TL;DR : Located at the bottom
I might be in the minority here, but I suppose this is still opinion based. Lately I've been looking at various MMORPGs to try and invest time into, since I recently stopped playing FFXIV. While I was searching, it came to me that there are multiple mmos with solid concepts, designs and gameplay, but they're divided between different games. Take for example:
Black Desert Online - Combat, Graphics, Gameplay, PvP, Open Word
Lacks any real 'progression' per se. No dungeons, no raids, no PvE
FFXIV - PvE [Raids, Savage etc], Crafting
Lacks in the combat department and for me it ruins the game
Blade & Soul - Combat, PvP
Can be argued that it has good graphics, but imo I beg to differ.
Guild Wars 2 - PvE, PvP, Open World
Well known for it's open world 'true' exploration. With the elimination of fetch quests, there's actual meaning to exploring and you get compensated for it.
TERA - Combat
What else is there? Lol
Now those are extreme MINUTE summary of just some MMORPGs I've come to play. The frustrating part about this is that you can't really find a game that's got everything. MMORPGs have been running for decades now and it seems that though we believe the industry's progressing, its quite evident that we aren't. It's to the point when you have to 'settle' for what's available now. I miss the days when you actually had a spark inside of you when viewing a new MMO or trying it for the first time. Now, I just get the meh feeling.
TL;DR: MMMORPGs have become stagnate and frankly put, boring. Priorities seem to be in a mixed state, and innovation has been thrown out for some.
Comments
Perhaps EQ1 but you would be hard pressed to find a MMO with as many classes or races.
You are not going to find anything different unless you try FFXi.The classes and combat are just different than what every other game is doing.
Personally i have gone back to playing EQ2,it is a nice game with a complete package and i have played plenty of FFXI and need a break.
All these other games are the same RACE to end game crap,then grind out end game best of loot and often you are restricted by what content you can do and your gear.BOTH EQ2 and FFXI have also joined that fray but EQ2 is a better package and FFXI until end game offers a megatude of content ideas and structure that is just different.
Another game that was different and i had some fun back in the day was Runes of Magic but that games needs players to be good and at this point it is dead.It had guild halls and guild vs guild pvp right inside the guild halls.A cool imbue/Rune ideas but it's one blemish and why it drove players away was a heavy cash shop.
So other than Runes which btw also tried to mimic FFXI's sub class system,your not finding any different game designs.EQ2 is the EASIER game to pop into ,FFXI has a bigger learning curve and there is zero hand holding so you have to figure everything out and read wiki's to make sure not left out on content ideas,like attaining a sub class and NPC mercs/companions.
Never forget 3 mile Island and never trust a government official or company spokesman.
I don't feel that every new game has to be revolutionary. So long as the game is fun and interesting, the fact that it is another fantasy or Sci-Fi RPG much like many others is not off-putting to me.
But if I am looking for some particular features I once enjoyed in past games, and cannot find them in any new games, that of course disappoints me.
EQ1, EQ2, SWG, SWTOR, GW, GW2 CoH, CoV, FFXI, WoW, CO, War,TSW and a slew of free trials and beta tests
Now I treat MMO's like a buffet and just play the parts I enjoy. If I were you I'd make a list of what I like about those games and play the one with the most positives.
"We all do the best we can based on life experience, point of view, and our ability to believe in ourselves." - Naropa "We don't see things as they are, we see them as we are." SR Covey
Weird.
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Just trying to live long enough to play a new, released MMORPG, playing New Worlds atm
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"This is the most intelligent, well qualified and articulate response to a post I have ever seen on these forums. It's a shame most people here won't have the attention span to read past the second line." - Anon
It is certainly true that it have taken features from Wow after it became so successful but it was released before Wow. If it was a weak attempt of anything it was to make a more mainstream version of EQ.
I kinda liked EQ2 once myself, but the game have had far too many expansions and it's best before date was 10 years ago. It also have a terrible coded engine, just slightly better then Vanguards so expect low framerate even if you have a good computer.
I would stay clear of the game, wait for Pantheon to release instead.
No game will offer you everything, as some things are simply not compatible. so you need to first decided "What are you looking to gain from playing this game"
--- and then find a game that will give you that, perhaps even at the expense of everything and anything else.
I call EQ2 a bad jigsaw puzzle... Real bad !!
Expansion's slapped together like a bad sandwich , they don't fit together and don't make sense like a lot of my post !
-Add that they were pumping a new one every 6 months.
-Add that the coding was all over the place.
-Add that the graphics were bad.
-Add that you never knew when you would get charged by 20 bandits at once.
-Add that they never fixed any bugs.
-Add that it's now a heavy handed cash shop.
I afraid of what Pantheon will be, because of all this !
However I did like it somewhat for the first two years anyway
The rest of your arguments are rather true though, particularly that it have far too many expansions that broke the game. Up until EoF I had rather fun with the game though, that was before they started to become pay2win. It started to get worse fast after that expansion.
I still think it was rather a good game for the first few years even with all the bugs and crappy code. Now it is just old and dated.
Smedly, of SOE/Daybreak took care of EQ2.
Aside from that things are always better in the beginning. When they are new and there isn't much known about how they work outside of the people who make them. Then they have a magical quality about them. They also don't have the censorship and control that mainstream products eventually acquire.
I don't really play MMOs anymore, but if I did I'd probably go back and play EQ1. It had quite a large variety of different game mechanics, classes, races, abilities, and starting areas. The dungeons were fairly complex. I had a lot of fun in it, but I feel a bit burnt out on that type of grind. Even with EQ having a lot faster leveling.
SWG they totally revamped.