Well the title says it all really.  I'm just a bit tired of the "WoW types" if you know what I mean.  The constant linear quest progression.  I would rather go to a spot on the map because I WANT to go there not because some random npc tells me I need to go there.  Open to suggestions.

Saga of Ryzom comes to mind.  There are quests in the early parts of the game, and from there it's pretty much non-linear from what I've heard.

They all can be non linear. It just depends on how you play them.

Originally posted by ThaneUlfgar

They all can be non linear. It just depends on how you play them.

Not what the OP was asking for...

I would suggest EQ, simply because its very easy to skip quests altogether and there are so many expansions and zones you could stay busy for a solid year just wandering.  I was fried on WoW types and went to EQ about a year ago and it was just what the doctor ordered.

Originally posted by zethcarn

Well the title says it all really.  I'm just a bit tired of the "WoW types" if you know what I mean.  The constant linear quest progression.  I would rather go to a spot on the map because I WANT to go there not because some random npc tells me I need to go there.  Open to suggestions.

I'm sorry.  I do that all the time in WoW.  Go to an area because I want to and don't give a damn about the quests.  Is there something preventing you from doing that in WoW.

Venge

Originally posted by VengeSunsoar

Originally posted by zethcarn

Well the title says it all really.  I'm just a bit tired of the "WoW types" if you know what I mean.  The constant linear quest progression.  I would rather go to a spot on the map because I WANT to go there not because some random npc tells me I need to go there.  Open to suggestions.

I'm sorry.  I do that all the time in WoW.  Go to an area because I want to and don't give a damn about the quests.  Is there something preventing you from doing that in WoW.

Venge

I'm talking about a game that isn't DESIGNED to hold your hand from quest to quest to quest.

Guild Wars. But technically it's not an MMORPG..

Still, i'd give it a try.

You're looking for a sandbox.

Check out EVE, Mortal Online, Darkfall, Perpetum, some old school player ran UO servers (llok for The Second Age or Renaissance)

I know what he is looking for because I am lookig for the same thing. An updated current game such as you are looking for does not exist at the moment unless you are into space type games and then Eve would exactly represent that type of game.

EQ used to represent that type of game and back in 2001 2002 era it was great to play. Now much of the same handholding etc exists in EQ and perhaps the new expansions are good content wise...I just dont know. I do know I have played it allready and dont have any real interest in going back to that particular game.

WoW did not exactly create the non-linear them park mode play of MMO's they simply made so much money off of it that almost every MMO company since that time has tried to copy their success not understanding what made them succesfull. This has made for a very boring shallow pool of games to draw from.

GW2 may be the answer...but its still too early to tell. The hype says one thing but reality will likely show us something different that what we are expecting.

Most of the other games listed are based off of low budget free for all pvp type of games and generally are poorly made and very buggy.

I think really a 1999/2000 era EQ type of game with modern graphics and a next generation game play(not handholding crap) would be the ideal type of game. IE combat that has evolved, new political systems, some sort of dynamic environment etc. I see some of this in GW2 but only time will tell.

eve is what you describe but it's in space. I loved eq for about five years, but I also like pvp. The only games that have held my interest as long as EQ is shadowbane and eve. You don't have to pvp in eve if you don't want. Tons of different things to do but like I said, if you don't think you can do the outer space thing I wouldn't bother with it.

Ryzom, Vanguard, Lineage 2 (which is more of a grind game)

Originally posted by Sovrath

Ryzom, Vanguard, Lineage 2 (which is more of a grind game)

I played vanguard when it was first released. I would still consider Vanguard to be a quest based fairly linear game. It had a few things which made it slightly better than the super tightly focused rail games but only in a marginal sense and still not even close to the pretty open feel of original EQ.

In Vanguard you complete quests to get the best xp to time played ratio.

In original EQ you killed monsters to get the best xp to time played ratio. As such you went wherever the best killing grounds were at any particular time. This was influenced more by the item drop in a particular location and population density of a particular location and not by whether you had or had not done quests in a particular area yet. At any given level even in original EQ there were at least 4 or 5 zones to hunt in that were equally good yet different.