Its been a long time since I played it, but the best community I have played with was in Final Fantasy XI - It's a game that doesn't appeal to everyone, and in no way would i say that it's perfect, but the friends I made on it were the best of any game I've played.

As a few people have said CoH also had a good community, but not enough content for my liking.

In my xp in terms of gameplay and community it is unfortunately best to stay away from free to play mmo's.

Good luck finding one, as it is a real make or break issue in these games.

Originally posted by BrianAddison

I'm pretty sure that Goblins ride Wolves and not Squigs because that's how it is in the table-top game. However, in the table-top, there are Night Goblins who ride Squigs..

And forest goblins that ride spiders!

Dark elf mounts will be the coolest, because they have cold ones! (dinosaurs > everything)

When i first started playing mmos (FFXI 4 years ago) I took great pride in being someone in my linkshell that people would choose to group with:

a) because i liked to have a laugh

b) because i was pretty good at my job(s)

this is all the 'skill' i required to have an amazing time...

if people are having a good time, you only look stupid for laughing at them, rather than joining in or finding something you enjoy

I generally dislike one on one pvp (if i wanted that, i'd still be playing Tekken!)

But there is such satisfaction to be had in a hard won group-pvp battle that although its not the most important thing i think about, it's definitely a big consideration when i look at new games...

Originally posted by Gameloading
Its not Massively Multiplayer.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MMORPG

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Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) is a genre of online computer role-playing games (RPGs) in which a large number of players interact with one another in a virtual world.^[2]

As in all RPGs, players assume the role of a fictional character (most commonly in a fantasy setting)^[3] and take control over many of that character's actions.^[2] MMORPGs are distinguished from single-player or small multi-player RPGs by the number of players, and by the game's persistent world, usually hosted by the game's publisher, which continues to exist and evolve while the player is away from the game.^[2] MMORPGs are very popular throughout the world, with combined global memberships in subscription and non-subscription games exceeding 15 million as of 2006.^[4] Worldwide revenues for MMORPGs exceeded half a billion dollars in 2005,^[5] and Western revenues exceeded one billion USD in 2006.^[6]

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As we see here, to be an MMORPG, its requires one to be in a large persistent world. As soon as you exit a map in Guild Wars, it closes down and the next time you enter the area, it will reset the map.  So its not a persistent world, already removing the idea of GW being an MMORPG.

Next, you can not play with a massively amount of people. It doesn't matter if they are on one server of if its client hosted, as long as a massive amount of people can play together, which is not the case.

To further back up the arguement that GW is NOT an mmorpg.

http://www.mmodeals.net/games/guild_wars/index.php

""Guild Wars is not an MMORPG," said Jeff Strain, producer of the game."

unless you want to claim the producer of the game doesn't know its own game?

Also Ozreth, it would be a good idea to stop saying we shouldn't make up our own definition of MMORPG's, because thats EXACTLY what you just did.

Originally posted by vajuras

Originally posted by ragnair

Originally posted by vajuras  

5) Lots more realistic. It makes no sense whatsoever that a warrior cant pickup a wand, use it, and start learning how to spellcraft (become a mage). Just like real life I can always study and learn new skills

 I dont think skill systems are more realistic, if you were a veteran swordsman and wanted to start casting magic you might have some very "real" reasons for not being able to do so. For example, you might have suffered a few too many blows to the head and therefore not as bright as someone who has nurtured their brain for a long period of time through constant study.

I personally feel that although skill systems can be fun and definitely let you explore everything a game has to offer, either everyone ends up wanting / getting everything, or people gather towards the same skills as they create "best build".  I prefer hybrid systems, i know generally I enjoy being a melee fighter and so will always gravitate towards that, however i do think i should also be able to level sub jobs (much more diverse imo than "class trees" ala WoW) and through practise also learn non-combat related skills. Letting the sub-job be changed freely like in FFXI  .

Another few things that would help diversification would be character creation and continued modification of the look of your avatar. I think that most games (at release especially) dont have enough classes to be able to satisfy everyones desired "play style". Although it is always going to be impossible to cover everyones play style in a class based system, it would be a definite improvement to have more choice.

Summing up this fairly aimless ramble: IMO choice is good, restrictions and limits (but not complete dead ends) i beileve are actually more realisitic.

in class based systems people min/max as well that has nothing to do with skill based systems. Only difference is that they reroll the FOTM (I know because I've done it plenty). That's no reaosn at all to diss a skill based system not in the least. If your game is -balanced- I stress this again, then you wont have FOTM period. Checkout Guild Wars please- I see new builds being created in that game all the time. If everyone is rolling the same build -again- I want to stress thats because that game is ran by crappy game designers period.

Try again

And I'm sorry even a stupid, retarded warrior can still pickup a wand and try to cast spells. You cant ever justify to me why in the hell cant a warrior try to pickup new skills I'm not buying it.

Originally posted by vajuras  

5) Lots more realistic. It makes no sense whatsoever that a warrior cant pickup a wand, use it, and start learning how to spellcraft (become a mage). Just like real life I can always study and learn new skills