Looking for a bit of feedback from other players.  I have played quite a few MMO's some for quite a while some for not so long.  I will list in longest to shortest played EQ2, SWG, EQ, UO, WAR, DFO, WoW, LoR, CoH/CoV, GW.  All of these games had at least something going for them that attracted me to them and kept me playing for some time.  Then one thing leads to another and i begin to feel i am missing a key aspect of gaming that i am looking for.

I guess i will start with what i am looking for:  Good character creation....dear god i would like to look unique or have the ability to work gear into looking different.  It is hard for me to actually move on from this.

I am not much of a raider if it is not a pvp setting.  There is not a ton of fun for me spending hours wiping on mobs to not have enough dkp to loot something when you drop the boss.

I would like something with a strong player market to where crafters control the markets with the goods they produce because they can be close if not the best the community gets.

Good pvp system with people who are all about it.  i also enjoy talking to the other faction and do not believe that i need to be baby sat by a developer and feel a little playful shit talking is always fun.

Item decay...which i guess would go hand in hand with not tons of pve raiding heh.

A few reasons why i left games:  EQ2 once you approached 80 you could no longer pvp and actually be successful.  They had made the raid gear so ungodly that the people who chose not to or could not get raid time were screwed.  I don't feel i should have to raid pve to be able to succede against another player in pvp.

SWG:  Seriously do i need to go into this?  Lol jk no QQing here.  I truly loved the SWG community as far as city creation, homes, items, skill distribution accross classes pre cu.  There were things it was missing as well such as more lore and such in game which usually tends to be a fun side thing to do when taking a break from pvp.

DFO:  I had high high hopes for this one...WTF seriously years and years in development and thats what we get!!!

I am a player that loves to work for what i am getting.  Maybe my raid experience is bad because in EQ2 it was extremely difficult to ever find a raid slot due to the fact that by the time you were ready to raid your gear was not good enough to raid with so and so guild so you never got gear and never had time to raid for gear...hmmm.  I have no issues with skill grinding or grinding through 80 levels of crafting just to be able to produce an item that is much needed in the player community.

Looking for any advice really folks.  I have tried games and been let down many times so now i am done just looking myself and approaching the player community to help point me in the right direction.  This game i am looking for does not need to be released and if it is only in early development and you can only tell me to watch for it that is more than i have right now.  The two games that have caught my interest atm are Aion and Mortal.  My hope is that Mortal gives what DFO failed miserably to do.  I look forward to any and all responses.

 Maybe give Some F2P games a go until some good titles get released eg, SW:TOR. maybe try RoM or TCOS for a while to wet the appetite. Then hit sw:tor, aion or GW2 when released.

Since PvP and customization are your goals I wholeheartedly suggest taking a look at Aion if you haven't already.  It may or may not be what you're looking for.

Bonuses for you - great customization and after a certain level you can make whatever armor you're wearing look like any other armor.. so complete customization there

                               - the game becomes quite PvP-centric after level 20/25 and you can pretty much just PvP from then on and not stop if you want to.  You don't have to, but you can.

Negatives - Smaller world, have to PvE to 20/25, some people don't like the graphics

Check it out, it's the only game that I can think of right now that fits your description but I haven't kept up with every game, maybe someone else will know better.

Sadly it isn't out until Sept. 22 but that isn't far off.

Enjoy whatever you choose!

I also would say you should atleast take a look at Aion

I would say EVE Online because it is the only game I know where you actualy not look unique but you ARE indeed unique.

Not very sure wheter it is what you look for. From what you wrote, there is couple of thing the game can offer you and you might be interested in:
- 'raid gear' for PVE only
- no gear dependancy
- very good PVP system
- while solo PVP might be harder to find, you can find loads of small group skirmishes
- little to no grind(depends on play style)
- meaningfull PVP
- easy access to PVP
- character progression is real-time based
- very complex crafting

Just EVE is very different and unlike other games but you might need a change ;-)

Originally posted by Gdemami

I would say EVE Online because it is the only game I know where you actualy not look unique but you ARE indeed unique.

Not very sure wheter it is what you look for. From what you wrote, there is couple of thing the game can offer you and you might be interested in:
- 'raid gear' for PVE only
- no gear dependancy
- very good PVP system
- while solo PVP might be harder to find, you can find loads of small group skirmishes
- little to no grind(depends on play style)
- meaningfull PVP
- easy access to PVP
- character progression is real-time based
- very complex crafting

Just EVE is very different and unlike other games but you might need a change ;-)

You'd suggest EVE to help a man dying from thirst.

I kid.

I'd also suggest EVE depending upon whether you want a classic MMO or a more sandboxy type one and whether the customization you desire is completely stat-and-function-wise or also in aesthetics.  Ships don't look different in EVE.. well, not enough to say that aesthetic customization is part of the game.  It offers good group PvP and has a.. indeed complex.. (cough*everything) crafting system.

Aion for fantasy game game with good customization, good PvP and good crafting,

EVE for sandbox ship sim with rediculous itemization, good group PvP and ..complex.. crafting.

I love to tease EVEers, but it's all in fun.

Not many games fit your description and I think none fit it all currently, I think the people that replied above already gave you a pretty good idea about what to try.  I wish I had something different to add, but currently I can think of no other game that fit that description perfectly.

The rest depend on your preference.

Thanks for the tips folks.  I appreciate the feedback.  I am going to give Aion a shot for sure i like the tip about that customizable armor i did not know that was available.  I don't so much mind some pve i mean a good quest line/story can truly bring about the lore of a game and is enjoyable.  I just don't like it when a game puts such a focus on the pve that it draws away and begin's to ruin the pvp.  There must be a balance between the two.

Sounds like Aion for you then my friend, at least for now.  Armor dyes and armor copying (what I talked about before) meshed with  good character customization system, a good crafting system with lots of options and a strong PvP-centric core game fit the bill.

FYI the 'open' beta starts Sept. 6 so if you can magically get in (it's not really so open, at least the first few days aren't) it's worth checking out and will help you decide.

Aion's your best hope in the near future, Mortal Online would probably be your long term hope, and as others have mentioned, EVE is a unique experience, and hey, there's a 14 (or 21) day free trial which you can repeat as many times as you like.

I am going to give that 14 day free trial of EVE a shot as well.  I have a few weeks to kill until Aion release.  Mortal does have my hopes up.  I have read quite a bit on that game over the last few days and if they take the time and do the correct things that could be one hell of a game for a person like myself.

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Originally posted by PvPJunkie
I am going to give that 14 day free trial of EVE a shot as well.  I have a few weeks to kill until Aion release.  Mortal does have my hopes up.  I have read quite a bit on that game over the last few days and if they take the time and do the correct things that could be one hell of a game for a person like myself.

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Definately get 21 days trial(an invite). The recent changes to new character experience cut down trial accounts heavily and one more week will be definately worthy.

There is a sticky here on EVE forums.

 I'm not currently playing EVE, but I'm looking at picking it back up soon. It may not be totally ideal for what you're looking for, but you may end up loving it :P I'm a very casual MMO-er, but I really had a lot of fun in EVE; I was out in pretty low security sectors fairly quickly killing pirate NPCs, and occasionally taking down another player... I think I'm talking myself back into it playing :D

As far as customization, sure the ships don't look too different, but I underestimated the character creation myself. You think "ugh, I'm just making a portrait", but it's actually really fun, and people see your face more than they do in other games when they check you out. What I think is really cool, is when people have bounties out on them, they actually have in-game billboards that show their faces and their bounty amount, and since the face customization is so in-depth, everyone you see on there actually looks like a different criminal. I haven't found another game that was as immersive, but still playable for casual gamers.

I'm always surprised how often I see people rant about how EVE is unforgiving to newbs; I got killed a couple of times when first starting because I didn't know about the trick where people will leave "free" pods out in newbie territory just to make it so they can attack you, which kinda sucked :P But once you figure that out, I think it's generally really easy to play casually or hardcore, it's up to you.

Wow, that was a lot longer than I planned :P