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Recently I've been looking for a game I can sink some time into. For the last 2 years I've been playing BF3, WoT, and MWO - I'm getting kind of sick of the whole mindlessly shoot things. Unfortunately diablo 3 was supposed to fill this void, but ..... yeah.

I stopped playing WoW at the end of WotLK as I hadn't taken a break since it was released. I'm just wondering if it is worth picking up Cata and MoP at this point and rerolling a fresh character? I have around 3 hours a day to play and I'm not too worried about hardcore raids / high rating arenas. My goal would be to hit the level cap, run a few PUG raids/instances occasionally, and do decently in the BGs.

I'm open to suggestions for other MMOs out there too.

Thanks!

My general rule is that if you enjoy something go enjoy it Doesn't WoW still have it's free to play to level 20? Or is that not for accounts that cancelled they're subscriptions. Cata and MoP both added new races/and or classes so there'd be something new to enjoy I suppose.

As for other MMO's, Rift is still going as is SWTOR, though imo SWTOR has a terrible F2P model. If you're a Star Trek fan, I'd always recommend a play through of Star Trek Online (it doesn't have much by means of raids though, not like WoW). Guild Wars 2 is also available and personally I enjoy it the most of the bunch. If you're looking for raids though the closest would be Rift. As a game SWTOR has an oddly fun single player experience for an MMO. If you enjoy Bioware games, you'll find lots of content in SWTOR that is comparable (eight classes with their own story lines to carry them from 1 to 50 and their own companions).

GW2's idea of a raid is 'bunch of people in the same general area fighting the same big bad.' WvWvW is fun though, if a little repetitive and circular outside of the teir 1 and 2 servers.

FF14: A Realm Reborn has been pretty good, it has a dedicated storyline in addition to the basic MMO type quests of kill x things to get y items, etc... There isn't a lot of useless grinding, you can have all of the classes on a single character, and it looks beautiful.

There is just the slight issue of finding a physical copy of the game because it has prove more popular than they anticipated and the servers were overloaded for a few days, but they're fixing it and it's getting better every day. Even with those issues, I generally don't have lag.

I guess for completeness there's also All Points Bulletin, which relaunched as F2P in 2011, but I know very little about it. Secret World is also still online I think but I know even less about that game.

I'm going to look further into WoW, but also considering FFXIV.

I really enjoyed FFX and FFXIII so it may be up my alley. I just want to make sure the game I play maintains high population servers.

Whether or not it is, you're going to. WoW makes addicts- and if you're looking for excuses to jump back in, you're ready for your next fix, brother.


For the crac.... Horde!

There is free epic loot awaiting you on the Timeless Isle- stuff better than raiding gear from Mists of Pandaren. It is sitting there in chests, waiting for you.

gossipmeng wrote:I'm going to look further into WoW, but also considering FFXIV.

I really enjoyed FFX and FFXIII so it may be up my alley. I just want to make sure the game I play maintains high population servers.

FF14 is currently maintaining high servers so much so that I occasionally have a queue of less than 10 people, server transfers aren't allowed, and it's a fun and immersive world.

Gitzbitah wrote:Whether or not it is, you're going to. WoW makes addicts- and if you're looking for excuses to jump back in, you're ready for your next fix, brother.


For the crac.... Horde!

There is free epic loot awaiting you on the Timeless Isle- stuff better than raiding gear from Mists of Pandaren. It is sitting there in chests, waiting for you.

WoW doesn't even have to be the game you play >_< As a casual WoW addict, I've found my free time being spent playing FF14 because it's hitting all of those same pleasure receptors as WoW did... I've poured like 48 hours in over the past 3 weeks

*Waves posterboard wildly while standing in street butt naked screaming maddness and frothing dribble. Sign reads: "All who play WoW are forever damned to roam the lands of endless grind until madness takes their feeble mind!"*

Guild Wars 2 is having a free trial this coming weekend, I believe. You can consider that too.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
*Waves posterboard wildly while standing in street butt naked screaming maddness and frothing dribble. Sign reads: "All who play WoW are forever damned to roam the lands of endless grind until madness takes their feeble mind!"*

You don't have to bash other games in order to justify your tastes.

 DemetriDominov wrote:
*Waves posterboard wildly while standing in street butt naked screaming maddness and frothing dribble. Sign reads: "All who play WoW are forever damned to roam the lands of endless grind until madness takes their feeble mind!"*

Not nice of you

I would suggest Guild Wars 2, free of charge and great gameplay really. And this comes from someone who normaly loaths such games

Suggestion - Everquest.

See what WOW actually came from. Its F2P for the most part (only the REALLY high levelled stuff is P2P) and they've done really well with it.

I jumped back in to get to the new level cap and do a run through of the story. I felt like I got my money's worth. I really enjoyed the quest in MOP. Much more interactive and made the world feel more alive.

I've been thinking about FF 14 but I hear the community is terrible. Seems to be the one thing wrong with every mmo lately. Wish they would give us the player's the tools to build and police the community ourselves. Make it so we can track how you behave across all characters on that account when we party up. Bring back the accountability.

 wowsmash wrote:
I've been thinking about FF 14 but I hear the community is terrible. Seems to be the one thing wrong with every mmo lately. Wish they would give us the player's the tools to build and police the community ourselves. Make it so we can track how you behave across all characters on that account when we party up. Bring back the accountability.

The community I've experienced has been okay. Granted I've turned off /s and /y so I don't get spammed while in cities, but I've yet to meet an outright dick on FF14 (yet). When you sign into the FF14 Lodestone (their community) you have to sign in under a character, so people can tell at a quick glance whether or not you're a troll/throwaway account (level 1 on a different server, etc...), they can see your activity, friends, free company (guilds), etc... The server I'm on seems to be pretty friendly from just the few forum threads I've read/encountered. And because every dungeon is an instance across the area you're playing in (UK, NA, or JA servers), the chances you'll meet someone on your server that's a idiot or a jerk are pretty slim. I do agree that there needs to be community policing, but the problem is that for everyone that does it right, there are vindictive people that will be jerks to you just because and use that community policing to be a jerk to you as well.

Crafting and Materia promote community interaction to some extent as they're designed to be worked with other crafting classes. Like armorers, weaponsmiths, and goldsmiths need the results of miners, culinarians can make fishing bait for fishers, etc... Granted there is a lot of the game completed already so it's not like you can't just go to the Market Board (auction house) and just buy these things. The free company I'm in has been pretty chill about making things for people. I spent Monday night leveling my Culinarian, threw a post in the FC about stat food people might need and used that to level, in return I got our weaver to make me crafting clothes and our armorer to make me gladiator gear so I could start leveling that class.

I've had nothing but a blast with FF14 so far. The world is beautiful, the instancing of quests is really well done, there are world 'quests' called Fates that you can join in and beat up large monsters or hordes of small monsters with people on the server, the 'daily' quests can be done in a variety of ways and are in an 'allowances' of 3 quests every 8 hours and they stack. So like right now I'm sitting with 75 allowances because I haven't had the need to do some of them. The early dungeons are a bit of a snooze, but the level 35 (66% of the way to level cap) and up are fantastic dungeons and a lot of fun as well as a challenge. There are storyline dungeons that you have to go in to advance the storyline, and the queue system is pretty quick (granted I'm a healer, so it's always been quick for me ).

@ Abs and Trond. I played WoW for 5 years. WoW isn't much else other than a grind in everything you do. Pvp is a grind for gear. Raids are a grind for gear. Rep is a grind. The whole game is a ceaseless mindnumbing grind that unless you're clinically insane because you enjoy doing the same thing endlessly and expect different results or are a major part of the community you're sinking your time into something that's been overdone. I'd highly recommend any other game rather than return to wow, especially if you're among the players that have already played it for an extended amount of time.

I'm hoping to decide by this weekend between FF14 and MoP. I haven't had much time to look into this much these last few days.

I did manage to re-install wow and have a look around (10 day free cataclysm trial). Talents are completely different from when I last played.... so that would take some getting used to. The items stats also are different with PVP power and such... My server would be Bleeding Hallow (bonus because its high pop) and I have around 15,000 gold... not sure if that is a lot anymore. Unfortunately my free trial doesn't let me try out the monk.

The only thing that concerns me about FF14 is that you can switch your job/professions/class (whatever it's called) whenever you'd like. It doesn't look like you ever have to commit..... I'm assuming it takes such a long time to level up one class that it isn't realistic to plan on maxing out all the classes on one character?

 DemetriDominov wrote:
@ Abs and Trond. I played WoW for 5 years. WoW isn't much else other than a grind in everything you do. Pvp is a grind for gear. Raids are a grind for gear. Rep is a grind. The whole game is a ceaseless mindnumbing grind that unless you're clinically insane because you enjoy doing the same thing endlessly and expect different results or are a major part of the community you're sinking your time into something that's been overdone. I'd highly recommend any other game rather than return to wow, especially if you're among the players that have already played it for an extended amount of time.

i think you are confused with the difference between grinding and farming.

WoW, in no way is a difficult game and i never felt like there was a grind and i powerleveled myself twice. Korean games like Lineage 2 take ages to gain levels and so much farming was required just to get equal level gear.

The entire game of Lineage 2 is a grind, right up until you need gear which you farm for a near eternity.

No, he's right. Whether it is an easy grind or a hard grind, WOW is a grind. I had a ton of toons at max and crap tons of money, along with a bajillion achievement points but at a certain point it is no longer a game, but a job.

I quit when I realized that my favorite part of the game was the auction house.

Went back a year or two later on the 10 day 'come back' pass and gave out a couple hundred grand to people who were on that I remembered.

No temptation to return.

I did something similar. Went back to check out the MOP stuff. Was fun but I just don't feel it anymore. I jumped on my original mount and did a world tour of all the zones. Lingered in some of my favorites. Then just started handing out stuff to random people and a few friends that still play. Just for fun I went to argent dawn and made the first toon I ever made and leveled him up to 10 for old times sake. Was fun but sad too. Not the same game anymore but I had a blast.

I'm hoping blizz can do it again with there next one but I haven't heard much on titan at all.

 gossipmeng wrote:
The only thing that concerns me about FF14 is that you can switch your job/professions/class (whatever it's called) whenever you'd like. It doesn't look like you ever have to commit..... I'm assuming it takes such a long time to level up one class that it isn't realistic to plan on maxing out all the classes on one character?

Well it doesn't take too long to level a character up to level 15 in FF14. At level 15, you generally have moved through enough of the storyline that your starting class gives you 'permission' to start leveling in other classes, and at level 15 you gain access to dungeons so you have a way to supplement the xp you can't get because you've already done quests on another class. The reason why level 15 is important is because to get jobs like Warrior, Black Mage, White Mage, or what are essentially advanced classes, you need to be level 30 in your primary class and level 15 in the secondary class. Right now I'm a level 41 Conjurer/15 Arcanist/10 Gladiator. I've spent the majority of my time on Conjurer and picked up Arcanist so I can level as a White Mage (you level as a conjurer, but you get new class quests to unlock some neat abilities). I leveled Arcanist to 15 in about 4 hours, and I leveled Gladiator to 10 in about 2 hours last night (I want to also play Paladin which requires 30 Gladiator/15 Conjurer)

I really do think it's realistic to be able to max out all of your classes, but once you hit level 15 in each of the 3 main cities, it gets to be a little harder to do quests since you can't repeat them (that's why there are the levemetes/dailies, fates, and dungeons). The game has been out for a month, and I've only had it for 3 weeks and I've almost reached the level cap on my primary class. My friends who have had it since release are only a few levels ahead of me because they've been waiting for me to catch up so we can run dungeons together.

Also if you have friends that are a much higher level than you, there is no running people through dungeons. If you enter the first dungeon (levels 15 to 18) with any party members that are above level 18 they get their levels synced down to the max level for the dungeon and lose access to any abilities they wouldn't have at that level (and their gear gets scaled back to that level).

It's a good game so far, the only mechanic I don't like is that pets are kind of stupid (mentally), it's something they need to work on.

 Doctadeth wrote:
Suggestion - Everquest.

See what WOW actually came from. Its F2P for the most part (only the REALLY high levelled stuff is P2P) and they've done really well with it.

EQ really?

Wait for Everquest next.

SWTOR - Free, best single player online game for free

everquest 2 will always be my favorite MMO, just for having an apartment and being able to decorate it

 pretre wrote:
No, he's right. Whether it is an easy grind or a hard grind, WOW is a grind. I had a ton of toons at max and crap tons of money, along with a bajillion achievement points but at a certain point it is no longer a game, but a job.

This times infinity.

I played five years and all the game gave me was heartache at the end of the day. Guilds exploded, denying me end game content. PVP changed with one patch, rendering my characters practically useless for another 2-3 patches. Friends rage quit out of frustration or change servers for greener pastures.

WoW is a great game, but it can be a toll on the psyche you can do without.

 ironicsilence wrote:
everquest 2 will always be my favorite MMO, just for having an apartment and being able to decorate it

If you thought EQ simulator was good, you should try the Sims

 pities2004 wrote:

 ironicsilence wrote:
everquest 2 will always be my favorite MMO, just for having an apartment and being able to decorate it

If you thought EQ simulator was good, you should try the Sims

i really enjoyed the crafting aspect of EQ, it was neat to be able to actually build something other then generic weapons

 ironicsilence wrote:

 pities2004 wrote:

 ironicsilence wrote:
everquest 2 will always be my favorite MMO, just for having an apartment and being able to decorate it

If you thought EQ simulator was good, you should try the Sims

i really enjoyed the crafting aspect of EQ, it was neat to be able to actually build something other then generic weapons

You don't play a lot of mmo's do you?


I am super pumped for EverQuest Next, it's going to be amazing.

ive actually played a ton of mmos, cant think of many others that let you craft things like beds, bookcases, paintings and the like

Final Fantasy XI let you make furniture for you Moghouse.

So does animal farm.. but its not exactly an mmo, nor is it that entertaining to be a carpenter or designer for a cartoonish fanatasy world. If you mean that we can craft bunkers and buildings fit for war, color me interested.

 Ahtman wrote:
Final Fantasy XI let you make furniture for you Moghouse.

I do miss that game

Also Pots POTS EVERYWHERE! i could never get gardening right :/.

Also could never get my hands on a venomous claw. still erks me to this day.

 ironicsilence wrote:

 pities2004 wrote:

 ironicsilence wrote:
everquest 2 will always be my favorite MMO, just for having an apartment and being able to decorate it

If you thought EQ simulator was good, you should try the Sims

i really enjoyed the crafting aspect of EQ, it was neat to be able to actually build something other then generic weapons

In Horizons you were able to build actual working structures like a house, various crafting buildings like a blacksmith, merchant shops, storage structures and tons of decorative items.