General Discussion

The Unofficial "What MMO To Play" Thread!

(This is a work in progress. Feel free to post ideas or corrections, I know I miss things or make a mistakes)

Greetings! I speak to you today as a man who has played literally every MMO out there, and has the honesty and condensing skills to bring you a MMORPG list with all the basic information you need to know. We all can agree that trying to find even the most basic answers about game's is hard because the companies only include the uberdooper features. I aim to keep the list as unopinionated as possible. I am also only including current MMO states. For example, pre-NGE SWG won't be taken into account for it's current game state.

So, here you have it, The Unofficial "What MMO Should I Play?" Thread! Use this to compare features without digging around.

 Additions from Taera in blue :)

Section 1: Grind

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One of the first things an MMO seeker asks if how much of a grind the game is. Below is a basic list of the newer MMOs and the time is takes to reach level cap in a hardcore setting. Casual play will be longer. It gives a comparison of the game's grind status. Keep in mind, these times are hardcore grinding.

• Lineage II (100 days)
• RuneScape (100 days)
• RF Online (65 days) 
• Archlord (60 days)
• MapleStory (60 days)
• Vanguard (35 days)
• Final Fantasy XI (35 days)
• Lord of the Rings Online (27 days)
• EverQuest 2 (25 days)
• World of Warcraft (15 days)
• Star Wars Galaxies (10 days)
• City of Heroes / Villains (6 days)
• Dark Age of Camelot (3 days)
• Guild Wars (2 days)
• Warhammer (10 days)
• Age of Conan (25 days)
• Pirates of the Burning Sea (7 days)

Have a game to add? Post a reply! 

Section 2: PvP

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PvP is horrid to some, and everything to others. Below is the breakdown based upon PvP rulesets, rewards, and penalties. Sections not listed have no PVP.

Non-Faction PvP (Kill Anyone.)

EVE Online, Ultima Online, RuneScape, Guild Wars, Lineage II, Fury, Age of Conan

Faction PvP

World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, City of Heroes / Villains, Star Wars Galaxies, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Full Looting

EVE Online, RuneScape, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Arena / Instanced Objective Based PvP

Guild Wars, World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, City of Heroes / Villains, Fury, Final Fantasy XI, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer

Open World Objective Based PvP

Dark Age of Camelot, Warhammer, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Open/Free World PvP (Can be attacked anywhere by anyone)

EVE Online, RuneScape, Lineage II, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Have a game to add? Post a reply! 

Note that some games have specific server rulesets, I.E. the Zek server on EverQuest has Open/Free World PvP

Section 3: PvE

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This next section outlines the PvE aspects such as soloing, raiding, grouping.

End-Game Raiding (Nothing to do with necessity, but rather whether a game has the feature)

World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, EverQuest, Lineage II, Final Fantasy XI, RF Online

Grouping Instances

World of Warcraft, EverQuest 2, EverQuest, RF Online, Guild Wars, Dark Age of Camelot, Lord of the Rings Online, City of Heroes / Villains, Warhammer, Age of Conan

Solo Ability (Ability to level alone effectively)

City of Heroes / Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, EVE Online, EverQuest 2, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Ultima Online, Vanguard, Star Wars Galaxies, RuneScape, Tabula Rasa, World of Warcraft, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Age of Conan, Warhammer

 Have a game to add? Post a reply! 

Section 4: Crafting

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Here, I have broken up games depending on the depth of the crafting system.

Has Crafting (Of some sort)

City of Heroes / Villains, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Lineage II, Lord of the Rings Online, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft, Tabula Rasa, Warhammer

Deep Crafting (Widely considered to have the deepest craft systems)

EVE Online, EverQuest 2, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard, A Tale in the Desert, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Have a game to add? Post a reply!  

Section 5: Performance / Graphics

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Not everyone has a supercomputer. Below is a breakdown into sections of different tiers of system needs. They are ordered from "Very powerful PC needed" to "Weak PC needed." These are all based on graphics settings at "high." This list is also good for showing the graphical quality of a game.

Zomg Expensive Computer

Vanguard, Age of Conan

Very Powerful

EverQuest 2, Fury, Warhammer

Powerful

EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, RF Online, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Average

City of Heroes / Villains, Final Fantasy XI, Lineage II, Star Wars Galaxies, World of Warcraft, D&D Online, Archlord, Horizons, Knight Online

Below Average

Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, EverQuest, Shadowbane

Lol. Upgrade Plz

Ultima Online, MapleStory, RuneScape

Have a game to add? Post a reply!  

Section 6: Difficulty

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This section deals with the learning curve associated with a game, as well as it's complexity. A complex game will have a lot of information to learn for a newcomer, and will be more difficult to master. A simpler game will be easy to learn and play right off the bat as a newbie.

Very Difficult

EVE Online

Tough

Anarchy Online, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Ultima Online, Lineage II, RF Online, EverQuest, Pirates of the Burning Sea

Average

EverQuest 2, Final Fantasy XI, Guild Wars, Star Wars Galaxies, Vanguard,D&D Online, Knight Online, Fury, Age of Conan, Warhammer

Easy

City of Heroes / Villains, Lord of the Rings Online, MapleStory, World of Warcraft, RuneScape

Have a game to add? Post a reply!  

Section 7: My Personal Recommendations _________________________________________________________________

Sometimes the simple facts arn't enough. This last section is a recommendation list based on typical MMO searchers.

"I'm looking for a game with lots of PvE grouping"

There are no MMOs where people always group no matter what. However, there are games where the players tend to group a lot. Below are games where the chat channels almost always have LFG spam.

Recommendation: Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, FFXI

"I'm looking for an MMO without PKs and gankers all the time. PvP annoys me"

Here are my recommendations for an MMO without open PvP, meaning you can walk around safely if you please.

Recommendation: LOTRO, EQ2 (RP/PvE server), FFXI
"I want a game with crafting that matters, not some sidestep in the game that's ignored."

Many people want a game where people actually need crafted goods. Below is my suggestion for games where crafted goods are widely used as much, if not more than looted items.

Recommendation: EQ2, EVE, UO, VG , FFXI, Pirates of the Burning Sea

"I'm looking for a PvP-based game with set objectives"

Here's my suggestion for PvPers who dislike world PvP, but like the idea of working on objectives.

Recommendation: GW, DAoC, WoW, Fury, Warhammer

"I want total PvP freedom where I can attack anyone when I want"

I will also note the looting rules for my suggestion here.

Recommendation: EVE (Full looting), L2 (no looting), Runescape (Full looting)

"I'm looking for a game that's a total sandbox"

Recommendation: EVE, UO, SWG

"I want direction in my gaming, I don't want to wonder aimlessly through the world"

Recommendation: EQ1, EQ2, CoH, GW, D&D,  L2, LOTRO, VG, WoW, WAR, AoC

I hope you found my guide helpful in finding an MMO. Again, this is only the first version, updates will be made regularily.

Good luck, and happy gaming.

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Added by Taera:

Great post, NetZoko!  Another popular variable for users seeking games is the payment plan.  Thus I'm adding on:

Section 8: Payment Plan

Damn. Great list. You have my  

Can we get this stickied?

Pinned.

Originally posted by Confetti

Pinned.

Very well done! Though I disagree with SWG being a full sandbox... but I guess it's as close as you get nowadays except for EVE...