MMORPG.com wraps up our nominations for the 2008 Reader's Choice Awards by asking our readers what active, currently released MMO is the best overall.

Well, this feature marks the last of our nominations for the 2008 MMORPG.com Reader's Choice Awards and we save the best, and possibly most interesting, for last.

While in all of our other categories, the editorial staff here at MMORPG.com provided a list of nominees for the various awards, this time around, we're throwing the doors wide open to any released game on our Game List.

In case the above text hadn't given it away, it is time for you to decide which MMORPG is the best overall, regardless of launch date, genre, business model, or any other restriction (other than the game's release and current active status of course).

Voting for all of the awards will close three weeks from today on December 31st. The editorial staff here at MMORPG.com would like to thank everyone in advance for participating in our awards. While we could have given out Editor's Choice awards, we know that no one knows this genre like you, the players and so have made the MMORPG.com Reader's Choice Awards an annual event that will continue well into the future.

Happy Voting and Happy Holidays from the staff and volunteers here at MMORPG.com.

Vote for the Best Overall Game

first in a legendary thread

This is going to be a rough thread, and a difficult vote.

Do you value graphics at the time over content or scalable?

How about support and how many hours you got for your money.

Content is always my answer. That, and I don't play a game wherein I don't have a house or ship of some sort.

Thus, my picks start with a winnowed field!

You didn't include The Chronicles of Spellborn in the list.  It's an active, currently released MMO, so what's the hold up?

Vanguard! Although maybe that should be 'Most improved'.

I'd say WotlK but I'd get a better reaction by eating a baby around here.

 Furcadia is going to win, hands down......

lol ok, seriously, I chose DAoC, had a blast in that game.

Originally posted by Honkie

You didn't include The Chronicles of Spellborn in the list.  It's an active, currently released MMO, so what's the hold up?

I'm going to guess because it is not released in the U.S. just yet.

I had to vote for Tabula Rasa. Although it's going kaput next year, Deployment 15 is amazing. First person view, the most detailed I've ever seen as in the fact you can see your feet, chest, arms, gun, hands, when you dance you stay in first person view and it moves as if dancing, and you see your feet below you doing the same. It's really an awesome view. Only issue is some badly stretched low-res textures (being they didn't model new arms, I think they just zoomed the camera way in on the same model) and some bad clipping issues.

The introduction of Earth is simply mindblowing also.

The PlanetTr.com forums are right, Tabula Rasa went out with a bang. And what a bang it was.

Originally posted by nickelpat

I had to vote for Tabula Rasa. Although it's going kaput next year, Deployment 15 is amazing. First person view, the most detailed I've ever seen as in the fact you can see your feet, chest, arms, gun, hands, when you dance you stay in first person view and it moves as if dancing, and you see your feet below you doing the same. It's really an awesome view. Only issue is some badly stretched low-res textures (being they didn't model new arms, I think they just zoomed the camera way in on the same model) and some bad clipping issues.

The introduction of Earth is simply mindblowing also.

The PlanetTr.com forums are right, Tabula Rasa went out with a bang. And what a bang it was.

Uh...isn't that only on the PTS? But, I agree, TR really is great fun now, and is leaving before it's time.

I voted simple. WoW is the only MMO here, with everyone else trying to copy them...except for the Asian Grinders.

I guarantee at least 98% of everyone who votes here has played it, and what other game can make that claim?

Originally posted by Honkie

You didn't include The Chronicles of Spellborn in the list.  It's an active, currently released MMO, so what's the hold up?

TCoS has not been fully launched and is not currently available in the North American market.

In the future, these lists really should be organized in some fashion.  I shouldn't have to rely on control+F to find the title I was looking for.

The list wasn't even alphabetical 0_0

Originally posted by openedge1

Originally posted by nickelpat

I had to vote for Tabula Rasa. Although it's going kaput next year, Deployment 15 is amazing. First person view, the most detailed I've ever seen as in the fact you can see your feet, chest, arms, gun, hands, when you dance you stay in first person view and it moves as if dancing, and you see your feet below you doing the same. It's really an awesome view. Only issue is some badly stretched low-res textures (being they didn't model new arms, I think they just zoomed the camera way in on the same model) and some bad clipping issues.

The introduction of Earth is simply mindblowing also.

The PlanetTr.com forums are right, Tabula Rasa went out with a bang. And what a bang it was.

Uh...isn't that only on the PTS? But, I agree, TR really is great fun now, and is leaving before it's time.

I voted simple. WoW is the only MMO here, with everyone else trying to copy them...except for the Asian Grinders.

I guarantee at least 98% of everyone who votes here has played it, and what other game can make that claim?

Yeah, it's on the PTS now. But I count them all the same. The devs should still be acknowledged for the awesome work. DG will probably easily find a new publisher. If not go the RF Online way and publish it themselves.

Wow! That is a list of some greats!

This year has seen some extraordinary games and expansions.

I read a post about World of Warcraft being "the only MMO on the list"  worth the name, and that the reason for this was that alot of visitors here had played it. I simply do not understand that. It seems like false logic :) Just because alot of people smoke does not make it the only way to breathe, does it? And I do not agree that everyone is copying WoW - WoW on the other hand DID copy previously published games, like EQ f.x.

My vote must go to Lord Of The Rings Online, especially after the Mines Of Moria expansion. The game is unbelivably rich in atmosphere and one of the most beautiful games on the market today. Also, it is not a grindfest feeling like going to a hard days work like alot of MMO's of today.

I would like to pick a couple more from the list, but alas, there could be but one Best Overall Game to rule them all.

Baruk Khazad!

that would have to be Ryzom

of course!

Originally posted by Mixxathon

Wow! That is a list of some greats!

This year has seen some extraordinary games and expansions.

My vote must go to Lord Of The Rings Online, especially after the Mines Of Moria expansion. The game is unbelivably rich in atmosphere and one of the most beautiful games on the market today.

I would like to pick a couple more from the list, but alas, there could be but one Best Overall Game to rule them all.

Baruk Khazad!

I have to agree, the only real choice here is Lord of the Rings Online.  When judged in every facet there is simply no other current MMO, AAA or otherwise, that rises to LotRO's standard.

I had to vote for EVE of course. Game with an ultimate freedom that is and deserves it.

i had to pick lotro bc of what turbine has done to that game.  but jeez this is a hard choice to pick and i doubt which ever game is going to win will win only be a tiny margin

-Openedge1

They're just choice awards man, you vote for what in your opinion was the best overall game.  Not which has had the most players or is the most financially successful.  If you thought WoW sucked but played AC1 for 5 years then vote that.

Really a difficult question with so many variables...

Best pvp for an mmo?  Easily AC1 if talking RPGs only.  Planetside if including FPS's

Most innovative features ever brought to the table?  Anarchy Online.  Hell games like Warhammer are still trying to implement features it had years ago like item linking.

Most time consuming and likely to make you lose your job and forget how to make love? Probably WoW.  (j/k)

So on and so on...

Since I'm more of a FPS gamer I only have two choices as to what has been the best for me...World War 2 online or Planetside, which I have to go with Planetside as my vote here overall since I played the thing for 4 years.

Unfortunately you can only vote for one but If I had my choice of what IMO has been the best overall Massive RPG.  Ultima Online by far. 

No other game since UO has created such an online world where you and the other players created the content for yourselves.  You didn't run around mindlessly knocking out generic quests or raids until you hit max level just to then pay for a virtual chat room until the next expansion was released that gave you something worthwhile to do again.  Of course then you finish the content it had to offer and find yourself waiting for the next expansion to repeat the process.

The only MMO's I at least consider to even deserve the tag of RPG were UO, AC1 and SWG's.  Out of those UO was simply the best.  All opinions of course and it's not like I've played every single MMO out there. 

So yeah...Planetside.  NC Markov baby.

This will be a hard one for those who insist you have to have played all the nominated games in order to cast your vote....

 

 

I voted simple. WoW is the only MMO here, with everyone else trying to copy them...except for the Asian Grinders.

WOW isnt the first MMO , EQ2 and Lineage are out long before... :D

I would never compare wow with another game in this Genre , they copy at least all from another, cause it depends on that Genre. At least all these game copy from the book Lord of the rings :D , which is biggest quest ever, bring the ring from point A to point B :D

dunno which game i decide for myself.... maybe ...... hmm lets see the list again

greetings

To be honest, the way this voting is going on now is never going to give a correct outcome.

For example. I think LoTRO is a better game than WoW, so I vote for it. Now, guess what happens. Lots of people will just vote for the game they play/ played alot and then the game with most active mmorpg.com readers and thus subscribtions will win. Easy as that and guess once more which game (if it would be an MMORPG) has the most subs?

Right. Conclusion: You can't say this game is best overall because it is played/voted for more than another game.

Games should be compared on content base. Now, it is a bit more complicated to create such a survey, I'm aware of that.

Anyhow, this is why I must add that Dark Age of Camelot  was the best game ever  from release since ToA, but there is no chance that it will win since it's not known enough.

Sadly enough, it could use a little more attention with its potential.

Good God that is one helluva list!   It is also the only one of the Awards lists that actually had me thinking.  There are some really good games in that list - some were great in their day but are either out-dated or are becoming more and more dumbed-down; some are improving with time over rough starts; some are classics that still have a loyal following (and always will until the servers are taken offline); and some, even though good in their own right, just never quite got off the ground and achieved star status.

I finally decided to give Lord of the Rings Online my vote, but it was with reservations due to two major factors (to my playstyle anyway) and a few other irksome but less cumbersome issues (like the finite fishing hobby) - the terrible housing system and the overly restrictive storage.  There are so many other games that handle these two areas so well (EQ2 for example) that there just is no excuse for these two issues to even BE issues. 

But when weighing all of the other factors - gameplay, beautiful graphics and awesome sweeping vistas and seamless landscapes, great backgound music scores, engrossing storyline & lore (and all the little details that one stumples upon from Tolkien's books), great quest lines, customer support and the dev team's high visibility and community participation, the continual free content updates (that often are as large as some other games' expansions), and the massive, record-breaking scope of the Mines of Moria expansion - no other game that I have played or did any extensive reasrch into can quite match it.  Even the nostalgia of my first MMORPG - EverQuest - nor its sequel with equally fond memories - EQ2 - nor even great games like Dark Age of Camelot and Ultima Online can quite compare to what Turbine has done thus far with LOTRO.

EDIT - Wow.  That was weird.  I was typing that and posted before seeing your posts HoldMe & Zarkor.  I was NOT trying to disagree with you.  You both, in fact, make some valid points and kinda confirm my own thoughts since those games were in my top list of choices.

 My vote went to Lord of the Rings Online as well.