Not easy to make a top 5 list in a specific order.  I'll just post the 5 mmo's i have enjoyed the most so far.

Ultima Online, Star Wars Galaxies, Dark Age of Camelot, Lord of the Rings Online, Guild Wars 2

All have their pro's and con's, but they all have given me a fantastic experience so far and differ themselves from all the rest i find.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by FredomSekerZ

Originally posted by Tonin109

people added TSW as 5 of the best mmo

the game is not even one month live , lets see your opinion after  6 months of play

i'm sure if the thread was in 2011 you would put SWTOR

What does longevity have to do with quality. So, unless a game give sme 500+ hours of fun, it's not good?

He means you need to let the honeymoon phase settle a bit before you claim something is in your "best 5 ever".

Sorry, my bad. I was simply counting on the quality of the game itself. I don't believe i have to have months upon months of fun to like  a game, including mmorpgs.

But yes, i forgot the "best ever" part. Fair enough.

Originally posted by Tonin109

it's not good?

you dont get the point, fan boys from SWTOR claimed it was the best mmo they had blast bla bla bla

and so far i dont see this game in any list, people keep playing this game but its dying

so its funny people claim TSW one of the best mmo just after some days of play, the game is pretty new and buggy

combat system very bad if you compare to TERA or GW2 , i still want to play this game but to claim its one of the best i dont think so

that's why make a real opinion after some months of play 

 

Well I would not call the combat system bad, its jsut as good as GW2 or any other tab based system.. Tera is different as its more more of an action combat system.. but compare that to the combat system of Darkfall and Mortal online nad tera is lacking quite a bit..

I can quite happily put TSW in my top 5 as I have been playing it through beta and now since launch and its some of the best fun i have had in a themepark game for a very long time and its not gonna stop anytime soon.... been playing MMORPGs since EQ..

I am only a casual player and trying to play through every bit of content and not rushing to end game as i see now point in that as all..

Originally posted by Caldrin

Well I would not call the combat system bad, its jsut as good as GW2 or any other tab based system.. Tera is different as its more more of an action combat system.. but compare that to the combat system of Darkfall and Mortal online nad tera is lacking quite a bit..

I'm gonna get it for saying this, but IMO, Tera is better than Darkfall, but not as good as Mortal.

At least in terms of melee.

Originally posted by GTwander

Originally posted by Caldrin

Well I would not call the combat system bad, its jsut as good as GW2 or any other tab based system.. Tera is different as its more more of an action combat system.. but compare that to the combat system of Darkfall and Mortal online nad tera is lacking quite a bit..

I'm gonna get it for saying this, but IMO, Tera is better than Darkfall, but not as good as Mortal.

At least in terms of melee.

Its a hard one i dont like the way tera makes you stand still when you attack it seems odd, Darkfalls just flows better.. I think that MOs melee combat system is a lot better than Darkfalls tho :)

Originally posted by Tayah

Originally posted by The_Korrigan

Originally posted by cesmode8

Eve is the only legit contender for greatest of all time.  Its been around longer than any mmo, including WoW, and has the most loyal playerbase. 

This is actually wrong. The longest around MMORPG (with uninterrupted service) is Ultima Online, and it beats EVE by a good 7 years.

Exactly, ty.

I don't think The Realm had interrupted service. . I left it for UO when it launched although it may have still been in beta?

@Caldrin

Yeah, but it's more visible depending on class type. Warriors can skirt around a target while swinging and slayers can cancel out to dodge quickly enough, while lancer only has a forward pushing motion and zerker sits still the entire time.

@GTwander

Yeah it just seemed very limited to me.. but i guess it is a class based themepark game in the end.. :) Teras combat system was a step in the right direction for themepark games..

1 - Lineage 1 - the last true sandbox MMO live in the world, 100% player driven economy-politics, with almost 1 million subscribers in Asia currently, and it's still P2P in east. But unfortunatelly, dead in west.

2 - Lineage Eternal - not released yet, but NC wants to bring the old L1 style back, and I hope to experience the old L1 drama when Eternal comes here.

3 - Blade & SOul due to its mechanics and gameplay, but putting it aside, it semms to be a WoW clone.

4 - Lineage 2, it is not great as L1, but it still had a good drama and great sieges, I hope with the Glory Days update NC can bring all the drama of the old L2 days back, lost after GoD update.

5 -  I won't say anything, all MMOS I've played lately were WoW clones, focused in a game campaing where you reach level cap in 1 week via quests, and after that, you play in instanced rooms for multipayer content, doing the same arenas over and over.

UO
SWG
FFXI
AC
EQ

In no particular order since they would be to hard to order

UO (not much I can say, but this game had it right to begin with...and to bad the genre has gotten away from it)

FFXI (best community and social)

L2 (Sieges need I say more)

DAOC (RvR... very fun; 3 faction war etc)

EVE (This games depth is amazing, even though I wasn't able to get into it as much as I would have liked it still demands respect and a spot on the best list)

Alltime:

1. DAoC - Put the reason into doing PvP.  Atlantis expansion was a hugh PVE time sink that the high level players didn't want.  Improvements to the battle grounds were a hugh step backwards and crowd control with area effects were too strong. 

2.  SWG - Best open feel MMO ever.  Bad is they destroyed the game trying to improve it and now it is gone.

3.  Vanguard - very interesting races, classes and second best open feel to it.  Loved the Diplmoacy. Bad is no love given to adding content and low population.

4.  Uncharted Waters Online - Another RvR game with a different pace and feel to it. Old time sailing ships.  Bad is slow pace can get you bored.

5.  Pirates of the Burning Seas - Was absolutely a blast if you were in a good fleet, Port battles were great.  bad is with low population the economy doesn't function correctly and it effects the end game play.

Present:

1. SWTor - Fun getting to max level and doing your story.  Unfortunately end game isn't there in my opinion.

2. STO - I like the ships, bridge crew, player made quests.  Once again a bit weak on the end game although much better than SWTor.

3. Rift - Love the character skill choices and fun leveling up with plenty to keep you occupied.  The end game still lacking for me.

4.  EQ2 - Doubt there is a MMo that has more content this MMO.  My one complaint is the end game is high level dungeons and raids

It depends if your talking now or all time.

Now

1.  Rift

2.  EQ2

3-5.  There really are no other mmos close in terms of content or quality.

All time

1.  EQ1 Hands down the best MMO ever made. If you did not play EQ1 at release then you realy missed the golden age of MMOs.

2.  UO

3.  DAOC  Speaking of the golden age of MMOs.  Like EQ1 DAOC had an amazing community that had what iI would call ethical or honoerable PvP.

4,  Rift

5.  WoW  hard to argue with the quality and innovation. Wows game design chnaged the entire genre,  Maybe not for the good but it changed it.

Honorable mention for games that should have been if the games were actually finished

6. Vanguard  Pronbaly the besy developed foundation and core of any MMO ever made. Sadly it needed another year plus of develipment and anyone but SOE running it.

7.  Horizons  Great crafting game terrible adventuring game

8.  SWG Same as Horizons but worse because of SOE

9.  Shadowbane  Wonderful complex character creation system where there were many meaningful decisions that had to be made before one even entered the game.  This game could have been huge if the game had been stable.

Most lists are generally the opinion of the writer, but this does not even count as a list because you included 1 new game, 1 unreleased game, and 1 wildly unpopular game. Sorry I meant 2 not so populated games.

Do have a bias for AOC though so accept that one due to population + quality.

Since I like free games though I would have these games in no particular order

RIFT

AOC

LOTR

D & D

DOAC

Here are my five:

1. Star Wars Galaxies

2. Star Wars the Old Republic

3. Age of Conan

4. WoW

5. GW2 so far in beta

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm best MMO's I have played

1. Shadowbame-great suspense and world builder

2. Vanguard- a lot to do outside combat

3. SWTOR-lovd the story lines

4. Unchartered waters onling-very good sailing sandbox

5. AOC-first 20 levels best I have ever played

    Worst mmo's I have played-Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

1. Wurm online-controles , graphics, etc

2. Runes of magic- poorly done wow rip off

3. Warhammer online- bad pve and poorly organized

4. Eve online- little dots in space, spreadsheet not a game

5, SWG-had potential to be great

Originally posted by Noam

It depends if your talking now or all time.

 

5.  WoW  hard to argue with the quality and innovation. Wows game design chnaged the entire genre,  Maybe not for the good but it changed it.

Er, what innovations? WoW hasn't contributed a single original idea to the MMO space.

For me right now:

1 The Secret World

2 Star Wars The Old Republic

3 City of Heroes

4 World of Warcraft

5 Everquest II

I've played some horrible ones, but yeah stuff like Everquest and WoW stood out. Didn't like Rift. Or Everquest 2. Suppose Ferentus, Asheron's Call 2 and LOTRO deserve a mention.