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[Arbinire]

If you didn't like the arcadey gameplay of Guild Wars 2 you might not like The Secret World.  Combat is pretty similar, though you have more customization on what attacks you use and how you build your character(since it's a 'levelless' progression).  The draw to TSW is the world itself and the story though, and it's questing is more unique and immersive.

Honestly I can't think of any real recommendations in the MMO-verse anymore because the vast majority of them are derivative with very little in the way of progress in the past 5-8 years.  If you don't mind text based gaming, my best recommendation would be to go through some MUD lists and topsites and give one of those a try.

[Shadowgandor]

Well there's one game that really feels alive and that's www.tibia.com. It's incredibly grindy, but the fact that everyone can attack anyone they want and death causes you to lose a percentage of your total experience, your backpack and a random chance to lose one or more pieces of equipment means you fear death. One of my fondest memories of my gaming "career" were from this game. You need to be smart to level and survive the cruel world.

[Shadowlord]

Well there's one game that really feels alive and that's www.tibia.com.

Haaaaaaaaaaaaa

[Isn't this the one whose world was divided into separate tiny square maps rather than a seamless world?]

[Shadowgandor]

I know it sounds weird, but it truly has a feel. Maybe it's partly nostalgia speaking, but I'm longing for a game that gives me the same feelings as Tibia. The community had all types of people in it, yet the less intelligent people will never reach a high level. One mother joke could have you end up being killed for weeks straight, reducing your level to 3 and basically killing your character

[Shadowlord]

Personally, I don't want to lose all my progress because some folks are ganking people for the lulz, and while it's cool that it encourages you to team up to beat them, it also leaves you paranoid that someone'll sneak up on you when you least expect it and so on. Folks generally don't play video games to get the feeling of being stalked and murdered.

(UO originally had the same problem but you only dropped your backpack and equipment; and the first expansion added a carebear plane which lacked the free pvp, which of course was much maligned by people saying that it had ruined the game because they had nobody to gank repeatedly anymore)

[Biowraith]

City of Heroes, Auto Assault, Tabula Rasa were all amazing because of how unique they were, but NCsoft kills all their MMOs

Man, all of this. Especially Auto Assault- I've finally found someone else who actually played it. I was really looking forward to Jumpgate: Evolution, it's too bad that died before it got released.

+1 to this for me, except I wasn't really aware of Jumpgate: Evolution.  City of Heroes was by far my favourite MMO ever, and I'll go straight back to it if the current endeavours for resurrection actually bear fruit (even if it's only in maintenance mode).  I was disappointed to see both Tabula Rasa and Auto Assault fall too, although not to the same extent as CoH; I recall Tabula Rasa having some issues with the devs not seeming to know what direction they wanted to take it (and changing their minds frequently), while Auto Assault had issues including content gaps spanning multiple levels.  But they were both doing something a bit different than the norm and were all the more interesting for it.

Alas, the problem with the unique MMOs is they tend to stay unique because they don't draw in the big audiences, so they're too risky to be made very often, and they're first on the chopping block when the publishers need to make cuts or change their 'vision'.


Unfortunately I don't really have any suggestions of my own as I've not found anything that satisfied for more than a month or so.  I suppose I'd second (or third, or whatever) the suggestions of The Secret World - the combat's nothing to write home about, and I found the couple dungeons I tried to be standard fare, but the atmosphere, story, setting, and puzzle elements do make it stand out from the pack, at least the first time through.

[NullForceOmega]

TERA is fun, if you can deal with the morons in chat going on and on about the 'Elin master/pedo race'.  The combat mechanics are very different from the other MMOs I've tried, relying far more on movement, timing and position than any other MMORPG out there.  The downside is that it's a quest grinder like WoW (you can go around ignoring the quests, but the difference in exp gain is very noticeable [caveat: unless you hunt BAMs, I recommend hunting ALL the BAMs])  If you like SF and haven't tried it, Firefall might also be fun.  Both titles are free to play, TERA has a very limited freemium aspect, paying monthly nets you some okay bonuses, and Firefall has fairly standard cosmetic and pay to unlock stuff (tho' you'll still have to level the frame to 40 the old fashioned way, quests and events ahoy)

[Shadowgandor]

[Isn't this the one whose world was divided into separate tiny square maps rather than a seamless world?]

Nope. One huge ass world

[Urist McScoopbeard]

Has anyone suggested The Repopulation? If not, check it out. It's SWG/Tabula rasa-like MMO in development, already has a lot of content and players.

[JimboM12]

Has anyone suggested The Repopulation? If not, check it out. It's SWG/Tabula rasa-like MMO in development, already has a lot of content and players.

The Repopulation is another pay-once/play-forever deal, right? If so I'm down for that. I enjoyed GW2 for quite awhile, but I'm on one of the lower ranked servers (Darkhaven, represent) so WvW's kinda iffy but fun once and awhile. I.....kinda killed the magic for me after grinding for a legendary. All I was missing was the Unique weapon and the gifts of might and magic (and I was about 75% done with each.) but ehh.

But an MMO you'd like to play?.......Try Warframe and/or Path of Exile I guess.
Warframe's this Co-op mission based game where you basically have fun stomping hundreds of minions while completing objectives and stuff. Pretty fun but quite grindy.
Path of Exile is a diablo clone, but it's a damn good one. The char creation gives you about 7 or so characters to choose from, who each are ment to be built along a certain directon, magic, strength, agility or any combo of the 2, but its so free form that nothings stopping you from being a super sniper barbarian or being a thief/assassin who summons a giant undead army to distract the enemy.

[ductape]

The most immersive multiplayer online RPG I have ever played, is certain servers from Neverwinter Nights (original not 2). Escape from Uncertainty is my top pick.

I have been meaning to make a thread about this server for a while, but havn't gotten around to it yet. I have been playing on this server off and on for since 2006.

Basically, it is set in an alternate telling of the Forgotten Realms, this chapter is located in the Underdark. This gives the setting a very grimdark feel and its very survivalish. Death penalties are harsh and outside of town, theres nasty things that will smack you down if you dont prepare and think on your feet. That said, if you act sensibly and play with care, you can totally explore. Just try going with friends when you first start. I often walk around solo in the wilds, but my character is well prepared and I know the ropes.

So basically, you have a DM team that breathes life into the world. The possess NPCs and craft plots, spice things up. They help you carry out your plans...

Roll play is enforced and you must stay in character at all times. The level of roleplay here is superlative but don't let that intimdate you if your new to RP, people are helpful and friendly. You can always send an out of character tell to another player or DM if you need help.

This is a conflict based setting, PVP is semi-open. There are areas where PVP is only allowed with a DM present, but lots of areas where PVP is open. Death in PVP is permanent. Players are encourage to proactively pursue their goals, be it PvE or PvP. The DMs will support this kind of play.

To wrap up, the experience lands somewhere between playing an MMO like WoW and a Role Play intensive MUD. At it's base, NWN is an actiony sort of game and I like that a lot about it. Relo playing is different here because instead of emoting things like walking across the room and picking up the mug form the table, you just do that. In general emoting is much more minimal and chat tends to be what character are actually saying, with their actions in-world reflecting all the other stuff. There is still emoting for some things.

The server is properly played with the use of the forums. While there  is an in-game messaging systems, a majority of messages and posting happen there.

Worth a looksie in my opinion. Tell them Calavera sent you. Message me on this forum if you plan to go in-game, my characters name is Worm.

http://www.efupw.com/

It will take a bit of setup to get going. The base game is cheap on GoG and Steam. You will need all the expansions so get the Diamond Edition. You will need the patches. I recommend using the patcher made for this server, it works great.

See here: http://www.efupw.com/getting-started/

[BurnedToast]

If you didn't like the arcadey gameplay of Guild Wars 2 you might not like The Secret World.  Combat is pretty similar, though you have more customization on what attacks you use and how you build your character(since it's a 'levelless' progression).  The draw to TSW is the world itself and the story though, and it's questing is more unique and immersive.

Honestly I can't think of any real recommendations in the MMO-verse anymore because the vast majority of them are derivative with very little in the way of progress in the past 5-8 years.  If you don't mind text based gaming, my best recommendation would be to go through some MUD lists and topsites and give one of those a try.

Secret world's first area is amazing. Second area is...... generic fantasy MMO world! (it's still modern day but you almost can't tell). I burned out before I ever got to the third area.

Combined with the no level system which sounds excellent in theory.... but I had my build totally maxed out by the end of the first area, and had all my gear upgraded to max level blues (cheapish from the AH since it's a mature game economy). So imagine all the garbage MMO grinding crap (kill 10 rats, deliver this package, etc etc) without any sense of progression at all. It gets old *real* fast.

Anyway, I also can't think of any good recommendations for you. The only innovation the genera has seen in the last 10 years is the guild wars 2 style "action MMO" but you said you don't like that.... so that leaves wall-to-wall WoW clones and you said you don't really want a wow clone either.

[BFEL]

The only MMO I personally like is the aforementioned Star Trek Online.
This is partially because I'm a trekkie, but mostly because its the only MMO I've played that actually lets you play it like a single player game.

[Vendayn]

If you didn't like the arcadey gameplay of Guild Wars 2 you might not like The Secret World.  Combat is pretty similar, though you have more customization on what attacks you use and how you build your character(since it's a 'levelless' progression).  The draw to TSW is the world itself and the story though, and it's questing is more unique and immersive.

Honestly I can't think of any real recommendations in the MMO-verse anymore because the vast majority of them are derivative with very little in the way of progress in the past 5-8 years.  If you don't mind text based gaming, my best recommendation would be to go through some MUD lists and topsites and give one of those a try.

Secret world's first area is amazing. Second area is...... generic fantasy MMO world! (it's still modern day but you almost can't tell). I burned out before I ever got to the third area.

Combined with the no level system which sounds excellent in theory.... but I had my build totally maxed out by the end of the first area, and had all my gear upgraded to max level blues (cheapish from the AH since it's a mature game economy). So imagine all the garbage MMO grinding crap (kill 10 rats, deliver this package, etc etc) without any sense of progression at all. It gets old *real* fast.

Anyway, I also can't think of any good recommendations for you. The only innovation the genera has seen in the last 10 years is the guild wars 2 style "action MMO" but you said you don't like that.... so that leaves wall-to-wall WoW clones and you said you don't really want a wow clone either.

That kinda killed it for me. I was having fun in the first area on my 3 day trial, but sounds like what I was told before, it gets old fast. So, it sounds almost like an Age of Conan Tortage experience...amazing early game...buy it and end up sucky mid/end game.

I ended up buying Guild Wars 2 again, it was really cheap. I'll just have to make a new account I guess. But, a lot of people (even in private) keep recommending me GW2. That its exactly what I am looking for. My only beef was having to buy it again, but since its so cheap...guess not a big deal.

[Baijiu]

There's Eldevin, a F2P browser MMO that's now on Steam and it features a pretty big crafting system. The quests are surprisingly interesting and there's a heck of a lot of them, but the crafting is bogged down by the massive amount of grinding you need to do. No auction house either which hurts because crafted gear is pretty good and the rares you can craft rival dungeon drops BUT I heard there's an auction house in the works that might go live early this year.