Hi everyone. I haven't posted on these boards in a very long time, and I come to you all in desparation. It seems every mmo I love, more or less, is destroyed by developer changes or wiped out entirely. While this may seem a little dramatic, these games include Lineage 2's recent F2P change, which is already becoming pay to win, The Matrix Online's shutdown, Shadowbane's shutdown, PSU's shutdown and Warhammer's general community death. In short, my niche has been removed, and I'm trying to find it once more.

To further add to my discontent, there are many mmo's coming over the horizon with TSW and TERA being the two I'm focusing on primaily, but the 4-5 month wait at this point seems like more time than I'm willing to bear wtihout an mmo to indulge in. My hope is that you all may be able to suggest a gem that my many years playing mmo's has not led me to. Allow me to list what I look for and what I abhore in this industry.

What I Avoid

1. Intensely themepark mmorpgs. For example, World of Warcraft. I dislike the hand-holding, lack of accomplishment, and lack of difficulty that mmo's of this style seem to breed. That's not to say that every theme-park mmo is trash, but most of the time they're not for me.

2. Game's with low caps. I really enjoy leveling, I like gaining new gear, I like going through a lot of content, PvE or otherwise. With low cap's, this usually isn't the case even with a steep leveling curve. The only game that's truly given me an issue with this though, is GW1.

Applies to Both

1. Community: This is a HUGE deal for me. I'm not a roleplayer by any means, I even solo from time to time. But I love PvP, and I love an mmo that has a relatively mature community. By the same token, a community saturated by elitists neckbeards or F2P BR overload can ruin it entirely. I'm willing to overlook this if the gameplay is solid, but considering it's an mmo... rarely the case.

What I look For

1. Graphics with style. Meaning, they don't have to be Age of Conan on dx11, they need to have substance. As much as I don't like to harp on the WoW wagon, I sincerely dislike it's 'style'. Every tree looks the same, the polygons can be obvious if anti-aliasing isn't at x12, the gear is comical at best. The colors are alright, but it looks kind of like reading a comic book during an acid trip. Although, The Matrix online's style was incredible to me. A dark urban environment, with completely customizable gear. The weather effects were amazing, news paper blew over the streets, cars honked during traffic. I think the difference is clear, but it's difficult to make this not sound general without many paragraphs.

2. Non-gear based PvP. I cannot stand it when PvP is entirely centered around the one who has the best gear. even in PvE terms, I enjoy it to be at least somewhat skill based. Skill based meaning that it takes more than levels and gear to win. I realize this is almost impossible, but many games I've played are not based around these conventions. Such as PSU, MxO, Shadowbane, Aion (in some cases), Darkfall (near release).

If anyone has an APB, north american key I'd really appreciate it.

Been following the game forever. Thanks :D

Originally posted by uohaloran

I felt that Ryzom had a very tightly knit community when I played. So did Vanguard.

It's relatively easy to not actually find anyone in the community in Vanguard since it's such a large world with a small population, but if you can find a guild you'll surely be set in the right tracks.

Haven't tried Ryzom, I'll look into it.

Btw, The Mars Volta is my favorite band, my aim sn in francesinbedlam xD

Hi all! I'm looking for an mmo that has a tight-knit community (obviously).

Problem is, I feel I've grown jaded of most to all mmo's on the market today, so I'm hoping someone will show me a hidden gem.

My favorite mmo's in the past have been Shadowbane, Matrix Online, and Lineage 2. So as you can see, all the mmo's I loved have been destroyed D:

If anyone knows of a game that has a mature, tight knit community, I'd sincerely appreciate it. Thanks all~

Lineage 2 because of the constant pvp no matter where you went. Made grinding risky business, and I haven't experienced that since. Not in the same way, anyway.

I can give you a short, simple answer..

All current MMO's are shit.

Causes of boredom!

-Grind becomes the norm

-Realize the community is absolutely retarted

-Gear based PvP

-100's of instance runs required.

Your best bet mate is to stick to more complex mmorpgs, specifically EvE.

Despite the fact that the game is an interactive screensaver, it has an incredibly mature community.

If The Matrix Online was still around I think that community would have been perfect for you..

About the annoying kids, there isn't much you can do. Maybe I'm just a cynical person who doesn't really care, but I act the exact same around people of all ages. I'm not concered with the feelings and mindset of any child playing the game, in my opinion anyone below 14 or 15 shouldn't be playing mmo's. Admitted I started playing when I was 9, but things were a little different back then. Point is, if the idea of children being in your mmo is this much of a problem, you have to learn to accept it, you'll never get rid of them.

Everyone seems to be forgetting that this game will be heavy in advertising. Billboards are going to be covered in advertisements and we all know the social area will have it. That's the main way they're going to bring in cash, I mean, even Shadowbane managed to keep itself running with minimal advertising for a year or two.

Lancer, I love me some polearms.

Very nice, thank you.

A friend and myself are returning to FFXI after a long break and need to know which servers are best.

We need a primarily westcoast - mountain time server if possible, high pop. is a priority. I refuse to wait for hours to find a party, level-sync or otherwise. I will take moderate pop, but please be honest and don't just rep your server.

Thanks for the help.

Originally posted by Kuro1n

Originally posted by caalem

Originally posted by M1nas-z3u

 Yeah... people are lazy thats why they use bots.

 

Anyway now these days. Its much easier to make level geed items and etc.(newbie buffs untill level 60 as i recall... low b itemz in shop etc..)

When i first started the game (C3) it was much harder!

 

And the fact is again... people are LAZY!

 

People don't use bots because they're lazy, people use bots because grinding the same exact mob over and over for 15+ hours straight hitting 1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2-1-2 over and over will cause someone to go crazy, and it's a very easy task for a computer to replicate.

Sorry but your hereafter classified as retard.

Your talking shit about this game that you obviously dont know. Its a game thats supposed to be hard and require that you spend time in order to gain things.

The game nowadays is easy and not like your describing at all. Please before you embarass yourself anymore; go check the game out.

 

@M1nas-z3u

I started the korean cbt... was badass... no-grade only. 8D

I remember man, those were the days D:

Back when pker's existed and even the slightest gear upgrade was amazing.

To put it bluntly, every mmo should be fun before the end-game content, but they're not. All new content added is usually end-game and it's glorified. This will never change.

As much as I love this game (been playing since prelude) I can't really see it growing any more. Regardless of the amazing content this game has and it's absolutely perfect PvP, what else can they really add? After turning your avatar into a bird, and an acid-induced island with a semi-holiday/Alice in wonderland theme, what the hell else can you do?

I'd like to discuss the possible future of Lineage, and exactly what can be done to fix this games slowly declining population. I acknowledge the fact that my posts here will not chance the state of the game, this is just to discuss, so please don't give me a hard time for 'whining'. Does anyone else find it strange that the second most successful mmo company can't even release a magazine ad for this game? I've seen one's for Aion, but what is the point of not advertising all of your games.. maybe I'm just missing something, but in my opinion a marketing strategy for Lineage would benefit it now more than ever. Considering that the amount of mmo players has increased a substantial amount since lineage 2's release (Thanks to WoW), keeping this game under the radar will only kill it.

I at least had hope when NCSoft began selling it's games on steam, only to see L2's blunt 55 metacritic rating. Jesus Christ, I couldn't think of a way to bat players away faster than advertise a game that boasts an E average by critics.

Things they can add-

Class changes? More Vitality changes? Expand Gracia?

Things they should add-

Content for players that aren't 70+, a better tutorial (I believe one of the biggest downfalls is that you can't find a damn person anymore until the 40's. What is a new player going to think if no one had told him this?), rewards for PvP (anything besides clan warfare is borderline non-existent), shops that sell common gear at all levels

I'd like to hear some other suggestions and opinions about this whole matter.

I don't know if that's really necessary.. I think if they just combine Devianne and Bartz, all the servers will be reasonably populated. Or NCSoft's marketing team could get it's head out of it's ass and consider putting out an ad or two for the game. It's one of the few mmo's to get PvP right and somehow, WoW is beating it. I blame the entire population problem on a lack of any real marketing..

Will they ever merge again though? Hell no. The only one with even the slightest chance of  a merge is Devianne and that's because it is literally a ghost town. I'd love to go back to the C2 days as mentioned above.. I miss any level below 76 meaning something.

That gun class. it's name-less, but yeah.

Well hell, since ShadowBane and MxO were shut down it's back to L2 for me.

I'd really love to see an MxO EMU but that last thing I remember from the boards was SOE refusing to release it. Oh well, I'll never forget the happiness this game brought me and the amazing people I met. <3 Recursion, <3 Syntax - RIP.  I miss you all.

I don't see an L2 clone coming out of this.. just by the gameplay video's you can see how different it is in it's entirety.

If you mean, will it have a grind like L2, then I would say definitely so, that's NCSoft's style. I've been a L2 player since C1, and I've tried Auto Assault, CoH, and Aion, and all of them are grinders one way or another. I can promise that it will have a similar leveling system, but everything else in my opinion will be completely different, raids and PvP included.

TH's are still important but there is no denying they're not what they used to be.

Within reason though, every class has been balanced so it's all what you want. A good example of this is the SK, orginally this was probably the worst class in the game, now it is arguably the best at 1v1 PvP.

You can play a TH and still have a good time, although if you're looking for a class that is just better than all the others for no reason, L2 doesn't have that anymore.