I’m back for my annual month on FFXIV, but I honestly admit I’m growing a bit tired of the gameplay loop, the “omg you’re the main hero !!” story and the sometimes very weird community. I love the world setting though, so I usually stick around anyway.
I would love to give GW2 more chances, but I’m not totally vibing with the combat system; plus, I wish art direction went a little differently, the game is not exactly holding up well these days (but I admit that square-enix is quite a high standard in that regard: even FFXI still looks artistically coherent, two decades and a half later).
Guild Wars 2 mostly for me.
I played WoW a lot until the expansion after WotLK.
GW2 is my jam. I love the painterly art style, Charr are the best beast-race out there, I like the combat system (WoW drove me crazy! Hated not being able to dodge). So… don’t listen to me.
Been playing GW2 since beta, but haven’t been that active since I had my a baby. I’ve played thousands of hours, have over 40k AP, was even mildly famous in the community for a bit, but I just haven’t had the time for any games lately. It’s still my favorite though, I love the art, the music, the player centric design and how they really try to make a fun experience and not waste your time. I tried Star Trek Online because I heard they had screen writers from the shows writing some of the content, and had enough fun to max a couple of characters and upgrade a ship or two and then they raised the level cap on me and made it all obsolete. I quit. I have no patience to put up with that kind of crap. I’ve been spoiled by GW2’s design philosophy, and they’ve proved worthy of my trust and time. I recommend it to anyone looking for an MMO.
Wow, that’s quality armor!
By Droknar’s hammer, what a savings!
GW2 is the first MMO i out over 2k hours into. It’s a shame that the last few years have felt pretty meh. I haven’t been playing seriously since PoF, life got busy, and the narrative just wasn’t hitting with me. Also the desert maps weren’t that great imo. I guess i have more problems than I expected with it.
Tombstone is out! Skilling MMO (So think runescape) with a retro-future wild west type theme and pixel gfx that can be played from steam, its own client (available on itch), a browser, or android. Runs on anything, obscenely fast update pace, developers on discord respond to issues dummy fast. I’m currently playing tombstone.
Ive been playing Final Fantasy 14, but I keep getting distracted by other games that are not MMORPGs recently. I kinda rotate around different genres and games and stuff. I’ll try to stay on topic tho.
Guild Wars 2 was good. Idk if it still is because I haven’t played it in a very long time. I do have fond memories of Guild Wars 2 though.
The only other one I got my eye on right now is “WoW Ascension: Conquest of Azeroth”. They recently put out a new server with new classes and stuff in alpha I think. They have youtube videos of the new classes and it looks pretty cool. I’m watching that one for if/when it does an official release. Cause I’ve grown up on WoW and used to play it a lot. Wow Ascension does have other servers too but I’ve already played those.
I literally just got an email from ascension. Its hard to say if its just regular marketing stuff but it seems to imply the new server is out and ready to be played on. I plan to check it out as well.
There’s different ones depending on what kind of experience you want to play.
- The default ascension server is “Classless”. Abilities are randomized from the base game content. And maybe some new abilities have been added too. I’ve already played this one and it’s kinda fun. Highly recommend. ;-)
- There’s one called “Project Ascension Classic+” which was just announced a few days ago. It’s a fresh start with the original classes and abilities and some extra ascension content. I don’t know if this one is available yet.
- And then there’s “Project Ascension Conquest of Azeroth”. This is the one im most excited for right now. It is technically available free on beta for a limited time i believe. But if you wish to play further you’d have to donate $35 to gain alpha access.
Right now, I can’t buy into the alpha due to budget concerns. And I’ve been quite busy during the holidays. But somewhere down the line in the future I’ll definitely try playing it.
All of the servers are free to play. And any alpha access I believe is just a one time donation to gain access.
I used to play Lord of the Rings Online every year in December because they have some neat events. Haven’t done it for a while (lost my install with a hard drive and never reinstalled).
None.
Because I hate people.
Good point. Most people suck.
I do miss the goofballs from my old WoW server though. They were pretty great.
I tried GW2, but I’m just not a fan of the graphics. There are also numerous clipping issues throughout the world. With a game as old as GW2, it worries me that simple vertex issues still exist. I need to see what end-game looks like, though. Maybe it’s worth it, idk.
Every year I return to play GW2 for 2-3 month it’s always a blast. It would have been better if I had enough tine to play it constantly but. I love how fluid the combat is, I love how different classes are, I love the worldbuilding.
Project: Gorgon is my forever home MMO, I’m not super active currently but am online for events and such. I’ve found it to be the only title on the market that feels like a world you join instead of a game you log in.
Wakfu. MMO in a kinda cutesy animation style. Combat is turn based, very final fantasy tactics (which I enjoy), and actually quite complex. You can spend ages min maxing your build.
There’s an actual lore and storyline (and crazy enough an entire TV show). Harvesting and crafting professions that are fun and useful. A kind of player housing. Mounts. All shop items are cosmetic or resets only.
It’s a great game that’s been around for a long time and isn’t going anywhere.
Jump on the Ogrest server, which is the most active international server today.
Old school runescape. I just get addicted to the grind until I need a couple month break.
Obligatiry but: Have you heard of the critically acclaimed MMORPG Final Fantasy XIV which has an expanded free trial that you can play through the entirety of A Realm Reborn and the award-winning HEAVENSWARD and STORMBLOOD expansions up to level 70 for free with no restrictions on playtime? Now available on XBOX series X & S! Sign up and enjoy Eorzea today!
XIV player here. Started a few years ago but recently picked it back up again. It has certainly taken over my life again
Do you still play?
I only started the free trial recently, 100 or so hours in. I’m somewhere before the ultima weapon fight. It’s currently on pause because other games took over my life.
Ah man that’s exactly where I’m at now (just finished Ultima weapon)
Send me a DM if you pick it up again
Edit: I don’t know if free trial players can have parties or friend lists 🤔
free trial players can be friend-requested and party-invited from non-trial players :)
Really? That’s cool! I’m guessing based on your OP that you’re at endgame level 100 right?
Trying to hold onto my desire to play FFXIV since I have a personal large house and years invested
But honestly the recent expansion having the worst story we’ve seen in a final fantasy ANYTHING alongside multiple staff members pretending Wuk Lamat’s voice acting was acceptable (and the large portion of the player base that will call you a transphobe for that opinion) has me seriously considering if this is the end of the line for me
Tried picking up GW2 but tank controls disgust me
I haven’t played Dawntrail yet, but I have to admit that I felt something was troubling the game even in earlier expansions: as I finished both ShB and EW I couldn’t help but be left with a state of “oh, tome grinding… again… in the same exact way as all the other expansions”. No one seemed to care, however, so I thought it was my problem. And it’s a big shame, because I expected differently from Dawntrail: from what I heard, it feels more like the character going on a vacation than anything, with really just the same gameplay loop.
Another thing I was expecting from Dawntrail, apart from big gameplay changes, is to redefine the story more significantly: FFXIV up to Endwalker was a great story, but sometimes I couldn’t help it but feel like I didn’t want to be so central to everything: it’s great when MMOs make you feel like “a hero from the sidelines” because there’s less immersion breaking (and FFXI did this succesfully, if I recall). I think writers really dug themselves in too deep of a hole:
spoiler
how the hell do you write a threat that feels significant after you’ve talked about universes, ancestral gods from previous eras trying to destroy everything, etcetera? I understand that resetting everything to the point of no one having any recollection of the Hero of Light would have required a lot of writing, but maybe it would’ve been better - having EW’s ending trigger a sort of memory-wipe similar to that of FFXIV 1.0’s story.
From what I hear - reason I haven’t played it yet - is that Dawntrail is fram from such expectations. I agree that once you try FFXIV’s legacy controls you can’t go back. Same thing goes for gamepad optimization.
You just need a way to rationalize it. For me, I focused on the fact that the praise the Warrior of Light usually receives is in the vein of never giving up, not that they are just plain powerful. As such, I don’t view my character as any more powerful than any of the Scions, or Raubahn. I think the narrative of Shadowbringers and Endwalker support that idea. That fight with Zeno’s at the end was just pure willpower at the end, neither had any strength left and they still fought till they couldn’t move.
What about gw2 “tank” controls disgust you?
There arguably isn’t even the concept of a tank in gw2.
Tank controls for movement: forward/back with only “turn” right instead of “strafe”
Resident Evil controls
You can rebind a/d to strafe left/right instead. Most players do.
You can easily change that in the settings. Agreed that it’s not a good default though
Tried that, didn’t work, uninstalled 10m later
lol, it’s worked for me for years.
Brighter Shores! It’s a new game by Andrew Gower on his new game engine (just came out last month).
It’s a point and click game similar to RuneScape that’s mostly a second screen game. It’s in early access and a lot will probably change in the coming months based on feedback (they’ve already confirmed they’re rethinking some of their combat design and adding action queuing).
Unlike RuneScape it’s been designed out of the gate to provide people with a way to engage without sinking a ton of time. You can do fully offline training in this game, so you can be gaining XP while you sleep.
The game runs like a dream, has a very well done sound track, tastefully simplistic graphics, and just generally is a cozy/feel good MMO with light humor and puns.
No micro transactions, generous amount of free to play content, and a $6/mo subscription for all content.
Huh I heard about his new game but didn’t realize it was already in some sort of early access. Cool!
If you’re interested, now is a good time to start playing. There are some limited edition hats being dropped for the holiday!
