I was hoping someone could help me find a new mmo. To be honest I haven’t found anything that has kept my attention since SWG. I’d like an mmo with more than questing and combat. Something that has some interesting side activities, good crafting, player housing would be a plus as well as pvp.

I’ve recently tried The Secret World and I don’t see much to the game other than questing and combat. Star Wars the Old Republic at least offers the space mini game but I seem to always find myself logging out with no interest in playing.

Some games I’ve been considering are Rift, Vanguard and EQ2 though I’m open to suggestions. I admit I don’t know much about any of these titles. I know Vanguard and EQ2 offer player housing. I read that Rift offers many side activities like survival and trapping is supposedly on its way soon. I have tried Vanguard and EQ2 a while ago though it was quite limited. I didn’t level either character much past lvl 10 as I felt that all I was doing was questing and combat so I may have missed what the games truly had to offer. I’d also like to have the option to get a party together and simply grind on mobs as opposed to running quests all day.

Thanks for any suggestions.

I would suggest giving Wurm online a go, you teraform the world and can build houses virtually anywhere. If you dont have the patiants for that, I would suggest my currently favorite game, Fallen Earth, all items in the game are craftable (including all mounts/cars) and its action based combat (as in you can play FPS style with mellee or guns)

Both are F2P.

I would also love to see a game with great side activities. Nintendo style mini games, something like fishing in zelda would be cool. Play cards in the tavern type stuff etc... I would think these things not to be to hard for game designers. 

If you can handle the idea of basically playing the game through menus, EvE online is pretty sweet. While there isn't a grind for levelling, earning the in-game currency can be a grind so it helps a lot to get hooked on spending that money on glorious spaceship explosions.

Wondering if the OP has tried GW2 at all? That game has a lot of mini-games within it.

If you are looking for a game that is centered around mini-games, though, that might be tough. Eve has a lot more than combat & questing (and honestly the combat is probably the most boring part of that game). There's also MMOs based around sports, Second Life (though I've never played it) which doesn't have any combat afaik.

Really depends on if you really want a game with no combat, or you want a game that has combat, but also offers alternatives. If it's the later, then I'd really suggest checking out GW2. It launches in ~1 month, has no subscription, and offers a lot of variety to how you play the game (you can craft, explore, contribute via mini-games / gathering, etc.).

If you are looking for a game that has little-no combat in it, then that's going to be tough. I'd say check out Second Life, but I can't recommend it as I have absolutely zero experience with that game. I just know it doesn't have combat. There's also stuff like minecraft (which isn't an MMO) but is based more around building, and creating random qwerky stuff, rather than combat.

I recommend Rift. It has so much going for it, like the recently released 1.9 patch which added 3-faction warfare to the game and an upcoming expansion which will add tons upon tons of content to the game, including the player housing you requested. There are also a couple of mini-games like fishing and artifact collecting in the game - so there's plenty of stuff to keep you busy.

I took a long break from Rift just before patch 1.3 (might have been 1.2) mainly to try out new games, but then I saw the patch notes for 1.9 the other day and knew, that I HAD to give the game another chance, and I'm glad I did. Truth told, I'll most likely leave again when GW2's out, but until then, this game will keep me busy and happy.

Thank you for all the great replies. I’m looking over some of the games that have been mentioned now. I do want the game to have combat I’d just like to be able to wonder off and do other things or even progress through activities other than combat. A good example would be something similar to leveling a crafter in SWG or pre cu creature handler catching and training their pets.

Eve Online is a great game though it’s never been for me. I actually participated in the beta as I was so excited for the game but the lack of control over the ship turned me off. I guess I was hoping for something similar to Earth and Beyond.  I still check in on Eve from time to time but I often feel like I log in, set a skill to train and log out.

I’ll definitely check into Fallen Earth. I actually forgot about that game and the setting does seem interesting. I’m curious how the quality of the game is. I often avoid free to play games though it seems to be a much more common model these days.

Rift seems to receive a lot of praise and if they are adding player housing in an upcoming expansion than I’ll have to at least try the trial. The game seems to have a lot of content but I’ve never been quite at home in a true theme park.

I haven’t checked into Guild Wars 2 at all to be honest. At least I’ll be able to read up on it before it releases to see if it is something that would interest me. In the meantime I can at least try out Rift and Fallen Earth.

I was hoping the first post would just say

"...cowbell".

For an indepth crafting experience Vanguard is solid.

SWGEmu.com

Close to 3k people online during prime time.  Its pre-cu SWG, check it out.