I have found that, the key to a great mmorpg experience is a great group of people to share it with. For me, The longest time I've played an MMO straight, without a break, was FFXI. I had a great guild in that game, just hella fun people. There were times where I would end up standing in my mog house and not getting anything done but laughing at the crazy crap going on in guild chat.

That game was hard. It was very group-centric, which is how I ended up meeting so many pepole. I've played a lot of simple games since then, WoW for a big example. People there mostly solo and the guild dynamic I found in FFXI just never surfaced, even with some of the people from my FFXI guild tagging along.  Everyone was simply too wrapped up in what they were doing to interact like we did in FFXI. It basically made the game a very dull experience.

I've said it many times in many posts, Community is the best aspect of an MMO. It will make or break a game for you. If you can find a game that has enough to do to keep you interested in teh gameplay mechanism, then make it your mission to find a great social guild. It's the difference between going to a bar alone and going with a great group of mates!

So what is the deal, is the NGE crap still in effect with like 9 classes and the like, or did they dial it back at all, to at least CU? IF NGE made me leave,  and its still running, why would I go back?

I loved Ultima IV. It is still probably my favorite RPG of all time. Ultima X Online was to essentially be Ultima IV Online, and I was so frickin stoked! whomever decided to pull the plug on this project should be tarred and feathered.

However, truth be told, without Lord British involved, who knows wtf EA would have done to that game! So its cancellation may have been a blessing in disguise for those who hold the Ultima series as someone sacred in the annals of RPG.

I always see people through UO around as an example of FFA PVP. I was there...day one....it was FFA PVP, save for one very large exception. There were CONSEQUENCES for killing PC's. Guards would kill you on site in towns. Tehre were people who played teh game solely to hunt REDS. For PK's, the game got a lot harder! But that was the best part.

I took a turn on the FFA PVP server in Vanguard...and was getting Ganked RIGHT IN FRONT OF GUIARDS. honestly, whats the point? zero consequence gameplay just sucks overall imho. FFA PVP isn't something you can just turn on, it's got to be there from the ground up.

That said, it is an unpopular mode of play, particularly in our ever expanding MASRPG (massively antisocial online RPG's) mentality. We scream more and more for mmo's with massive amounts of solo content.. Someone coming along and knocking you on the head kind of messes with your solo player Chi.

This blows my mind. Lets be honest..gameplay in mmorpgs sucks! Really, there are so many technological limitations when thousands of players from across the globe try to share in the same game. a level 20 whatever will always spank a lvl 10 whatever, its character skill...because twitch play really isn't possible without severe use of instancing (which is basically what a FPS is, a instance) So with all these limitations on gameplay, what was the MMO claim to fame...in a word...Community.

With the continuing philosophical shift to single-player mmo's, is community being lost? In here lies your answer as to why FFA PvP are becoming extinct. Good FFA PVP is completely entrenched in the gameplay mechanism, which requires planning from the beginning. To be successful, it also needs a strong, interdependent  community,  where people actually need one another all teh time, not just for raiding uber loot.

Lineage 2 was PnC. drove me nuts trying to get in and out of buildings. Worse yet, there was no way to change this to a WASD setup...not customization AT ALL...left the game before my free 30 days were even up, I don't care what your control choice is, there is NO EXCUSE in this day and age for not giving the player the choice of HOW they like to drive their toon around.

Also, tehre seems to be SotNW:GE which is getting ready for closed Beta and a seperate called just GE, which has an open beta available. they have to be the same game, so whats the deal lol?

I do not partake in any of these events as I've been reading about. However, this reads to be at least the second case of CCP involvement in this kind of crap, as well as an apparent attempt to cover up the previous occurrence. So, if this crap is indeed happening yet again, I am afraid that CCP deserves everything its got coming to it. You can blame no one for the consequences of CCP's actions but CCP (whatever they might end up being, which probably won't be much).

the real question is, why aren't you calling CCP to the curb? If you love this game so much, why aren't you giving them both barrels for putting it's future in danger with this kind of crap, then lying about it? I am afraid your anger is misdirected, mate.

Originally posted by anoma7y
Still not interested. Period.

then why are you here?

The 'Black Pearl' is the Shortbus of the Pirate community!

/sigh

a "carebear" is someone who does not partake in PvP. It is meant to be an insulting defenition by those who do enjoy PvP.

It is not a universal term to mean whatever you want it to mean, like Smurfing :p

Thanks a lot, mate!

Hey mates,

I started playing UO ages ago, i think 1999 on my current account. However, it's been ages since I've played. All of my old friends are gone, and I barely remember how to play. It seems a lot has changed as well.

I am looking for a guild to join on Great Lakes. Just a bunch of fun mates to enjoy the game with and give me sonmething to do on here.

Thanks!

All true from the vertical aspects of the game. But this cannot be universally true, as the game still feels "fish-bowl"-ish to myself and a lot of other folks. It would seem this is a result of the lacking horizontal component, the lack of scale and scope along those lines. For being such a massive work as middle earth, the Horizontal doesn't feel right, even if the vertical can be quite pretty. I think they are more interconnected then the OP's observations would suggest. Interesting Topic

Originally posted by LiquidGroove

For me, it all just depends on what that player’s intent is...

Thats Pretty much the rule I think.

There is a dude who plays FFXI, Unicorn Server, who plays as a Woman, acts like a woman, and even gets involved with dudes, only to tell them later that he's a dude ( I'd say the player name, but I do not know if that would be ok or not.)....its pretty messed up lol. A guildmate of mine found out the hard way. He was really messed in the head after this, and I can't help but laugh, as you should just know better.

Originally posted by Death1942
sweet now i can gank the PS3 players.

lol thats the spirit, though they will probably kick your ass :-)

We, PC players, have  TON of mmorpg's to pick from, so we are spread out.

Console players will be picking from FFXI Online or AoC, and thats it....meaning they will probably outnumber us, and quickly, just like they did over in FFXI (I was there, and I played on a PS2 and a PC, whichever one was not in use when I wanted to play).

Ironically, I found the PS2 interfact, with my Logitech Netplay controller to be far superior to the PC interface for FFXI. I actually bought a special adapter to allow me to use the controller I used on the PS2 with my Comp, it was pretty nice.

Mouse and keyboard are great for FPS or anything twitch, but for an mmorpg, 2 analog sticks were fricking great, and I could hook the PC up to my big-screen,. I wish more games would allow this kind of control options, without gimping it. Oh well.

I usually play a Female toon, unless my Wife and I are playing a game together.

Here's my simple reason:

If I have to spend hours staring at my own toon's tush, it better be a cute one
(3rd person perspective makes you stare at your backside a lot more then is healthy)

A merge would be great.

How did you role a character Wipe into that question?

I forget if its Llane or Kel Thurzad, but it was Awesome and so inspiring.

<SWG Refugees>

Originally posted by tevans

I don't know. I started off not liking the game, got to a point that I liked it and now have a 'been there, done that' feeling towards it. It's really fun for a while but it seems every level is just more of the same - kill this, deliver that. Maybe I'm missing something. My level 18 Hunter has been fun to play at times but all the quests seem the same. For instance, I did the first Barrow quest where you had to kill 12 wights. I turned the quest into constable at the town hall and the next quest he gives me is to kill 25 more wights. I did a message-delivery quest from the Forsaken Inn to Bree and got a return quest doing the same thing. That's not my idea of fun. The scenery is great. The game doesn't lag one bit but something seems to be missing for me.

The game also seems too easy. Except for Weathertop, where the 2,000 HP Orcs are, I haven't really been challenged the way I have in other games. I can easily make a level just by doing 5 or 6 yellow quests at a time. Sometimes I die but it doesn't slow me down. When I played SWG, killing a rancor or krayt was very tough. WoW and EQ2 also had some tough fights. In LOTRO I haven't had a tough fight yet and that's playing solo. Grouping makes it even easier in my opinion. Maybe it gets more difficult the higher the level but so far for me it's been kind of boring. I don't mean to belittle those who are having a good time. I'm glad for you but at this point I'd have to say that LOTRO isn't the game for me. I want more of a challenge out of my gameplay.

I can completely see where this guy is coming from, as I feel teh same way. LotRO is a very polished game, particularly for a launch. The problem I had, perhaps its my ADHD, but the quests all feel the same. As he said, I dunno how many "kill X # of mobs" quests I got, each with a slightly different BG story telling me to do the same thing. Honestly, this would not be so bad if things were just, well, harder or perhaps more risky is the proper wording.

I do miss death penalties, not because I enjoy getting smacked in the face AFTER I fail, but because it made the game, right up until I died, a lot more intense. You had to be careful out there when adventuring. But now, you don't really need anything but attrition. You can  throw yourself at a difficult quest again, and again, until you finally pull it off with no penalty.

I'm not trying to revive the Death Penalty debate, that horse is so dead its undead. But I do wonder what people take from gameplay that just does not challenge them. It seems more and more that we view most of the content of an mmo like a car trip to an theme park. So we demand that the car take the straightest route to the fun at the end, and any stops along the way are viewed as an annoyance.

Yes, with a penalty for failure, you will be spending more time in that car. But since that is where the majority of the game is played, isn't it worth it to make the ride more exciting? With a game like LotrO, where the Ride literally IS everything (being almost totally PvE), isn't doing everything to challenge the player even more important?

I get that a lot of people dig this game, I am not trying to give anyone crap for that, as it takes all kinds of peeps. But I would like those who do enjoy it to consider why they like low/zero consequence gameplay? Maybe I am doing something wrong, but I do not feel like I am doing anything but turning some arbitrary crank and watching my character play itself mostly. As if  my toon really doesn't need me to play the game, save for my monthly fee.

I really want to like this game, as I am a huge Tolkien Fan. It just feels so...I dunno, simplistic, when taken against the source materials of the Books. Maybe I've just become an old, jaded gamer

Originally posted by bluedragon83
Ok I've heard a lot of controversy about Pirates of the Caribbean online and Pirates of the burning sea. I haven't even really researched the burning sea one but I can say honestly why one thing makes it different. JACK SPARROW / Jonny depp! Um how could you even try to compare games? I'm sorry I prolly sound like a teeny bopper lol (Oh my god I’m gonna be 24 next month) But come on people be reasonable. If you’re a chick which game would you play, knowing that Jonny's voice and caricature modeled after him? LOL you guys can flame about how stupid of a thread this is. But I am staying with this fact! so there! Good bye! Fare well! *sticks tongue out* *while doing a Napoleon Dynamite impression, she runs away*

After reading this, my head actually hurts. Talk about arrested development.

Originally posted by CognetoJoe
Also want to say out every development and publishing company, Turbine and Midway just feel wholesome. They are grass roots in the gaming industry and that is another reason I support LotRO

After 6months of game play, I have only reached 1/8th the content of the entire game,

What kind of crap is this?

Midway, whose titles such as Mortal Combat and the Suffering...yea thats some wholesome entertainment.

Turbine's D&DO is based off the One IP that most christian Organizations believe is a one-way ticket to hell for all who partake .

Please seek Immediate Medical Attention!