What is out now thats worth playing?

[Enrichwar]

hey, i realize most of you probally do not rember me, but im getting ready to get back in the states in a couple of months and am wondering what is going on with some of the games out. my brother is kinda letting me know how WoW is doing, but i was curious about like age of conan, and lotro. and info would be appericated thanks.

[Ddrak]

WoW is still the 800lb gorilla of MMOGs - nothing even comes close (10m vs 1m for the nearest competitor). AoC/LOTRO/EQ2 all have small but fairly steady subscriber counts from what I understand (Nadia probably knows more). There's a whole raft of newer stuff coming out fairly soon but nothing is remotely going to come close to WoW for a very long time.

As for what's good, you should see if you enjoy WoW first up (just from the popularity) and then work your way through the other ones.

Dd

[Enrichwar]

I played wow for like the first year and a half or so it was out then left then came back about a month or so befor i deployed. i also played eq2 for a bit like a year or so ago but the isp in the barracks had a issue keeping connected to the sony server, so it wouldnt let me play, though i did enjoy it. right now im in afghanistan and should be back home in less than a month and a half, ive had my brother building me a comp while i was here and im looking foward to trying to push it, i know wow runs pretty easy on it from what he says, just trying to get some ideas on what stuff to look into.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

I played WoW for a year and a half or so, and then dropped it for eq2. I do the "play for awhile, drop it and come back" kind of thing, and i haven't had a problem. Currently i have a mythical templar with raid gear that i'm not playing, as i uninstalled eq2 again, but i'm sure in a few months i'll pop back in for awhile, do a little raiding, do a little grouping, reequip myself then quit again. Personally i REALLY enjoyed EQ2, a LOT more then WoW< but i know others have been playing WoW faithfully for years and still enjoy it.

[Enrichwar]

I really liked how Eq2 seemed more social than WoW, and i hate how all the dungeons are instanced in WoW. Im not trying to find something im going to dump 8 hours a day into like i did with EQ but i would like to find something that has more to it than WoW.

[Taxious]

but i was curious about like age of conan, and lotro.

I played AoC a while after it came out and wouldn't recommend it. I've heard some good things about LOTRO, but haven't tried it personally.

I like Team Fortress 2 quite a bit and usually play that when I have some down time. Guild Wars is pretty fun if you get into PVP.

[Nadia]

i hate how all the dungeons are instanced in WoW

I agree
I dislike how they are all private dungeons

I like that EQ2 gives a mix

[Nadia]

i was curious about like age of conan, and lotro

I recommend trying the trials
http://www.ageofconan.com/trial/index.html

http://www.lotro.com/trial/

LOTRO is running an anniversary special if you do like the trial

[Falundir X`Viento]

I need to chime in real quick here on WoW. Please note I can say that I have no experience with other mmos at this time, and while many of the things below are new and unique to me, they may be available in other games. I'm going to rely on my fellow posters to point these discrepancies out.

When WoW first came out I gave it a try, leveled to 60 and grew bored pretty quick and quit.

When the first expansion BC came out, I leveled a toon to 70, grew bored pretty quick and quit.

Enter Wrath of the Lich King... I have to say I'm floored. Not only did they go a completely different direction on many things, they managed to make it extremely entertaining, even WELL into the end game. They are using a new technology called Phasing, in which you can go to an area that is all out war and complete a huge line of quests that progresses the storyline for the area. Towards the climax you will engage and kill the enemy and drive them back. Now when you enter the area it will be the remnants of a battle, and the enemy will be pushed back to the other side of the valley. If someone who has not completed this line of quests enters the same area you will not see them and they will be in the battlefield with the war raging.

The path of progression is very nice for both the casual, raider, and hardcore raider. As you level there are dungeons you can take advantage of right away, and when you hit 80 (max) those dungeons open up to 'heroic' instances. Heroics are much harder versions with improved loot. Another nice thing is each boss you kill you get an emblem that allows you to buy other very nice gear for your character. When you are ready to get into raiding you have two options, 10 man and 25 man instances. So if you join a casual but tight nit crew that can field a 10 man raid you have full access to all of the content in the game in a raid customized for 10 people.

I think the biggest thing that throws me for a loop is I always thought EQ would be king of raids, and nothing would come close. WoW is starting to prove that wrong with this expansion. The dynamics of nearly every fight are quite over the top compared to EQ.

--Negatives--

To me there is only one negative, and it will be a deal breaker for many people on this forum... The community is HORRIBLE. Maybe I'm just getting older (30 now), but the majority of the players are very selfish and are children. In EQ we were used to requesting help and helping people for quests non stop. If you run into that one last group quest you need completed and you cannot find the people who are also on it in the zone, you are pretty much SoL in *most* guilds. I personally just think that WoW nurtures a selfish attitude in the fact that it doesn't require you to do anything as a group above and beyond the level cap to a point. On my server there are 3 guilds that I would put at the top end, and their attitude is that of how things were in EQ. There are about 20 efficient guilds on raids, but have the current WoW mentality. Then there are the rest and they end up in <pwncakes n ROFLs> (actual guild).....

--Final note--

You can download a trial of the new expansion and play for 7 days. It will highlight everything that I think makes the current expansion enjoyable and great, so I highly recommend you give it a try (it's free...) It will set you as a death knight (the new class) at level 55 so you will be able to go straight into it.

[Enrichwar]

Thanks for all the responses. i also forgot to add, i did get to play Vangard for a while and i really liked it but had to put it down, i do plan on staying with WoW mainly but was going to try the others and see if I liked any better.

[Kulaf]

Phasing in WoW is sort of cool when you first see it. Then the negatives hit in that you soon realize that you cannot see or group with people who are in a different "phase" than you. Basically it is an awesome feature for a game like Diablo where you are grouped with the same people all the time.....but not so much for a MMO imo.

I'm still having fun in EQ2 which also has 12 and 24 person raids and while there are no "heroic" versions of most zones there are newly revamped dungeons that are higher level and much more difficult. EQ2 is totally different than it was back at release. It is so easy to level now I would say you can level a toon faster now in EQ2 than you can in WoW.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Its easier to level in EQ2 now? That's something positive? It was already way too easy to level in that game when it released...

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

it still took me like 8 months to lvl from 70 to 80.....

[Kulaf]

Its easier to level in EQ2 now? That's something positive? It was already way too easy to level in that game when it released...

Easier than what? EQ1? Leveling in EQ2 at release was way tougher than WoW.

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Yes, it took longer... but it was still phenomenally easier than EQ1, which is the curve I went in expecting since it was an Everquest. That being said, I did level to 25 in ~3 weeks... then I quit and went back to EQ1 cause it was too easy (that was at release).

[Kulaf]

Even back when I was playing EQ1 I could level to 25 in like 3 days. Leveling in EQ2 at release was pretty tough. Tradeskilling in EQ2 at release was insanely tough.

[Ariannda Kusanagi]

Yes, it took longer... but it was still phenomenally easier than EQ1

Thats because all these companies learned from EQ and since the player base had changed people wouldn't deal with that kind of thing anymore. Face it my friend, EQ is an era gone by =(

[Fallakin Kuvari]

Even back when I was playing EQ1 I could level to 25 in like 3 days. Leveling in EQ2 at release was pretty tough. Tradeskilling in EQ2 at release was insanely tough.

First time through took me way longer than that... That was during Velious. EQ1 after PoP (actually I think I mean Luclin, new low level areas there were quick and fairly painless) and Lost Dungeons, yes it was way easier to level.