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WoW is still the best MMO, or at least among the best, but people love to hate on Blizzard and big companies in general.

I would not recommend getting into it as a beginner though. The community is growing increasingly unfriendly to newcomers and while arena/PvE heroes may not be the majority of the players they are the most vocal and both groups are extremely obnoxious and elitist.

A large problem is that the majority of people fixate on the end game content and ignore the fact there are 89 other levels to play. All PvE content under 90 is a joke now due to stat and ability inflation (for example 1k DPS was unheard of at level 60 during the original game, now people can break 3k at 60, it trivializes the content). It is a very gear centric game and a lot the scaling between 60-85 is completely out of balance. For example level 80 tanks can become immune to frontal melee damage by reaching the avoidance cap, level 80 mages can do several times the dps of BiS 90 characters. I'm rambling, but the point is that WoW is not a single community, but really several disparate communities that cluster around various playstyles and levels. There are active PvPers at levels 1, 10, 15-19, 20-24, 25-29, 39, 49, 60, 70, 80, and 85. It is relatively easy to achieve BiS gear for most of those levels, effectively removing the grinding for gear element. There are very active RP guilds and servers with dedicated and intelligent players who work together to create an enjoyable and friendly atmosphere. There are active raid guilds for 60, 70, 80, and 85 content who use various limitations on gear (and other items) in order to increase the difficulty of the content. You can play the game as a carrot on a stick grind to level cap and raid/arena/BG/dailies/etc, but it is a vast world with a lot of options out there for the casual and hardcore and for the average player and the elite. It is by no means a perfect game, but it certainly doesn't deserve the knocks it gets around here.

 Spyder68 wrote:
PvE - Instances are a Zerg fest, no Healer, no Tank.

Story mode yes. Later Exploration Modes however are probably the hardest dungeons you will every play (partially because you can't build a dedicated tank or healer and bring them to the party). The amount of coordination necessary to complete the Exploration modes on some of the dungeons is so high I actually think it's impossible to do some of them with PUG's. Some of the boss fights however are very inventive and deserve a shout out.

 LordofHats wrote:

 Spyder68 wrote:
PvE - Instances are a Zerg fest, no Healer, no Tank.

Story mode yes. Later Exploration Modes however are probably the hardest dungeons you will every play (partially because you can't build a dedicated tank or healer and bring them to the party). The amount of coordination necessary to complete the Exploration modes on some of the dungeons is so high I actually think it's impossible to do some of them with PUG's. Some of the boss fights however are very inventive and deserve a shout out.

The boss fights are no more inventive then what WoW has done though the years.

No Tank, no healer, makes it just chaos. Its like going into every fight, tank, died at start and everyone is just randomly running around. If there is no control to a fight except for just running around trying not to die long enough to kill something. There is something wrong.

You've never done them with a group that knew what they were doing then. Chaotic running around is the road to failure in GW2 (i.e. doing it wrong). You need to organize the group to trade the damage between members. If someone is unwilling to do that and just whines about how there isn't one player to take all the damage and another to heal that player, they're missing the point of GW2's set up.

And no. I've played WoW. There's only a few boss fights with interesting mechanics. GW2 has a fair number of standard tank and spank fights but there are a few jewels lying around like the Lovers, Soul Eater, the guy who turns people into cats that need to kill puppies etc etc.

Amaya wrote:WoW is still the best MMO, or at least among the best, but people love to hate on Blizzard and big companies in general.

Eh, it really depends what the individual player is looking for.
Back then, I got into it for the story, as the background was pretty cool and I enjoyed the lore - which was surprisingly riddled with shades of grey and partially even grimdark once you looked past the bright colours. Some time ago I just stopped playing, as certain changes to various factions and even elemental laws of how the world operates stopped making it interesting to me. I suppose I can't say it was "made bad", but it's a distinctive change of focus to make the game appeal more to a different target audience than mine, and over time said change just went too far.

It's certainly still the most popular MMO, though, so there's got to be many things that Blizzard still does right. The question is simply whether or not you're part of that segment of the playerbase which the game is currently catering to.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can't really advertise something to someone as "the best" unless 100% of the world's gaming population actually agree on this. /nitpick

 Lynata wrote:

I guess what I'm trying to say is that you can't really advertise something to someone as "the best" unless 100% of the world's gaming population actually agree on this. /nitpick

And someone will always be there to disagree

I agree popularity alone is not the sign of a great game (a lot of sports titles, CoD, Halo, etc are meh to me), but to have the success WoW has had in comparison to other western MMOs you have to be doing something right. It is true though that people with complaints are much more vocal than satisfied customers so there is a disproportionate amount of hate directed at nearly everything online.

I'd take a look at Pandora's Saga, it's free on steam. Though I'm pretty sure you an get it elsewhere, too.

Very fun, nice graphics,god sound track, good selection of enemy monsters, nice selection of playable races, a nice (albiet small) range of abilities, the powergamers are usually helpful.

Also note that the whole world isn't PvE, Also, the game has some interest team modes, like team deathmatch and an objective capture round, though you have to be level 30 to do most of them :grumble:

EVE is a damn amazing game. Truly standing on its own in the lineup of copy and paste EQ1 derivatives. That includes WoW.

I've had some epicly enjoyable experiences in the game, and the depth of it is unparalleled by any of the current offerings.

EVE, however, is ultimately ruined by the player base. I not talking about the nice, helpful people,who enjoy the game. I'm specifically referring to the unrelenting masses of sociopaths that plague the game.

Literally, the worst player base I've ever seen in a MMO. People that will not only go out of their way to ruin your day and deprive you of enjoyment of the game, but that will also revel in this type of hateful gameplay.

I'm not exaggerating here, there are some truly angry people that just seem to flock to eve.

PVP is one thing, but the vindictive, sinister, "tear collector" attitude expressed by the majority of the player base is enough to make me never spend another dollar on the game.

i would stay away from WoW if you have never played it before. All of the expansions are required for you to even think about playing with other people.

Aye, although the battle box now includes everything up to Wrath of the Lichking, so you can gauge if you like it or not. Cataclysm can be found for a fiver on the net, and Pandaria is falling in price all the time.

But alternately as a new player, you will be yelled at if you don't guild, and if you do guild, its usually more than just casual play.

 Doctadeth wrote:
But alternately as a new player, you will be yelled at if you don't guild, and if you do guild, its usually more than just casual play.

Strictly my opinion, but the learning curve for being an average WoW player isn't that high. Top tier PvP/PvE is a whole other story. If you want to get decent/above average at your class it's easy to do so if you bother to try. There are plenty of casual raid/PvP guilds you can progress through and fairly high turnover in top guilds.

Biggest problem is unless you play with friends you will be called out from time to time while leveling/gearing up by elitist pricks with inflated egos.

Thanks again guys.

I am interested in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn when it comes out, but here's the question. Should I get it on the PS3 or my PC? I would have thought the PS3 version will have more players, but the PC version will probably look better.

If you ever enjoyed the Grand Theft Auto series you should look at APB:Reloaded. It's open world MMOTPS/RPG. It's a Third Person Shooter but you rank up a character so it's somewhat of a hybrid. All 'levelling' is done in PvP versus the opposing faction, no boring pre-determined boss fights or 'trash pulls' before something interesting happens. You ready up, start a mission, and soon enough real players are racing through the streets to intercept you.

Full custom, and I mean full custom. Tattoo's on your skin, decals on your clothing, bodykits and symbols on your car(s). You can even make tunes and songs that your victims hear whenever you dumpster them.

It's set slighty in the future (2015ish) in a city where crime has become so uncontrollable the city administration has passed legislation allowing rampant vigilantism. You can play either Criminal (self explanatory) or Enforcer (basically a gangster wearing a badge).

It's free to play with an ingame cash shop, new players inevitably think the guns available in the cash shop are overpowered but experienced players know that the ones available through normal progression are just as strong. There are however cash options if you want to enhance your gameplay if you're in a position to do so. As with every F2P title you'll encounter cheaters unfortunately.

^ APB was loads of fun when I played it a while back. The amount of customizable content is unbelievable. It's insane that a game that good went over so badly with the community (it's lack of success has made it a bit of a joke). All that said, the missions are a bit dry and insanely repetitive.

 Squigsquasher wrote:
Thanks again guys.

I am interested in Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn when it comes out, but here's the question. Should I get it on the PS3 or my PC? I would have thought the PS3 version will have more players, but the PC version will probably look better.

PC unless PS3 supports addons.

The PS3 version won't be released until sometime after the PC, and unless something radically changes, you'll need a pretty robust computer (almost Crysis 3 levels) to make it look significantly better. The PC won't support addons either, at least not officially. I'm sure there will be some form of them like Windower for FFXI, though most of the things it did are moot for FFXIV. If you have a dedicated gaming PC it probably will be the better way to go, if not, then PS3 would be the better option.

Thanks. I have a pretty powerful PC with an Asus Platinum Matrix 7970 graphics card so it should run OK. Might go PC in that case.

MarsNZ wrote:Full custom, and I mean full custom. Tattoo's on your skin, decals on your clothing, bodykits and symbols on your car(s).

APB seriously has the best customisation I've seen in a game so far, except perhaps for Second Life.
And last time I played my Enforcer, I was in the car with Detective Vic Mackey from The Shield.

The game is chock-full with people running around as the Turtles, the Power Rangers or Ronald McDonald, when it glitches you generally get to look at something hilarious (exploding trucks flying a hundred meters up the air) and random silliness. I also think that even due to its repetetive nature (and let's be honest here, it's repetetive in any game like that), the gameplay is pretty fun. It's kind of like GTA Online, or rather Counterstrike with cars. However, last I played the game was also rather laggy, and it took way too long to have your car react to the steering wheel, which made driving a chore. No idea if they fixed this in the mean time. If you do try it, get one or more friends together for it - the game plays infinitely more awesome in a team with VoIP rather than random people. After all, laughing is contagious.

I've been playing WoW for... well, nearly 5 years and I can tell you this: Get it if you enjoy the sense of satisfaction from accomplishing something. Otherwise it's a pointless grind for even more pointless rewards that, in turn, allow to grind for rewards that will soon become pointless. I, on the other hand, do it for the roleplaying which is awesome. Hate on me as you will.

Eve Online is a game for Eve gamers.
It has evolved to be player-run, and ganking is built into the game system. Reporting griefers will get you zero response from the GMs.

If you want nice shiny gear, either pay through the nose to get it, run the gauntlet to get it from low-security space, or join the gankers.
But, if fighting NPC ships, and mining are your thing, you can do that and stay away from the majority of all that stuff.

Basically, the end-game starts early, and you've got to be careful how you go if you want to stay out of it.

Great game though.