If we can include past MMOs than early 2000s peak RuneScape, WoW: WoTLK, Guild Wars 1, and City of Heroes are at the top of my list.
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What are/were some of the best MMOs in video games?
- Thread starter Demolition_Human
- Start date
Isn't "best MMOs in videogames" somewhat redundant? Sure, there's MMO in other media, but they're, well, fictional MMOs...
Ragnarok Online was great fun, even though there are a lot of things I dislike about it. Great memories, though.
TERA online has the best combat system I've ever played in an MMO. Too bad a ton of other things about it suck.
FFXIV is probably the best overall MMO I've played. Great story (after the very mediocre ARR campaign), great boss fight designs, and absolutely fantastic music. The team really seems to care, and it shows. The MMO is a love letter to every FF fan, and it's just a blast to play.
TERA online has the best combat system I've ever played in an MMO. Too bad a ton of other things about it suck.
FFXIV is probably the best overall MMO I've played. Great story (after the very mediocre ARR campaign), great boss fight designs, and absolutely fantastic music. The team really seems to care, and it shows. The MMO is a love letter to every FF fan, and it's just a blast to play.
I agree with you 100%. Even though I was an adult with a (small) family when World of Warcraft launched, I had more flexible/disposable time. I still play MMOs a few times a weekly and I currently help run an FFXI linkshell but it has become difficult to run regular scheduled events. First of all, most of us are adults with careers. Also, we are at a place in gaming where there are a ton of games that demand a lot of the player's time. Not just MMOs but service-based games and mobile games. Game design is more flexible now, absolutely. But at some point you still need bodies and it's gotten harder to hang on to those bodies. I hear the same thing is happening in WoW too.
This whole thing is why I kinda shake my head at WoW Classic. These old MMOs were not respectful of the player's time. Original WoW's design lacked the flexibility or streamlining that today's MMO gamers expect and the grind was real. I think there were great things in it, for instance a far more unified sense of community prior to the LFD/LFR and CRZ, but the world has moved on.
I do think that we might see a resurgence of MMOs at some point. I think the subscription-based model is actually more player-friendly and consistent versus the F2P or MTX-driven one. Of course at the moment we see the worst of both worlds in these MMOs...
FF14, WoW, Guild Wars 2, ESO and SWTOR.
Can't go wrong with either of those, and i can recommend any of them to people who haven't played them yet. Not a fan of SWTOR's F2P restrictions though, so a subscription is recommended as this will also unlock all expansions already released (and yours to keep after sub runs out).
Can't go wrong with either of those, and i can recommend any of them to people who haven't played them yet. Not a fan of SWTOR's F2P restrictions though, so a subscription is recommended as this will also unlock all expansions already released (and yours to keep after sub runs out).
I was a beta tester for Uo, asherons call, swg, eq, anarchy online, daoc, wow, shadow bane, and others.
Without a doubt Ultima online was so ahead of its time outside of the bugs. Even now we still don't have anything with that level of depth or interactivity on that scale in a MMO.
Without a doubt Ultima online was so ahead of its time outside of the bugs. Even now we still don't have anything with that level of depth or interactivity on that scale in a MMO.
I appreciate that. I was on the DAoC team as designer and environment artist :)
Twitter: tripwire_stone
I played lots of Ragnarok Online and some of the other games on here, but I have a special place for Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. I also remember back on Bulbagarden Forums when someone called Konidias was making a Pokemon mmorpg fangame called POL and I was fascinated with that but it never amounted to anything, but anyways I'll just quote what I said in another thread:
I've played Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds, Ragnarok Online, Maple Story, Gunbound, Gunz, GRAAL, Well of Souls, FlyFF, Rose, and many other free Korean online games.
My jam though, was Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds. I remember staying up very late to play it, so late that my drunk parents came home. There was some mean person with a polearm somehow pushing me off a field with their weapon. I later realized it was "roleplay."
Its a really nifty game where the players roleplay, and the kingdoms such as Buya, Koguryo, and Nagnang are ruled by online players and there are many roleplay events in the game. There's a "legend" in the game, where you can click on a player to see what kinds of things they've done in the game and at what in-game date.
I would stand by the newbie area and help out newbies often. I felt bad that sometimes newbies would be picked on in online games. My girlfriend in the past paid to play it for a month with me, and she'd hunt for wool and I'd weave it to improve my crafting skills, and we used lots of in-game money with that to buy a house in the game. I like the lighting in the game too, like when players walk by while holding a lamp.
It eventually changed with a major update that changed the music and graphics of the game.
Now it has an AMAZING soundtrack, with songs such as this:
The BGMs in this game are seriously amazing.
Classic Nexus was so great!
I loved when it looked like this:
The game updated for the worst, though. The graphics changed as I mentioned earlier. There are a lot of people with out of place items from the "Cash Shop" that got introduced with the new version of Nexus, too. Also the people running Nexus are running it pretty horrible now, according to like everybody in the nexus community. I prefer the old version of Nexus. Those were some great times.
11 had the best community I've been a part of in an online game. The reasons behind it though don't fly these days. A game that difficult and requiring so much cooperation is fine, but the downtime was and is too severe these days.
Really enjoyed XIV and want to get into again some day, but something was missing about the game play for me. When I was into it the dodging orange areas for bosses was the only real mechanic to a fight. Also the communities sense of "watch a youtube video before this fight!!! or I'm leaving!" and blasting through the story content telling people to watch it later on youtube or the npc, really turned me off. Took me right out of the game. Hit 50 in the first month and only went back once for another free month.
Some day I'll try it again, maybe things have settled since.
Really enjoyed XIV and want to get into again some day, but something was missing about the game play for me. When I was into it the dodging orange areas for bosses was the only real mechanic to a fight. Also the communities sense of "watch a youtube video before this fight!!! or I'm leaving!" and blasting through the story content telling people to watch it later on youtube or the npc, really turned me off. Took me right out of the game. Hit 50 in the first month and only went back once for another free month.
Some day I'll try it again, maybe things have settled since.
The fact that I almost didn't find this on the first page is concerning. Yes, this is correct.
I think MMO fans might have that "first time" moment again when VR tech gets advanced to the point we can see a full fledged MMO in a VR space and have it be practical for most people to buy and set up. Probably not for another decade or so, but it's possible.
This will always bum me out. I've always wanted to get in to an MMO but the combat in all of them was always too boring to me. Tera was the closest an MMO got to the type of combat I wanted, but it was lacking in too many other areas. I feel like now that we're out of the MMO heyday that MMO I've been waiting for will never happen.
My dream MMO is FFXIV with TERA combat. My kingdom for anyone who can make that happen.
I understand that TERA's combat would mean that ffxiv's fight design would need to be greatly simplified, though. A lot of the hard raid fights in ffxiv would be way too mechanically complex if its combat system needed as much attention as TERA's.
While I'm an MMO junkie that can't latches himself onto whatever the latest fix usually is. City of Heroes/Villains will always hold a special place in my heart and brain chemistry. There are days where I still wake up sad that I can't play it anymore. It was more than just one of the greatest super hero games of all time. It had one of the best character creation tools layered on a fantastic class customization system. This allowed you to really invest and build who you wanted to be which in turn really made you feel more attached to your character. This also allowed a level of roleplay and socialization that I had never seen before in any game MMO or not. There was a reason why the starter areas were constantly filled with costume contests.
Along with that, the lore was incredibly rich and each enemy faction felt like more than just random fodder to wade through. There was a narrative behind everything happening in the world and that narrative changed based on player feedback. The devs constantly communicated with the players on the forums and in the game sort of. The dev team all had in-game characters that represented them on the forums. You would report to them for these long story driven missions and it made you feel more connected to the world and the dev team.
Along with that, the lore was incredibly rich and each enemy faction felt like more than just random fodder to wade through. There was a narrative behind everything happening in the world and that narrative changed based on player feedback. The devs constantly communicated with the players on the forums and in the game sort of. The dev team all had in-game characters that represented them on the forums. You would report to them for these long story driven missions and it made you feel more connected to the world and the dev team.
I'll assume WoW got mentioned, and I feel like Warframe doesn't really fit, so I'll go with some lesser-known picks:
First off, Shadowbane. I really liked it, though I only jumped onboard in the tale end, when the game went free-to-play. It had really cool lore, incredibly awesome factions and races, and was just an all-around cool idea. You had humans, elves, minotaurs, and even flying bird people! Just amazing stuff.
Another one that comes to mind is Istaria. Istaria is a really cookie-cutter, Ultima Online-style MMO that's terribly grindy and Java based, so performance is terrible. But you can be a host of fantasy races, including full-blown dragons, that get flight and later shapeshifting. It's just an incredible pitch that I can't help but give them props for.
The Old Republic I've always had a weakness for. It's a make-your-own Star Wars game, basically, and it serves that purpose well. It's not good, but it is fun. As a vehicle for Star Wars fandom it is great.
The best MMO I've ever played, though, is Final Fantasy XIV. It has legitimately good MMO-style gameplay, an epic storyline, a myriad of cool, playable races, and a lot of stylish equipment options. It's basically everything I could ever want from an MMO rolled into one.
First off, Shadowbane. I really liked it, though I only jumped onboard in the tale end, when the game went free-to-play. It had really cool lore, incredibly awesome factions and races, and was just an all-around cool idea. You had humans, elves, minotaurs, and even flying bird people! Just amazing stuff.
Another one that comes to mind is Istaria. Istaria is a really cookie-cutter, Ultima Online-style MMO that's terribly grindy and Java based, so performance is terrible. But you can be a host of fantasy races, including full-blown dragons, that get flight and later shapeshifting. It's just an incredible pitch that I can't help but give them props for.
The Old Republic I've always had a weakness for. It's a make-your-own Star Wars game, basically, and it serves that purpose well. It's not good, but it is fun. As a vehicle for Star Wars fandom it is great.
The best MMO I've ever played, though, is Final Fantasy XIV. It has legitimately good MMO-style gameplay, an epic storyline, a myriad of cool, playable races, and a lot of stylish equipment options. It's basically everything I could ever want from an MMO rolled into one.
I always wished that I tried DAoC, but it shut down long after I got into MMOs/heard about it.
MMOs are such a harsh business.
I got into Warhammer (the setting) too late to really get into it.
MMOs are such a harsh business.
What was wrong with Warhammer Online?
I got into Warhammer (the setting) too late to really get into it.
It had performance, balancing and reliability issues with RvR that weren't resolved until way too far into the game's existence. It was one of the game's main endgame appeals. It was essentially impossible to progress RvR beyond certain points even well past a year into the game's existence. I kinda dropped off after that but as I understand it Mythic took ages to properly address it and by then it was too late and the game just bled players until eventually dying.
It's possible someone else here is a better historian than I though. It's still my favorite MMO and that Warhammer setting is still my favorite of all time. I miss my White Lion.
WoW is #1 with a bullet
GW1 (if that counts? kinda more of a PSO-ish game), and WildStar. WildStar was a game that had really big issues in the end game with the focus on attunements, but so much about the game was exceptional. The music, the presentation was like being in a Pixar movie, the gameplay was fun and the boss fights and dungeons were exceptional, the most fun i've ever had in dungeons. It's a game that was killed by focusing too much on the hardcore audience and then not being able to pivot before they'd lost everyone but the small, dedicated hardcore people they'd marketed to. I think it was easily one of the best MMOs i'd ever played and could have been something huge if they'd pivoted faster.
I feel like it also had the misfortune of hitting during when WoW was at its peak and it was nearly impossible to compete with. Weirdly, I think it'd do better today than it did back then. I think with WoW's slow falloff, there's room for more MMOs to exist again.
GW1 (if that counts? kinda more of a PSO-ish game), and WildStar. WildStar was a game that had really big issues in the end game with the focus on attunements, but so much about the game was exceptional. The music, the presentation was like being in a Pixar movie, the gameplay was fun and the boss fights and dungeons were exceptional, the most fun i've ever had in dungeons. It's a game that was killed by focusing too much on the hardcore audience and then not being able to pivot before they'd lost everyone but the small, dedicated hardcore people they'd marketed to. I think it was easily one of the best MMOs i'd ever played and could have been something huge if they'd pivoted faster.
I feel like it also had the misfortune of hitting during when WoW was at its peak and it was nearly impossible to compete with. Weirdly, I think it'd do better today than it did back then. I think with WoW's slow falloff, there's room for more MMOs to exist again.
Thanks for the info. That's a bummer.
I would have loved to be an ork and waaagh. :(
Lord of the Rings Online / LOTRO is/was truly an underrated, GOAT-tier MMORPG.
In my view it's the only one - ever - to actually pull off the "it's actually about the journey and not the destination" feel that every MMO promises to deliver.
Tooling around that world at my own pace, actually reading all the quest text, completing deeds, playing music - it's really special.
In my view it's the only one - ever - to actually pull off the "it's actually about the journey and not the destination" feel that every MMO promises to deliver.
Tooling around that world at my own pace, actually reading all the quest text, completing deeds, playing music - it's really special.
I started playing MMOs since I got in the private alpha/beta for Ultima Online, and I've been a huge MMO fan ever since. My votes would be:
Ultima Online -- being the first and wide open sandbox style
Everquest 1 -- PVE raids
DAOC -- RvR pvp
City of Heroes -- awesome create your own comix powers
SWTOR -- best story questing and dialog/voice acting
WoW -- obvious
Ultima Online -- being the first and wide open sandbox style
Everquest 1 -- PVE raids
DAOC -- RvR pvp
City of Heroes -- awesome create your own comix powers
SWTOR -- best story questing and dialog/voice acting
WoW -- obvious
Burning Crusade (and Classic to a slightly lesser extent) era World of Warcraft is the gold standard of the industry that hasn't been matched.
Thanks for all the great work. What y'all achieved was remarkable.
I haven't enjoyed a modern MMO more than I have FF14. Really wishing for sandbox MMO to come into the limelight after so long, though.
Dark and Shattered Lands defined my Jr High self. It was a MUD, but man, nothing beat sitting in the school library, looking like i was just writing super fast in notepad, but was actually playing a fantasy RPG with hundreds of others.
Well of Souls was also formative.
I don't know what I would've done as a teen these days. Soooo many options comparatively.
Well of Souls was also formative.
I don't know what I would've done as a teen these days. Soooo many options comparatively.
WoW if you like a good ol theme park MMO, still good to this day imho. I'm almost 15 years invested so i am biased as hell but i cant stress enough how accessible it is compared to others in the genre. Sadly its what killed it for most.
On a personal level there is no MMO that has ever really captured the feel of Ultima Online in its prime. It's the kind of game that built stories for people through community interaction, it had a lot of features that many wouldn't like, such as corpse looting but those were the kinds of things that added to the experience in ways that no (especially modern) MMO has ever been able to recapture. I think the closest that I've seen from stories I've read would most likely be Eve.
To this day I still find it hilarious that you were more likely to get shanked over a cheap pair of black dyed sandals then you would have for any weapon you get your hands on.
To this day I still find it hilarious that you were more likely to get shanked over a cheap pair of black dyed sandals then you would have for any weapon you get your hands on.