Back in September, Bree posed a Daily Grind question that I thought was genuinely intriguing. You know, for once. Just kidding, Bree! She asked the community to share a nice thing or two about MMOs that people weren’t playing.
I thought this would be a great exercise for this column because there are all sorts of MMOs I’m not playing right now for various reasons — and yet, I can be honest enough to admit that there are elements to each that seem appealing. In this age of bashing things we’re not a part of to make us feel better about not being a part of them, I wanted applaud the effort that goes into these titles.
1. EVE Online
EVE, you have some seriously wicked-awesome looking spaceships. I love your variety and willingness to go strange, sleek, lopsided, and futuristic with many of your designs. The fact that your four main factions each have their own ship “style” speaks well of your commitment to visual identity.
2. Final Fantasy XIV
FFXIV, you package a lot of great ideas inside that odd MMO of yours, but you know what I’ve always liked the best? Your weather and skies. You have truly majestic and breathtaking outdoor scenery, from rainstorms to sunsets, and I think it contributes well to your sense of world.
3. Aion
Aion, I kind of poo-pooed gliding as a big feature when you first came on the scene, but after having experienced it in other MMOs, I think you were a little ahead of your time, there. It can be really serene and relaxing to just soar off of high places, and I’m sure it encouraged your players to explore your world more.
4. Star Wars Galaxies
SWG, you and I never really connected, but I’ve come to respect you greatly since your passing. Looking back, I think what you did best was expand the Star Wars franchise from a very narrow scope to a much broader idea of what this universe is like. Letting players live a huge variety of lives and go beyond mere combat as the only activity made a deep, lasting impression on so many.
5. Skyforge
Skyforge, I’ve always been kind of impressed about how you let players swap classes in and out. True, other MMOs have done that, but it’s a good decision for you and encourages players to experiment and have a good time without constant rerolling.
6. Blade and Soul
Blade and Soul, you’ve really been servicing your community well ever since you launched. As long as I’ve covered the news, I’ve noticed how many updates keep rolling out for your players on a very regular basis. I imagine that if I was playing, I would probably never get bored.
7. Elder Scrolls Online
ESO, I only spent a very short time playing you, but you know what stuck out at me? Your questing is kind of really awesome. There’s a lot of development, dialogue, and scripting that takes place in the midst of the quest — not just at the start and finish — and that makes it feel more like actual stories that the player is a part of creating.
8. ArcheAge
ArcheAge, you tried so hard to bring the MMORPG sandbox back, and you might have done it under better business circumstances. You had so many cool ideas and wild things to do that it started to seduce me. Maybe in another life, we would have been the best of friends.
9. Furcadia
Furcadia, before I wrote my column on you, I thought you were kind of a joke. After my research, I saw that you were more about making an inclusive playground that would be a safe and welcoming environment for people who really loved roleplay. I can respect that.
10. RuneScape
RuneScape, you put in so much darn effort to please your community, and that’s why you have one of the most loyal bunch of followers an MMO has ever seen. You created an older version of the game to please them and continually add content that’s informed and selected by the community. Plus, your team has a great sense of humor from what I’ve seen!
Everyone likes a good list, and we are no different! Perfect Ten takes an MMO topic and divvies it up into 10 delicious, entertaining, and often informative segments for your snacking pleasure. Got a good idea for a list? Email us at justin@massivelyop.com or eliot@massivelyop.com with the subject line “Perfect Ten.”
Compliments to WoW for keeping the MMO genre at least somewhat attractive to investors.
Villagers & Heroes, you are doing a very stunning balance of sandbox and roleplay goodness combined with PvE stuff. Your visuals are also charming while being very easy on the system. I’ve also heard good things about your community of players!
Does anyone here remember Eve in its first few years? I do and it was a really good game back then. I remember playing because my guild from Earth & Beyond moved there after EA shut down E&B. It was fun as many guilds from E&B moved over to it. The fun didn’t last to long though as alot of Eve players wanted to shun us and gave us all a hard time. My guild lasted around a year then Wow came out so we went there.
What no “Ode to City of Heroes” here (He did mention SWG which also sunsetted a while ago) – MOP is slipping. ;)
I’d just like to take this time to thank Star Trek Online and perfect world in particular in this instance for adding lock boxes to the game and making it one of the biggest gambling grindhouses in the universe. If it weren’t for you and your business practices we might have actually gotten some real gameplay features added to the game over the last 5 years.But instead all you’ve done is add more grind and more story missions . Your mediocrity surpasses none, and your development decisions surpass none .And I want to personally thank you for killing Pvp in the game and giving absolutely no attention to it . Oh cryptic why why.
This game is really for whales now. And reaching max lvl in this game sucks because you have nothing to do but grind crappy rep.content The game gets way to much hype here. People spend a ton of money in that zen store. And you will grind even more if you don’t. The game was better under Atari.
I really like EVE’s artstyle and universe/lore. I admire FFXIV and ESO for starting out so poorly but clawing their way to the top. I love that lesser-known MMOs like Tibia have been chugging along just as long as UO and EQ.
I’ve been thinking a lot about MMOs that I don’t play recently, since I started playing Neverwinter after not having played it for years for no apparent reason. It’s made me wonder what other games I haven’t tried that I should.
I can’t even say why, really, I never tried it. I’ve played STO since 2011, and it’s always been there in the Arc launcher. And it even has the same very generous F2P model as STO, which is one of the great points of Cryptic’s games.
I always was just playing other things, or I guess I never thought it was my sort of game because I never was into D&D. So I knew about it for years, but somehow just never got around to it. Now that I have, it’s actually quite good, and has some noticeably great features.
Now I look around at other games I never got to for no particular reason, like LOTRO, DDO, RIFT, TERA . . . the list goes on. I’ve played a lot of different games over the years, and most of the big ones (WoW, GW2, ESO, SWTOR, STO, EvE, TSW, Anarchy Online . . . Planetside 2 . . . Battleground Europe / WWIIOL . . . I feel like I’m forgetting a couple).
What are the games out there that really ought to be played if you’re an MMO fan and haven’t tried them yet, even though old or not as well known as they once were? What else am I missing that I might be sad I never tried when it’s gone?
Nice article Justin. I’ll add in my two cents on a couple of them.
FFXIV: You’re damn well gorgeous, and you seem like a solid game. Plus, you seem really serious about doing story, which is great.
ESO: You run smooth like butter, and you’ve greatly improved since launch. Good on you.
Even Arch Age made the list, and I don’t disagree. Nope. Many cool ideas, yes. And the mix between the crafting and questing was just about right.
But, we know the rest. Nevertheless, well worth the mention.
And yes. Blade & Soul is trying hard. NCwest is doing what they can. I’m quite happy there. BUT, it seems that we play second fiddle to what happens in Korea. Yeah, it makes sense, but for once I’d like an import to really become regional instead of just a localization house.
Cough cough bless online did exactly what you just mentioned they’ve brought in in the Eastern released MMO to the West which is pretty much only the West now and developmental decisions are based on the western release. Not my fault the game sucks tho
Those weren’t even the sarcastic, criticism hidden as praise items as I expected them to be.
I was looking for at least one subtle line. Nope, couldn’t find it!