What MMO's are still popular?

Richeh

Richeh

Richeh

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My mate and I are after an MMORPG that we can play on a casual basis. We used to play them regularly but not in the last couple of years. Last one being Age of Conan. We've played WoW and just didnt like the style of it so thats out.

Have had a look around and these seem like the best options, bearing in mind that we want a game that is ok for just the 2 of us to play doing missions, a free trial would also be nice etc

Age of Conan - Has it improved much/still popular?
Lord of the Rings Online - Again is it popular? Never played it before.
Everquest 2 - We used to love this but last time we logged on it was near enough deserted, has anything changed?

Things like EVE require too much time that we don't have and as mentioned above, no interest in WoW and am fairly sure WAR is near enough a clone of it, style wise at least.

So any suggestions? Again would like a nice popular MMO that can be played solo or in a pair.

Cheers.
 
You could take a look at Aion, I have a beta account but havent had time to try it yet. Someone else might let you know if its good/bad.
 
on OcUK bar WoW and to an extent eve, whatever is deemed popular is whatever is the next hyped up thing, currently thatd be Aion
 
We want a game thats released at the moment, planning on playing it this weekend as have some time off work. How is that Champions Online, graphically looks ok but we both have E2180, 8800GT and 4GB Ram so not sure if it would be smooth or not and also is the game any good?
 
Lord of the rings is quite casual, and pretty active how ever i play on usa servers so cant comment on active the eu ones are. But i found the players to be quite mature and more adlut then other mmo's i have played.

I found questing and leveling to be fun esspecily if you both got good pc's and can turn the eye candy up and explore middle earth some.

As other have said aion is coming at soon but i dont know how casual its gonna be. But its very enjoyable so far from what i have played.

Have you thought about giving guild wars a try, not sure how active it is anymore but you and your friend can basicly get 3 heros each and solo jsut about all the content together. Its very casual and on the plus side theres no monthly fee.
 
Warhammer Online was OK for casual players.

The Open Party feature allows you join existing people in the area to make things easier (depending on peoples ability any way), and vice versa. So Public Quests don't rely on people organising groups so much.

Can solo to adventure level 40 if wanted within a month and work on Realm Rank by doing open RvR - which can be great fun. But later on when dealing with multiple warbands the servers just lagged too much once you enter later tiers.

I got the game for sub £10, and you get a month worth of subs included. GOA used to offer a 10 day trial on the official site if don't want to pay.
 
Lord of the Rings on the Laurelin server. Nice and busy, easy to get into but has a fair bit of depth. Very mature community too, and looks gorgeous.

Guild wars is still ace, but I find myself always playing it as a single player game, I can't stand the community.
 
I did WAR, LOTRO, Vanguard and Dungeons and Dragons and they were all meant to be great buy it etc etc etc.

Now it's AION's turn sorry but 4 MMOs later and i'm going to wait to see what people are saying after 1 month with Aion.

I keep meaning to go back to LOTRO but never get the chance. WOW is always fun and always busy.
 
jas72 said:
I did WAR, LOTRO, Vanguard and Dungeons and Dragons and they were all meant to be great buy it etc etc etc.

Now it's AION's turn sorry but 4 MMOs later and i'm going to wait to see what people are saying after 1 month with Aion.

I keep meaning to go back to LOTRO but never get the chance. WOW is always fun and always busy.
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aye, just bought Champions online, got to level 34 and I'm all burned out, dont feel like leveling. Infact I cant stand leveling now it's so tiresome and boring.

Darkfall spoiled me rotten by letting go of levels and just dropping me in, Darkfall has to be the best MMO I have played since I left WoW about 2 years ago. probably end up subbing again soon as champions is getting boring even though the pvp is fun.
 
If you are not opposed to a f2p MMO, can I recommend Runes of Magic. The servers are all nice and full (with the possible exception of the PvP ones) and most of the game can be played as single player although it is easier with a party. As you aren't paying a monthly fee you can be as casual as you like.

If you are worried about the free bit, there is no missing content if you don't pay and you can max out your character level (currently 52, it was 50 up to a couple of weeks ago and will be 55 next week) with stuff you get in the game. Once you get to high levels and are the really difficult end game content the question of using the cash shop gets more interesting.

As for end game content, an new instance was added towards the end of last month and 108 (you read that correctly, one hundred and eight) level 50+ characters with top end gear tried it. None of them made it out alive.

Plus chapter 2 is released next week, with a new race and 2 new classes to try.
 
I'll echo the people saying Guild Wars is your best bet. You can get all three campaigns and the expansion pack (which is a lot of content!) in a single sub-£30 box these days, and has no subscription fee. If you just want to do pve, as you said, its instanced nature is awesome, as it lets the game do all sorts of neat tricks, such as transform a normal zone into a mission zone, stick lots of high-level monsters in a lowbie zone if you have a specific quest in your log, let plot-critical NPCs tag along and help you out on a mission (which they're simultaneously still back in town handing out quests to other players, natch!;)), and other cool stuff.

I went back to AoC recently for the re-evaluation, and it has improved. There seems to be a lot more content for the 40-60 level zone too, so you might like going back to it. LOTRO I've never personally played but have heard nothing but good things about.

Aion, from what I've read in the previous, will apparently have lots of compulsory PvP missions in its mid and late levels, so might not be friendly for casual play. It does look neat though.
 
Your requirements are satisfied perfectly by guildwars.

Its an amazing game on your own or with a couple of friends. I recompleted the first one with a uni mate a few years ago very casually, its a good laugh.

Even though its nearly 5 years old im fairly sure its still busy.

And theres 3 expansions on top of the normal game aswell as hard mode so keep you busy forever if you wanted.

I still say the original is the best game though, actually has a really good story with the quests and missions, i would advise watching all the cut scenes as the story is really good. However the story for the other expansions hasnt been nearly aswell thought out, more cash cow esque. but there still very good games, and very cheap.
 
I should point out, didn't specifically want PvE, PvP is always fun :) Probably why we liked Conan so much. At the moment its between LotR, AoC and Champions Online. Guildwars does look alright but its quite old and a few friends have said its good but doesnt have the 'MMO' sense as much.

Champions Online - Not sure how well my computer would run it, also does it work well? Obviously its the newest so am assuming there are quite a few bugs?
LotR - Heard its still popular, does it have a decent amount of content? How is the PvP
AoC - Any BIG changes since it was released? Got to about level 45 in the first couple of months of its release but would probably start a new character if I went back.

Cheers for the help guys, should point out as said, Aion isn't out yet so is not really of any help.
 
LOTR has a silly amount of content at this stage, but it's not a very PvP centric game - the PvP is limited to a single large zone, and it's your toon vs monster toons that you can roll (but the monster ones are limited to this single zone, they start at max level).

It can be a lot of fun, there are keeps to take and stuff, but it's possible to go through the entire game without ever going near it.
 
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