I need another WoW experience

[spengos]

For those that have played a fair amount of WoW and remember those good times, what do you mostly play now? Personally I havent found another game where I can immerse myself in such a rich world. Only problem is that amazing world has just become way too familiar and the excitement has gone.

I've tried pretty much every MMO out there but they do little for me. Also tried single player RPGs too but i think i miss other players buzzing around. I also prefer gameplay over story.

Now i'm thinking I might be burnt out on MMOs and RPGs and I need to just try something completely different. So I'm interested to hear other people's stories in a hope i'll discover something I can get into again.

 

[spengos]

Interesting replies, thanks. It's a bit disappointing that no ex wow player has really found the same experience since, as I was hoping for some ideas. But on the other hand it's probably confirmation that what I'm looking for may not be possible anymore.

 

[spengos]

I've been playing FFXIV for a while now and I'm really enjoying it. Expansion is out on the 19th as well which is going to make it a lot more interesting for a while.

I've played a bit of FFXIV. Got it when it first released but hated it. Then tried it again after the overhaul and it was much much better. However, the 2 big issues I have with the game is the fairly heavy instancing and the art style of the characters.

The instancing isn't too bad when you're out in the open(although I still hate MMOs where you have to load one area to another), but in city areas it was really annoying. I much prefer seamless transition between areas.

The character art style I just find odd. Can't put my finger on it but I just find most of the races quite ugly, with strange features and proportions.

Played WoW on and off (mostly on) since open beta.

The only MMO that came close to the feel of WoW was Wildstar.

Empty servers and a non-existent community killed it for me but I persevered with it for 6 months before inevitably going back to WoW

Yeah, I have to agree that Wildstar does come very close to that WoW "feel". My only issue with it is the setting and the races really. I'm not a huge fan of the sci-fi style and prefer traditional fantasy.

 

[spengos]

EQ2 could never keep up with WoW. While Blizzard were busy stealing great ideas from other MMOs and evolving their game, EQ2 pretty much stayed the same and has not aged well. When you play WoW now, its almost acceptable as a modern game(the carton art style helps) but EQ2 just looks really dated. It looks very much like a game thats 10 years old. It also looks like 10 years since anyone played played it. It was dead last time i looked.

 

[spengos]

I was a huge WoW fan during vanilla and TBC and a bit during WOTLK

My guild was the top raiding guild on the server, cleared to 4HM in Naxx, cleared all content on TBC pre nerf etc etc

I have recently returned to play vanilla on a private server and i am absolutely loving it, i raid once per week (sunday night), we are currently farming BWL in prep for AQ release in the coming 2months. will prob raid twice per week once its released

The commitment to retail vanilla is not nearly the same, i raided 5 timers per wk back then, no way could i do that now

even if u dont want to raid id still recommend it, the server has a pop of up too 9k at any given time, meaning lvling characters is extremely fun as there r always groups for anything u want to do

Ohh yes and i play is @ 1440p on a 34 inch super-wide screen, great for immersion

in my time since retail vanilla i have yet to find anygame that can hold my attention for long (apart from Med total war 2) so i bit the bullet and rerolled my tank once i heard this server was being released... i like urself have always looked for something similar but nothing has ever come close

and they have recently released a 2nd server (pve) approx 1 month ago

If u enjoyed it back then ull enjoy it again now

I can't see private servers being the answer for one simple reason. Content.

Without new content, running the same dungeons/raids will get old fast.

It would certainly provide some short term enjoyment but that's it.

 

[spengos]

I think MMO's are slowly reverting back to a niche market after the early-mid 2000's where everyone was playing them.

...

TLDR, I think the genre will largely die out and become a sidebar like it used to, could be a good thing, could be bad.

I think it's far from dying out as a genre. I think the devs of these games are doing just enough to provide new incentives to play.

The reason subs are falling for games such as WoW and why you might think the genre is dying is that there's so much more choice now than there was 10 years ago. The population of MMO players is being split into smaller pieces.

Look at the list of MMOs that have healthy populations now:
World of Warcraft
Guild Wars 2
Final Fantasy XIV
EVE Online
Elder Scrolls Online
Star Wars: The Old Republic
RuneScape
ArcheAge
Tera

... there's a good few more I can think of too.

It boils down to too much choice I think. I spend more time deciding what game to play these days than I do actually playing them. It was so much easier when there were only 2 or 3 big games.

I also don't think they're becoming a niche, if anything it's the opposite, but not in a good way. MMOs now seem to try and cater for everyone to the point where it's overwhelming. They try to appeal to all play styles and interests. The problem with this is that although you're gaining new players you're also losing old players.

What it boils down to is the genre has evolved. Just look how many different types of MMO there are now compared to 2 or 3 Dungeons & Dragons games 10 years ago.