After that I tried Guild Wars, now maybe I didnt give it enough time, but the fact that I had to download every single map after installing it, just made me want to /slit. Seemed like a fun game, just never got into it.. Also I tried playing together with a friend, and getting in the same instance was always bothersome.
I think you should give it another try
You actually don't have to download each map, you were just downloading the updates to the maps. With the new campaigns and expansions those updates will be included on the disks, or you can get the "gw.dat" file from someone who has the game installed and downloaded fully and replace you "gw.dat" file with theirs.
To get into the same instance with a friend you simply need to belong to the same party. If you're alone, your own instance is created. If you're with 8 people, all 8 of you will be in the same instance, and vice versa. It is a little confusing at first but just remember to be in the same party and everything will be a whole lot clearer
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On that note, I think I'm addicted to MMOs. This is from another forum so may as well copy and paste this part of the post xD
My MMO playing started off quite weirdly actually. So here's my story...
I used to be addicted to chatrooms. I used to sit for hours on Yahoo! Messenger and MSN (MSN still yes...but with people I know now ). Eventually I got bored of play text so I decided to look for something new and interesting, which is when I came across Habbo Hotel which is browser-based 2D chatroom. Some people consider this an MMO (I personally do not), so you could say it started there.
Eventually Habbo Hotel became boring too, which is when I came across Project Entropia (now called Entropia Universe). The description and trailers were absolutely awesome - nothing I had ever seen or heard of seemed as cool as it. So I embarked on downloading it on an ISDN line. Hours later I had the game and played it religiously for about a year. In all the time I spent playing I never achieved anything really due to the business model and me not being willing to deposit cash into the game so I "sweated" animals left right and centre and made many awesome sweat-buddies in the process.
During this time, however, two of my buddies had decided to buy Guild Wars and told me about their plans. So I decided to check out exactly what it was one day when I was bored. It instantly sparked my interest. I found myself reading all the lore and learning exactly how to play the game before I even bought it. One Sunday after church I rushed out to buy the last copy I could find in the entire city () and since then I've been playing Guild Wars. That was around 20 months ago now. Since then I've bought all the campaigns, rebought Factions and Nightfall for the Collector's Editions and have yet to buy Eye of the North. Logged over 1 200 hours in it lol.
I've taken breaks during the time and have experience with quite a number of MMOs. From memory they are:
Anarchy Online
Sadly I never really got into it. I guess I discovered it too late. I couldn't put up with the graphics sadly. I'm not usually a picky person but they are getting really old now.
Audition Online
Casually played this. Nothing hardcore. Just started it up when I was really bored. Pretty interesting I must say...really gets challenging though.
Eve Online
I have around 200 hours experience with Eve. I could never get into it much to my disappointment. The graphics are amazing, the community rocks and I love the interface and everything. I just hate having to point and click to move and combat isn't fast-paced enough for me. I would prefer manual control over the ships and manual firing of weapons.
I may come back next year as they have an out-of-ship mode planned which will allow characters to roam around freely. By the looks of the trailer it is going to be pretty awesome. I think that it may just do the trick for me as I will feel like I'm playing a person, not a ship.
Flyff
Played this for a god 150 hours or so. I was really starved for something to do after having exhausted Guild Wars. The graphics are quite bad, and it really is nothing but a grind fest but I managed to get to around level 50 after which I quit. Flying was a nice change but it felt like a little kiddy game because of the character models being children... :/
Last Chaos
This was probably my biggest disappointment. The screenies looked great and I heard awesome things about the game, but when I started it up I realised I was going to have a tough time liking it. During playing it not only chowed my bandwidth but also managed to suck beyond belief. Incidentally, my friend who lived in the USA had decided to try it out the same time as me and we both agreed it sucked big time.
MU Online
Okay I guess...not really my style. Probably logged around 10 hours or less.
Puzzle Pirates
I played for around 50 hours or so just because I have friends who played it. We had alot of fun together I must say, but it's nothing I'd play alone. The puzzles are a bit repetitive.
Rappelz
Though it's not a bad game, the graphics engine purely sucks. It seemed very pasty...almost as if the characters were flat. You can't just or anything either. I understand in Guild Wars you can't either but at least in Guild Wars during spell-casting characters leave the ground at times. In Rappelz it just felt as if I was stuck on the ground.
RF Online
Got this last week and it was also a disappointment. It felt like a sci-fi version of Rappelz. I think they use the same engines or something too. It looked Guild Wars-ish in a sci-fi type way but oh was I wrong lol. I logged around 3 hours then couldn't take it anymore.
Runescape
Eish...that's all I can say. I played for around 10 hours. The community was terrible, which instantly put me off of the game. It's just so cheap too it's not funny.
Second Life
I never really did anything due to the fact that it eats bandwidth like there's no tomorrow. The lag was horrible.
The Saga of Ryzom
This is definitely one of the hidden gems in the MMO world. Sadly the current owners are bankrupt (the previous owners went bankrupt too...), however there are rumours of another company buying the game. The graphics are amazing and the world is designed beautifully. It also feels alive in the way that carnivores eat herbivores and creatures run up to you to smell you.
It by FAR has the best spell and skill effects I have ever seen. They're purely breathtaking. The ability to spellcraft is awesome too and makes the game different for everyone. The sandbox aspect of the game makes for a nice change.
My biggest gripe was the interface. To put it bluntly, it sucks and saw me quitting because of it. I wish they'd do something about that because it really put me off. It's very random and pieces don't really fit to create an orderly playing environment. Also, it didn't agree with my internet connection very well so maybe I'll start playing when we upgrade the line.
All in all if they do something about the interface I'll definitely play again. I probably logged about 20 hours or so.
There
A less popular version of Second Life. I played for probably less than an hour. Nasty
Tibia ME
An MMO I played on my phone for around 50 hours or so. It has horrible 2D graphics and hardly any quests, but I played it when I was in the car or out somewhere where I didn't really want to be. Looking forward to 3D mobile MMOs!
Trickster Online
Very "cute" and Asian. It is a 2D grind fest but I managed about 15-20 hours or so. It was very busy and the community was helpful though.
Upshift StrikeRacer
The only racing MMO I've played. Probably played around 30 hours or so. It's quite cool. You have weapons etc. which add to the fun.
World of Warcraft
Probably played around 600 hours or so. All in all it's nice, the graphics engine is very efficient etc. but I find myself getting bored after playing for a month. I've played and stopped playing around 3 times now.
It just feels like the sole purpose is to get to maximum level. I never really got this feeling in Guild Wars. With the latter I just had fun. The nice thing about WoW was that the community on my server (Shattered Halls EU) was pretty much mature and willing to help. I made many friends and played with loads I know IRL.
Maybe I'll go back if WotLK adds something interesting, maybe not.
I'm looking to try Everquest II, City of Heroes/Villains, Lord of the Rings Online (picking this up today), as well as possible Dark Age of Camelot and Lineage II. Star Wars Galaxies is also on the list even though it sucks compared to how it used to be. I want to be able to say I've at least tried these which seem to be the most popular. Doubtful whether I'll get around to trying anything of them though because none are hosted locally and international bandwidth is just too much! I found the Lineage II Beta client hosted on ftp.games.saix.net but it fails during the update
Next year I'll probably be trying Age of Conan and Warhammer Online like everyone else, but I'm most anticipating Aion. The Chronicles of Spellborn seems nice too. On the sci-fi side of things I think I'll try Stargate Worlds and/or Startrek Online if they manage to settle the licensing dispute. I'm also awaiting Guild Wars 2!
So that's my long rant on my MMO history xD All in all, Guild Wars has been the best in my opinion.
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Since then, I've tried Tabula Rasa, which might I say is a really cool game. Sadly, my internet konked in (thanks Telkom
) during the trial so I only got to play for a bit, but I've organised another trial to try it out again.
