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I WANT a game with forced grouping...there I said it.
dannydarko
Member Posts: 11
Played FFXI for 5 years and got banned. I really do not want to reroll at this point in the game.
Games I've tried the past 6 months:
WoW - Seemed like 90% of the people I met played this like a solo game.
Darkfall - Actually had the most fun with this one, but my PC lags like crazy with it. Not sure how grouping works later on.
EQ1 - Played a private server briefly. Immersion was lacking, felt outdated, and learning curve on the UI was intense.
Wurm Online - Interesting but couldn't keep me interested for long.
DDO - I might give this one another go. Not a big fan of everything being instanced though.
Vanguard - EMPTY
Ryzom - I enjoyed this one for a bit as it seemed to encouraged grouping but not to the level that I wanted to see it at. Also seemed empty.
Various F2P games - ya...
Nothing has come close to the immersion and sense of comradery that FFXI offered. The game is challenging and doesn't hold hands. 4 hour EQ style grinding with the same group all trying to chain level 300+, HNM camping for BB items all day, farming SKY, Dynamis for hours. When you got gear you felt like you earned something. Every reason why people gripe about this game is the reason why I love it. You made real friends in the game and your reputation actually meant something. I could go on and on.
Is FFXI the last of the EQ model? If so, I'll just keep to my offline rpgs and hope that FFXIV produces.
Comments
Why what happened?
Also forced grouping MMO's don't work in long run especially when influx of new players slow down. How would you complete forced group quests when not enough people are around especially on lower areas?
Go to Steam, buy EQ1 for 2.50, and try it on an actual server. Trying games on private/illegal servers doesn't tell you a damn thing.
MPK / Griefing on rival LS (we had our reasons). Obviously it didn't turn out so well and they got the last laugh. FFXI countered the new player decrease by using level sync. Basically, you can sync your high level jobs down to a lower level and level up with your friends. The exp you get goes towards your merits (end game stat boosts).
EQ1 via steam - I might just give that a shot. FFXI took so much from that game. I should at least play it the way it was meant to be played. Good point.
The forced grouping seems to have worked with FFXI in the long run, since it has been around since 2002(?) and still has500,000+ subs.
To the OP, I honestly can't think of a game besides FFXI that was big on grouping. Maybe FFXIV will also have a big form of grouping to it along with the solo play.
EVE Online
you could go at it alone, and people most likely do
but there comes a point very early on that you're useless when your not teamed up
so you hit up recruitment chat, and you say you need a corp, and tons of people will come to you wanting you to join their corps.
all of which have their perks, and really good people in them (never met an annoying player in EVE)
If there was a new MMORPG coming out that had forced grouping in it, I would definitely be keeping an eye on it. I loved grouping in EQ. I liked depending on other players and having them depend on me.
Vault-Tec analysts have concluded that the odds of worldwide nuclear armaggeddon this decade are 17,143,762... to 1.
Also worked in FFXI because there were incentives to level other classes for your subclass collection, and being that you lvled a new class on your old character, it felt more like progression than starting over.
You could always try the korean style -Lineage 2... without group you are lost later in the game...
Sadly, there's no games released after WoW like this. I'll recommend Anarchy Online, but really you could play any pre-WoW MMo like DaoC, etc. Anarchy Online is probably the most populated of the old MMos since it has a free version.
FFXI is an exception not a rule. if it really was such a successful model more companies would follow. But i guess its always smarter to give players an option to decide if they want forced grouping or solo play.