Lord of the Rings Online, Rift, Star Wars: The Old Republic are decent starting MMOs. SWTOR will be most similar to Mass Effect but that doesn't necessarily translate well in a long term game.
"I used to think the worst thing in life was to be all alone. It's not. The worst thing in life is to end up with people who make you feel all alone." Robin Williams
World of Warcraft would honestly probably be your best bet with a starter MMO, it is by far the easiest and least complicated one around AND it has the most subs out of any other mmo so there is no shortage of others to play it. WoW is fairly easy to get in to so
I only have my laptop right now. I've played first person shooter's and RPG's. I tried a few games on my iPhone but most massive multiplayers on there are pay to win...
Well you can start off easy with a F2P like Rift or LoTro or Swtor and try it out otherwise there are a few friendly and easy going mmos like world of warcraft if you are interested in doing alot of dungeons or raids however there is monthly fee and box price attached to this game but it's gigantic with endless possibilitys.
You have ESO witch is a eldar scrolls game with great storyline and massive largescale pvp.
Wildstar is a new game and like eso and wow they all have sub + box price attached to them, wildstar is like wow a raiding orriented mmo but with lots of other stuff to do like housing , great pvp it's allso a actioncombat oriented game.
You also have the B2P games which comes with a box price but no sub like The secret world and GW2,
TSW is set in todays scenary with one of the greatest questing and lovley enviorment and then there is GW2 which I play and it has action combat, large scale pvp it has most of the stuff. It doesn't have any raiding maximum dungeon is set to 5 people.
I am sure I have missed a few games but all these are good to a lot of different people it's just a matter of taste.
Take Guild Wars 2. Most people here won't call it a MMO but it truly is. Also you won't have to pay a subscription fee or deal with enforced cash shop. All the content comes to you free of a charge. Currently there is an active living world going on and if that doesn't ring any bells to you that means content updates every 2 weeks.
The combat is slick, animations are top of the line and the movement cannot be compared to any other mmo. You can go basically anywhere. There are almost no invisible walls. If you see it you can get there.
The personal story is okay and it guides you through the whole process from rookie to lvl 80 (max level). The story also branches, some of your dialogue options matter (Mass Effect style) but yeah they all lead to the same end result, the slaying of a dragon, but, you go there through different branches, which is nice.
The game is extremely user-friendly. In most games you would rage if people steal your mobs because you wouldn't get the much precious exp points, not in gw2 though. Everything is evenly shared between all the players, you don't have to be in group to get rewards. Everyone gets their share of loot. For example we kill a spider, you get your own loot bag i get my own loot bag with different loot in it. That's quite fun.
Then its the dynamic events. Little events that pop around you. It makes the game interesting and not your usual "from quest hub to quest hub" kind of game.
Everything you do in the game rewards you. Achievements for whatever you can think of, experience for everything, killing gathering uncovering stuff you name it.
All of this, for a single box price. No hidden fees. I think there's even a sale now. You will start with 5 character slots, 5 bag slots and 3 rows of bank space. You can either increase that with cash (real money) or farm some gold in-game and just buy those perks for gold. Everybody who would tell you otherwise is a troll. Also its worth nothing to mention that i still haven't bought any extra bag slots after 2 years of active play, not because I can't get the gold, just because I see no need of it. I can manage my bank/inventory space just fine. Add to that special bank space for collectibles only, you can rarely run out of bag space as long as you have the deepest bags (20-slot ones)
I think Gw2 is the perfect introduction to the MMO genre with its top of the line combat.
A good recommendation is hard to make without knowing what sort of game you might be looking for or what your interests might be in playing an MMO. Some questions that might help narrow things down:
1) Are you interested in socializing and group based gameplay or do you think you would prefer to go solo most of the time?
2) How much do you care about graphics?
3) What sort of setting / theme would you prefer such as sci-fi, high fantasy, low fantasy, etc?
4) Are you interested more in PvE or trying out some PvP?
5) What sort of combat would you prefer? Standard tab-target lock on and hotkeyed skills or twitch / shooter style combat?
Also, Beelzebobbie makes a good suggestion with Rift, LOTRO, and SWTOR. I wouldnt consider any of them to be the best, but all have their good points and are similar enough to eachother and many other games (such as WoW) that you will get used to the type of gameplay / combat in all of them fairly quickly and possibly get a better idea just what you want out of your next game (if you decide not to stick with one of those) based on likes / dislikes from those games. WIth them being Free to play they're definitely all worth checking out at least to get a sense of what they offer.
That's super helpful thanks! One question though... What are subs? I need a game that I don't have to pay just to keep up with competition. A monthly charge isn't a big deal but I have to keep my wife happy lol
That's pretty helpful. Can you download any of those from a website? My laptop doesn't have a CD/DVD player
All MMOs can be downloaded. I'd recommend The Secret World and Guild Wars 2, but if you want something free you could try Rift or The Old Republic. Really depends on what you're looking for. Some games require more time than others. For example, Rift and WoW are better-suited for those who want to play a lot, while Guild Wars 2 offers Skyrim-like running around. The Secret World and The Old Republic are more story-focused, with TSW having a better story. TOR is a pretty standard BioWare game. Think Mass Effect, but worse and with other people.
Originally posted by Rynix That's super helpful thanks! One question though... What are subs? I need a game that I don't have to pay just to keep up with competition. A monthly charge isn't a big deal but I have to keep my wife happy lol
sub = monthly charge
but it's gonna be cheaper than a movie ticket so it costs next to nothing.......
Back to the topic : I would vouch on WoW being your best first MMORPG. Afterall it's the game that makes the mmorpg genre blossom by attracting millions of non mmorpg players for years......
Originally posted by Rynix That's super helpful thanks! One question though... What are subs? I need a game that I don't have to pay just to keep up with competition. A monthly charge isn't a big deal but I have to keep my wife happy lol
Subs stand for subscription. 15$ is the standard price on top of a 60$ box price and in the case of World Of Warcraft you have to buy the base game, all the expansions so far and still pay a monthly. That adds up to close to 100$. So that's that.
In Guild Wars 2 you get none of that. You just buy, pick a character and play. All the game is available to you with just the box price.
Originally posted by Rynix That's super helpful thanks! One question though... What are subs? I need a game that I don't have to pay just to keep up with competition. A monthly charge isn't a big deal but I have to keep my wife happy lol
Subs = subscription aka monthly payment. Typically also refered to as a P2P (Pay to play) game.
F2P = Free to play - No up front cost or monthly sub. Download and play for free. Purchase optional things for a fee. Depending on the game how much you need to spend, if any at all, can vary. Some practically force spending money for the game to be enjoyable or to keep up with others, while some games are very fair and offer things like a choice between spending $ or doing things in game to earn the same thing instead so you can still play free if you're willing to work for it a bit.
I love good graphics but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't HD quality. I'm home with my 3-year-old most of the time so when it's "me" time, the more people I can talk to/play with, the better. I'm good with playing against other players or not. I love fantasy, and space. Basically, the bigger and more I can do, the better. I'm new to this, so sorry if I'm a little slow.
As with others I would recommend WoW as your first MMO. This will help you get down the basics that most MMORPGs contain as well as it will perform much better on a laptop than most of these newer MMOs that people are suggesting to you.
WoW has a subscription of $14.99 a month (first you have to buy the actual game which you can download off of their website after you purchase it) and has a ton of content with a lot of back story and a huge open world.
I don't play WoW right now, and it wasn't my first MMO but if I had a friend that wanted to play an MMO I would send them to a role playing pve server because the community is usually a lot better there.
Also, Rift and Lord of the Rings Online might both be good options even though I don't play either. They are both free to play with very little pay to win.
Good luck and don't let bad attitude players get you down! There are some really good quality people around.
Edit: Also World of Warcraft is free up to level 20 so you can at least give it a shot which I do highly suggest. If you end up deciding you like it you can buy the starter pack pretty cheap these days. Here's a link https://us.battle.net/account/creation/wow/signup/
So WoW would be about $100 to start and the about $15 a month after that plus expansions? How often do expansions come out? I wouldn't be able to put hours a day into it so is it still worth playing if only 10 hours a week or less? Maybe more every once in a while.
I love good graphics but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't HD quality. I'm home with my 3-year-old most of the time so when it's "me" time, the more people I can talk to/play with, the better. I'm good with playing against other players or not. I love fantasy, and space. Basically, the bigger and more I can do, the better. I'm new to this, so sorry if I'm a little slow.
Well in that case as other have suggested you have the F2P options I mentioned in my earlier post as well as World of Warcraft (subscription) and Guild Wars 2 (no subscription). All pretty good options for a 1st timer. Though in GW2s favor over World of Warcraft, it is much newer and since it doesn't have a subscription you can always drop it for awhile and check out some other games along the way and hop back in o GW2 without needing to pay again any time you want.
I would also suggest Final Fantasy 14. Have actually played with quite a few people playing it as their 1st MMO. It is pretty beginner friendly and has similar combat systems to most of the others. Lots of content for both solo and group. Mostly PvE based but they have both arena style PvP and recently added larger scale PvP with objectives like controlling points on the map if either of those interest you between doing other content. There are a lot of friendly and helpful Free Companies (FF's version of guilds) that can teach you plenty of stuff. One really nice thing about it to with being a beginner is that it allows you to play every class on a single character. So since you likely won't have a feel yet for what kind of class you would like to play you can always try them all out a little bit and see what grabs you without having to recreate your character and start all over again.
Originally posted by Rynix So WoW would be about $100 to start and the about $15 a month after that plus expansions? How often do expansions come out? I wouldn't be able to put hours a day into it so is it still worth playing if only 10 hours a week or less? Maybe more every once in a while.
You don't have to buy the expansions as they come out if you are not leveled up to work on that content yet.
The game has been out almost 13 years and has a total of 4 expansions with a 5th one coming up at the end of this year.
Also it is not $100, Starter+Burning Crusades+Wrath of the Lich King+ Cataclysm+ Mists of Pandaria comes out to $52.01 before taxes/shipping. Even though you are buying the discs you just have to activate them to your account and can download it online. Also the first 30 days are free if you have a new account.
You can enjoy the game if you play on average 10-15 hours of week. This is why I suggest WoW as it is very friendly to casual players such as yourself.
Edit: Actually found a way to get it down to almost $40 before tax/shipping on amazon! Not a bad price really. But yeah GW2 is also a great MMO as others are saying and I can't say much bad about it other than its just not my style.
Originally posted by Rynix So WoW would be about $100 to start and the about $15 a month after that plus expansions? How often do expansions come out? I wouldn't be able to put hours a day into it so is it still worth playing if only 10 hours a week or less? Maybe more every once in a while.
Wow would you cost now, let's see... Battle Chest, including Vanilla Wow + The Burning Crusade + Lich King + Cataclysm = $12. Mists of Pandaria expansion is around $20 +/-. You can buy only Battle Chest with 30 days free included to try game and decide you like it or not. Then you can buy Mists of Pandaria and wait for next expansion, which will come (I guess) in November/December 2014. Expansions come every 2 years, with almost 1 year gap without content, which can be a good or bad thing, depends if you like to continue to play or cancel sub, waiting for new expansion or play other games. You can get max level char in 3-7 days, depending on your gameplay, so 10 hours per week are perfect for you and you will not need hours and hours to catch with rest of players.
Originally posted by Rynix So WoW would be about $100 to start and the about $15 a month after that plus expansions? How often do expansions come out? I wouldn't be able to put hours a day into it so is it still worth playing if only 10 hours a week or less? Maybe more every once in a while.
You don't have to buy the expansions as they come out if you are not leveled up to work on that content yet.
The game has been out almost 13 years and has a total of 4 expansions with a 5th one coming up at the end of this year.
Also it is not $100, Starter+Burning Crusades+Wrath of the Lich King+ Cataclysm+ Mists of Pandaria comes out to $52.01 before taxes/shipping. Even though you are buying the discs you just have to activate them to your account and can download it online. Also the first 30 days are free if you have a new account.
You can enjoy the game if you play on average 10-15 hours of week. This is why I suggest WoW as it is very friendly to casual players such as yourself.
Edit: Actually found a way to get it down to almost $40 before tax/shipping on amazon! Not a bad price really. But yeah GW2 is also a great MMO as others are saying and I can't say much bad about it other than its just not my style.
No need to spend that much money, unless he want boxes, digital versions are much more cheaper.
Its really simple between Gw2 and WoW though. Combat. That's the thing you will be doing 90% of the time. In such you have to choose because the two are completely different.
WoW is stats based, shitton of abilities combat. In which you don't dodge/step away from a danger yourself. You rely on your attributes such as evasion and defense to help you out. Its also considered a gear treadmill so the best gear in game changes each year while the previous becomes a trash.
Guild Wars 2 is more action-oriented. You can dodge and you can step out of harms way. You do have your attributes but you don't let the game do the dodging for you, you have to do it for yourself.
In both games you have to lock a target (a single mouse click over enemy OR tab key to target the nearest enemy) and then use abilities. However some of the skills in these games do not need target.
Guild Wars 2 employs open class system where you can be everything or just a specific build while World of Warcraft employs the more than a decade old trinity system in which the combat goes around roles like a tank (someone who can take a lot of beating), a healer (gives precious hitpoints back), a dps (damage-per-second, a character who's sole purpose is to damage the enemy) and basically that's all there is to it. What is wrong with teh trinity is that if you decide to go to a dungeon and you happen to be a dps, get ready to wait for 20+ minutes until the system matches you in a party. The other professions find groups more easily. Gw2 doesn't have that, every class is important in its own way.
Also in WoW you can be gear-checked. What that means is that people will check your gear score and kick you out of group if you don't have the right gear. That cannot happen in Gw2. Sure there are some elitist pricks there that would do it, but the majority of the community is not like that. While WoW....
That's a good point, I totally forget about digital battle chest. Wouldn't hurt to shop around a bit though you might found some really good deal on any game you are looking to buy!
That's a good point, I totally forget about digital battle chest. Wouldn't hurt to shop around a bit though you might found some really good deal on any game you are looking to buy!
You can also try some F2P games, Rift, which will require you to spend $0 or StarWars:The Old Republic, which has a little bit nasty F2P system, but if you don't want to subscribe you can make one-time payment ($5 or 6?) to get prefferd statuts, which unlocks some features not available for F2P players. Also, Final Fantasy XIV, but it's box+subscription game.
Originally posted by Rynix So WoW would be about $100 to start and the about $15 a month after that plus expansions? How often do expansions come out? I wouldn't be able to put hours a day into it so is it still worth playing if only 10 hours a week or less? Maybe more every once in a while.
Right now three expansions (The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm) and 30 days gametime are included when you buy the base game for $20. You don't need to buy the Mists of Pandaria expansion ($20) until you reach level 85 and want to do higher level content. There is a fifth expansion coming out in a few months (expansions come once about every 2 years) for $50 and it makes some really drastic game-wide changes but also improvements. So I wouldn't recommend starting wow until after it is released so that you will have to best experience. (The update changes the game for you whether you buy the expansion or not)
I recommend Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy 14 for you. They are both very different games so it is certainly possible you can dislike one but love another.
Comments
You should stick to regular RPG's on whatever platform u want to play them.
There is not alot of RPG going on in MMORPG's right now. Don't bother
That's pretty helpful. Can you download any of those from a website? My laptop doesn't have a CD/DVD player
Well you can start off easy with a F2P like Rift or LoTro or Swtor and try it out otherwise there are a few friendly and easy going mmos like world of warcraft if you are interested in doing alot of dungeons or raids however there is monthly fee and box price attached to this game but it's gigantic with endless possibilitys.
You have ESO witch is a eldar scrolls game with great storyline and massive largescale pvp.
Wildstar is a new game and like eso and wow they all have sub + box price attached to them, wildstar is like wow a raiding orriented mmo but with lots of other stuff to do like housing , great pvp it's allso a actioncombat oriented game.
You also have the B2P games which comes with a box price but no sub like The secret world and GW2,
TSW is set in todays scenary with one of the greatest questing and lovley enviorment and then there is GW2 which I play and it has action combat, large scale pvp it has most of the stuff. It doesn't have any raiding maximum dungeon is set to 5 people.
I am sure I have missed a few games but all these are good to a lot of different people it's just a matter of taste.
GL
Take Guild Wars 2. Most people here won't call it a MMO but it truly is. Also you won't have to pay a subscription fee or deal with enforced cash shop. All the content comes to you free of a charge. Currently there is an active living world going on and if that doesn't ring any bells to you that means content updates every 2 weeks.
The combat is slick, animations are top of the line and the movement cannot be compared to any other mmo. You can go basically anywhere. There are almost no invisible walls. If you see it you can get there.
The personal story is okay and it guides you through the whole process from rookie to lvl 80 (max level). The story also branches, some of your dialogue options matter (Mass Effect style) but yeah they all lead to the same end result, the slaying of a dragon, but, you go there through different branches, which is nice.
The game is extremely user-friendly. In most games you would rage if people steal your mobs because you wouldn't get the much precious exp points, not in gw2 though. Everything is evenly shared between all the players, you don't have to be in group to get rewards. Everyone gets their share of loot. For example we kill a spider, you get your own loot bag i get my own loot bag with different loot in it. That's quite fun.
Then its the dynamic events. Little events that pop around you. It makes the game interesting and not your usual "from quest hub to quest hub" kind of game.
Everything you do in the game rewards you. Achievements for whatever you can think of, experience for everything, killing gathering uncovering stuff you name it.
All of this, for a single box price. No hidden fees. I think there's even a sale now. You will start with 5 character slots, 5 bag slots and 3 rows of bank space. You can either increase that with cash (real money) or farm some gold in-game and just buy those perks for gold. Everybody who would tell you otherwise is a troll. Also its worth nothing to mention that i still haven't bought any extra bag slots after 2 years of active play, not because I can't get the gold, just because I see no need of it. I can manage my bank/inventory space just fine. Add to that special bank space for collectibles only, you can rarely run out of bag space as long as you have the deepest bags (20-slot ones)
I think Gw2 is the perfect introduction to the MMO genre with its top of the line combat.
A good recommendation is hard to make without knowing what sort of game you might be looking for or what your interests might be in playing an MMO. Some questions that might help narrow things down:
1) Are you interested in socializing and group based gameplay or do you think you would prefer to go solo most of the time?
2) How much do you care about graphics?
3) What sort of setting / theme would you prefer such as sci-fi, high fantasy, low fantasy, etc?
4) Are you interested more in PvE or trying out some PvP?
5) What sort of combat would you prefer? Standard tab-target lock on and hotkeyed skills or twitch / shooter style combat?
Also, Beelzebobbie makes a good suggestion with Rift, LOTRO, and SWTOR. I wouldnt consider any of them to be the best, but all have their good points and are similar enough to eachother and many other games (such as WoW) that you will get used to the type of gameplay / combat in all of them fairly quickly and possibly get a better idea just what you want out of your next game (if you decide not to stick with one of those) based on likes / dislikes from those games. WIth them being Free to play they're definitely all worth checking out at least to get a sense of what they offer.
All MMOs can be downloaded. I'd recommend The Secret World and Guild Wars 2, but if you want something free you could try Rift or The Old Republic. Really depends on what you're looking for. Some games require more time than others. For example, Rift and WoW are better-suited for those who want to play a lot, while Guild Wars 2 offers Skyrim-like running around. The Secret World and The Old Republic are more story-focused, with TSW having a better story. TOR is a pretty standard BioWare game. Think Mass Effect, but worse and with other people.
sub = monthly charge
but it's gonna be cheaper than a movie ticket so it costs next to nothing.......
Back to the topic : I would vouch on WoW being your best first MMORPG. Afterall it's the game that makes the mmorpg genre blossom by attracting millions of non mmorpg players for years......
Subs stand for subscription. 15$ is the standard price on top of a 60$ box price and in the case of World Of Warcraft you have to buy the base game, all the expansions so far and still pay a monthly. That adds up to close to 100$. So that's that.
In Guild Wars 2 you get none of that. You just buy, pick a character and play. All the game is available to you with just the box price.
Subs = subscription aka monthly payment. Typically also refered to as a P2P (Pay to play) game.
F2P = Free to play - No up front cost or monthly sub. Download and play for free. Purchase optional things for a fee. Depending on the game how much you need to spend, if any at all, can vary. Some practically force spending money for the game to be enjoyable or to keep up with others, while some games are very fair and offer things like a choice between spending $ or doing things in game to earn the same thing instead so you can still play free if you're willing to work for it a bit.
Kaiser it's hard to say lol
I love good graphics but it wouldn't be a deal breaker if it wasn't HD quality. I'm home with my 3-year-old most of the time so when it's "me" time, the more people I can talk to/play with, the better. I'm good with playing against other players or not. I love fantasy, and space. Basically, the bigger and more I can do, the better. I'm new to this, so sorry if I'm a little slow.
Hey nice to see a fresh face around!
As with others I would recommend WoW as your first MMO.
This will help you get down the basics that most MMORPGs contain as well as it will perform much better on a laptop than most of these newer MMOs that people are suggesting to you.
WoW has a subscription of $14.99 a month (first you have to buy the actual game which you can download off of their website after you purchase it) and has a ton of content with a lot of back story and a huge open world.
I don't play WoW right now, and it wasn't my first MMO but if I had a friend that wanted to play an MMO I would send them to a role playing pve server because the community is usually a lot better there.
Also, Rift and Lord of the Rings Online might both be good options even though I don't play either.
They are both free to play with very little pay to win.
Good luck and don't let bad attitude players get you down! There are some really good quality people around.
Edit: Also World of Warcraft is free up to level 20 so you can at least give it a shot which I do highly suggest. If you end up deciding you like it you can buy the starter pack pretty cheap these days.
Here's a link
https://us.battle.net/account/creation/wow/signup/
Well in that case as other have suggested you have the F2P options I mentioned in my earlier post as well as World of Warcraft (subscription) and Guild Wars 2 (no subscription). All pretty good options for a 1st timer. Though in GW2s favor over World of Warcraft, it is much newer and since it doesn't have a subscription you can always drop it for awhile and check out some other games along the way and hop back in o GW2 without needing to pay again any time you want.
I would also suggest Final Fantasy 14. Have actually played with quite a few people playing it as their 1st MMO. It is pretty beginner friendly and has similar combat systems to most of the others. Lots of content for both solo and group. Mostly PvE based but they have both arena style PvP and recently added larger scale PvP with objectives like controlling points on the map if either of those interest you between doing other content. There are a lot of friendly and helpful Free Companies (FF's version of guilds) that can teach you plenty of stuff. One really nice thing about it to with being a beginner is that it allows you to play every class on a single character. So since you likely won't have a feel yet for what kind of class you would like to play you can always try them all out a little bit and see what grabs you without having to recreate your character and start all over again.
You don't have to buy the expansions as they come out if you are not leveled up to work on that content yet.
The game has been out almost 13 years and has a total of 4 expansions with a 5th one coming up at the end of this year.
Also it is not $100, Starter+Burning Crusades+Wrath of the Lich King+ Cataclysm+ Mists of Pandaria comes out to $52.01 before taxes/shipping. Even though you are buying the discs you just have to activate them to your account and can download it online. Also the first 30 days are free if you have a new account.
You can enjoy the game if you play on average 10-15 hours of week. This is why I suggest WoW as it is very friendly to casual players such as yourself.
Edit: Actually found a way to get it down to almost $40 before tax/shipping on amazon! Not a bad price really. But yeah GW2 is also a great MMO as others are saying and I can't say much bad about it other than its just not my style.
Wow would you cost now, let's see... Battle Chest, including Vanilla Wow + The Burning Crusade + Lich King + Cataclysm = $12. Mists of Pandaria expansion is around $20 +/-. You can buy only Battle Chest with 30 days free included to try game and decide you like it or not. Then you can buy Mists of Pandaria and wait for next expansion, which will come (I guess) in November/December 2014. Expansions come every 2 years, with almost 1 year gap without content, which can be a good or bad thing, depends if you like to continue to play or cancel sub, waiting for new expansion or play other games. You can get max level char in 3-7 days, depending on your gameplay, so 10 hours per week are perfect for you and you will not need hours and hours to catch with rest of players.
No need to spend that much money, unless he want boxes, digital versions are much more cheaper.
Its really simple between Gw2 and WoW though. Combat. That's the thing you will be doing 90% of the time. In such you have to choose because the two are completely different.
WoW is stats based, shitton of abilities combat. In which you don't dodge/step away from a danger yourself. You rely on your attributes such as evasion and defense to help you out. Its also considered a gear treadmill so the best gear in game changes each year while the previous becomes a trash.
Guild Wars 2 is more action-oriented. You can dodge and you can step out of harms way. You do have your attributes but you don't let the game do the dodging for you, you have to do it for yourself.
In both games you have to lock a target (a single mouse click over enemy OR tab key to target the nearest enemy) and then use abilities. However some of the skills in these games do not need target.
Guild Wars 2 employs open class system where you can be everything or just a specific build while World of Warcraft employs the more than a decade old trinity system in which the combat goes around roles like a tank (someone who can take a lot of beating), a healer (gives precious hitpoints back), a dps (damage-per-second, a character who's sole purpose is to damage the enemy) and basically that's all there is to it. What is wrong with teh trinity is that if you decide to go to a dungeon and you happen to be a dps, get ready to wait for 20+ minutes until the system matches you in a party. The other professions find groups more easily. Gw2 doesn't have that, every class is important in its own way.
Also in WoW you can be gear-checked. What that means is that people will check your gear score and kick you out of group if you don't have the right gear. That cannot happen in Gw2. Sure there are some elitist pricks there that would do it, but the majority of the community is not like that. While WoW....
I have played a view mmos and a bit bored now the dark souls games are the best.
eso is not bad but my advise is don't subscribe to any mmo first play a month and then decide.
stor is free and good.i am waiting for skyforge.
you can play gw2 just a view hours a week but the game is generic.
try a view mmos most are the same unfortunately.
good mmo but difficult and the combat is not good is the secret world.
I never played eve but its open world and player created the world function not theme park.
That's a good point, I totally forget about digital battle chest. Wouldn't hurt to shop around a bit though you might found some really good deal on any game you are looking to buy!
Meh, couldn't find anything for US, but for EU is $12. Only at Wallmart for US http://www.walmart.com/ip/World-of-Warcraft-PC/31908060 - $17.42. Guess someone from USA should know where to get it cheaper.
Edit:
@OP
You can also try some F2P games, Rift, which will require you to spend $0 or StarWars:The Old Republic, which has a little bit nasty F2P system, but if you don't want to subscribe you can make one-time payment ($5 or 6?) to get prefferd statuts, which unlocks some features not available for F2P players. Also, Final Fantasy XIV, but it's box+subscription game.
Right now three expansions (The Burning Crusade, Wrath of the Lich King and Cataclysm) and 30 days gametime are included when you buy the base game for $20. You don't need to buy the Mists of Pandaria expansion ($20) until you reach level 85 and want to do higher level content. There is a fifth expansion coming out in a few months (expansions come once about every 2 years) for $50 and it makes some really drastic game-wide changes but also improvements. So I wouldn't recommend starting wow until after it is released so that you will have to best experience. (The update changes the game for you whether you buy the expansion or not)
https://us.battle.net/shop/en/
I recommend Guild Wars 2 or Final Fantasy 14 for you. They are both very different games so it is certainly possible you can dislike one but love another.
http://buy.guildwars2.com/store/gw2/en_US/html/pbPage.buyguildwars2
http://www.amazon.com/Final-Fantasy-XIV-Reborn-Download/dp/B00CMSCV4Q/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1406106188&sr=8-1&keywords=ff14
You don't need to buy discs for any MMORPG btw. All are downloadable.