My friend and I actually became pretty good friends with a married couple when we played Everquest 2. We never actually were friends outside the game (mainly because we were still in high school), but we did make a pretty good effort to play together in the game a lot. One thing that was pretty cool was when I logged back into the game after having quit for about a year and a half and I instantly got a message from one of them being really excited to see me on.

 FFXI was my first MMO and I was trying to pick a name I like (which takes forever), so I decided to look through some names lists online. I ended up finding Takai in a Japanese baby names list. I really like the name and I've stuck with it since.

If Takai is unavailable I usually try to go with Tavadon (which is a surprisingly uncommon name in MMO's). I got that name from the book "The Outstretched Shadow".

I have an Acer Aspire One netbook and Final Fantasy XI runs pretty decently on it. I imagine that a lot of F2P and quite a few P2P (excluding the newer ones) will work on most netbooks. It is a good idea to make a list though, I was actually curious about which MMOs would actually run on my netbook.

Originally posted by ericbelser

Aion and the couple of other "generic fantasy" MMOs that are cooking will all be what they are, generic fantasy MMOs...no matter how well done, nothing new or really exciting to any of them.

Aion and the other "generic fantasy" games could still end up being fun and successful though. I'm personally kinda excited about Aion due to the fact that most fantasy MMOs lately have been somewhat dissappointing. I do agree that 2009 is looking pretty unexciting though.

Originally posted by Moaky07

 Lets not forget a severe enough death penalty to make folks think twice.

Again as an example...in EQ's early years you could spend hrs trying to get a corpse back. If you didnt, you ended up losing all your gear when the body rotted. Not to mention that  losing entire levels was possible.

That is a tad extreme...but it gave suspense to fighting in tough areas. Nowadays you just summon bod, and get a 96% rez. Getting stuff back is good...but the exp cost is low IMO. Bump it up to 7% or so with no Rez refund. Dont allow losing levels though...use the debt system for when they get down to 0% of lvl.

Anyways I think you get the idea of what I am refering to. Games that provide challenges, yet dont give ya RL sim play. There is already WoW, and its clones. I would hate to think of 20 more games that are not only exact copies, but they all dominate the market collectively as well.

I totally agree. I hate how all newer MMORPGs have no death penalty at all. Sure it sucks when you happen to die a lot, but it really does add that suspense to higher areas. I remember my friend and I would go exploring in Everquest 2 and if we weren't able to avoid the monsters well enough, we'd die. Sometimes we'd end up having like 5 or 6 spirit shards in a zone because of that, but it was still fun going to get them back.

Nowadays people can go anywhere and die as much as they want with no penalty. In my opinion that seems to take away from the immersion and fulfillment of going to a new, higher level area. I'm not saying that you should lose everything when you die, games should just have some sort of penalty. The debt system in EQ2 seemed to work pretty well.

Hmm, perhaps I'll give this game another go. I played it at launch and had a pretty good time for a while, but ended up quitting after a month or so. After that, the game just seemed to be going farther and farther downhill. I've been hearing some fairly good things about Vanguard lately though, so I think I'll go give that 14 day free trial a try.

This it completely true. For a while there, game companies were trying really hard to imitate WoW due to its huge success. Now it seems like many companies are finally realizing that there are a lot of people people still waiting for something different. I'm just hoping that one of them ends up being relatively successful.

I agree that logic should be used for certain quests. Like someone giving you good directions to the store or place you need to go to (if you ask them for it), but there should also be times when the NPC just doesn't know the information. If I was telling some adventurer to go to a certain building in another town, there is a chance that I wouldn't know where it is. Thus I couldn't put a dot on their map. They would just have to either find it themselves or ask around.

I also really like the idea of not having every little detail written in a magic quest journal for you. It seems cool to have to write your own quest journal and remember what NPC you talked to, what he or she needed, and where that NPC was. Unfortunately I've never gotten the chance to play a game like this as I started playing MMOs with FFXI. I just think it would make the whole role playing game aspect to an MMORPG a lot more immersive.

Originally posted by Khrymson

Originally posted by luckypotato

So..am i the only one whos fed up with mmorpg's?

 

You only waited 5 min....give us time to see this post and respond silly!

 

To a point I am, they've all gone easy-mode: 

Almost Entirely Solo  {very few require long-term groups or they last long enough to kill one enemy and then everyone parts and goes their own way...lets stick together and get to know each other...isn't that what an MMO is about...playing together with other people!?}

No Death Penalties  {come on I want to lose that hard-earned XP and even my levels if I screw up...will make me rethink what I did wrong or change my strategy!}

Stupid ! ? O  {and other designs above NPCs heads indicating; hey come talk to me for an easy quest for mass XP so you can rush to the cap and stand around in ur L33t gear calling everyone else n00bs!  Lemme find you myself by talking to all the NPCs and don't tell me exactly what to do and where to go!}

Hybrid Classes  {Gah, go away already....I want to be a healer and support other players, not a healer that can solo the entire game without even a slight challenge and can beat the snot out of just about any mob.}

BoE, BoA  {Why can't I resell my gear to other players after I'm done with it or give it to one of my alts!?  So there isn't an overflow of gear make it all much harder to acquire or craft....make it worth something to have and display to others!}

Instances  {fricken hell go away....the whole point of an MMO is to play together, not separate us into our own little groups away from others...make huge non-instances areas that any # of players can enter, but increase the difficulty and number of mobs the more that are in there to the point of requiring many groups to slowly work your way through.....Teamwork Please!!!}

Levels & Set Gear  {get rid of them and make huge sandboxes where there isn't a mass L33t name calling competition and pissing match!  Go the route of skill based and the only thing armor does for you is make ya look different, and remove the ridiculous mass stats on gear...there is no reason for a piece of gear with 20+ lines of text and stats on it.  Let me earn those stats myself...}

Player/Guild Housing  {stop making zones so small and confined....make huge open plains and mountainous regions that we can freely build our own homes and cities on, non-instanced and give them more purpose than just a place to display our trophies!  Why can't I sleep there, or craft...or hold events for my friends/guild/random other players to get to know?}

Exploration  {again with the small confined zones, its ok to make large areas with nothing in them besides well made designs and to show off the skill of the artists making the MMO.  Many of us, me included love to just set out and explore and look at things, and many times die from being stupid, "I can make that jump!"}

...and many other things..I could go on for a long time, but stopping here!

 

I agree with all of your points 100%. The thing I hate the most is soloing in an MMO, I'm okay with soloing every once in a while, but in newer MMOs you do it most of the time. It seems no one likes a good ol' fashioned group nowadays.

I'm not fed up though. Even though I really do prefer old fashioned MMOs where you gain levels as a group, a newer MMORPG can be really fun too. Darkfall for example. Darkfall seems like it could be a really fun game (whether or not it will be is a different subject), and its pretty much the opposite of the MMORPG that I usually like to play.

MMORPGs are changing, just like most video games do. Its not too often today that you see a new 16-bit, side-scrolling Metroid game coming out. Or even a Metroid game with similar gameplay for that matter. Its the same for any game.

Eventually, in the midst of all the new games coming out, an old fashioned side scroller that people love will emerge. The same goes for MMORPGs. One of these days, someone is going to make that old fashioned MMORPG (and it'll actually be successful), and plenty of people (myself included) are going to enjoy it. I'm just waiting for that to happen.

I'm glad everyone is still talking about Age of Armor here.

Anyway, I know this is kinda old, but I figured I'd give my two cents anyway. For me, Age of Armor was pretty fun at first. As time passed on, it seemed like the only real way to gain exp was for me to do Exotic Planet runs with a canister weapon. Fighting monsters one at a time would have taken forever. Even ignoring all the other problems with the game (such as the bad english), AoA just eventually turned into a grinder just like many other F2P MMOs.

In conclusion. Age of Armor isn't as god-awful as many people say it is, but it still isn't very good. It had some pretty good potential, and it is a pretty unique game, but it doesn't seem to be going anywhere fast.

Dance! Online or Audition Online (haven't played this one) may suite your style.

Dance! is a Dance Dance Revolution clone where you play with/against other players. You can gain money and experience and buy clothes and stuff. It seemed like a really social game, it wasn't really my style, but you may enjoy it.

Audition online is another dance rhythm game, its different than Dance! from what I've heard. I haven't actually had a chance to check it out though.

Second Life may be another option. You don't actually have to pay any money to play (although you may want to) and the game itself is very social based.

Also, are you looking specifically for dancing or sports games? Or are you looking for an MMORPG with social aspects to it as well?

If an Elder Scrolls MMO is made, I really doubt it will just be a clone of Oblivion. Bethseda will probably try new and different things if they make an MMO. Take Fallout 3 for example. Sure, it was similar to Oblivion in a lot of ways, but Bethseda realized that some things didn't work in Oblivion (like the leveling system, and very little diversity in the voices) and improved upon them in Fallout 3.

I believe that they'll do the same with an online Elder Scrolls. Sure, it could still suck, but I'm pretty excited to see one. The worst thing I could see happening is that it doesn't turn out to be successful and Bethseda just sticks with making their single player Elder Scrolls games.

As much as I personally dislike WoW, I have to admit that it did do a very good job at being a successful MMO. It does make me sad though when game companies see how successful WoW is and feel that in order to have any success, they need to pretty much copy WoW. But I digress.

My opinion of a good MMO and a successful MMO are different. The OP pretty much listed most things an MMO would need to be successful. It really is too bad that so many of those points are missed nowadays.

Originally posted by tsukts

gunz online

Yeah, Gunz online sounds pretty close to what you're asking for. Its a 3rd person shooter where you can dive around, run along walls and do "Matrix-y" style moves. It has an RPG aspect to it as well. You can gain levels, earn money, and buy new weapons and clothes.

It even has quests if I remember correctly.

WoW is just a phase. A very long phase, but still a phase nonetheless. For example, when Everquest first came out it was incredibly popular. Sure it was most likely due to the fact that it had very little competition, it was still really popular during its time. WoW will eventually die down just like Everquest eventually did, and something else will take its place. It may not end up having almost 12 million subscribers, but eventually WoW will lose its popularity and something else will take it's place as "most popular MMORPG".

I'm hoping that the game companies will realize that people are starting to get bored of WoW and create a fantastic game that isn't as easy and dumbed down as WoW.

Originally posted by TwiztedTD

 Did you post the beta yet?  I cannot find it on the site.

The client is down in the support section. It took me a little while to find.

Yester, you might want to make a downloads section or something so the client will be easier for people to find.

Yeah, I can agree that a game with a lateral progression system would be nice. I'm hoping that Darkfall will cause some companies to go more toward this direction with their games because it would be nice to have some diversity in the MMORPGs that are available. Ideally, I would like to see some MMORPGs with the leveling system, and some without. I don't want to see the leveling system go away completely because I still like that classic feel it has to it, but a game with a good lateral progression system would be a huge step forward for MMORPGs.

I personally like the leveling system. I do admit that it is old, and a game that can succeed without a leveling system (such as Darkfall) would be a nice break from the MMORPGs today that all seem to copy each other.

The reason I like the leveling system is because it gives a sense of accomplishment. You work for a certain amount of time to get to level 50 so you can get that new mount or spell, or go start leveling in that new zone, and once you hear that ding for the level, you get a good feeling that you finally made it. At least I do.

That isn't the only reason though. The other reason is because I really enjoy the social aspect of MMORPGs. The process of getting from level 1 to level 50 with a group of people, or a community is really fun for me. For example, in Final Fantasy XI, you would commonly spend most of your time in one zone killing the same monsters until you got up to a certain level. Then you would go to the next zone and repeat until you were a high enough level to stop and do a quest. Now I know that this sound really repetitive and boring, but for me it was a fun chance to group up with five random people and work together for the common goal of gaining a level or two.

As for people who say that the end game is the only good part of a MMORPG. I played Everquest 2 for a little over a year and had tons of fun leveling up and questing with my friends and guild mates. Once my friend and I hit the level cap, we ended up playing the game for a few more weeks and quit. I realize that a lot of game really aren't that much fun before you hit the level cap, but there's definitely a few that make it really fun in between when you start and when you hit the cap.

Of course all of this is my opinion. I may just be too nostaligic for old-school MMORPGs.

This game actually seems pretty cool. I hope you can get enough people to try the open beta. I'm excited to play it tomorrow, and I'll definitely contribute as much to the beta as I can.

Cool, thanks for all the suggestions. I'm definitely going to try all of the games mentioned above. I've been hearing about that new Everquest server pretty often lately, so perhaps I'll have to look into it. Hopefully it will draw enough people to it that it will be possible to enjoy the game at a lower level.

Also, for the record, I don't have any problem with trying out P2P games. I just haven't played any in a while due to the fact that none of the newer ones really appeal to the type of game I'm looking for at the moment (although if there are any that seem like the kind of game I'm looking for, I'd be more than willing to try them out), and the older ones are way too sparse at lower levels.