FFXI

Besides the fact that it was a fantastic game I still think forced grouping is the best means of building a strong community and wish more games would follow the same route instead of making everything solo...

1. SWG--Nothing has ever compared to pre-NGE. I'm not sure if anything ever will. Freedom to do what you want and customize your character and world. Unriveled before it's ultimate doom.

2. DDO--Heavily (almost totally) instanced, but cool D&D based class system with a up to 3 classes (unless that's changed recently). You can block and tumble (wished tumbling was more usefull, but it looks cool and I was addicted to it).

3. EQ2--Spent a lot of time there, and went back several times.

4. EVE--Weird, I'm not much of a PVPer, but I loved it's customization of the ships and the open universe. I happily ran missions; I'm sure I'll go back and try it again, again.

5. Fallen Earth--Semi Sandboxy.

And then a whole bunch of nothing. Tried WoW of course, but the cartoony and miserbly uncostomizably PCs and world makes it not feel right from the first second on. Played 2 week trial,bought the game and played the 30 days. That was enough. Similiar to SWTOR--bought the game just after it came out, but didn't finish the 30 days. Played 15 or so and never logged in since. Waste of $50. I've been around a long time (look at my join date; but look at my # of posts in that time, and most of them are about SWG!) and am not sure why I even come here anymore except to hope that there will finally be another MMO I want to play.

DCB

Eve Online - Its tuff to say this is anything but the greatest player created world ever imagined. Supply and demand economy is an endgame that always renews itself and creates greed fueled conflict.

Age of Conan - Say what you will... but bad players were bad, no matter what. This added an element to PvP and PvE that numbers couldn't always account for. IMO best raiding and pvp experience I've had to date. (this is pre 1.5)

Aion - Endless character customization.. always felt like an indvidual.  Powerful classes and players were something you had to take notice of.... not be nerfed to oblivion.

No favorite among them, but if I could roll those three up into one MMO...

Originally posted by VitaminK

Asheron's Call 2: Fallen Kings

Game was simply amazing, whole landscape changed after world events, awesome community. Sad it died so young :'(

It's back, you should go play it :)

For me, the most time invested was WoW because I knew the most people personally.    But the best MMO for me was Guild Wars 1.   

Tied For First SWG and GW2

Second Place Aion

Third Place EVE

The tie for first place is kind of obvious best themepark game to date and the best sandboxish mmo to date (before shutdown =(

For me is a toss up between EQ1 , UO , AC1

The only thing that keeps me from picking UO is because when i played UO it was on Dialup modem and the lag  and rubberbanding was at times frustrating! lol but great game non the less so is why i listed it.

I see there's more negative threads in the pub. Let's counter all the bad vibes by talking more about great mmorpg experiences.

Edit: anyone still playing aion I'm considering joining and would like to hear first hand experiences.

Originally posted by PK4Gold

For me is a toss up between EQ1 , UO , AC1

The only thing that keeps me from picking UO is because when i played UO it was on Dialup modem and the lag  and rubberbanding was at times frustrating! lol but great game non the less so is why i listed it.

 

Do you still play any of these games?

Im sure the new high speed technology would make Ultima better. 

Not to sound like a noob but what is AC1?

Dark Age of Camelot kept me going for about 4 years of play time, longer than any other game. 

Everquest was next with about 2 years.

I don't think anything else even comes close.

For PvP:  Dark Ages of Camelot, League of Legends

Character Customization:  Shadowbane, SWG, and Dungeons and Dragons Online

PvE: Everquest, WoW (Vanilla to WoTLK...Cata and MOP are meh)

By far, my top games are Shadowbane, SWG, and Dungeons and Dragons Online.  I'm all about customization and options.  I hate being shoehorned into a class that is like everyone else.

Don't get me wrong, WoW isn't bad, it just isn't great.  After WotLK, Blizzard began to over simplfy the game and make it far too accessible.  It isn't a bad thing that they want to let people in, but it is problematic when they begin to lose long time players because the game is too dumbed down.