Originally posted by Fadedbomb

Blackburrow - (EQ)

 

Tomb of Mythra - (DAOC)

 

Tatooine - (SWG PreCU)

 

Commonlands - (EQ2 - launch)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Yeah, BB in EQ was always fun no matter how many alts i took through there. You'd work your way deep into the dungeon, only to see"Train!" pop up in text. 30 toons running for the zone exit with Gnolls of all levels chsing them. Fun times. Tortuge in AoC was good too. Can't remember what UO noob area was called, but without zones you could quickly find yourself being chased out of the woods by things much higher level than you. Was fun to discover what was out there.

West Karana / Greater Fay - EQ

Albion starting area - DAOC

Darklight woods / Commonlands (at launch) - EQ2

Westfall /  Duskwood / Darkshore (preCata)  - WOW

Tortage - AOC

ork starting area - WAR

Originally posted by smh_alot
Most of us here have played more than 1 MMO in the time we've been MMO gamers. In that time, what starter areas do you have fondest memories of, or which ones did you consider to be the best you've played?

 

Here are mine:

 

Greater Faydark (EQ)

 

 

Pre-Searing Ascalon (Guild Wars)

 

Tortage Island (Age of Conan)

 

So, what are you people's most favorite starter areas in the many years of MMO gaming and leveling you experienced?

My list would be similar to yours. Greater Faydark is of course a classic, and easily the best starting zone in EQ. It felt so big back in the day and had a cool design.

Pre-Searing Ascalon was fun largely because of the heart-breaking story. But GW today, I think Prophecies is probably my least favorite campaign, though I loved the story the first time though.

Tortage Island was a blast. It's to bad the developers focused so heavily on the early experience to the expense of the rest of the game. Thankfully the lead of The Secret World has come out and said it was a mistake they won't repeat.

If I had to chose an apsolute favorite, I'd have to say The Shire from LotRO. They got the shire dead on and I had so much fun exploring it and RP'ing in the zone. My guild doing events there, and drinking at the Green Dragon, doing the festivals, the 'drinking run'. LotRO has some of the best art direction to begin with in the genre. So I think hands down, the Shire. Technically it isn't the 'starting zone' but with LotRO the starting zone is more a short tutorial so I wouldn't count them.

Island of Dawn in TERA. Prettiest so far, although the quests suck, can't say I had more fun with Rift, SWTOR or WoW because the combat is boring and TERA's(atleast as a warrior) was fantastic.

Originally posted by mindw0rk

Three that stand out of all:

Tortage (AoC) - just very well done and polished

Lands around Khal (Vanguard) - amazing view and scope, interesting quests

Shire (LoTRO) - one of the best MMO zones ever made

Ya the Shire was pretty amazing. You really felt like you were there.

EQ starter zones were by far the best.

LOTRO Shire here too.

-unique (albeit somewhat annoying) quests

-great atmosphere

-funny/clever dialogue/storyline

-chicken run quests and the impossible to get reward

Warhammer Online

Greenskin starter area: Mount Bloodhorn

Chaos starter area: Norsca

It took only 5 mins to get feel of the Warhammer on those zones...

I used to love the starter isalnd that you went to in old eq2 before they "wowified" it. It was the same layout for both factions but there were differnt mobs and quests depending on wether you were queynos scum of freeport heroes! There was a couple of named to kill, including the rare named sea creature. cant remeber if iy was an octopus or a shark.

ahhhh, good times, good times

Dwarf Area in EQ1.   I loved the chessboard. It was such a dangerous and unfrogving starter zone.  I don't recall if that haunted area in the teens was still in the same zone.  But I loved that place as well.  At release it was hard not to fall in love with EQ1.  Suhc an amazing and scary world.

Gnome area in WoW -  The first game to really offer fun content at low levels.  Until WoW people always said wait until level 20 then the game will be fun.  I loved the foot prints in the snow.

Dwarf Area in Vanguard -  The Dwarf city was simply amazing.  Especially considering most people would never see it except as a low level Dwarf.  Some of the 14 or starter areas were quite hit and miss in terms of quality.  But the Dwarf area was my favorite.

SWTOR  I am not a fan of Tor but I thought the starting areas were well done.  Mainly because of the story.

Tortage - AoC -  IMO one of the worst games ever released.  A complete sham of a game.  But Tortage was well done.  Its to bad the rest of the game was completely unfinished.

Rift -  Both starter zones.  Both Freemarch and Silverwood are extremely well done starter zones.  Offering exploration, tons of quests, a starter dungeon, capital city and much more.

The Shire -LORO -  Just a wonderful zone if you like hobbits.  It really brought the books to life to me.  There were lots of the characters from the books, buildings and some amazing views.  If one grew up reading the books its almost a must to play lotro to expereince the Shire.

The Shire - LotRO. Love Tolkien and I love LotR.

Teldrassil - WoW. Amazing visual aesthetic and music.

Elwynn Forest - WoW. I'm a big fan of classic fantasy like this.

Dun Morogh - WoW. Another classic snowy setting.

Tortage - AoC. Very well done with amazing visuals and music.

---

Yeah, I think WoW had amazing world design - and I will never forget the impact the atmosphere had on me.

I've played MMOs since their inception (pre-UO) - but nothing comes close to WoW in terms of the overall visual aesthetic. The game is dead to me now, but that's irrelevant.

My favorite for sentimental reasons is Jhelom in UO on launch day! Mind. Was. Blown. Not because of anything specific to Jhelom, but because I was playing an Ultima game with thousands of other people. 1997-2000 UO is still by far the best gaming experience i've had or probably will ever have.

My runner-up would prolly have to be Ak'Anon (gnome city in eq). Great atmosphere, little tunnels with mechanical spiders, I just remember having a blast there.

And of course shout-outs to the gelatinous cubes in Qeynos Sewers. I spent an inordinate amount of time punching and kicking them to death.

So it's not really a 'starter' area, but it is where you start the game.  Any city capital in Final Fantasy XI.  They were magical to me, huge with a great scale to the character.  There were all kinds of branches off that led to areas where you would just get mauled, and the best part is there were characters of all shapes and sizes running around.  The first character I ran into was a level 60 Dragoon looking extremely awesome and they became a friend for the few years I played.  It felt like a real bustling city, and because it wasn't a linear grind themepark I revisited the city throughout the years I played.  I would constantly return, and explore things that I was unable to before.

This is my ideal MMO setup.  Real city hubs that all levels frequent, and you constantly return to.  There wasn't one area in this game that I felt like once I had grinded through it I would never return to.  It was more like a real world laid out to explore and travel and not a straight line.

Perhaps I'm just nostalgic, but I've always enjoyed EverQuest II's Isle of Refuge.

AOC Tortage - Is by far the best starting area I have played.  Unfortunalty it did not reflect the rest of the game and I didnt even make it to max level.

None of the others stand out to me.  SWTOR ones seem fine but just nothing new or memorable.

Originally posted by Krellen

AOC Tortage - Is by far the best starting area I have played.  Unfortunalty it did not reflect the rest of the game and I didnt even make it to max level.

Absolutely agree.

The starting area in AOC, was from start to finish, superb.  I especially loved the mission where you have to sneak into an enemy area, climb up onto a rooftob to spy on a conversation between some enemies.

It was just an incredibly well designed experience that actually makes me miss the game every time I think about it.

tortage in AOC hands down the best starting area of any MMO. shame bout the rest.

My first was my fav, by far.... Butcherblock Mts in original EQ !!

the shire in lotro

My MMO starter zone experience includes: FFXI, WoW, Rift, Aion, LotR, and WAR

Tortage in AoC was definitely pretty solid. 

I have very fond memories from my first character in WoW, a Night Elf, so Teldrasil might be my favorite, if only for nostalgia's sake. 

I thought the Worgen starting zone was done very well.  As far as the solo quest system is concerned, I think phasing adds good depth to the story telling. 

If I had to pick my current favorite though, I really love the whole Cataclysm human starting area: Elywyn Forest > Westfall > Redridge > Duskwood.  Really, one great story is told across the first 3 zones, with several other interesting sub-stories woven in between.  Then add the haunting environment of Duskwood as icing on top of the cake.  I log onto an unlimited free trial account every now and then just to run through these zones!

None of the other games really had a starting zone that blew me away.