Looking for a new MMO to go to.

[Vindekarr]

I played EVE online for what ended up at just a hair under 3 years, however, today I sent a final complaint to the game's worthless "moderators" and quit the game outright. The simple reason being the degree of bullying and personal harrassment I'd recieved from a guild in the weeks up to now, and the utterly inept moderators refusal to act, even when his actions breached multiple parts of the TOS.

 

Right now I feel pretty bitter about MMOs in general-before EVE I quit WoW because my account got hacked 3 times in a months, despite the most comprehensive possible security, before that, I quit Champions Online because the developers literaly abandoned it, leaving the game with literaly no moderators, no patches, and no rules of any sort, for several months, during which it became hell on earth for anyone unlucky enough to play it. Before that, I tried AOC, a game entirely based around the concept of level capped players camping in the tutorial areas for new signers.

 

Despite my extreme degree of embitterment, I'm looking for a new MMO, and it's going to have impress the hell out of me to get my subscription, having only played EVE for the last year, I'm not up on the state of play in MMOs, and I'm looking for some tips before I even bother with trialing a game. What I'm after is a prefferably scifi MMO, with a degree of soloability, a strong community, high reliability, and strong moderator presense. PVP must be limited, and I'm NOT looking for anything either WoW like or made in SK, since I've learned both genres give me a headache.

 

My first two prospects were STO and TOR, neither I've played. I'm a little fuzzy ont he details of STO, but it's the game that basicaly killed Champions Online-Cryptic idioticaly taking the entire devteam off of CO so that they could rush STO out before it was due, leaving me a degree of prior bias against it. Adding to that is my dislike of the Federation in Star Trek, who strike me as arrogant and stupid, and with utterly hideous ships. This leaves TOR, a game I also feel a degree of prior bias, being a Bioware game. The last few Bioware games I played, despite being new releases(in 2010), actualy used an engine that looked and felt even more outdated and overused than the ghastly Q-3 enigne, the utterly horrible Aurora 2. I've heard that TOR is alternately either brilliant as an RPG, or a lump of mouldy sod, depending on who I ask, and it's my main hope, if it is atleast mediocre, it will likely be what I go with. I played KOTOR many many years ago, it was the first RPG I ever loved, and even despite my loathing of Star Wars, I'm willing to forgive and give TOR a really good go, since it's not set in the ghastly new trilogy.

 

Good community/strong moderation basicaly means not-EVE. In EVE I left because I was being verbaly abused by the same guy every few minutes of every day I played the game, regardless of what I did, said, or how many reports I filed. Any MMO I go to needs to have atleast some moderation against griefing and bullying, because if this happens again, I'm not going to be very happy.

 

Am I looking for a game that doesn't exist? probably, and I doubt this will even get many views, let alone responses, but even an idea of the state of play in MMOs would be helpful.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Vindekarr

[Yoshh]

I quit Champions Online because the developers literaly abandoned it, leaving the game with literaly no moderators, no patches, and no rules of any sort, for several months, during which it became hell on earth for anyone unlucky enough to play it.

 

That happens a lot more often than you'd think. *cough* Mabinogi Europe *cough*

 

As for Sci-Fi MMOs. You could try out Anarchy Online or Face Of Mankind. It's important to mention that both are F2P with the possibility of Premium accounts.

Edited March 4, 2012 by Yoshh

[Halororor]

I'm thinking of trying out Fallen Earth. I've been waiting for it to go F2P, and I see it recently did. It seems to be post-apocalyptic, but that's about as far as my knowledge of it stretches. Might be worth checking out.

[Handofbane]

There really aren't many sci-fi MMOs around, beyond the few mentioned previously in this thread. STO and Fallen Earth both have gone F2P, which does at least offer the possibility of testing them before committing without losing anything more than time.

 

TOR is another story, there is a reason it has been referred to on many forums as the TORtanic - while many MMOs are losing players, that game has been hitting its post-release crash hard, and people have been waiting to see just how bad it has gotten once numbers for the last quarter are released. Complaints have grown to an alarming degree about empty servers, too little to do once you hit level cap, no reason to even try to group beyond Flashpoints, minor dungeons/raids, not to mention having to wait for ages in some cases to be able to find a group to do those, and the many many bugs still unacknowledged by the developers (you think Skyrim had a long list? Hah!). You also run the risk of being suspended at nearly any time for a host of reasons you will NEVER see in any other MMO (folks have been given warnings/suspended for swearing in private tells to RL friends with no other witnesses, because the client tracks what is said and reports itself - one was banned for using a meme "I'm 12 and what is this" was taken without even talking to the player as them being under 13, in violation of the ToS, among many other examples of automated moderation rather than actually having GMs doing anything ingame). If you go into it expecting KOTOR3, you will be disappointed. If you go into it expecting SWG2, you will likewise be upset. If, however, you go into it expecting a mostly single-player game set in the Star Wars universe that you can get a few months play out of, before either repeating all the content with a new character, or moving on to a new game, you should be ok.

 

Alternatively, you can just do like I am, and wait on Mechwarrior Online to go live (hopefully later this year). It will be a bit more PvP-centered, though you can easily get by playing alone and joining as freelance to any battles.

 

As far as getting an idea of the state of MMOs in general, they are on the decline all around. Many people are hitting a burnout point, or just not able to maintain their accounts due to time/financial constraints. Even Blizzard has had some layoffs recently, and allegedly lost a million or so North American accounts over the past year (I was one of them). Whether that is just the natural ebb and flow of players, who may return when the next expansion is released, or a sign of another upcoming video game crash remains to be seen, but even with all the F2P games out there, there seems to be a retention issue all around. Of course that could theoretically also be because so many games have been basically WoW clones set in another world, and some folks are just tired of the same old thing wearing a different name/graphics.

[Bittermans]

wait for Mechwarrior Online and Guild Wars 2

[Deleted472477User]

I feel you. My partner and I were on a quest for an MMO that was free to play, because we're short on cash. (We normally love WoW, and I'm sorry you had such a rotten experience :( with it). In less than a week, we tried:

 

Lord of the Rings online--couldn't get into it because we aren't into the setting enough

Forsaken World--Neither of us liked the movement controls and we couldn't change it

Maesta--terrible dialog, silly mob placement, and my powerful female warrior sounded like an anime female on helium when she hit or took a hit.

Age of Conan--She couldn't get it to download right, and i got bored. I didn't know about the noob camping.

Dungeons and Dragons online--Terrible interface, the DM voiceovers were interrupting our immersion.

 

 

I second what others have said about Anarchy Online and Fallen Earth. I've heard good things about them.

[Vagrant0]

I'll save you my "told you so" stuff about EvE.

 

STO is one of the better MMOs I've come across recently. It has little grinding up to max level, good variety, decent pvp, story arcs that are not mandatory past a point but add more flavor to the world, good economy, and a cash shop that is accessible with earned currencies that doesn't have anything overpowered. Aside from your usual assortment of idiots, the community actually seems to be good and helpful too. Sure, they may have pulled development away from CO, but the results are worth it for making a good F2P MMO that is fairly true to the cannon of the parent franchise (unlike "Everybody and their dog is a Jedi" and whatever monstrosity WoW has become).

 

As for other MMOs on Steam...

 

Pandora Saga - Bores the hell out of me. Fighting and movement mechanics are archaic. Spells and other stuff get blocked by terrain or other mobs, which while it might be a good idea, renders their main magic user race to be essentially useless. Limited character customization, abilities, variety also count heavily against it. Would have been a decent MMO back in 2002, is just sad by modern standards.

 

Stronghold Kingdom - Havn't tried this one, but it might be more your style.

[Vindekarr]

I'll save you my "told you so" stuff about EvE.

 

lol yes yes, I know.

 

Does STO get better once you're into it? and secondly what's the reliability like? I'm on the F2P version and the server keeps going-I registered via Cryptic but the only way I can log in is via perfect world, and what's more, I didn't get to do anything starship-related in my hour. All I did was run around pushing buttons while the crummiest Borg I've ever seen staggered around looking as dazed and confused as I felt.

 

All I wanted was to be a Ferengi, an abnoxious little Ferengi marketeer, and it denied me even that, STO ferengi are all pretty, and if you've ever seen one of the original Ferengi, you'll know that ain't right. They're meant to look like something you'd find lurking under a bridge waiting for billygoats.

 

I want to love STO because I love the universe and I've loved Cryptic games before, but I'm finding it hard.

Edited March 5, 2012 by Vindekarr

[Vindekarr]

Ok, so, I watched a trailer for TOR today, it was a cinematic trailer which doesn't surprise me, but it still gave the impression that it was a huge budget game and one that atleast LOOKED like it really should.

 

I also got back into STO this afternoon-I was pleasently surprised by the combat system, which felt, dare I say it, better than EVE's. In EVE a battle is over even before it begins, all the involved skill is in the hours, days, and even months of planning beforehand, your combat loadout, ammo types, ship and fleet composition, a totaly tactical battle, and exceptional as the world's only true "RRRTS"(really, really real time) but kinda dull once the lead starts flying since it's a matter of thumping two to thirty buttons, then watching icons flash and move. STO's reminded me more of Star Trek Legacy, but somewhat improved from that game-it sure looks like Legacy, and there's some of the same feel, which is good because I really liked some elements of STL.

 

Actualy ship combat really ain't bad, I may be disapointed not to be able to play as a six foot Ferengi with a unibrow, but atleast the combat is good. :thumbsup:

[frakle]

I'm thinking of trying out Fallen Earth. I've been waiting for it to go F2P, and I see it recently did. It seems to be post-apocalyptic, but that's about as far as my knowledge of it stretches. Might be worth checking out.

 

That game isn't bad actually, I play it. It's got a learning curve (a big one) and it's VERY solo-based, but it's a good game. I'd at least give it a try.