I think the best way to show him your intrested is simply playing yourself, trial's free and both of you could work out a nice tank/healer duo. Other than that, theirs not alot of ways to tell someone wow this is amazing. I guess you can sort of hang around and watch him play when he's doing somthing intresting like pvp or grouping.

Definently try it out yourself, and dont feel to pressured about the whole thing. =)

Now that you mention it this game does seem to lack a more feminine community, at least from my perspective.

I dont think theirs any real reason for it, its just the way things turned out, who knows maybe alot of male avatars are females.

I agree on the EQ2 statement, i remember joinin a group on vent, turned out the whole bunch of em were females, or else boys with a girly tone.

The UI is very very diffrent from most other mmo's, my advice is to use macro's, lots of em. You can find guides on good macro's for your class if you google it, but as the above poster said, its difficult to explain the UI in a simple way anyways.

I will say that in the time I played, i almost rarely used the mouse for anything, almost everything of the UI can be handled on the keyboard.

Has the game died yet or is it possible for an old player to return and still have fun? My main concern is the population and getting groups, seeing how old the game is I imagine the population has dropped way way down. Anyone thats still playing mind informing me of the status ingame lately?

I came back to the game not long ago as well..then left due to the fact that at my low level just starting on the mainland, i can not get a group within the hour even in primetime

Unless your playing with a friend you made from the isle, or you've got people willing to power level you *which aint my cup of tea personally* Then getting a group apparently will be extremely frustrating and difficult.

Solo wise you have to stick with very weak mobs from my expirence, I was killing izams and what-not right at the front door of the fyros capital for like 10-15 lvls before I could move on.

and the sap issue is usually fixed by healers restoring sap, in a group anyways if theirs more than 1 of ya.

To the OP:

I agree with you completely mmo's  just feel like trash at the moment.

and yes after playing lotro for awhile now ill tell you now, it plays almost exactly as WoW does

I really don't know what to recommend to you, but a few games ive enjoyed that seemed or felt diffrent from the others would be

1.Eve online, play it and you'll find out why...then probably get lost in it and quit

2.Saga or Ryzom, the only mediocore up-to-date sandbox around atm

3.Final Fantasy XI, a bit of a grind and extremely difficult overall, if lvling up isnt your main concern though you might enjoy it

4.City of Heroes/Villians, more grindin, but the fast-paced action is thrilling in my opinon.

Hope you find what your looking for.

To the OP:

I feel your pain unfortunately =(

Not much to do personally until a new good sandbox mmo comes out. Cant say any are on the horizon though at the moment

Till then ill enjoy Saga of Ryzom.

I think its the lack of "freedom" in mmo's that needs to be fixed.

and the lack of a really good up-to-date sandbox mmo

thats just me though.

Originally posted by Halfmad

Originally posted by AgtSmith

Originally posted by Wolfenpride 

...its almost like playing a scripted rpg.

...

I very much agree with this statement - it is up tot he player what to do in the end but I feel that the whole game is very controlled in terms of your ability to really do anything unique.  It is like I am putting together a puzzle, the picture at the end is set - sure I get to put the pieces in however I want but what gets built is pretty much decided.  It just doesn't feel like I am building a character, more like i am just coming along as he moves through the script the DEVs made.

Most MMORPGs are the same and I suspect that LOTRO will add in less scripted content later on. I haven't played a game yet that didn't have a massive number of quests which ultimately came down to killing a named npc or X amount of a mob to collect hides etc.

WoW, DAoC and EQ were just as bad.

Mm..I slighty agree and disagree, excluding Wow due to it was kind of quest heavy, but Daoc and eq were geared more towards grinding and exp groups, at least before..eh certain expansions

I have no problem typically with questing, but thats all people seem to want to do here, and it feels like theirs the lack of freedom in that as stated above.

I understand, but people will only group for to do those particular quest, anything beyond that is considered a waste of time apparently, exp groups, loot hunting, or just dungeon crawling for example.

 I cannot get a group to do anything other than quest, which from previous expirences anyways..appear to only take 5-10 mins at most. I have no problem with that normally, but typically afterwards the group disbands and I just go and find more quests, its almost like playing a scripted rpg.

I just prefer to have mmo's with more freedom I guess, or that at least encourage that freedom and grouping.

Good to know..still though all in all it still kind of..dampens the "adventure" feeling with the way they did the game. Im imagining that even at higher levels still people only group to those quest that only require fellowships, and so far when I join a group for anything, we did what we had to do, usually killing a signature mob or somthing, and then quickly disbanded all within 2-4 mins.

I loved the way a few chapters work, specifically 11 has been my faviorate so far, but the soloability was taken just a tad to far me thinks, not that soloing's bad or anything, just theirs no motivation to group

After playing to 20 ive found the game to be..adequate overall, love the graphics combat and all..

However what really really really bugs me, is the lack of grouping *this goes for most of the recent/upcoming mmo's personally*

What im saying is yes, their are a fair amount of quest that involve killing 1 or a few tough mobs or crawling through the great barrows for some quest target.

However this has gotten i humbly say..very..very old in my 20 lvls as a guardian =/

Maybe its just because ive been hooked to FFXI lately, but ive found it to be impossible to get a group for anything beyond quest that require fellowships/raids and the Books/chapters instances. Ive even been rejected due to the fact that the quest was soloable on several occasions, and the idea of just a exp group sends others into shock apparently. Even when I do get a group for this particular mob, the whole group disbands after the kill, and im left again with either finding another one or mindlessly soloing quest after quest after quest and so on.

And not as bad as the grouping thing to me, not that its a colossal issue, is the crafting. Straight out of WoW if you ask me, it is i really hate to say it, extremely mind numbing in fact i walk away from the computer ususally during my crafting sessions.

Im praying that in future expansions they add more well...freedom to the game in terms of how we should progress and explore zones, as it is now ive basically been following the dev's carrot on a stick, down a road many other mmo's have taken, and i belive its fair to say that this extremely kills the "adventure" in the game.

Just curious if a duo warrior and whitemage would be able to progress fairly? We will look for larger groups if we have the time, but if we arent able to get one or just dont feel like would it be possible for the two of us to take on say decent challenge/slightly tough mobs just the two us? We're not to concerned about the grind but we do want to be able to explore and have fun on our own once in awhile..would this work out?

Neocron 2 would've been great if their were more players...

cant deal with soloing all the time personally.

Saying its not an mmo seems just like an excuse to not compare it to other mmo's...Mmo or not, who cares its online so you can play with others

Id have to say out of the current pick of mmo's that GW is up their in ranks..not the best though impo

Personally I think FF12 would've made a great mmo..11's alright, i just cant adapt to the UI and sluggish combat

sandbox eh...if you havent tried it yet..

Saga of ryzom? can try the free trial at least

100% agreed with the OP

mmo's today are overall clones of each other, id rather play a good rts like medieval 2

...and I do

point is some of us are tired of the same old rpg style of mmo's lately, i want to actively affect and participate in how the world in game changes and progresses or just create my own personal in game adventures, not follow the set path the dev's designed for us =/

I agree with the point that we keep buying crappy clone games, thus they keep making them

we should start an mmo-uprising =-0

Imperator

R.I.P