Pay to Play:

                     Aion: Though alot of people dismiss this game as a generic grind there is something about Aion I just really love. The graphics are gorgeous, the PvP is exciting, combat is a little generic but animations are fluid and though the game is still a "grind" it isnt near as bad as people have said. For anyone who hasnt tried this game and dismisses or trashes it, give it a good chance, I got a character to max lvl and I only played it hardcore for 2 months. It is a fun game that keeps you entertained for weeks and is much better than people say.

In my opinion you just mentioned the two best P2P and F2P games.

I also think you mentioned two MMORPG games with some of  the highest system requirements. DC universe has pretty high requirements too but it became a success because its playable on the PS3 as well. Last I heard 2.3 million subscribers play on the PS3 as opposed to 1.8 on the PC. yet there are way more people with PCs than people with PS3s.  Its just that most people dont have a computer that can play those games well. Or they have a laptop with something like intel integrated graphics adapters (which are awesome for video but not so much for 3D)

Second, the large file size is also a factor for some.

Last, I think for the above reasons alot of people have not tried them, or played them for 10 mins had low FPS, blamed it on "lag", saw that it was unplayable for them and uninstalled.  There is always those that never played it and say they did then proceed to say "it sucks! Play this other game I like better! If you dont you are stupid!"

At the moment I am playing Conan like mad.  I will admit I did not play it for years because I did not have a computer that could handle the demands of the game.

Dofus & Wakfu:

People complain that they want games to be different. Yet when a smallish dev manages to release two MMOs that are completely different from everything else and relatively bug-free, majority of people here on MMORPG.com proceed to ignore the games completely and continue complaining that games aren't different and innovative enough.

WoW:

People grow up and change, and get bored with MMOs, but don't want to admit it, and instead blame it on WoW.

Vanguard

Amazing game doomed because of the terrible launch.  It's scope is amazing and it's a shame so many mmo players have never given it a try or even realize that many of the things they wish existed in an mmo already do in Vanguard.

Free to Play:

Haven't played many, but AoC is a good one.

Pay to Play:

Vanguard - It had many problems at start. But its still one of the best and most complex MMORPGs out there. Pity there are so few players.

F2P: Uncharted Waters

even if its not really a sandbox. if you get past the childish graphics you will discover a pretty sandboxish atmosphere.

P2P: aside from EQ1, which is pretty outdated, and EVE i would rate all MMOs since 2004 as "not worth to play more than a few weeks" anyways. but yes, Vanguard is underrated. after the launch catastrophe, it would deserve more customers. if SoE would start a massive Pro-Vanguard Campaign to revive this game, i would play again surely.

F2P: Old School - Lineage 2.  Game has been totally reinvented, restricts no content from F2P players, has all sorts of perks and rewards to assist encourage you along the way to your Awakening, where the game totally changes (perhaps not for the better, I dunno yet) and focuses on the end game of Castle Sieging and clan wars.

Graphics are still of a good quality, class variety is great up to the Awakening, and this title little resembles the original game. (much to the dismay of the original players)

A more casual player like myself will likely take 3-6 months to get to max level (if then) so for those claiming newer titles let you level too quickly, this is the game for you.  Also, while many classes can solo, grouping is still a very viable way to level up and many players spend countless hours fighting together in the various dungeons (instanced and open world) throughout the game.

Yes, it's dirty with botters and multi-boxers, but other than fighting them for npcs to kill they have no effect on your gameplay.  All your gear is provided pretty much free up to level 85 (Awakening) and you won't need to spend a dime in the cash shop to that point.  I suspect after that you're really going to want to buy exp boosters but hey, they've got to make money some how.

F2P:  New School - Uncharted Waters Online - I've only dabbled with this game so far, but from what I've read from Quizzzical and some others this might be one of the more sandboxy titles out there today, and certainly has a different slant to it.  It's on my future play list of games.

P2P:EVE - Yes, I know, highly regarded in some circles, vilified in most but it has some features and gameplay like no other title out there today.  While those with lots of time to "work" for their progression hate it's real time skill training I find it brilliant for a time challenged person like myself. 

Also, while so many fail to understand how the mechanics works, the skill caps on various ships and abilities make sure that in time (not necessarily short btw) means that in you will in fact become quite competitive with veterans who have years ahead of you.  (especially if you have multiple accounts which is not a bad thing folks, it's ok to have more than one account to a game, I've done it for years with titles such as DAOC and WOW)

I find their solution to providing a good mix of PVE and PVP, with safer areas and more dangerous ones to be one of the best compromises in the gaming world today.

Now if only there were an avatar based fantasy title along the same lines I'd be really happy.  (Perpetuum didn't do it for me)

Vanguard.

  I was laughing out loud the other night, when listening to a person complaining about how complicated a boss mob fight was. They have no idea. It's actually a pretty straight forward tank and spanking with one person doing some running. I'm just sorry Vanguard's pop isn't larger. The game has it's quirks and issues, but for the most part is stable and gasp, the support is good and prompt. The game suffers perhaps from being overly complicated and being group dependant. End game is about 24 man raiding and grinding gear.

Vanguard.

The community would be gigantic had they not launched too early in the game. That destroyed their image.

MMOs rarely get a second chance.

F2P - The new APB:Reloaded. I was dumb enough to buy it just weeks before the developers caved, and nothing cycled over to the G1 version, but damn if this game isn't fun as all hell... and free. Wish I had just not joined the party early on that one.

P2P - Ryzom, though I dunno if it technically applies, seeing as how you can play for free up to a skill cap. The game is amazing, everything about it, but I just couldn't get over the lack of players in it - like most people - but this can be expected from the beginning when you advertise a product under an obscure moniker like "the saga of ryzom. Honestly, when I heard of it *years* ago, the name and a few screenies were enough to turn me off. I think I'd write that game's failure off under "dumb name".

Think most the older games were underrated due to the fact not everyone in the world had internet at the time. Then WOW came out, more people were online, they had a franchise name, and it just blew away all mmo's at the time. Kinda like the trojan horse. Or any of the other reasons posted here. Pure opinion of course.

So most the games i can think of were older games like SWG, Vanguard, etc... AOC also was pretty damn nice when i started to play. Most if not the entire genre of sandboxes are underrated also.

Originally posted by dazedconfuse
Yep. I think vanguard wins this poll in a landslide. Just needs more players now that has a development team (actually announced in game yesterday that it doubled in size last week to at least 8 people). It actually sounds like soe is trying to make something of this game. Hopefully they advertise the effort.

I loled because I read this as "the playerbase doubled to 8 people"

which is kind of what it feels like anyway. 

According to Xfire, 3 Xfire users played it this month...

AoC ?  Seriously ?

This game has skeleton crew atm and tons of unsolved problems + new patches create often new problems + sieges still don't really work after all those years.

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Underrated?

EvE Online - yeah many people love it, but stil ALOT people underrate it.  Well guess it is this kind of game that just does not applt to many.

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Not much underrated mmorpg's though imho.

Plently of overrated ,but underrated? Nah not anymore.

SWG and UO were preety underrated back in the day.

Lotro in it's early days when it was still decent game. (nau is awful)

Originally posted by Margulis

Vanguard

Amazing game doomed because of the terrible launch.  It's scope is amazing and it's a shame so many mmo players have never given it a try or even realize that many of the things they wish existed in an mmo already do in Vanguard.

This..

Originally posted by Torgrim

Originally posted by Margulis

Vanguard

Amazing game doomed because of the terrible launch.  It's scope is amazing and it's a shame so many mmo players have never given it a try or even realize that many of the things they wish existed in an mmo already do in Vanguard.

 

This..

True , it was not player fault though. 

This game launch could be worst AAA mmorpg in all history of mmorpgs possibly.

Amount of gamebreaking issues it had was just, just ridiculous.

Imo this game should have it rest already.

Originally posted by fenistil

Originally posted by Torgrim

Originally posted by Margulis

Vanguard

Amazing game doomed because of the terrible launch.  It's scope is amazing and it's a shame so many mmo players have never given it a try or even realize that many of the things they wish existed in an mmo already do in Vanguard.

 

This..

True , it was not player fault though. 

 

This game launch could be worst AAA mmorpg in all history of mmorpgs possibly.

Amount of gamebreaking issues it had was just, just ridiculous.

 

Imo this game should have it rest already.

Vanguard was a gem in the rough that was pushed aside. The problem is what SOE said they would do and did do were not in synch. I played on the FFA PvP server (Sartok, Tharridan whatever). The moment they made an announcment saying they would only go back to fixing pvp after pve was fixed it killed the game.

The problem was that for the past couple of patches at that point they had revamped several classes. Every one of those revamped classes DESTROYED the other classes in pvp (/cough Druid revamp) and were basically in another tier in terms of power. Knowing they wouldn't touch balance for a long time (if ever because as we all know PvE is never complete) basically killed the game.

That and them not even fixing game breaking bugs like dupes for months (half a year or more at least) after they were reported made me lose a great deal of respect for SoE (Its kinda funny though even though SOE isn't exactly high on my list as far as game developers for MMO's its still higher than EA, and even Blizzard because they cater to the ultra casual market.