DasReviews writes: "On Wednesday, March 9 between 09:00 and 11:00 GMT, the servers will be brought down for the implementation of patch 1.11.0.
This patch brings the following:
New Free Trial System..."
There is a huge number of MMO games on the market these days, with almost a new MMO enters the competition every week. Some of them are great and original while others are horrible and boring. MMO-Play has looked at all the MMO's out there and decided to list the top 5 original ones that every gamer should at least try.
MMOHut, "There are some game designers out there, usually the exception to the rule, that hold fast to the belief that gamers enjoy themselves most when they are given as much creative control over their character and the game world as possible. Will Wright, the man behind the now legendary “Sim” game franchise, comes to mind immediately, as do a few others like Peter Molyneux, and various, assorted small game studios that are mostly defunct and long gone..."
Gamereactor writes: "I think we should never forget the games that are already available! Many of them offer unique experiences, having tons of content after being developed for many years and are all too easily forgotten when we dream of new worlds to explore. So if you're playing a MMO and start to feel restless, and feel that Final Fantasy XIV isn't your thing, here are five MMOs you might have missed but should certainly give a try!"
***Vangaurd: Saga of Heroes***
IMHO, you should not go near Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. The game is not going to progress anywhere as close to any other MMO out there. They have already said that they don't plan any designs into alternative advancement, let alone general advancement, and will focus solely on adding more end-game content.
The game is also devoid of players except for high end players who may occasionally reroll.
Those two reasons alone will result in a player playing through some of the longest levels completely alone, without craft support, without group support for completely the mass majority of the quests you need to do, and once you reach the end game you will hit a glass ceiling that they have no plans on ever raising.
***Saga of Ryzom***
This game was horridly boring during the beta and release. I helped manage the site back in the day on the IGN Vault Network and had tons of time to play it. Just a boring and lackluster game as a whole. I think the only interesting thing I can say about the game is that the lead designer guys were some horny arse guys who at E3 had Ryzom Booth Babes always draped under their arms.
***Final Fantasy XI***
If you have a lot of time, love repetition, and don't mind grouping with a lot of people outside of the U.S., go for it. It wasn't bad to start with, but once the leveling got really slow, it's gets extremely boring and repetitive.
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Try some MMOs that don't suck.
EQ2 for those who like good solo play mixed with group/raid content at most levels. Some of the most fun classes to play as well.
DDO for those who want a more group-focused gameplay element with good level of skill involved. Just be prepared to be forced into certain cookie cutter scenarios if you want to fill certain group roles (hit points > armor class in the end game).
LotRO still has some of the best storytelling methods out there with some great group combat content.
Champions Online is done extremely well for the genre in which it is placed. Very easy to level up, tons of quests/content, great options for testing your new skills and respeccing them before making any final decisions. Does falter on the overall storyline elements, they're just not that great at making you care so much. Biggest thing you should know is to move around to the various areas at each level rather than trying to stick with one, you'll just end up without quests to do and killing the same mobs over and over. Best xp is always from quests, never from mob killing.
The idea behind the article is to mention MMOs that a person might have missed - thus the smaller games. Don't worry, there will be more MMO-centric articles coming, which means all of those games will be mentioned at one time or another. That's also why EVE wasn't on here, these are games that I at least feel often are overlooked by a lot of people. Not you, obviously. ;)
When it comes to Vanguard though, it seems like the server mergers did some real good for the game. I went back to Telon for a brief stint a few weeks ago, and was shocked at those weird moving NPCs that turned out to be actual players. :P Exactly how it will fare as a one-shard game remains to be seen, but I still think people should try it out.
I don't agree with supporting any game where the developers have specifically said they have absolutely no plans of advancing it beyond its current cap.
I haven't played Ryzom since the alpha/beta of it. It was very hard for me to play as a mess of mechanics and skill system. At that time I had to play it, though, for support of the Vault portal for the game.
I know they've made some changes, so I might check this out at some point. Been dipping my toes back into LotrO and EQ2 recently. Lifetime subs really are a boon to those of us who play a ton of MMOs over a long period of time.