Can you add Anarchy Online to these sections:

Section 1- 65 days

Section 2- Faction PVP

Section 3- Grouping Instances and Solo

Section 4- Deep Crafting

Section 7-  The crafting one 

Thanks :P

Dungeon Runners is scheduled to shut down at the end of 2009.

Aion could be added to the list now that it's been out in the west since a few months.

I guess a forum mod should take charge of this important sticky post and help the community updating it.

There is a section or two that could be added :

- how much nuisance do the bots/goldsellers cause in the game ?

- how efficient is the customer support in dealing with bots ?

- overall CS efficiency, how well and fast does it help the customer solving its problems ?

- some F2P game, SILKROAD, purposefully has overcrowded servers at all times in order to force its users to pay to play. This should be included in any info about Silkroad.

- what about the fun factor? the visual-awe factor? the community maturity? (a mean age of the paying customers base, as well as a genders stat, is a welcome piece of info : for eve online it used to be 23 years old and 5% female)

- what about the population curve? you sure need to know if the MMO you're intending to start playing has had declining population since months or years.

anyway, great list, great post, a critical topic... customers need information, few games offer trial periods and they rely on customers' ignorance to make them pay to try the game. In order to try out Aion for instance you need to shell out 40 or 50 €... not exactly a bargain especially if you're not satisfied and keep trying new games.

I'm in this situation right now, I've payed to play Aion and I'm thinking of paying to try another game. If I had more information about the games I wouldnt have to do that. I have waited for years to pay for a new MMO when I stopped playing Everquest years ago because the new MMOS of the time (WOW and EQ2) didnt offer trials. This seems to be the new business model : "let's make the cash cows pay to TRY our games, at least they'll have given us 50 bucks before they decide our game isnt for them".

This too should be in the list.

Another thing Eve makes me think about, you need to know that there are NO animated avatars in that game, only spaceships. It is a strong deterrent to social interactions. Some players are social and I'd like to see a category about the social-to-everything-else ratio of any game.

Typically there are 4 components to gaming : socials, achieving, exploring and killing. That would be fun to determine and include as stats for every game. For example The Sims Online is almost entirely social (if it is still online lol).

So far I've been only asking for things and giving nothing so I'll work a little and give you data for Aion. Keep in mind though that I don't know the game well (I'm low level and only 3 weeks into the game) so my data is in need of being corrected later.

Section 1: Grind

Aion : 60 days to cap for really hardcore players. (I'm ready to be corrected on any data I'm giving as I said, I havent seen end game in Aion and I'm not even a hardcore player)

Note: In response to a comment of this thread, days are an ok unit when you specify hardcore players because it means they give a significative amount of work each day... at least 3 hours, up to 16-18 hours. Keep in mind that some real hardcore players achieve in 3 to 5 hours what other hardcore players wont achieve in 12+ hours because the former ones are guild and alliance leaders and thus benefit from awesome group-play bonuses.

Section 2: PvP

Aion is Faction PVP, not sure if it falls under other categories of this section as well.

Section 3: PvE
Aion is soloable , not sure about the other categories.

Section 4: Crafting

Crafting isnt deep in Aion.

Section 5: Performance / Graphics

I guess Aion would fall in the "Powerful" category, or maybe even "Average". You CAN play it with an "average" comp (3 years old), you just will have to play on minimal graphic options.

Section 6: Difficulty

Aion is Easy in my opinion. I'm biased as an oldschool EQ player but really...

Section 8: Payment Plan

Aion is monthy fee + box/download/Account creation fee.

And it has no trial...

 P.S. Another subsection that could be added is how well does the game perform in large group pvp?

Many games offer and even require large group pvp at endgame but fail to deliver : you get 1 FPS when you're lucky not to get disconnected. Aion falls into that category according to all the testimonies I have read.

Other games on the other hand are famous for offering smooth large-group PVP, I heard that about DAoC years ago.

Large scale battles are a high point in what makes MMORPGs exciting so they should be mentionned IMO.

For Eve Online they are clearly the focal point of the PVP experience.

Eve is really special and some categories could be added just out of thinking about Eve's particular qualities... and flaws !

The depth of the economical system for example, some players are all into being merchants and for them it is a critical aspect of any game. Some games teach you to become merchants because they have a good market system.

 Another thing that is critically important for some gamers : the quality and range of the chatting system. How wide is it? Can you merely shout in vicinity or can you talk to the whole server? Do you have to PAY real life currency to send such serverwide talk messages ? (like in Silkroad!!!).

 i am looking for a game  that is sword time period

can multiclass but is not DD 

has pvp 

guilds if possible 

that is all thank you

 Darkfall and Fallen Earth need to be added to the list, their niche gameplay will compliment the more mainstream titles represented here.

- Shijeer

Disappointing, you are still leaving Darkfall Online out of your list of PvP Games, but you have added PotBS.

Whats the Point, do you only mention big games and have a problem with Indie Developers?

Add Continent of the Ninth! It has the best gameplay I've ever seen! =)

Great post!  Why isn't DDO on your list?  This, to me, is one of the best games out there nobody has heard of.  Graphics are great, combat is great, and character development is really robust.  LOTRO is another great one from Turbine (which you have).  I'm really impressed with both of the Turbine games.

 well i forgot to mention i like grinding getting all your exp from quest is annoying in my oppinon and can get very obnoxious if you cant beat a quest i did like there community most people were free with info but the seperation of you from others unless in a party was a big turnoff cause you cant meet as many  people it seemed more like a soloer game than a multiplayer just an rpg online that you can assocciate with people or not not very realistic and not very fun at times

How long is "hardcore grind"? Can that mean play 5 hours on weekdays, and 12+ hours on weekends?

NeoSteam might be a nice addition to the list, it has crafting and PvP (Realm-vs-Realm)
The EU version is here: http://neosteam.gamigo.com/

 hi , good day XD i have a question: when going to be available c9 (Continent of the Ninth)  for america?

Nice post, but I feel you are missing one category, which was only briefly mentioned by someone: exploration.

How about a section that describes exploration with a few metrics:

Size - how long it takes to traverse the world on foot ?

Is it "on rails" - Am I confined to a predetermined path like Guild Wars, or can I jump off a cliff like in WoW ?

Loading Screens - Does it have loading screens for each zone? For each town? For each store ?

Instanced - How much of the world is instanced for your group and how much is open and "public" ?

Mounts - Are personal mounts available, "rented" mounts, etc...

I'm looking for a RP envoronment where i can play as a merchant and craft/build things, while owning a home.

The only game I've ever come close to loving was Ultima online.

Am I missing any out there?

Thanks!

Theo.

Originally posted by theodrick

I'm looking for a RP envoronment where i can play as a merchant and craft/build things, while owning a home.

 

The only game I've ever come close to loving was Ultima online.

 

Am I missing any out there?

 

Thanks!

Theo.

Darkfall is as close as you'll get, if you find a RP clan. 

I am an old WoW junky, burned out on WoW and without a good internet connection right now, but jonesing for the next game.  I've been trolling the forums for some sign of what the next big WoW-like game I can check out, but nothing seems to be in the winds.  I have two questions, then:

1)  Anyone heard anything about any new MMORPG's that are roughly WoW-like that are coming out?

2)  Seems like, from your post, that EQ2 is going to be my best bet for a PVE world with relativelly similar gamestyle but a new feel.  The endgame raids in the 80cap WoW lost a lot from the 60cap and some of the 70cap.

-Open/Free World PvP

PvE

-End-Game Raiding

-Grouping Instances (pretty sure this is in the game)

-Solo Ability

Crafting

-Has Crafting

-Deep Crafting (not sure if can be considered this since loot is undervalued by design)

Performance/Graphics

-I would say anywhere from Zomg Expensive Computer to Very Powerful (for example, I could run LOTR Online on my laptop but not Darkfall- had to do that on the PC)

Difficulty

-Very Difficult or Tough (the game is built on risk vs rewards so you don't want to do things like hunt mobs or harvest at less than  50-75% of health, you bank often, you're unable to see opponent skill rankings and buffs, and you have to aim for your attacks to hit- can't just macro them).

Aerrevan is an MMO made by a small company, they are doing a pretty good job, I'd sugguest to check it out. I've been checking it out for a while now, seems promising.

http://www.aerrevan.com

Battleground Europe.

Battleground Europe is a huge seamless world with massive combined arms battles. You can spawn in walk all the way across Europe without ever hitting a loading screen. You can be dogfighting at 30000 feet then swoop down to ground level and attack infantry and tanks on the ground. Because of this it does not have the same level of graphics as games like Call of Duty or Battlefield series.

Games with small levels and limited connectivity of players (32 or 64 players max) will obviously allow for higher detail. A game like Fight Night can include the highest detail possible because it is just 2 characters in a boxing ring. However with a game like Battleground Europe, where you can see over the horizon and actually go there if you want; you cannot have the same level of detail and maintain any kind of performance on a consumer PC.

The gameplay is some of the best I have ever come across and I have played almost every modern FPS on the market. No other game comes close to the combined arms, massive battles that can be seen in WW2 Online. Closest I have seen is maybe Planetside.

Here is a short trailer I made for the newly released v1.31

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vfhSJFINtGI

Wow, OP helped me realize all these years I have been playing the wrong games for my playstyle, no wonder I always left games so quickly, lol. Apparently I needed to be playing LOTRO this whole time. Guess that will be my next purchase.

THANKS OP!

Good info! Thank you.