Em-em-Oh-Are-Pee-Gees.

Yes, that's right. Let's have the big debate.

Which is best.

BEST. Not most popular. Which one makes you shiver with epicness? Which one makes you almost stop breathing in awe when you see the visuals and the vistas?

Which one is so immersive that you feel your shield arm take the blows of beasts and monsters?

Or, which one simply allows you and your friends to gather and have some good old fashioned fun?

I play WoW. Guilty as charged, and to some MMO vets, a sellout to the gaming world.

But there are so many other games out there, both P2P and F2P that it makes me want to explore them all. I just spend a vast proportion of my evenings browsing Lord of The Rings Online, and it seems to be so vast and beautiful. But even then it has it's flaws. I tried Perfect World which looked good and played better. But it got boring and repetetive.

I'm searching for the perfect MMO experience, and I have yet to find it.

So tell me. What has ticked the boxes for you? Or at least, most of the boxes.

To be honest, my favorite MMO has always been Final Fantasy XI

There's just something about the game that I really enjoyed, probably the rich storyline that I was familiar with, and the ability to kind of make your own story out of something that's usually so linear

As for World of Warcraft, I've played it too, but it always felt too commercial for me, and I also didn't really care for a lot of the player base

I've been told that Aion is not a bad game, and their player-versus-player system actually sounds to be quite fun

I'm still waiting on the new FF MMO, but I'll probably need a new computer to play it... Still, might be worth checking out

It's really sad to say, but most games just can't compete with WoW right now, because it's such a cash machine, they can basically do whatever they want

Something else will come along eventually!

Lord of the Rings online was meant to be really good, and it's even becoming F2P with a pay catalogue in Fall 2010, so maybe that's worth a try. It sounds seriously good, imho. The graphics are meant to be great and not that taxing to the PC it's on. Imagine middle earth in all it's glory at your fingertips...

I do like WoW, but as you said, once it reaches so many millions of players, it seems commercialised. The instances are nice, but it's not enough, almost like a conveyor belt at times. I do love going off the beaten track though, and that's why games like oblivion appeal to me, as you can just explore. Even if it was only a single player experience, I sometimes wished to transfer myself into that world because of it's sheer beauty. The water glistening in the sun and the shadow of the Imperial tower cast for miles... The night sky in the shivering isles that moved and shifted constantly like myriad waves in the sky.

It it so hard to make the perfect MMO? Where people can appreciate beauty, combat, socialising and rivalry?

I suppose WoW, with it's vast landscapes and it's guilds may tick some of the boxes, but it does seem superficial at times, and not real enough.

i played a lot of Ragnarok Online on private servers, as well as dozens of other free mmo's, but none of them were necessarily known for graphics or visuals.
the only subscription-based game i've played is probably Phantasy Star Universe. it was fun, but not as in-depth as most mmo's. early on, it also suffered from having content held back so that it appeared to have frequent updates. there has since been an expansion and a great deal of content added, so it's probably more fun these days if you don't mind a comparably lower player-count.

That's a console MMO, right?

both, but yes.

Found a potentially good F2P online, called Trickster Online. Looks pretty decent, and definitely looks like it's worth having a look at. There may be some compatability issues, but it looks ike a 2D MMO, similar to Ragnarok Online.

Trickster Website

If i had to choose the best I'd say Age of Conan with it's voice acting and great combat system. If only it had been more successful. Hopefully Funcom's next MMO will be much better.

What do you think of Conan taking the turbine approach and removing subscription? Could that have boosted activity?

I would play. Every year I get 10 days free of AoC just because I have an account. I missed out this year, the patches were taking too long and I kept on forgetting to update. But yes, if it went free, I'd return.

I've played a lot of MMORPGs in my time, but World of Warcraft still stands out as the best for me, so far. I didn't really manage to get into Final Fantasy XI that well. Back then, I didn't have a credit card, so I couldn't really play it as much as I would of liked. And when I did get around to playing it... My friends were all so high level that I just couldn't be bothered to put the effort in if I had to play by myself, so I can't speak for that game. But from what I hear, it's awesome.

World of Warcraft, on the other hand, is something I have a lot of experience with. I started out playing it on the American servers back at launch, with my good friend Leon (Kazuki @ FFRepublic, for those who know him) and even raided a little before we both re-rolled new characters on the European servers at Europe launch. From there we joined a few hardcore raiding guilds, and pretty much saw most of the end-game content first hand. I absolutely loved every minute of playing that game until the disgrace that is Wrath of the Lich King. Totally ruined the game for me, and we both ended up quitting.

But saying that, I still had such a good laugh playing WoW that I can't really have any bad things to say about it. The graphics aren't all that, but the actual content was so amazing. This is obviously from a raiding point of view, if I was playing to PvP or playing casually, I probably would of quit a very long time ago. There was just a good sense of community and friendship playing in a raiding guild. I actually really miss that sometimes, but I know I could never go back.

Definitely wouldn't recommend anyone to start playing it now though, this far along in the cycle, if you're aiming to be a hardcore player. It's just too far along to even consider trying to max out all the different reputations and such.

Lord of the Rings Online I played for for roughly 2 days, before I decided that it was nowhere near as good as what was already available on the market (World of Warcraft, namely). I probably didn't give it much of a chance, to be fair, but my mind was already made up from the controls and the graphics engine fairly early on.

The only other decent MMO I've played lately is definitely Warhammer Online. Played this for about 2-3 months with Leon and his girlfriend and we had such a blast. Again, the graphics aren't all that, and it's a bit clunky at times, but the PvP side to it is such good fun you'll never get bored of it. Can't speak for the end-game, since we never got that far along, but the process of leveling up your character NEVER got dull, with so many ways to actually gain experience, you'll never get bored. There was PvP instances, group quests, normal quests, sieges and all sorts.

Not sure how far along Warhammer Online has come since I stopped playing, but it might be worth checking out.

I'm just waiting patiently for Final Fantasy XIV now... Really hope it doesn't let me down! :chinaman:

I'm guessing that you're not like... A lotr fanatic. It might not appeal to others.

I've seen the movies about 5 times, and read all the books... if that helps.

Fair enough. Kinda like me then.

Which is really the only reason it appealed, as WoW really is better...

So I'm surprised it didn't for you...

FF XIII is awesome to me, and I'm not even past the "dreadful" first 15 hours. WoW was ok, not a favorite. Guild Wars was fun when I played. Star Wars Galaxies... probably an all time favorite, and I only did the 10 day free trial. Cronous is an awesome F2P MMORPG, and the only PC one that I currently play. I also tried MapleStory, but had to get rid of it to free up space so my com would run more quickly.

I've heard a lot about Maple Story... is it any good?

it's a money pit, which isn't surprising because it's made by Nexon. anything cosmetic has to be purchased, and there are some styles only available through tickets that give you a random style, meaning you could buy dozens and still never get the one you want.
other than that, it's a typical grinding MMO but in a side-scrolling format.

I didn't get very high in leveling so I wouldn't know about grinding. And it is like Metroid handheld games in the way of graphics (3D foreground, 2D background). If there is a specific class you want, you need to set up your original stats exactly right, but otherwise yes it is a pretty fun game in my opinion.

In the end, it really seems that Age of Conan is the definitive Balls to the wall experience for MMOs, huh.... as shame about it being so unpopular and not having a large player base...

any new finds y'all? Sorry to bring back a dead thread.......

I liked TERA when I played it... has been trumped by Guild Wars 2 now though

Also, before GW2 and after TERA, I was playing Star Wars: The Old Republic for a while... (Sith Assassin.... race was Zabrak... so, basically, I was Darth Maul)