AO was my all time favorite MMORPG. (Until the item shop) But as for the SL expansion? Not so much. It was fun, I enjoyed it, and it has some of the best quest (True quest) arks I've ever enjoyed in an MMO. But the overall Theme didn't really fit as an extension of the rest of the game. It's almost like they took 2 different game concepts and slammed them into AO.
I totally agree with it not really fitting the theme of Rubi-Ka, but for me, it made it that much better. The only thing I didnt agree with that they did was make it MUCH more lucrative to play in SL than in Rubi-Ka.
I think what really soured me on AO was LOX. 3 years go by from the previous expansion (LE)before they release LOX. But LOX is the ONLY content addition the game had seen. Every other MMO at the time was releasing new content on a quarterly basis. LOX itself was no bigger than any update from WoW. Yet they felt the need to charge 20 bucks for a single patch that by what I'd come to expect form a developer, should have been included 4 times a year for my $15.00/mo I was giving them. Then in 2010, they released their cash shop and I was done. AO was the 1st MMORPG to implement a triple dip business model in the West. The Boxed fee for the booster, the monthly subscription, Which was not only overpriced for what you got, but the game was losing population to the point where in order to play the game, players were having multiple sub accounts necessary, so we could buff our own characters. But then the cash shop was added, and still, FC gave NOTHING in return.
EQ Kunark and Velious. The sheer quality and amount of content they produced in such a short time has, to this day, never been emulated. Now you can only hope for a fraction of what EQ expansions offered while waiting no less than 3x as long.
Gotta go with Kunark. It literally made the game the massive hit it became, imo.
EQ Kunark and Velious. The sheer quality and amount of content they produced in such a short time has, to this day, never been emulated. Now you can only hope for a fraction of what EQ expansions offered while waiting no less than 3x as long.
Gotta go with Kunark. It literally made the game the massive hit it became, imo.
A massive hit where at its height, it is only 1/24 of the sub based of WOW (at its height also)?
Shall we call it a tiny massive hit? Just like MMO that is not massive?
EQ Kunark and Velious. The sheer quality and amount of content they produced in such a short time has, to this day, never been emulated. Now you can only hope for a fraction of what EQ expansions offered while waiting no less than 3x as long.
Gotta go with Kunark. It literally made the game the massive hit it became, imo.
A massive hit where at its height, it is only 1/24 of the sub based of WOW (at its height also)?
Shall we call it a tiny massive hit? Just like MMO that is not massive?
The Burning Crusade. I would toss out some of the changes to make leveling and raid bosses easier later in the expansion, though. Kara is still the best-designed, most atmospheric raid in the game IMO.
TBC benefited from its time in WoW's growth too IMO. The cliques that would later come to dominate the social scene were still just forming at the time, and there was a constant influx of new players, both to WoW and MMOs in general. The community was much more forgiving and helpful, and many new players had a greater desire to play nice and fit in than the large influx of solo-minded players that would come later. It was also the last hurrah for the Alliance-Horde player rivalry that made PvP fun. By WotLK, so many people had characters and friends on both factions that the rivalry had largely lost its appeal.
Going to list my top 3 as I don't know if I could narrow it between them
SWG JTL: For me this added basically a whole new game on top of a game I was already addicted to and already had a ton of ways to play it. I spent a ton of hours in space. Loved soloing the Star Destroyer in my A-Wing.
Guild Wars: Nightfall - Just edges out Factions for me, I thought Eye of the North was disappointing. 2 awesome classes, fun new region to explore and some of the hardest content I've ever played (Mallyx). Not to mention some fun things like Djinn farming with a 55hp build.
FFXIV: Heavensward - Newest entry on the list but boy did this thing deliver. 3 new jobs. New Race. Flight. Huge new area. Great story quests. Just more and more of the great game that FFXIV has been since a Realm Reborn.
I'd like to give an honorable mention to EVE Online for just being so damn consistent on releasing massive new content for free consistently. I've never been able to stay involved in EVE myself for long but I really appreciate CCP as a company for the quality of content they put out.
EQ Kunark and Velious. The sheer quality and amount of content they produced in such a short time has, to this day, never been emulated. Now you can only hope for a fraction of what EQ expansions offered while waiting no less than 3x as long.
Gotta go with Kunark. It literally made the game the massive hit it became, imo.
A massive hit where at its height, it is only 1/24 of the sub based of WOW (at its height also)?
Shall we call it a tiny massive hit? Just like MMO that is not massive?
EQ ranks as one of only 2 MMORPGs that can claim to have a sustained subscriber base of over 500k for a significant length of time in the west. Yes, it was a massive hit.
You could make a very strong case for any of the following EQ expansions:
RoK: An expansion that was probably bigger than any MMORPG released in the last 10 years. Epic quests! SoV: Most love it, easily my least favorite of the early xpacs though. Factions were fun and coldain quests were great Luclin: I may be in the minority, but I loved the prestige of Vex Thal. Some great zones. And the feature probably most essential for EQ's longevity, AAs. Non stop character progression, the single greatest feature in MMORPG history. PoP: Really changed the raid game from tank and spank to greater variety of encounters with strategies. LDoN: The best version of instanced dungeons, enough randomness to keep things interesting and really showed off the great grouping system of EQ. Dark Horse: OoW After the hardcore player theme of PoP and GoD, this expansion was good for the more casual folk, while having enough for the hardcore.
Also, EQ2's EoF deserves a mention, fantastic all-levels expansion.
I don't like "expansions". They're usually just a scheme to make you pay for something you're already paying for via subscription: continued development. So my answer is none, they all stink of money grab. Of course in a free to play game it's another story but F2P shouldn't even exist IMO so I won't factor it in.
Comments
Most who answer this haven't even played more than a handful of mmo titles anyway so how would they even know?
Shall we call it a tiny massive hit? Just like MMO that is not massive?
LotRO - Mines of Moria
DAoC - Shrouded Isles
WoW - Wrath of the Lich King
TBC benefited from its time in WoW's growth too IMO. The cliques that would later come to dominate the social scene were still just forming at the time, and there was a constant influx of new players, both to WoW and MMOs in general. The community was much more forgiving and helpful, and many new players had a greater desire to play nice and fit in than the large influx of solo-minded players that would come later. It was also the last hurrah for the Alliance-Horde player rivalry that made PvP fun. By WotLK, so many people had characters and friends on both factions that the rivalry had largely lost its appeal.
SWG JTL: For me this added basically a whole new game on top of a game I was already addicted to and already had a ton of ways to play it. I spent a ton of hours in space. Loved soloing the Star Destroyer in my A-Wing.
Guild Wars: Nightfall - Just edges out Factions for me, I thought Eye of the North was disappointing. 2 awesome classes, fun new region to explore and some of the hardest content I've ever played (Mallyx). Not to mention some fun things like Djinn farming with a 55hp build.
FFXIV: Heavensward - Newest entry on the list but boy did this thing deliver. 3 new jobs. New Race. Flight. Huge new area. Great story quests. Just more and more of the great game that FFXIV has been since a Realm Reborn.
I'd like to give an honorable mention to EVE Online for just being so damn consistent on releasing massive new content for free consistently. I've never been able to stay involved in EVE myself for long but I really appreciate CCP as a company for the quality of content they put out.
EQ ranks as one of only 2 MMORPGs that can claim to have a sustained subscriber base of over 500k for a significant length of time in the west. Yes, it was a massive hit.
You could make a very strong case for any of the following EQ expansions:
RoK: An expansion that was probably bigger than any MMORPG released in the last 10 years. Epic quests!
SoV: Most love it, easily my least favorite of the early xpacs though. Factions were fun and coldain quests were great
Luclin: I may be in the minority, but I loved the prestige of Vex Thal. Some great zones. And the feature probably most essential for EQ's longevity, AAs. Non stop character progression, the single greatest feature in MMORPG history.
PoP: Really changed the raid game from tank and spank to greater variety of encounters with strategies.
LDoN: The best version of instanced dungeons, enough randomness to keep things interesting and really showed off the great grouping system of EQ.
Dark Horse: OoW After the hardcore player theme of PoP and GoD, this expansion was good for the more casual folk, while having enough for the hardcore.
Also, EQ2's EoF deserves a mention, fantastic all-levels expansion.
LOTRO - Mines of Moria was an awesome expansion. Sadly went down hill from there......
So my answer is none, they all stink of money grab.
Of course in a free to play game it's another story but F2P shouldn't even exist IMO so I won't factor it in.
WoW - The Burning Crusade... the only real WoW expansion