One reason why LOTRO shines is its views.  Riding through southern Bree and seeing Weathertop in the distance is stunning.  

Originally posted by Aeonblades

I can't recommend Vanguard to anyone, no matter how massive the underused world is. It is a beautiful place they have created, but there is nothing in it.

Vanguard has more content in it than the vast majority of AAA MMORPGs on the market. There's TONS of stuff in the world, both subtle and obvious.

Originally posted by Eir_S

Originally posted by DavisFlight

Originally posted by PsyMike3d

Originally posted by corpusc
 Darkfall

lol

Why is that funny? Aside from Vanguard, Darkfall is the only MMO out there with a massive seamless hand crafted world.

I get seamless... but other games have massive worlds.  And what does hand crafted mean?  Do other games use world generators?  I'm confused by the buzzwords.

There are few MMOs bigger than Darkfall's world. And yes, many MMOs use generation tools. Not to mention the Darkfall world feels more real because of how liberal the physics are in the game, allowing you to really carve your own path rather than follow a linear one.

GW1.  Pre looked amazing, and there were certain vista's you stumbled upon (without having them rammed down your throat) which were incredible.  

AoC looks fantastic.  

But the winner has got to be Skyrim (not an mmo I know).  

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

I think you took a wrong turn on the way to the Ramblers Association site.  

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

OP states hes in a harsh urban enviroment as is seeking something on the computer to distract, way to be a douche

Edit: and I find EVE is relaxing

Originally posted by ibn_Cartwell

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

OP states hes in a harsh urban enviroment as is seeking something on the computer to distract, way to be a douche

 

Edit: and I find EVE is relaxing

May be he should look up something called "camping trips". Try it sometime, it is not as rare as one might think.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by ibn_Cartwell

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

OP states hes in a harsh urban enviroment as is seeking something on the computer to distract, way to be a douche

 

Edit: and I find EVE is relaxing

May be he should look up something called "camping trips". Try it sometime, it is not as rare as one might think.

He doesn't want to, he wants to play a game.  Maybe he should try wearing his shoes on the wrong feet- that would be about as relevent to this discussion as your suggestion.  

Aion and Tera definitly have great visual and are worth exploring but they don't have fishing or similar. Aion does have housing though.

For an older game Vanguard still has pretty good looking environments. The character models and animations are more what make it look dated.

I did see some of the Age of Wushu beta and it also looks really good. not sure about the crafting type activities.

For the future be watching out for ArchAge. Being more a sandbox game I imagine it will have fishing and much much more. The world looks incredible. It should come to the west some time this year. Their website was just updated so go check it out.

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

Not to toot my own horn here but wow if u have not checked out eve then u don't know about fishing! Naw it is very action packed and u can get a fight very easily if u want to travel to the numerous pvp systems. There is tons of actual scenery systems in eve. If I recall correctly there is a capital ship graveyard. 

Fishing I would have to say would be going to nullsec and hunting for officer spawns that can spit out loot that land u around 1 billion isk. Load up an easy to fly stealth bomber and go to town. Any ship for that matter. Awesome graphics, plenty of bros to crack jokes on, we love our teamspeak channels, and most important of all your character levels up even when u are offline.

14 day trial what are you waiting for?

I vote for FFXI, but the graphics are so out of date that I doubt many would agree with me. The world is immense and the varitey of zones is really amazing. Every zone in that game has a very distinct atmosphere and feel to it. SE has some of the most talented artists in the industry IMO.

Originally posted by jpnz

SWTOR looks absolutely stunning.

GW2 looks nice but the camera angle really hides the full view; if you have eye-inifinity though it can look awesome.

Aion is probably still the prettiest although Tera is pretty close.

 

 

SWTOR - really?  Very bland world, combat, etc.  Great stories and cut scenes however.  I don't disagree with anything else you said, and of course your opinion is all your's to have, but I really disagree with your assessment of SWTORS graphics.

Originally posted by nariusseldon

Originally posted by PWN_FACE

I like having a game where I don't have to kill all the time. I have Chivalry when I want my pvp  and I want it bloody. I have a lot of games for pvp. But I really want something where I can just relax, do some fishing, gathering, taking in the sites, hunting when I feeling like farming or grinding something. 

 

WoW was fun for a couple of years. I leveled really slowly and enjoyed doing all the stuff you could do in Azeroth. But I'm done there now. I think Rift's Telara is an attactive world, as well, and I like that they have fishing.  

 

What is the most beautiful mmorpg world you can actually go out and enjoy without having to fight all the time? Is there fishing, etc?

The real world.

No computer simulation is as good as the real thing ... like fishing. The reason i play WOW is because i cannot be a blood elf mage killing stuff with fireball in the real life.

But i *can* stare at scenary and fish in the real world, right?

Yes, I certainly agree. But at present, I'm living in the middle of one of the largest metro areas in the world -- about 30 million people according to wikipedia.  So good fishing spots are not easy to get to for me right now.

Toss up between GW2, Tera, and LotRO for me. LotRO's pre-expansion areas are especially beautiful, and quite a bit of attention to detail was given to them. For example, you can climb weathertop and find the stone Gandalf left for Aragorn, Frodo, and the others to find (forget what date was on it).

Things like that make the world feel very alive.

Originally posted by Hatefull

Originally posted by jpnz

SWTOR looks absolutely stunning.

GW2 looks nice but the camera angle really hides the full view; if you have eye-inifinity though it can look awesome.

Aion is probably still the prettiest although Tera is pretty close.

 

 

SWTOR - really?  Very bland world, combat, etc.  Great stories and cut scenes however.  I don't disagree with anything else you said, and of course your opinion is all your's to have, but I really disagree with your assessment of SWTORS graphics.

SWTOR has some really amazing scenery.

Originally posted by Nikopol

OP, I look for similar things in an MMO. To me, combat should be just another feature instead of being the feature (meaning, 70+ % of the game). Number one priority is just enjoying the world and immersion for me. I also love fishing and similar non-combat systems. With that, here's how I see things (that is, purely in terms of what you're looking for):

 

1) Vanguard

the good: World is impressing, plenty of non-combat stuff to do. Has some fun fishing. Has ship building and housing as well. Has flight. Has good crafting and Diplomacy which is like another game on its own. Not only is the world huge, but you can see huge stretches of distances as well, which makes it much easier to feel you're in a world instead of an all-too-conveniently built zone. Also, just beautiful sky and foliage (I don't know, I pay attention to this sort of thing!); along with the weather system, the world feels in motion. Though on a related note: it has much less mob density than modern MMOs, which might turn some players off, but is often good for an explorer - in games like TSW you get jumped on every second, which tends to get annoying.

the bad: Not many players at all. Still glitchy. The character models and animations look really bad, and the world textures are somewhat underwhelming. No open world PVP so lacking that "element of surprise".

I'm okay without pvp in this title. I've always pvp'ed and I'm just looking for a world to explore and "do stuff" in other than fighthing. I enjoyed my time in VG a lot last night and I'm looking forward to going back in again later today. I got used to the models and animations enough. They aren't that bad and to me they are worth what I'm getting in "a world" so far.

2) LOTRO

the good: World is beautiful, looks really good and has plenty of atmosphere (scores higher on all this than Vanguard, in my opinion). Also not small or boxed-in, either. Add yet another plus if you're a Middle Earth fan. :) Has housing. Solid crafting system. Very good fishing (among the best) with some deeds tied to it. On a related note, as an explorer, chasing deeds becomes a good way of passing the time. LOTRO also has one of my favorite MMO systems: The music system. It's just a blast seeing (or even better, participating in) a jam in the middle of nowhere. :)

the bad: again, really bad character models and animations. The main game feels a bit too linear. To me, combat itself feels much too derivative and lacking oomph. Again, no open world PVP.

Originally, I didn't like this game because of the combat. But my priorities have changed somewhat since I last tried it. I've always tried to be a dwarf and found the combat lame. But might give it another go. Just got busy with VG for the moment.

3) Rift

the good: Now, I haven't tried fishing much in this game, but from what I've seen, it looks good. Very good looking world. Dynamic events like rifts and invasions, which some explorers may enjoy, because it makes the world feel a bit more alive. Has a new housing system called Dimensions, which might be the most intreresting implementation of instanced housing system from what I've seen.

the bad - though, mind, this is before the expansion: The world felt much too small (they say it's much bigger now). Cities were also too small. Everything looked a bit too generic, with no strong feel of lore or story to it. The zone invasions might be an annoyance to some explorers.

The world really is much bigger since the expansion. And it is beautiful. You can find some nice spots on the shore in various places for fishing. The graphics and art style of Storm Legion are really well done, in my opinion. Mob density is very high, but you can find some spots. Only checked out a couple of the new areas, though.

4) Age of Wushu

(I won't do goods and bads here, because I haven't tried it enough.)

The world in AOW looks beautiful, and the setting is at least something different. It has a lot of out-of-the-box stuff like player kidnapping and jail time. It does have fishing, though I didn't dive deep enough into it to give meaningful feedback. Plus, the combat system also is a bit different and once you get the hang of it, fun. Really feels more like a living world than many MMOs out there.

Logged into this game last night, too. It does look amazing and very complicated. I actually felt a bit overwhelmed trying to understand what I need to do. I'm having some issues with the tutorial, the translation, and just the complexity. Plus, I'm not a genius and it was late at night, so I will come back to it with a fresh mind when I'm ready to take on the challenge of what looks like learning a very different type of game. It looks like it could be well worth the effort, however. Stunning world from what I could see in the starter city and from its vistas.

 

P.S.: I know it's a whole different style of game, but as enjoying the "universe" goes, EVE Online should be up there with any game - if you're at all into space, that is. You can play it strictly non-combat, and mining has that soothing effect which is not dissimilar to fishing. :) Plus, it has killer economy. And plusplus, it has a history and stories of its own, forged by its community.

Yes, like what I said about Wushu (Wulin), EVE is a very substantial game that will require me to focus on learning some different systems. It will be hard to learn both EVE and AoW at the same time. But that's a great problem to have. I will definitely keep this on my list of games to look forward to trying.

Thanks for the thoughtful answer!

Sorry for my english...

I've been playing MMORPG since UO and EQ1... this 2 games have a really nice world but a bit outdated. EQ1  have big zones, dangerous zones, good ambiance.

But i prefer Vanguard... Is a Big Good Looking world and you can stay there just doing some diplomacy (card game), tradeskill (that requieres some interaction, is not just click and do) or adventure.

I think is a good game for exploration.