mannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 15, 2012 9:42:28 GMT -5
I'm just curious what the bros think might be some of the best free MMO's. I can't be arsed to pay a monthly subscription just to play a game anymore so only free games need apply. (Yes I know that means I'm missing out on SWTOR but meh...)
I've played some DC Online and it's neat, but I just roam around beating stuff up with no friends and my GF is NOT interested.
I downloaded Star Trek Online and I'm gonna try that, though I know ground combat is rubbish.
I've seen that LoTR Online is FtP but is it any good? I dunno if I can get my GF into it. She's not into LotR, but we have been watching War in the North videos and she likes that. Of course LotR Online is nothing like that. ;p
Anything with zombies? We've played some Dead Frontier, but we always have issues with the game and quit. The last time we played the difficulty curve just ramped up too quickly once we leveled up some and my GF didn't like it anymore. (She has issues with kiting in that she's not too good at it. She's more of the gung ho shoot everyone in the face with shotguns kinda player and doesn't minimize damage taken all that well. Have had same issue in Spiral Knights and Killing Floor as well.)
Anyway... My dream game would be something my GF would play, but honestly I just don't think there are any MMO's that she would even consider playing. The closest thing right now is Gaiaonline which we "play" together. (Really they just have a bunch of mini games tied to the site which lets you customize your 2D avatar with thousands of items. The games themselves are very tacked on and secondary.) But you never know...
Anyway free MMO's that aren't crap... go!
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Post by Keralastic on Feb 15, 2012 10:09:57 GMT -5
I tried LoTR Online before, it's basically just a World of Warcraft reskin, and as such, I wouldn't recommend it.
I honestly don't think I've ever played a good MMO before, free or otherwise, so I probably wouldn't be much help in this situation.
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Usagi
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Post by Usagi on Feb 15, 2012 12:18:21 GMT -5
I assume you mean MMORPG. Guild Wars is the one I can vouch for most. While it's technically not free, there's no subscription fee, you just buy the disk at any retail store and you can play forever. There's also no pay-2-win bullshit either. The game is basically WoW except that it doesn't suck dick.
Another one I can think of is Perfect World, which I thought was pretty neato. I had a lot of fun playing that game, but crafting can be a real pain in the butt because some of the materials are frustratingly hard to find. You can always pay real money for fake shit though.
Rusty Hearts is cool one that I've been playing recently, but it's more of a side-scrolling beat-em-up. It has great controls though.
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Post by psijaka on Feb 15, 2012 14:49:49 GMT -5
Why not check out FirefallIt will have a massive open world with plenty of PvE action within a developing storyline, as well as PvP gamemodes such as Team Deathmatch, Sabotage and Harvester (equivalent to Domination/Sabotage). You can find out more and sign up for the Beta at www.firefallthegame.com. It is a closed beta, and keys are very much in demand, but I managed to get in after 8 days of being active on the forum.
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Den
He's That Guy
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Post by Den on Feb 15, 2012 15:51:56 GMT -5
Guild Wars is top quality. A single purchase and the game is yours, no monthly fee. The game has a very strong Cooperative backbone, it favors skill and teamwork over gear and grinding. Friends can stick together from beginning to end, going back to redo anything or reconnect anywhere they want in the mission based structure.
I got into Star Trek Online when it went Free2Play. It's actually quite good. Ground combat has become okay after a year of updates. Space combat is great. The fact that most missions are multi-staged with progression through a series of objectives and set up like it could have been a TV episode is very nice. Not to mention you are able to have a full ship of unique crew members and a team of bridge officers that you can customize completely. Game's a bit combat heavy for a Star Trek setting, but diplomacy isn't going to bring in the audience like explosions. It's the one I'm currently playing.
If you do want a "World of Warcraft - like" in terms of gameplay, Lord of the Rings Online is a very good substitute, if not a replacement. LOTRO is really rich on the lore, has a whole lot of content for all levels and looks pretty. Compared to most other MMOs, LOTRO has a pretty mellow and helpful community. And a fully functioning set of musical instruments, you'll find Minstrel players in most towns playing something. Really, anything by Turbine is an okay to good MMO. Like Dungeons and Dragons Online, that one is okay, also free (but very restricted if you don't grind for Turbine Points to unlock stuff).
I'd suggest you avoid the Superhero MMOs. Most of them have the same thing in common that made them all suffer. A bunch of stupid ideas made by the previous design leader(s) who jumped ship to do the same exact crap in the next game. Once they left each game, the developers worked to undo or remove a lot of what that designer put in. The superhero games are all messy.
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The handful of Free2Play MMO-like games on Steam vary between good and "no thanks".
Rusty Hearts is a beat'em'up. Though the kind of beat'em'up where you'll be replaying the same areas a bunch of times. The mechanics are solid. The enemies start off dumb, but they get devious and aggressive in later levels. You might get bored if you don't try and push onwards through the sewers.
Spiral Knights is one of the games strongly supported by Valve, with its own inventory tab on Steam. It's like... you every play Zelda: Four Swords? Four little dudes, each controlled by a player going through a dungeon with an overhead perspective. It's like that. Simple puzzles mixed with some simple combat for a fun time with family and friends and children of all ages or whatever.
Global Agenda is kind of like the "prototype" for Firefall. It's pretty janky even after being out for so long, though it has neat ideas. Not like trying will hurt anything, though I'd just wait for Firefall.
Ignore APB. It is flawed on so many fundamental levels that everything about it feels like a punishing chore instead of what should have been "Grand Theft Auto with 100 players per city".
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For some outside of all that...
Mabinogi, a cutesy cartoon MMO with simple but kind of engaging combat, designed that even a weak level character can face off against a strong opponent if he can read the enemy and counter / interrupt / overpower their attacks with an appropriate attack of his own. It is nice and easygoing with a bunch of side content outside of combat, one of the more favorable ones, recommended for you and a significant other to play together. But progression starts going pretty slow after a while unless you put some real money into it.
Vindictus (or Mabinogi Heroes). Imagine cooperative Devil May Cry on the Half-Life 2 engine, except without jumping. That's kind of what Vindictus is like. Despite sharing the name, Mabinogi Heroes is the polar opposite of Mabinogi in terms of visuals and mood. It is stylish and challenging, not without substance. But you may end up doing the same missions over and over and over and over.
Shin Megami Tensei: IMAGINE If you've never heard of the Megami Tensei franchise, think "grimdark anime packed full of religious themes, mythological creatures and demons". Those demons can speak and be negotiated with. Most of them, you'll recruit and use to fight for you, and fuse them together to make more powerful demons. SMT was Pokemon well before Pokemon was a thing. The game takes place in a post apocalyptic setting, so it is kind of understandably barren. Unfortunately, it is too barren for its own good, and there has not been a lot of new content. It becomes an event-less grindfest after a few tens of levels.
Ace Online (previously name "Air Rivals" ("Space Cowboy" before that)) is an arcadey sci-fi aircraft shooter. Think of a mix between Star Fox and Ace Combat, but with a big equipment focused customization of your "gear". Though most AI enemies are pushovers, things can get pretty hectic at higher levels. It's pretty grindy and mundane overall unless you are into PvP.
I'm sure everybody has heard of Runescape. Jagex is working really hard to rejuvenate the game recently. There was a big visual enhancement some time ago. They've amazingly and effectively eradicated nearly ALL bots from their game a few days ago. Now everybody's gotta mine and dig and chop and fish for years. MANUALLY.
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mannon
True Bro
wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 15, 2012 19:48:10 GMT -5
I actually own Guild Wars! O,O I totally forgot about it. I guess I assumed they switched off the servers ages ago since there's no subscription fees. I guess the expansions have propped it up and mebbe some kinda micro payments. I actually rather liked it, it looked pretty damn good, and it ran well on my old computer. heh I may have to dig it back out. I don't think my GF will be into it though so prolly have to solo. ;p
We actually did play SPiral Knights for a good bit there. The game just got too difficult to play together because tier 2 is so much harder than tier 1, but tier 1 was absolutely dull and didn't earn near enough loot for us to make any real progress on our gear. Even though she largely had better gear than I it just got too frustrating for her. (She doesn't kite too well, I don't know why, maybe lag.)
I still haven't made a captain for STO, but I definitely will. I'm quite eager to play it.
I'm not even sure what APB is, but I'll avoid it. heh.
I might have to check out Mabinogi, especially if it's something she'd play. May have to check out some more of these too. I do have to be a bit selective, though. Sadly my HD space is a tad limited. ;-/
I see what you're saying about the super hero stuff. DC Online started off really interesting for me and sort of just a casual fun game to beat stuff up and fly around huge cities in. But I think I'm honestly bored with it already.
Thanks for all the advice!
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mannon
True Bro
wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 15, 2012 19:52:21 GMT -5
I assume you mean MMORPG. Not necessarily. For example I loved Planetfall and it was an MMOFPS. Just mainly looking for some games that can be played socially, but don't require you to go setup games with people. Just something you jump in and maybe you meet people, or maybe you just do your own thing. Preferably in a large open world with highly customizable avatars. MMORPG, FPS, whatever...
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Post by joe8beast on Feb 16, 2012 15:46:11 GMT -5
could give MU Online a try, I have issues launching the game, and perhaps it is the nostalgia talking, but its a fun, basic MMO, simple armor scaling, and its a Korean made MMO, so its all about grinding for levels, which is fun in a party, you explore around, and find new places to level, it was rather enjoyable for awhile, until i got the WoW calling again.
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mannon
True Bro
wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 16, 2012 19:45:58 GMT -5
I've never gotten into MU Online... I dunno. I think it's partly the top down style and the graphics and sounds have just always felt really odd to me so I couldn't get into it. Probably if I'd tried it out ages ago then it would have grown on me and it would feel nostalgic now, but I can't get past the weirdness of it. lol
Kinda sad, because honestly I miss grinding. When I first played WoW it felt so fresh to do quests and get tons of experience from those and have everything laid out so clearly for you. But that wore off and I realized ohh... Actually it's still a treamill only instead of grinding in a zone and working your way up to harder and harder mobs in that zone you have to run around all over the place picking off specific mobs or types of mobs and then go turn stuff in. You might spend less time killing the same thing over and over but you spend a LOT more time running from place to place not doing any actual fighting at all. That got old... GOD did it get old.
I miss kind miss the "good old" days of playing EQ. I'd actually go out of my way to get a party together to grind on a spawn in a some zone of appropriate level. Hell I actually took a leadership role back in EQ, both organizing my own groups and setting the tactics. Even if they were complete strangers I'd easily spend 3 hours with the same people in the group grinding and talking between spawns. (Of course with the right location, support members, and a good puller there was less downtime for chitchat, but that was okay because of the awesome experience grind.)
In WoW gone were those old run of the mill level grinds and so to were my grouping days. I never bothered putting together a party in WoW. I had a guild of old EQ friends, but they were all massively higher level and I never really played with them other than a few times they just ran me through a dungeon for loot and to PL me. WoW was not social anymore for me, it was a lonely quest treadmill with a nice art style and much better UI. ;p
I miss MMO's actually being social games. Nobody ever really talked to me when I played DC Online. The most conversation I got was in zone wide shouts over somebody complaining about me using the term quest log in their game. lol I rarely talked to anybody back in my WoW days either. hmm... *shrug*
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Post by theenemy on Feb 19, 2012 12:05:42 GMT -5
I don't think there is a game with a bigger grind than MU. it was fun at first, but became horrible. Especially when you had to look at the same room for 4 hours before getting a level.
There were tons of hacks when I played, I ended up caving in and using one. I gained about 100 levels and sold my account on eBay for nearly $200 back when they allowed it.
I highly recommend against it.
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mannon
True Bro
wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 19, 2012 17:44:19 GMT -5
Tempted to just find somewhere I can play Ragnarok Online. ;3 Wait, has it officially gone free to play? Last I know only way to play for free were *winkwinknudgenudge* "free" servers.
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mannon
True Bro
wordy bastard PSN:mannonc Steam:mannonc XB:BADmannon
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Post by mannon on Feb 19, 2012 17:49:31 GMT -5
OOoookay, apparently I'm several years behind the times on Ragnarok Online. lol I might have to start my first *legal* account. lol >,>
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 3, 2016 0:05:58 GMT -5
I was downloading/installing D&D Online and I'm already impressed. A loading bar within a loading bar within another loading bar. This gon' be good. EDIT: That wasn't good at all. I waited 20 minutes in a loading screen to play this game, and I didn't even get a sliver on the loading bar. I'm just going to assume everything is broken.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Jan 14, 2016 0:26:30 GMT -5
It`s been a while, but for about a month or two I played Runescape again... then stopped.
The most fun I've had with this game was in Dungeoneering. It's literally Runescape the Roguelite. Grab a random dude, or four, or none, and run about a randomly generated set of rooms killing monsters, collecting keys, and solving puzzles along the way. In the end you usually fight an interesting boss with whatever loot you picked up or bound to your character beforehand, and upon death the boss will open up the next floor. It's brilliant. I was a free to play character, and I managed to get all the way to level 97 (10.9M total XP) despite all the F2P stuff ending at level 70 (738k total XP).
Eventually all the flaws of the game mode washed in, and before I knew it I was a pillar of salt. When there were 5 people in the game some puzzles involve everyone to coordinate and play out the same task. If one guy screwed up or refused to join, everyone suffered, and it was terrible. For instance there was an emote room. All five people had to stand on 5 special plates and the statues in front of each plate would wave or laugh or whatever. In other to unlock all the doors in the room everyone had to mimic the statues correctly for three rounds in a row, and one failure out of 15 was punishable by losing 1-15% of your health and resetting any progress you had. If the 5th person leaves or doesn't speak english; your entire party is screwed if you need to pass the puzzle to finish the dungeon. Needless to say I went dungeoneering alone many times.
So what changed since the 2000s? A few things; -New hotkey combat system to make fighting interesting. It's also bad, and you can turn it off. -More graphics. As if Runescape ever sold itself over its graphics... but it's there. -Combat XP is no longer granted by damage dealt, rather by the difficulty rating of the creature you killed. -Bonds. For 9.0M to 14.0M in-game gold you can buy 2 weeks membership. Yeah... it's not a great deal, but it's there. -Inflation is off the chain. If Bonds are the golds bars from which Jagex's in-game economy is kept, then inflation will remain a dire problem. -Divination, Hunting and Construction are all new skills... none of them F2P. I don't know what they are or what they do. -Solomon's Store. To boost revenue for their game Jagex allows players to purchase cosmetics emotes, skins, and other bells and whistles to look great in. -Want to earn keys? Stop playing the game and do nothing but watch ads. Eventually you might be able to purchase something from Solomon's Store like the whore you are. -Dailys. Every day the game will set a random goal for every user to be turned in for rewards. -Tasks. Members only. Do things, get things. They're kind of like achievements or something. Sometimes they unlock things, too. -Keys. For logging in players can roll the dice for bonus XP among other rewards. F2P players with XP bonuses can't use them... and they'll just sit there not being used until Jagex declares a double XP weekend. I know, it's awful.
Back then this game`s business model would have been relatively friendly for free players. You had 1/3rd of all the skills barred out, probably about a third of the world to explore, 1/5th of the item pool, 1/10th of all the quests, but that was okay because it was free and popular. Everything in this game was grindy anyway. Almost every skill in this game boils down to "click thing, wait, click thing again". Even in members this is a problem, but that didn't really matter. A lot of the fun in this game was bumping into someone else and just chatting it up with them every now and again.
On one hand it's Jagex's game. On the other hand this business model feels off. Maybe having a bright yellow "Subscribe" button pasted on my screen feels a bit insulting; especially when there's no option to remove it. I feel like this game has cut off its only new user stream by badgering its F2P playerbase into feeling like crap until they pay up. The F2P worlds in this game are vastly underpopulated. When I visited F2P Clan Wars it was six people fighting in the free for all where hundreds of people used to hang out 5 years ago. F2P Dungeoneering often boils down to about 12 people in the lobby during peak time. I feel like if I were to pay $94 CAD I should get a full game that I could play forever; not just a year. If I could pay 20-ish CAD to unlock all the members stuff in dungeoneering forever, I would gladly oblige and be happy forever. Oh well. My friends list was all red anyway.
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