MMORPG For Dummies

[Greyroofoo]

I'd say Guild Wars, no monthly fee and you level up FAST

[larrymcg421]

I'm interested in getting into an MMORPG. I have very little experience, except for a text based one called Gemstone a few years back. I'm looking for the following:

1) Reasonable Cost
2) Minimal amounts of "Dood, you suck noob, I just sliced ur head off, hahaha, w00t w00t"
3) Something that doesn't take forever to get into. What I mean is, I don't want to spend months on earlier levels that are really boring before I really get into the exciting stuff.
4) Something that isn't monotonous. There ideally should be several different ways of completing tasks and getting XP.
5) I have a 128MB Radeon. Will this be enough?

What do you guys think would be the best under this criteria?

[Yellow5]

I second Guild Wars.

1) Cost is purchase of the game, no monthly fee.
2) There is w00tage but not a ton of it.
3) You can glide through the levels quickly in the early stage of the game.
4) Quests are linear and follow a story. Some find that boring, I don't.
5) I run with a 128 meg Radeon 9800 Pro and have zero issues.

[condors]

go back to gemstone i went back to it not long ago

I honestly get more enjoyment from gemstone than any other mmrpg i have played

[illinifan999]

You might want to try ROSE www.roseon.com

1) It's totally free, no montly fee, no cost to you other than waiting for the download to finish.

2) Not really that much maybe I don't notice it because I don't stare at the chat box. But usually I just see people saying don't kill steal.

3) You start on a birth island, and after you've leveled up which you can do in about 10 minutes, you can move on. Afterwards you can go wherever you want with your character, but if you'll live against the monsters is the big question.

4) It's kind of linear kill monsters to gain XP, do quests, but I'm having fun.

5) More than enough.

3 revisited) What I meant is that after you get off the birth island, you can go to any place on the planet. It'll take you awhile to run all the way to the last level, and you'll notice you can't even really fight any of the monsters that far until you have much better stats.

[Blackadar]

Originally Posted by larrymcg421

I'm interested in getting into an MMORPG. I have very little experience, except for a text based one called Gemstone a few years back. I'm looking for the following:

1) Reasonable Cost
2) Minimal amounts of "Dood, you suck noob, I just sliced ur head off, hahaha, w00t w00t"
3) Something that doesn't take forever to get into. What I mean is, I don't want to spend months on earlier levels that are really boring before I really get into the exciting stuff.
4) Something that isn't monotonous. There ideally should be several different ways of completing tasks and getting XP.
5) I have a 128MB Radeon. Will this be enough?

What do you guys think would be the best under this criteria?

I think you're looking at one of three programs.

1. Guild Wars - one time cost, easy to get into. From what I understand, it can be hard to solo and there's quite a bit of PvP (dood, u suxxor noob!). I've heard mostly good things about it, but I've also heard that this is more of a "change of pace" game. By this I mean I've often heard that people will play it as a sideline game, but it won't be their primary MMORPG. Of the 3 games I've listed, this is the only one I haven't played.

2. World of Warcraft - $15 ongoing cost, easy to get into. Probably the most newbie-friendly MMORPG out there. Many of the "dood, u suxxor noob" kiddies have moved on to Guild Wars - though you're more likely to encounter them at lower levels. Choose a PvE server so you can pick and choose when to PvP. The atmosphere in WoW is great and the missions pretty varied. There are endgame problems, but even powerleveling it will take you 2-3 months to get a level 60 character, so many of those problems may be solved by then. I can say that I've probably played WoW more consistently than any other game since Civilization. It's that addictive.

3. City of Heroes - $15 ongoing cost, pretty easy to get into. The superhero game is entirely focused on combat, grouping and hero powers. It has a wonderful play base - most players on the game are very helpful. There's no PvP combat. My issue with the game is that the combat is very repetitive and the zones aren't that interesting. There's no crafting. I liked CoH, but the lack of atmosphere (mobs, areas) really bored me after a short while.

Again, I haven't played GW. But I quit WoW after 6 months and tried CoH and have gone back to WoW. Ultimately, the WoW endgame has major issues, but with many of the griefers and gankers moving on to other MMORPGs, WoW's community is better than it was. It has great atmosphere and backstory.

[Danny]

If you do go with a WoW, I recommend joining an RP server. People are far nicer and you will see very few OMGROXXOR. In fact, I can't remember the last time I saw something like that on Earthen Ring. If you want a sense of community, I suggest joining the horde. They are fewer in numbers and work together better because of that. Thats assuming you join a RP or PvE server. PVP really doesn't matter.

You shouldn't go out of character in say/yell, but if you don't like RPing, you don't have to.

[Thomkal]

I would agree with Blackadar with World of Warcraft. I think its the most newbie-friendly game out there, has a storyline, diverse zones to play in, and good graphics if you like the more cartoony artwork. But it has had really bad server problems of late, and the download system for patches is abysmal.

If you read/still read comic books and love watching Superfriends on TV still then I would go with City of Heroes over WOW. Yes the missions and zones can be monotonous and it will take forever to get to Level 50, but the sheer joy and fun of being a superhero after all your childhood dreams can't be beat. And you'll get the chance to play a supervillain too by the end of the year in City of Villains! COH has its share of server problems as well, and since Day 1 I've had problems with my connection with the game that I haven't been able to figure out. Most people don't have such problems however.

I have mixed feelings about Guild Wars being appropriate for a newbie MMORPG'er. It's certainly easy to gain levels, and has nice graphics, and if you do the missions a nice developing storyline. But you are limited in what skills you can use, more so by far than any other MMORPG I'm aware of.

And its the most newbie unfriendly and unintuiitive MMORPG out there in my mind. You get very little in game info as to what you should be doing and how to go about it. And while its nice that when you leave a city for a zone, you get the zone all to yourself and your teammates, its gets old very fast that when you leave the zone and come back the monsters have reset so you have to fight them all again if you need to get to a certain place in the zone again, even if the monsters are several levels lower than you now.

Unlike what Blackadar said though, GW is the most solo friendly game out there thanks to the very nifty henchman system where you can hire computer controlled characters to join you when things are too tough to go it alone.

I would stay away from Everquest (I or II) for now. I think its the more "advanced" of the games out there right now, plus its long history and whole unique dictionary of terms, items, and places will likely leaving you scratching your head at the start. Dark Age of Camelot, Asheron's Call 2 (fantasy) and Anarchy Online (sci-fi/cyberpunk) might also be of interest, but also have been out a long time and have built up the same kind of history as Everquest that might be overwhelming at first.

[damnMikeBrown]

Gemstone...haven't been there in AGES. I logged on, what, about 18 months ago, they had a free month or something.

Somebody actually remembered me as I walked through town square! The REALLY old guy, the warrior who hit lvl200+ through picking...I'll remember his name when I see it.

Really nice guy.

[condors]

maybe that was lord berr zerker?