Feb 4th, 2006, 06:10 PM
MMO Holy Wars
You can keep it in this thread instead of fagging up the other ones.
Having played COH/COV, Guild Wars, AO, UO, and others, I have OPINIONS which need IMMEDIATE SHARING.
Ultima Online was pretty gay and I have no idea why it's still running. People could steal from you at any time and murder you at any time and the guards did a shitty job of reprimanding them for it. There was really no way to avoid this except i think they eventually added a pvp-safe server. Which subsequently removed any point of playing the game at all. In the week I played, I mined a bunch of shit and never got to attack anything aside from wolves and straw dummies. Trash.
Anarchy Online was great in story in and concept and horrible in execution. In many ways it pioneered the random mission spawns seen in every other game and it let you tinker with the inner workings so that you could specify more money or xp, more mobs or more powerful mobs, physical or magic mobs, etc. It also let you have an apartment that you could decorate. The problem with AO is that the combat looked awful and PVP was dominated by snipers and anyone who had a clan that could buff them to the level where they could get the sexiest implants. And again, combat looked awful and uninspired. I played a nanomage and most of my attacks were just this straight purple line between me and the enemy. And that's all you can do in AO - fight things and run to places to fight things. Running to places is really slow, even if you have the million dollars required to buy a vehicle.
Guild Wars is a beautiful game (best looking of the ones out right now) and runs orgasmically. Seriously, best engine of any game I've ever played, MMO or otherwise. The game itself is intentionally simple but fun. The only 'epic' drops are not too far removed from the strongest normal weapons, and the epic armor has the exact same ratings as the strongest normal armor - Thereby satiating nerds' need to collect rare items and everyone else's desire to not die. The story is good, travelling is good, and gameplay is fun(Though the instant teleport to whereever does do a number on the game's depth, but it can't really be avoided due to most of the zones you teleport to being in a different time). Guild Wars' only and biggest downfall is its insipidly retarded player base. No monthly fees means that any kid can get it for a present and they will fuck up any team you might ever join. Lots of high-end missions require teamwork and the NPC henchmen (while a welcome addition to MMO gaming) are woefully inadequate in completing end-game content, forcing you to rely to ArrowX's birthday party to get the job done. I spent over 2 hours completing a mission that should have taken 20 minutes simply because we needed 6 competant people and at any given time could only collect 2. At one point we got so frustrated that we started giving simple intelligence tests to anyone that wanted to team with us - "What are the first 3 digits of Pi?" out of the 20 requests, 2 could answer. Even if you could find a guild of non-retards, the only end-game content available is an ability to fight the many guilds of retards. Okay. The game also needs an auction house so badly it makes my penis hurt.
I started City of Heroes about a year and a half ago, with my COH account inactive for about 6 months of that time. COX provides a few refreshing innovations in MMO gameplay - namely, that people actually move in combat. This is way more important than it sounds - the fights are actually interactive and when people start flying around as you pummel them you can begin to appreciate it. Your own movement is also important to gameplay, especially if you play a class without any passive defenses (Blaster/Dominator). Breaking from the MMO formula of two groups rushing at each other and swinging until one side falls over is a good thing. Also, the battles tend to be epic in proportion when you have a high level team, sometimes with as many as 60-80 characters on the screen (more if you have a few masterminds in tow). COV's addition of ragdoll is reason enough to buy the game and can lead to hilarious misadventures if you abuse the privledge. PVP content in COH was severely lacking when it was finally added, but COV's pvp zones set the state for some excellent PVP action. In-zone PVP missions are an extreme breath of fresh air into this franchise. The character editor is unmatched in any other MMO and the base editor has no equivalent. The game has its share of nitpicky problems, but the big ones are that it runs like shit on almost anything, your character sucks until level 20 (though it's unnoticable to new people until you get another character past that point), and there isn't anything to do aside from beat people up. The recent inclusion of Pocket D finally brings heroes and villains together to chat and trade (and possibly be able to perform cross-alignment missions), but there is no compelling reason to go there - It plays the same 1 song on loop and the only tangible reward is a badge for wasting 5 hours in the zone. As far as combat goes, this MMO is unmatched in my opinion. It's severely lacking in everything else and really needs its non-combat content to be tinkered with from someone who has a clue. The salvage/crafting system in COV is pointless and looks like it was tacked on just so they could claim to have crafting in the game.
I haven't played World of Warcraft, but I'd try it if given a free trial. The crafting system, auction house, and huge world are big plusses for me. Everything else seems to be typical MMO stuff that doesn't interest me in the least. Combat looks boring and the graphics look like shit. Character customization is more is less limited to what you wear, which is limited by how good the wearables are. The fact that everyone and their cat plays it is also a huge turn-off. I'll admit I want to hate this game for those reasons and more, but I'm also not above giving it a fair shot.
Oz is a "free" korean game in which you fish to get money to buy better fishing equipment, clothes, and housing. You can also CAST SPELLS at fish or at other players to jinx their fish-getting ability. The catch (lol am i right) is that it's impossible to catch fish until you get some good equipment. To get in-game money, you'll need to spend real money, and quite a fucking bit, too. No-one plays and the villages are really creepy at night - no-one's around. SILENT HILL. Their website is hilarious. Find it on google and read the testimonials.
Disney's toontown online deserves an award for being the only MMO that's worse than Oz. Your free account can't choose a name or even talk. Battles are final fantasy-style and consist entirely of you throwing objects you bought at the store at your enemies. HOORAY!
Second Life is an example of what happens when you let players build your game - It turns into a non-stop sex fiesta with detours through furryville. The game was obviously made with the most innocent of intentions and even tried to entice professional developers to add content through their in-game-money-to-real-money conversion program. As it stands, it's just a bunch of adolescents selling fursuits to strangers and getting lunch money in the process. The game plays awfully and has the worst lag of any MMO ever. The controls are ridiculous and the graphics are shitty, even for its time.
Auto Assault I am under NDA for and will defame when that's lifted.
Lineage II is a nice-looking game with no customization or reason to play. Combat looks nice but is typical and uninspired. On the pirate servers you get WAY more cash than on the official ones, and it still doesn't come quick enough. Another game that needs an auction house.
Ragnarok Online is a cutesy anime MMO that's the same as every other MMO. This would be "Lineage II 2D" if Lineage I didn't already fulfill that purpose. It's also hard to tell what you're doing at any given point in time. The developers can't seem to agree on whether or not to keep it free.
Dark Ages costs way too much for what it is - an old, typical 2D MMO with bad graphics even for 1998 or whenever the hell it came out. Basically Ragnarok with shitty graphics.
VITRIOL.
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