Yesterday, I logged on to WoW, said hello to some friends, laughed a bit in guild chat, sold some stuff on the auction house and then I stared at the screen for about 10 mins. I had no idea what I could do, or actually, no idea what I really wanted to do. None of the options I had sounded exciting to me. And then I realized that this wasn't new, I had this feeling for a while now.

So I decided to go looking for another game. I haven't played many MMO's so I had a LOT of catching up to do. In fact, WoW is only my 2nd game since 2004, the 1st being EVE. I read a whole bunch of reviews, but it didn't really point me to a specific game that would be 'the one' for me.

That when I came to this forum to type up this question to you guys and girls. I'm looking for a game, fantasy or sci-fi, that has the following:

• Decent graphics
• PvE based
• Co-op PvE (like WoW raids)
• A good crafting system (better than WoW, not necessarily as good as EVE)
• PvP is not a problem, but not a huge gankfest that prevents me from going on with my day
• Lots of different classes (or variety in a classless system)
• Doesn't take 6+ months to get to the exciting stuff

Of all those things the 3rd one is most important.

I would like to thank you all for reading this and look forward to hearing your suggestions.

Try Lord of the Rings Online

Everquest II is one of the best there is for this style of gameplay.

• Strong tradeskill system
• 24 classes
• PvP is only on specific servers
• Raiding is available for both hard core and casual play styles
• Some people choose to level lock to experiance the exciting lower level content. Of course, you could always choose to blow through it to end game, the leveling is very rapid up to level 70.
• Both solo and group play are supported.

Vanguard hands down. Its the best mmorpg on the market and best that will be for awhile. Put it down all you want the game is a mmorpg gem. I have played almost every mmorpg worth playing and VG is still it, now more than ever casue they fixed alot of the problem. It has tons of all the good stuff mmorpg should have. It should be alot more popular but people would rather troll about every crappy mmorpg recently made and say they want this and that  which most are in VG.  Yes, SOE runs it and yes they need to rethink there marketing but who really cares its a game. Unless there useing the money to give childeren drags I really dont care who owns it. (Slow people keep reading) Iam not saying there giving kids drugs.  Enjoy

 hm, I discarded Vanguard as an option early on, because the review on this site said the game is lacking in endgame raids. Are you saying that's not true?

Vanguard has many raid mobs if I recall correctly.  I couldn't tell you how many since I've yet to get to that point on any character, but I've heard they're well-done.  Some are 24-man raids, some are slightly less.  I'd suggest going to the VG forum and asking there, though, if you're interested.  But yes, there is definitely raiding in VG, and more is being worked on right now.

Vanguard is a well done game, but it has a very small development team.

The end game content is very limited and is expanded upon slowly due to limited resources.

I personally am not playing Vanguard due to my families enjoyment of the variety of non-advancement features of EQII

• Large collection of housing items.
• Huge variety of appearance gear
• Holiday quests

While Vanguard does have the player housing, my family prefers the greater variety of EQII and the more frequent content updates.

Vanguards gameplay mechanics and class stuctures are extremely well done. They only reason I did not recommend it is due to the limited end game.

I tried VG last year and it was totally lacking players and the world just seems empty, lacking a lot of things.

Maybe I went to a wrong server but, I've been hearing bad things about it more than the positives.. so I uninstalled.

Now I'm hearing VG is the best and many people are going back. Has it improved? lol.

What server is more populated?

Originally posted by wh0astar

I tried VG last year and it was totally lacking players and the world just seems empty, lacking a lot of things.

Maybe I went to a wrong server but, I've been hearing bad things about it more than the positives.. so I uninstalled.

Now I'm hearing VG is the best and many people are going back. Has it improved? lol.

What server is more populated?

Vanguard still has a smaller pop than other more well-known games.  That is further compounded by the game not having zones/instances.  Where games with zones/instances will almost always look to be bursting at the seams (by virtue of everyone being funnelled through the contained zones), VG doesn't have that.  In VG, players can and do spread everywhere since there's nothing to contain and funnel them throughout the game world, the closest "funneler" being riftways, which still allow players the freedom to rift to any of the landmasses and, further, to several locations within those landmasses.

VG will never facilitate that sense of "population bursting at the seams" because of the nature of its world.  That being said...I still run across people quite frequently, even in the wilderness, but nowhere near the frequency/amount that I did when I played EQ2.  Not to say no one's on...there's chatter in region chat and I see varying amounts of players as I go about my business...but everyone's more realistically spread out.  At popular joints you'll see a lot more people closer together (higher pop density).

If you want to socialize, you need to be more outgoing and proactive to round people up.  Chat, guilds, bring/make friends, Social Window ("O" key), etc., are all tools players should utilize if they want company. Random, unplanned PUG's are possible; I've been in a couple at more popular quest areas, but I wouldn't rely on "getting lucky." :p

The two most populated servers are the US-PvE servers Seradon and Xeth, and both are about equal in population.  The last couple of times I went into the character creator, most servers were ranking "Medium" activity more regularly.  A year ago, when I last played, they were more consistenly at "Low."

VG has improved in performance and content, but not at the rate I'd like.  I'd love it to be faster, but I'm glad it's improving all the same.  We still get regular free content updates and patches are fairly timely.  If you're looking for a definitive PvE experience, VG is worth a shot.  It's not perfect, but the package it offers is very unique.  The trial lasts two weeks (capped at level 10 and restricted to the Isle of Dawn starting area) and you can upgrade to the full game for only the price of subscription ($15).  Or you might find some good deals online/at various stores for a boxed copy. ^^

Originally posted by Misho29

Try Lord of the Rings Online

/yes this is the best suggestion according to OP's list it has all the desired features

 I just downloaded the LOTRO trial, so we'll see how it goes. I'll keep you guys posted how it works out.

Other suggestions are welcome as well of course