Ok so I want to go back to MMORPGs. Need help choosing a game!

Tortha

Well, that's the thing. I haven't played a good MMORPG in ages and I really feel the allure of coming back. I would like to ask a little help in choosing the game since it would be for the next holiday season and I want to take my time to think it over. Obviously my platform of choice is PC.

I played a lot of WoW in my teens and then I got into Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2. But I have no interest in going back to any of those, I got honestly tired of WoW and I hate the direction Guild Wars 2 took with the living world and the expansion. Now I'm most interested in The Elder Scrolls Online and Final Fantasy XIV.

About FFXIV I like the fact that it's very PvE oriented, I'm a PvE guy. I also like the graphics and the art style. The free trial feels a lot like WoW, for the good and the bad. Lots of grindy, generic quests. Also it's pay to play, which kind of sucks since that means I would have to stop playing when I get back to work; I'm not about to pay a monthly fee and not be able to play for maybe an entire week if real life decides it's time to fuck my schedule up.

About ESO: I haven't played but I like what they say about the quests and levelling being much more entertaining and interesting than your average MMORPG. I am also in love with Elder Scrolls lore, I believe it's among the best videogame exclusive worlds. It's buy to play so that's another good thing. But I've also heard that the endgame is very PvP centered. Is this true? I'd like a game with at least decent endgame PvE content.

Of course if you have different advice I'd love to hear it. I already told you that I'm mostly into PvE, games that try different and innovative combat systems, and if possible that don't require a subscription. Just please if you have a recommendation, for any game, take the time to tell me why. I went to a lot of forums and left frustrated because people gave really poor answers, that's why I thought I should just go to a specialised forum.

Thank you for your time!

Grimula

i have played pretty much Every sub based MMO and I always go back to the Everquest series of games

Everquest 2 is very fun PVE game on the Maj'dul server , Huge amount of content to play threw. Very big world

huge list of class's and races and a new expansion coming in November

still my favourite PVE mmo's are Everquest games

(My favourite race of all time are the Gnomes in everquest games 

JDis25

You can't really go wrong with WoW, FFXIV, or ESO. Those are the best MMOs out right now. Blade and Soul is fun too for a F2P. a bit grindy but what game isn't and it has the best MMO combat imo.

Scorchien

you answered your question ............its FF14 , and the sub comes to .50 a day , Most normal people cant play every single day and expect to miss some days , so .50 a day is a pretty good deal for entertainment , even when you arent accessing it for a few days a month ...

  ESO is a great option also , but cant recommned it without a sub imo, so for me its the same thing

nerovergil

gw2 and eso

Scorchien

nerovergil said:

gw2 and eso

did you even read the OP

0theri0n

I've been having a lot of fun playing Dragon Nest lately. It an anime style action mmo that is dungeon instanced. Its free to play with a cash shop but mostly the stuff you can buy are things like exp boost, bag space, cosmetic type items. They just switched companies so right now they have a lot of events and are giving out free stuffs.  Also Aion has a ton of PVE content and can keep you busy for a while. Everyone starts off on the fast track server and there isn't any pvp in the questing areas untill after level 55 now so you don't have to worry about being ganked like you used to, and even then you can avoid pvp for the most part, except in some areas. Just a couple ideas, there are a ton of free to play mmos out right now, just get on steam and look at some of the ones they have one there.

dustyfellow

you could try skyforge

goboygo

I honestly cant recommend anything whole hardheartedly.  So since you've done the whole "wow" thing, I might half-hardheartedly recommend ESO.

Im playing Darkfall again because everything else just makes me angry at where MMO's are at these days.

NomadMorlock

ESO hands down.  If you enjoy PvE and questing, you will have the best experience by far there particularly with the launch of One Tamriel. 

laxie

It sounds like ESO is the best pick.

You are saying FFXIV feels a lot like WoW, which you are tired of. FFXIV might not be the best game to play then. I've never played FFXIV, just going off of what you are saying in the OP.

ESO is also PvE based and very different to WoW. If you don't mind story driven quests, it may be a solid pick.

Phry

Whether you choose ESO or FFXIV:ARR, your going to need to pay a sub, and buy the box, technically ESO is F2P once you have bought the game, but the reality is that without paying a sub, your experience is going to be somewhat lackluster, its also a PvP game for better or worse, far more so than FFXIV:ARR is, in FFXIV:ARR, the PvP is something of an afterthought, for ESO, its the basis for the game, although they have improved the PvE part from what i've seen.
So if your primarily PvE orientated, imo, FFXIV:ARR is the best choice, it all really depends on whether you want to PvP or not.

sumdumguy1

I am primarly a pve player and having played both ESO and FFFXIV, I found the experience in FFFXIV to be far better and more rewarding.  ESO seems to get old, generic and trite much quicker.  I would also recommend Secret World  to seriously consider as well.

psychosiz1

sumdumguy1 said:

I am primarly a pve player and having played both ESO and FFFXIV, I found the experience in FFFXIV to be far better and more rewarding.  ESO seems to get old, generic and trite much quicker.  I would also recommend Secret World  to seriously consider as well.

Agree with this, my experience as well

Scott23

I hate to ask this, but are you a solo player or a group oriented player?  From your OP it sounds like you prefer fantasy over science fiction.

Personally I liked FFXIV better than ESO, but I didn't get very far in either of them.

Tortha

Scott23 said:

I hate to ask this, but are you a solo player or a group oriented player?  From your OP it sounds like you prefer fantasy over science fiction.

Personally I liked FFXIV better than ESO, but I didn't get very far in either of them.

Yeah, I should have commented on that: It really depends. I like group content, but there are many things that can ruin it for me, specially the community. One of the reasons I ran away from GW2 was how nasty the playerbase was getting, to be honest. So now if I can solo anything, even if it's content that wasn't originally meant to be soloed, I will solo it. For the simple reason that I'd rather take my time and enjoy the game I'm paying good money for, rather than risk having an awful time playing with a bunch of people who will make the game into an awful experience.

I still like the epicness of a good instanced PvE dungeon or raid, but only if the developer takes a good approach to it. If the game has good social support, making it easy to find a group or get into a nice Guild of people that will help you, then I'm all in. But if I'm going to find myself queing for hours just to end up with a bunch of rushers or afk, then I'd rather spend my time doing more interesting stuff. It'd even rather do PvP to be honest.

simsalabim77

ESO would be my choice. It's unique, has a beautiful world, and is heavy on the RPG part of MMORPG. Classes are somewhat free form, combat is fun, and the PVP is actually pretty good. FFXIV is a bog standard theme park apart from the crafting, but it has slower combat (yay?) a metric shitton of loading screens and zero class customization. If you want WoW-lite without playing WoW, FFXIV might work. 

Octagon7711

I've played FFXIV and ESO and I mostly PvE.  I enjoyed ESO more then the other.  The quests are good and you can actually level without doing PvP.  It has it's downsides, like everything breaking when they do a major update and skills getting nerfed because of PvP but it's a very immersive game that supports some good mods, and worth a try.

Mahacto

It sucks that so many of you are missing out on the greatness that is Black Desert Online.

gervaise1

ESO has single player content, co-op content and group content. Lots and lots of each. So much that it makes a decent single player game in its own right. So if you buy it (either the new Gold edition with 4 DLCs or a cheaper copy of last years edition) and decide the mmo side is not for you its still a good buy.

The single player stuff is not "mmo content that has gone down the single player route" either. Its solid single player content in its own right. Huge game all round with lots of content of all types.

Another option would be LotR. You can try it for free - you will love it or hate it. Again lots of PvE content. No sub needed. Very different feel to ESO. 

Keleneki

Have you tried Paragon?  Solo,  with bots as teammates and opponents (PvE), human teammates against bot team (PvE multiplayer) and 5v5 (PvP multiplayer).  I'm with you about not having a MMORPG that really satisfies me for a few years.  Playing with others in Paragon, I've thought many times, this is just like any other MMO, there are some really good folks that I make friends with and there are also some negative ones.  It is suiting me very well right now.  Since it is in open beta right now, why not give it a matches to see?  I don't think I will ever be anything more than a novice playing it, but my goal for gaming has always been about having fun.  Paragon delivers that for me a ton!  It is only one map (I think they might be changing it?) but there is so much to it for strategies, classes, builds, ...  

I know this isn't quite what you all are discussing, but I did just check and Paragon is listed here.  I have many of the latest new games multi and single player and they are all pretty great, but Paragon is by far the most played multiplayer game that I play these days.  It really cuts to the chase for me.  Super good fun!

I hope you find the MMORPG that you are looking for.

Best regards.

Scorchien

Nyctelios said:

I'll strongly disagree with everyone saying ESO gives a better RPG experience than FF14ARR. But, the difference is quite simple: Do you like Final Fantasy? Because unlike ESO, Final Fantasy XIV:ARR is a good Final Fantasy, plus a mmorpg. 

ESO is a good mmorg, but I can only enjoy it if I ignore the source material.

ESO is waaay more theme park "talk here, kill 10 monsters, talk that, go on" than FF14 - which has cut scenes here and there all the time.

Besides, let's get down to the real thing:

FF14ARR has Hildibrand. Checkmate. 



Just kidding, both are great choices, but FF14 plays like a classic console rpg with other people around. That's even more true if you use a controller, which I recommend.

Lay down, grab my controller and enjoy the cut scenes and mega gigantic boss fights.

I dont think you can go wrong with either FF14 or ESo both bring a great experience

MaeEye

Of the two that you've mentioned; Elder Scrolls was a nice change. The story and quests felt like a nice blend between your traditional MMORPG and TES. It does play a lot more like a MMORPG than a traditional TES game, so don't go into it thinking it will play just like Skyrim or Oblivion.

However, and I have to just bring this up, I do feel like out of all of the games released right now that WoW is still the healthiest game on the market; meaning I just see it being around for a lot longer. I'm not sure the last time you've played WoW, but Legion is definitely loaded with content and was the better expansion release since 2008.  Of any game, this would be the one I would go back to but I can understand you'd like to try something else out too.

Either way, have fun

Sid_Vicious

Try Darkfall... if you are into PVE you can get ahead of everyone else.... world is huge so its easy to avoid PVP if you want to or you can just roll in groups just in case you come across it. The need for PVE never ends and there is so much to do, that it has never gotten old for me.

Tortha

Okay, so after six days without comments I think it's about time to wrap this up. First of all, thanks everyone for their time and their advice, you've all been most nice and kind. Seriously, thank you, it's hard to find an internet community so willing to help a noobie like me.

I've been trying out the free trial of FFXIV, and my only real problem with it is how theme park it feels. @Nyctelios said that the cutscenes make it feel less themeparky but I really don't see how they help, it's still the same as always, do generic quests over and over again until you reach level 50. The cutscenes and the great visuals don't change the fact that it's just a themepark, only the most visually enticing themepark I've ever played. Story seems like it could get interesting later on but most of the cutscenes lack voiceacting and I find myself going through blocks and blocks of uninteresting, generic narration. As an avid reader I am extremely demanding when it comes to narration in non-paper media and FFXIV just fails to catch my eye most of the time, it doesn't make me care enough about its lore to make me go through the infinite blocks of quest text.

Then again the problem with this kind of MMOs is that they're mostly about the endgame. FFXIV seems like it could have an amazing endgame, but I'm not sure I'm ready to put down dozens of hours going through the same boring quest grind to reach that point. I don't want to just "kill ten rats" over and over and over for weeks of my life. Even if it's "kill ten rats and then enjoy the beautiful cutscene, then kill ten more rats". It's still more of the same.

I wish ESO had a free trial, because many people praise it but I can't try it for myself. The One Tamriel update seems really alluring, it gives out a very sandbox feel. I hate when MMOs go all like "this is your route and you get to enjoy this part of the world, forget about the rest", because I love to explore, I'm the kind of guy who always wants to have 100% of the world map in any kind of game. I also like that it's meant to be played solo and in small groups, I find that way more manageable, specially for the work season when I can't play that much. In terms of subscrition it also seems better as the ESO plus fee looks like just that, a plus, nothing game chaning.

But then again there is one big problem with the lack of free trials. I heard a lot of good things about FFXIV but in the end I could try it for myself and find out whether it was a good game for me or not. But with ESO I would have to buy the game and risk wasting my money if I don't like it. Also it seems that the game is much less lively in terms of current players.

Well, I'll keep researching before making a final decision. Thanks to everyone for contributing!

Eldrach

ESO is great, the most annoying part of ESO is how components takes up 100% of your bags all the friggin time unless you're a sub..then you get a components bag with almost unlimited space.