mmo's

[aaron]

started typing in the shoutbox and it got excessively long, so...

they totally fucked up swg. they made it so you can ONLY do things that pertain to the class you chose at the beginning. so you can't craft if you're a bounty hunter, and you can't get combat levels if you're an artisan. they also allowed you to pick jedi at the very beginning, which some people worked for like an entire year to try to get. a whole shitload of people left. don't even bother with that game unless you're ok with like never seeing anyone ever unless you're in a big city on the starting planet. i think bioware (KOTOR, baulder's gate) is taking over swg sometime soon, so i guess keep your eyes open.

ffxi is ok if you don't mind selling your soul to square.

dofus is another mmo that you might want to check out. basically, a more restricted final fantasy tactics in that you can't really change classes. only problem with that game is that a few of the classes are severely gimped, and some are just blatently overpowered and the devs (french) wont do shit. however, the trial area is fucking huge, so you could easily play for like 20 hours without ever paying. most of the cool stuff is in the pay areas though. its only like six bucks a month.

knight online has a free trial, i can't remember if its unlimited or not though. its pretty crappy in my opinion. the only reason i ever played it was because some friends wanted to try it out.

supposedly guild wars is free, but i've never played it.

i'm pretty sure city of heroes/villains doesn't have a free trial, but those games are fricken sweet. if your computer can handle them i'd say give those a try.

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm/sort/rating/gameID/0

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

i dunno.. i played guildwars a bit, but I don't like the idea of instances that much, it takes away from the "mmo" part.

and just the thought of a mmo starwars game makes me drool, and I always wanted to play swg, but couldn't since I had shit dialup.

one that i've played a bit is "silkroad online", its completely free and is sort of like guildwars, but without the instances or whatever. its kinda fun, for a free mmo.

anyway, regardless of warnings, from what i've played of the trial, I may pick up swg tomorrow, along with a new graphics card since mine burnt out, and i'm using a horribly old one right now.


end transmission...

 

[aaron]

actually, somehow i managed to play swg without ever buying a hard copy of it. i downloaded the trial and then updated my account to full and it just gave me everything through an update. took fricken forever though.

 

[Don Francisco]

Trust me, being the Star Wars fan that I am, I would be the first to support a SW MMO. Unfortunately, SWG simply doesn't work. It's broken and is by far the worst MMORPG experience I've ever had.

Guild Wars is free but yeah, I agree that the instances take away from the MMO part.

FFXI is ok, it's a love-hate relationship. The most addicting (although not necessarily best-put-together) MMO I've ever played.

WoW is an incredibly good game. I think they're starting a free trial thing now to get moere people on board - check it out. WoW is definitely the best MMO I've yet to see in that there is something for everyone - you can solo, you can party exp grind, you can do missions, quests, you can do crafting, you can do instances. And it's all put together so flawlessly. Not to mention that Blizzard is constantly updating and renovating the game so it's always fresh. However, for some reason I personally just can't get addicted to it. Still, I'd recommend you definitely try it out.

 

[aaron]

what the hell do you guys mean by instances?

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

in guildwars, when you go out of a town, into the "wilderness" or whatever you want to call it, you (and your party) have your own instance of the area, so you can't find other players there, its like your own private version of the area.

EDIT: oh, and yeah, I think I'll probably go with WoW. I don't have a credit card, but you can buy subscription cards or whatever, right?

 

[Don Francisco]

There really aren't real instances in FFXI (only things like BCNMs, and those are really small-scale).

In WoW there are some instanced areas. For example, if you go into the Van Cleef instance. It's an area with only your party. There could be many parties doing Van Cleef at the same time but each has their own "server" or whatever (I highly doubt each has their own server, but that's what they say) so they never run into each other. In Guild Wars, the entire game is basically an instance. You don't go out into the world and meet random people - the only people in the world are the people currently in your party. Phantasy Star Online is another instance-style game.

 

[Tarvis]

WoW is incredibly boring. Not to mention it seems like the average age of people who play it is 12. If you want to play WoW just go download it and play on a private server.

FFXI is long and hard, but they have made it feel like you're actually accomplishing something. Other MMO's feel too similar. Always has that list of ability boxes at the bottom or somewhere on the screen. Ragnarok Online, Guild Wars, WoW - all felt like the same game with different graphics. Not to mention every one of those games have horrible targetting systems which are just a pain in the ass. Mobs die too fast, and all you have to do is click on it and that's it. No "limit breaks" in those game is a huge turn off for me, and is probably the main reason I find FFXI fun at all.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

maybe i'll go for FFXI then... the only thing with all of these games is that, since I'm starting so late it seems like I'll always be behind everyone, and not really know whats going on.

 

[Tarvis]

FFXI is mostly for the hardcore. If you're not willing to spend 6+ hrs on FFXI most days you won't get much accomplished.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

yeah... i'm not willing to go balls to the wall on an mmo right now... so maybe I'll go with a lesser one...

EDIT: i was bored and found this, dunno if you've seen it already or not:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eadaKb1xyg

 

[aaron]

doesn't look terribly difficult, just really fricken long. thats pretty impressive if he actually didn't use sheet music.

then again, he claims not to have used any music on OWA which i know for a fact has had piano sheet music made for it. go figure.

 

[Don Francisco]

"FFXI is mostly for the hardcore. If you're not willing to spend 6+ hrs on FFXI most days you won't get much accomplished."

Exhibit 1: Me. I've quit and un-quit this game so many times over the years I've lost count. During the school year I can usually only play for a few hours on Friday and Saturday nights. Even during the summer now I can only spend like 3 hours a night doing stuff. Thus, I'm the only one in the ls with not even a single level 75 job (pretty much everyone has 2 or 3 - Travis has black mage, dark knight, and warrior). My highest level job is 60 paladin, followed by 52 black mage. Basically, my point is I don't have time and I suck. However, I still manage... somehow... although yeah, many times I do feel like I'm left out when everyone is doing end-game stuff and such. Maybe I'll be there one day...

In FFXI it's not like you'll always be "behind." It'll be tough for you starting out, sure, but you already have friends who are in the game to give you advice and such. Sometimes it may seem like there's a million things to do and everyone is far ahead of you (and generally, they are), but it really isn't so bad. You just need to set goals for yourself and don't worry about not having absolutely everything done. For example, my current long-range goal is getting 75 paladin. I also set a lot of short-range goals (such as capping axe and great axe on 37 warrior, finishing ZM12, and getting a Jelly Ring) that can usually be completed within the next week (or few days, if you play more than me).

By the way, two nights ago re-kindled my love for FFXI like never before. We basically finished all of the Zilart expansion pack in 10 hours (with the exception of Divine Might and M17, but I can't do those until I'm like 75 anyway). That was awesome.

 

[SuperAfroBoy]

does FFXI have subscription cards, so i won't need a credit card?

 

[Tarvis]

I don't think it does.

And Yoda the only other people in the LS that have another job at 75 is Nunes who has BRD and WHM at 75, although Rik is close having MNK and THF 71+. Oh and Lockes, but he's not on the LS very often. I think that's it.. And then theres those 3 newbs in the ls too that's highest lvl job is 45? :<

 

[aaron]

i got 51whm, and brought like 8 jobs to around 30. it just moves so slow for me when it gets to higher levels. i don't have the time or patience for it anymore. the only way i'd ever go back is if i had a shitload of gil. i know no one is just going to give it to me and i'm sure as hell not pathetic enough to buy it.

one of the reasons i stayed as long as i did was because i had a friend i was playing with. he got a little bit lower than me, so i waited. he then proceded to jump ahead of me a bunch of levels so i just quit. if theres one thing i hate about ffxi is the incredible cripple even three or four levels can be. that was the thing i loved about city of heroes/villians. you could play somewhat normally with a friend half your level with the nifty system they had. you'd make them your sidekick and they would temporarily jump up to one level under yours, stats but not abilities. you weren't restricted to the two or three dee dee dees that happen to be within your level range. not to mention the game was based solely around abilty, not how much patience you had for farming for money.

i think i'm going to go back to villains.

 

[Don Francisco]

Travis, I don't know which LS you've been in.
You - WAR 75 DRK 75 BLM 75
Flat - SAM 74
Nunes - BRD 75 WHM 75
Rik - NIN 75 MNK 72 THF 71
Tubs - RDM 75
Tubbyisgood - BLM 74

Then there's me with 60 PLD and Emar and Nus with 46 BLM and 46 RDM, respectively (but they just started and plan on quitting before school starts, anyway). Oh, and Biggian who I think has like 42 WAR or something. That's everyone who is active in the ls, I think. 3/5 of ls members with jobs 74+ and half of those with more than one job 70+ is pretty impressive. Lol, you guys should start a HNMLS/DynamisLS.

Aaron, the solution is forming a static pt with certified non-morons. Although at later levels things get better... most of my parties 50-60 have been pretty moron-free.

 

[Tarvis]

You said

Thus, I'm the only one in the ls with not even a single level 75 job (pretty much everyone has 2 or 3)

Which was Me and Nunes like I said.

 

[Don Francisco]

Oh, I misread. Sorry, my bad.

 

[Tarvis]

Yay I win =^-^=