Looking for a MMORPG to be immersed in.

[TheMightyTen]

Still playing LoTRO after all these years, still on Laurelin which has a reasonable poplulation, in fact I've been seeing an uptick of activity in starting areas again recently and World chat is always active. It's still getting expansions, Umbar just dropped recently with new zones and a new Corsiar class. The graphics look a little dated but still amazingly evocative, Weathertop always looks amazing, and STG have done lots of work adding extra vegetation into the original zones and added link zones to tie the original zones together in a more contiguous way. All in all it's still a relatively pleasant experience.

 

[Diddums]

I've been playing WoW on and off since 2007ish, just uninstalled it for the 4th or 5th time after a few months of play at a time. Still the best MMO out there IMO. Classic avoids all the sweaty kids and has a much better community, althought the gap between Classic and Retail is very clearly closing. The raiding is second to none.

 

[marinersfan]

I played wow a lot from vanilla. Would come home from work in a morning and spend all day on wow with 2 guys from my shift. Not played for a few years now though, they spoiled it.

 

[Diddums]

I played wow a lot from vanilla. Would come home from work in a morning and spend all day on wow with 2 guys from my shift. Not played for a few years now though, they spoiled it.

Classic fixed that. Really brought back the good old days. They released the WoW token a few months ago and then the dungeon finder so it's fallen off a cliff again.

 

[Cern]

The 'good old days' for me was vanilla Dark Age Of Camelot, before all the expansions and related power creep ruined it. Loved running around in Realm vs Realm with an 8-person group, taking on other 8's or the zerg. Crowd control was insane with 30+ second aoe mezz from range and 9 second stuns from stealth ..... imagine the whining that would go on these days. Well, imagine the whining that went on back then too

 

[loftie]

The only MMO I still play regularly is Guild Wars 2. It's a 10 year old MMO but doesn't feel it because of the art style.

This is the reason I jump on GW2, I'd like to do more of the group pve stuff but my anxiety won't let me. Luckily I love the world and just roam around seeing things tbh. I don't really get that feeling with ESO.

 

[throwaway4372]

In the same boat but there are just no good games and all communities are toxic af.

 

[Cern]

This is the reason I jump on GW2, I'd like to do more of the group pve stuff but my anxiety won't let me. Luckily I love the world and just roam around seeing things tbh. I don't really get that feeling with ESO.

Yeah that's the beauty of GW2, you can roam about and participate in zone events, world bosses and special events while not formally grouped, or loosely grouped with everyone else doing the same thing. So there's a sense of community without the commitment to a tight-knit small content group. WvW can be the same, although it's usually best to follow a Commander around as the solo WvW experience can be brutal. I've found the WvW community to be really friendly and happy to embrace inexperienced players.

I'm much the same when it comes to the small group content such as Strikes and Fractals. I pushed through my anxiety about it and found that the community are really helpful if you explain you're new to it (if you don't then there's usually a rush and you can get left behind).

 

[BUDFORCE]

Eve Online was the crack cocaine of gaming back in the day, I played it for years.

It's basically only good if you live on your own and are unemployed, which I was for a good portion of my time in that game.

I miss it, but you just can't really have a life on the side if you want the most out of it.

 

[DanTheMan]

Guild Wars 2 is the one mmo that I keep coming back to. It helps that there's no monthly subscription. I love the art style and the gameplay is far more fluid and fun that FF14 and WoW.

It has a decent story / lore if you're into that but I also just find it very chill to play.

Once you hit level 80, it's all horizontal progression so you never feel the need to grind too much for gear.

There's plenty of variety too. It's one of the few MMOs that make use of the open world maps even at level cap. There's always people in every map as it's one big mega server and the game gives you reasons to replay old content.

The PvP and wvw is pretty average but still god fun and busy. The pve content has plenty of variety and although it's not to the same level of FF14 or wow, the instanced content is really fun.

Also, the best mounts in any MMO, by far.

 

[willhub]

How much do you have to spend on GW2? I see the game is about a tenner but then all the DLC?

 

[Cern]

How much do you have to spend on GW2? I see the game is about a tenner but then all the DLC?

If you wait for a sale the expansions can be as much as 70% off. Sadly the spring sale just ended, but they go on sale quite often.

 

[LostCorpse]

wouldnt BG3 / DOS2 sort of fall in to this category if you playing with others? most people playing mmo's often play with thesame people.

ESO still seems very active and popular

Runescape still has an active player base. Somewhat dated but does have a mobile app to grind on the go

i was going to mention this also.
but notised there was an "Old School RuneScape"?

 

[Drollic]

Eso is ok, but at times you might as well be playing offline with npcs. It just doesn't have the same level of interaction that wow had years ago. The biggest issue though is the server lag in their version of world pvp where it's unplayable at times. Lucky to get 80ms and regularly 100+ with spikes over 200 or even 300. The players are generous though occasionally gifting items and gold as the levelling system indicates new players even at max cap.

 

[Cern]

Eso is ok, but at times you might as well be playing offline with npcs. It just doesn't have the same level of interaction that wow had years ago. The biggest issue though is the server lag in their version of world pvp where it's unplayable at times. Lucky to get 80ms and regularly 100+ with spikes over 200 or even 300. The players are generous though occasionally gifting items and gold as the levelling system indicates new players even at max cap.

They've still not fixed the Cyrodiil lag? It was the main thing that drew me to ESO (I found the PVE really dull) and had a lot of fun in Cyrodiil when it wasn't lagging. Sadly it lagged far too often and I gave up on the game several years ago. Have often thought about taking another look, but if they haven't fixed the lag it's rather pointless.

 

[Netguy]

I remember when I got my 8800GTS expecting EQ2 to run like butter only to be disappointed it ran exactly like my X800XT PE

Haha, yeah, I bought a Nvidia 6800 128MB card when the game was released, thinking I could run EQ2 on high

I remember EQ2 briefly. Think it started off in a little island village thing, and I enjoyed that part but then it opened up and I went back to WOW.
I probably tried every mmo that was released post 2004. One I didnt was a car combat game, forgot the name.. was Auto Assault.
Conan was similar, had a great start zone with all voice acting etc but then you left and it was meh.
Actually, I never tried the lord of the rings one either because although I liked the films, I don't particularly get excited about the setting.

EQ2 was my first MMORPG, I was amazed that I could play a multiplayer game with people from all around the world! I was instantly hooked. I made so many friends, even attended an in-game wedding!

So many memories

 

[rumple9]

ESO is still good and busy. The graphics still look good despite its 10 year anniversary next week

 

[SPG]

I do miss a good MMO, but life gets in the way. Hopefully, in another 15 years when I have retired something will pop along to and I will not feel guilty for staying up all night, phoning in Sick etc etc.

The good old days

 

[Drollic]

They've still not fixed the Cyrodiil lag? It was the main thing that drew me to ESO (I found the PVE really dull) and had a lot of fun in Cyrodiil when it wasn't lagging. Sadly it lagged far too often and I gave up on the game several years ago. Have often thought about taking another look, but if they haven't fixed the lag it's rather pointless.

Stopped playing over a year ago and they hadn't at that point.

 

[Hutchy]

I would recommend trying WoW Classic, specifically the Seasons of Discovery.