Honestly, I think you're better of with either mahirim or ork. Since Humans, Mirdains and Dwarves with be in the same faction, it'll mean more people with you, but chances are that most jerks will join this faction too, become murder and hunt you down regardless. Alfar are by themselves, meaning you'll have lots of people to hunt you down xD So I see Orks and Mahirim as the way in between.

And yeah, the lore will eventually be written by the players. I've been thinking bout becoming an Anti myself and go Mahirim xD

1- Solo-Player: Someone who is either a casual player and doesn't get to group much or someone who never cared for the MMO part of the game.

2- Hardcore: The contrary of casual. The kind of people who has/takes the time to dedicate to MMOs and likes to compete with others, either being having the most gear, knowing the most bout the game or just pwning the most in PvP.

3- Grind: An annoying,repetitive, yet effective way by the devs to keep the players playing a game long enough to get a good chunk of money from the subs.

4- RMT: An even more annoying way to suck money out of players. Potential to suck more cash, but usually abhorred by most MMO players.

5- Community: What differentiate a RPG from a MMORPG.

6- Sandbox: Type of game who just gives the basic tools of character creation and development to the players, giving these the freedom to do what they want in-game.

7- Linear: A way for devs to give players an idea of how to progress deeper into the game (instead of letting them figure it out) and at the same time an excuse to reduce the amount of content they need to put in a game.

8- PvP: One of the reasons of why MMOs became so famous: having other people to compete against.

9- PvE: The other reasons of why MMOs became so famous: having other people to play alongside them.

For PvE, LOTRO and DDO, hands down. Hardly any PvP to look at, but if you're really not interested in that, then no problem.

Originally posted by FarScape

Duke Nukem Forever is the True Definition of Vaporware... not Darkfall =P

Ditto :P I'd actually be surprised IF it ever makes it to the stores

lol, good luck waiting for that game. It's not an MMO, it's supposed to be a FPS and the name is Duke Nukem Forever. It's been in development stage since as far as I can remember and right now it's in what is called "Developer's Hell": for several reason, like lack of funds, people being fired and new people hired, years going by and developing team having to update graphics and such...well, the game is still there, stored somewhere, waiting to be finished....but you never know, we might see it in the stores by 2020

Indeed, all games start with bugs here and there and some game design flaws that eventually get fixed. But when new players have to choose between WoW or a new buggy game that feels like WoW, they'd rather stay with WoW ofc. Till they get bored and actually try to give other MMOs a chance.

The problem is that, even if MMOs have some features more than others and different theme, they end up being the same grind-and-quest system. Who said that MMOs need to have levels? Or classes? Or stats? Or any other standard that has become usual to see in MMOs? The fact is that MMOs still have a close mind regarding the industry, they keep working on old game designs that has been going around since D&D.

What devs need to do is to branch out, try new things instead of just copy-pasting stuff from existing games. They might not get the amount of subs that WoW has, but then again I think it's going to take a while for a MMO to become this succesful. You can make more than enough money by aiming to a specific market instead of sticking to the usual model of MMO and trying to get in a bit of everything. Actually we've seen as of lately that the latter ends up working even worse.

Hopefully, the new year will bring alot of new and fresh mmos (DF,Mortal Online, Earthrise, etc)

Originally posted by tubelight

 The reason why everyone and their uncle tries to be like WoW is because its been proven time and again that sandbox games cannot succeed in ways that WoW did. We have seen it in many games, take for example EVE Online. IMO this is the most advanced sandbox game out there right now, and how many users does it claim to have? 400k? 500k? 1mill? Thats still 10 times as low as WoW. Forget EVE, take SWG or any other fantasy based game that was close to a sandbox and ask yourself how many users did it have at its peak?

The reason why WoW got all those subs compared to the old-school sandbox games is that all those games aimed to the gamer (or as people call it, hardcore gamer). The kind of people who played games from years back, people used to RTS, RPG, etc. What WoW did was aiming to a broader audience. An example would be EVE. A nice game. Why it doesn't have the amount of subs that WoW has? Apart from being Sci-Fi, which doesn't appeal to everyone, is that it is in fact complex. I know 40-years-old people who never played a game before and play WoW in their free time, but I'm sure that if I put a game like EVE in front of them, they wouldn't know what to do. Nowadays, you see people who have never played a MMO (or even a video-game) running around with their level 70 toon in WoW. Why? Because it's got content, it's polished, it's easy, and it has a little bit of everything. Is WoW a good MMO? No doubt. Is WoW the best MMO? Don't think so. The only reason it has so many people playing is because it's where most people start playing MMOs nowadays. That's also why most WoW-clones failed: why playing a game that looks like WoW but it's less polished when...well, you can just play WoW? Especially if you've been already been playing WoW for a while. Devs should just forget trying to stick a little bit of everything and hope to get the amount of subs Blizz did. What they should be doing is a game that actually feels different and that aims to a specific market, so as to attract the hardcore gamer and, probably, the new gamers when they'll eventually get bored of WoW (which happens for everyone sooner or later, people eventually get bored of the same). Trying to copy the original will only keep devs sinking painfully.

Well yes, the ffa pvp is still the staple of SB. It's definitely not for everyone, but it's perfectly possible to level up. Just get in a guild. Being in a guild will get you groups to level up, which is easier, harder to get pked and funnier. That and a little bit of care when going out to level, like keeping an eye on track, going on remote camps, avoiding HZ and so on.

When you start a PvP char, you also get a really limited build. Starting playing GW with a PvP char and starting unlocking skills from 0 mioght be grindy and kind of hard. Starting with a PvE chars and buying/unlocking skills in the PvE part of the game is usually faster and helps you get more skills early on.

Well, I stopped playing just bout time Wotlk hit the shelves. However, as far as I know, yeah, pallies can still outtank warriors (mostly cuz they're just easier to use. Dunno how they fare with DKs though). They're still up there with heals. And now retadins are the new overpowered class of the game, even with the nerf they've got.

Roleplaying: You start with noob stuff at lvl 1 in the campaign and get to go through the storyline,missions, etc buying the skills you need (and capturing the elite skills from bosses) and get to find new gear inside. Can also go to PvP island to do PvP

PvP: You start with PvP gear and lvl 20. You can also create different PvP gear with the color, runes, inscriptions, etc that you want as long as you´ve unlocked it by finding it in PvE or buying it with factions points (which you get by winning PvP matches). You also get to equip any skill as long as you´ve unlocked it by getting it in PvE or buying it with faction points. Can't get off PvP island, aka can't do PvE

I'd suggest you start with a Roleplaying char if you want to enjoy the PvE of the game (which is much more fun and challengin than other MMOs nowadays). PvP chars are useful to try different builds in PvP without having to go through the levelling and looking for gear.

Holy Priest? I wouldn't really count it as a CC, since the times you can actually help with CCing are few. DDO might be a choice I guess, as a Cleric/Bard or maybe Druid/Bard.

Yeah, too bad the engine was archaic and the game bugged as hell at release. If they actually took their time during development and got it right, it wouldn't have ended the way it ended. Anyhow, best MMO out there as far as PvP goes. And PvP aside, it has some great features that should definitely be integrated in the next MMOs.

Btw, if you like Shadowbane, you might as well keep an eye for Darkfall. Hopefully it should be worthy of keeping up with SB's legacy.

Well, some people prefer graphics, some others prefer gameplay. If you're looking for shiny graphics, then of course SB might not be for you. Me, I'd rather play an interesting game with not-so-good graphics than a grinding fest that looks good (besides that my comp is a real PoS, so I'm all for low reqs). I guess having played DnD for quite a while and quite some old school MMOs, I never gave a shit bout how well I could see my char.

But yeah, if you guys are bored of the usual MMO and are interested in PvP, definitely give SB a try. Takes a while to actually learn to play (I'm still at it), but the wide choice in character customization, all the possible ways to setup your character, learn how to pvp adeguately by yourself and in group, the open PvP where you never know when you may get attacked (can't really sit back, spam 2 buttons and relax here)... it's really been a long while since I had so much fun in a MMO Probly gonna stick around till DF comes out. And if it fails....Well, then I'll see you in Thurin (and be depressed for the failure of what might have been a push in the right direction in the MMO genre, but I guess I'm going off-topic here)

Btw, feel free to send me a PM in-game.

Server: Thurin

Chars: either Ydriel or Gunthar

Actually, I had the same concern of the OP at first, but after seeing this thread, I've decided to jump in and buy GW I'm installing it right now. One question though: I've Nightfall at the moment. Can I start from there or should I first play Prophecies?

Yeah, me neither, when I get to the part where I have to build my armor, when I finish, a small window appears saying that the building of the default armor had some prob and the creation of the character failed. Or something like that