I have never played an MMORPG or any other game of the sort. But I really want to.  But the only games I have ever really played are Zelda and Doom.  Can anyone give me some direction?

Originally posted by darkroses27

I have never played an MMORPG or any other game of the sort. But I really want to.  But the only games I have ever really played are Zelda and Doom.  Can anyone give me some direction?

There are tons of free MMORPG's on the market currenly. I feel that Eden Eternal would be a good one to break you in. It is free to play and quite addictive.

Geez, there are tons of mmo's out there.  It really all depends on what type of game you find fun.  Without knowing anything else about your expectations, I would have to recommend World of Warcraft.  I expect to get flamed for this since WOW is a pretty devisive topic.  But, bare with me:

1. Huge, active population.  There are some helpful people out there but in the intrest of full disclosure, there are a lot of jerks too.

2. Easy to understand UI (which has tons of available mods)

3.  Lower difficulty level

4. Fast leveling

5. Interesting world / lore

6. Low system requirements so you can run it on a pretty modest PC.

As a secondary suggestion, I would point to Lord of the Rings Online.  It has many of the above features and also has the benefit of being free to play.

But I gotta ask; why are you all the sudden interested in MMO's?

if you have never played any mmos then i have to mention the biggest of them all World of Warcraft. it is the elephant of mmos. the biggest, the most famous, the most succesfull, the most loved/hated.

World of Warcraft still has the biggest following by far of any other mmo in the west.....by like 10 times. (side note: please visit WoWdetox.com before fully commiting to this game. you have been warned.)

however if you insist at staying Warcrack free and want to go to the next best thing.... i highly suggest clicking on the game list on this website. then organize the games by rating. start at the top of the list and work your way down. if something sounds interesting youtube it. if you like the looks of it then fire away questions.

EQ2

People only have an opinion on "what is better" when they have a lot of experience throughout the choices available.

If you never played one before, then it doesn't matter whatsoever. Your first one will be the best one you ever played, or you'll think the genre is stupid and never look back. Historical fact.

you should probably start off with "What games can my computer play well" and then choose from whats left. 

Originally posted by Elsabolts

EQ2

Actually that is a really good one to start with. I was going to recommend WoW at first, but I wanted to give him/her a F2P to start with to see if the MMO appeal was there.

I'd recommend EQ 2 maybe, or World of Warcraft.  WoW is very popular and leveling up to lvl 20 per character is totally free (last I checked).  Plenty of time to see if you like the game.

EQ stands for Everquest 2.

Probably your best bet is to find what type of world that suits you

i.e. fantasy,sci fi,pirates,super heroes

then after that look for a recent AAA one that made a f2p or freemium conversion,

i.e LOTRO,Fallen Earth,POTBS,DCUO etc.

Also you might want to consider pre purchasing Guild Wars 2 tomorrow which is a one time fee,then toward mid/end of the month you can experience its beta and be able to jump on the mmo bandwagon with a really good title.

I still recommend doing an older game.

If you hand someone their first taste of a game, and it's 8-bit, they will enjoy it... but, if you hand them something like Crysis2, and then try to have them appreciate the oldies - it just isn't going to happen.

By going with an older one, you can see where the genre has come from (and moved to), while keeping most selections worthy of play. If you hop right in on a triple-A game, it will warp your perception of "what is good", and in a completely BS way. Like graphic whoring in exchange for a lack of depth.

Originally posted by GTwander

I still recommend doing an older game.

If you hand someone their first taste of a game, and it's 8-bit, they will enjoy it... but, if you hand them something like Crysis2, and then try to have them appreciate the oldies - it just isn't going to happen.

By going with an older one, you can see where the genre has come from (and moved to), while keeping most selections worthy of play. If you hop right in on a triple-A game, it will warp your perception of "what is good", and in a completely BS way. Like graphic whoring in exchange for a lack of depth.

 just....no.

those game were awesome for their time, when they were at the leading edge of technology of the time. now they are just old, and many of the very unpopulated. it is not the same as when you were playing them in their prime.

back when you were playing the brand new UO or EQ nobody told you to go play a 10 year old game so you could "better apriciate the oldies"......

even WoW is quite old now days and i only mentioned it because of it's a huge pupularity.  

i would actually say Rift is a great choice for for a nice, great looking, solid and polished pve game.