Curious...

[Torn Dlo]

Ok, I've been playing EQ2(the only MMORPG I've played to date) since it came out and I'm thinking of switching over to something else just for the sake for variety. I've got a few things in mind, but I'm not sure which one I should pick up. Dark Ages of Camelot or World of Warcraft? I've heard good things about both and I have friends that play both, but I'm just trying to get some opinions on them before I commit to one or the other.

[Sanis Prent]

no dont

[Morgan Evanar]

I'd stop playing MMORPGs because they are the biggest sink of life. I'd say pot is more productive, IMO.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Guild Wars!

[Darth Viscera]

World of Warcraft. Buy it from an actual, tangible store which exists on a non-internet plane of existance, and If it gives you errors, return it to your place of purchase pronto and get your money back.

[Gav Mortis]

SWG :D

[Lilaena De'Ville]

Originally posted by Morgan Evanar
I'd stop playing MMORPGs because they are the biggest sink of life. I'd say pot is more productive, IMO. Quoted for great truth, justice, and peace on earth!!

[Shawn]

Not that I'm playing any at the moment, but I fail to see how an MMORPG is any less productive than any other video game. Whether you waste 50 hours split amongst 5 different games or 50 hours on one game, it's the same thing.

[Yog]

I dont know anything about Dark Ages of Camelot, but here is how I would rank the MMORPG's I played in terms of enjoyable experience:


1. World of Warcraft (the king of MMORPGs)
In my opinion, this ranks clearly above the others. Its by far the best thing I have played. It got a huge gameworld, great quests as you level up and interestings character classes. Intuitive and powerful UI and game mechanics that works really well. Overall a brilliantly designed game with amazing long lasting appeal. There are tons and tons of things to see and do. Very immersive and addictive as crack. It got excellent future potential as well with expansion packs. The only downside is, it got no player cities and the character creation is somewhat limited in customisation, but these are minor complaints.


2. City of Heros
CoH is overall a very well designed MMORPG which provides great fun and is appealing right from the start. Lots of nice eyecandy and cool special abilities. Combat is exciting. Character customisation is easily the most sophisticated I have seen. It tends to get a bit one dimensional with all the missions, but there is a lot of instanced dungeons and huge areas to explore.


3. Guildwars
Overall looks to become a good game. The lack of subscription fee is a huge bonus, so its definitely something to try for the casual game player. The UI and graphics are very nice. Combat is exciting and well balanced. Quests are very cool. Got some unique and innovative features, like streaming content. I like that its one server population. On the downside, its a small game world. Certain aspects of the game is limited in scope and versatility compared to other MMORPGs (IE character customisation). I suspect the amount of quests is probably not enough to keep you occupied for extended amounts of time though..


4. Anarchy Online
This was my first MMORGP, and its a rather good one IF you have all the expansion packs. The expansion packs enable revamped graphics and UI and essential features which improves the game experience among other things. The "Shadowlands" expansion pack is more like an independent game in its own right, being a whole new gameworld. The worlds of Rubi Ka + shadowlands are both incredible huge, bigger than any other game on this list. An insane amount of quests. Missions are instanced dungeons, which I like. Lots of unique character classes. Versatile customisation in skills and appearance. Player cities is a big plus. The most content rich MMORPG. Although its starting to feel dated by todays standards, there is still a good game beyond the surface.


5. Star Wars Galaxies
This is one game that had amazing potential. Unfortunately, right from the launch, it had lots of bugs, broken game code and unbalanced game mechanics. The more serious issues are slowly getting fixed through patching. Despite all its flaws and annoyances, SWG can be very addictive initially, keeping you happily occupied for months. This is primarly because there are so many achievment milestones and its more sociable than the other games in this genre. It has advanced community features like player cities, and high level profession interdependency and versatility in player interaction. It got the best crafting system.

However, for seasoned veterans who spent half a year or longer playing the game, there is a depressing lack of exciting end game content. Most quests are fairly mundane of the type "go to x location and kill y, retreive z", with poor rewards for completion. Instanced content is far and between, encouraging loot camping. Space combat is fun for a while, but ultimately limited in scope. PvP is dominated by 1337 kids and gank squads. Combat in general is unbalanced, which forced SOE to rebuild the system from scratch for a huge upgrade patch scheduled early next month. Grinding XP is mindnumbing boring, and thats what you need to do a lot of if you want to go Jedi..


6. EVE
This one got some very nice graphics and you will think its awesome for a week or so. Then you will start running out of exciting things to do and get bored. And I mean really bored. Mining asteroids and doing courier missions for credits to upgrade you ship and buy new skills lose its charm quickly. You'll start to realise its a monotone enviroment with not that much to see and do in the long run. Player interaction is crap, which makes this pretty much a single player game on an online server. I mean, whats the point with this game anyway? Veterans claim there are huge PvP space battles, which may or may not be a saving grace, but I saw nothing of it.



7. World War Online (worst crap ever)
This game ranks fairly high... on my prestigous list of "worst software I ever run on a computer". I played it for only a few hours before uninstalling it. Graphics are shockingly dull and gameplay is pointless. UI/controls are incredible unintuitive, confusing and cumbersome. Even a basic task like moving the turret of a tank or driving forwards is made complex. Watching eggs boil in an icebucket would have been a better waste of time. Disturbingly, there are people who claim to enjoy this game and its supposed to have improved a lot after patching. However, I would probably have to be lobotomised before giving it another chance.

[Loki Ahmrah]

I think ultimately, which MMORPG you like is very dependent on your personal tastes: I, for one, really dislike WoW and love SWG. I've been playing SWG since the start of September and play it with thirty other guys in a big, close guild. Great stuff.

[Darth Viscera]

Originally posted by Master Yoghurt
7. World War Online (worst crap ever)
This game ranks fairly high... on my prestigous list of "worst software I ever run on a computer". I played it for only a few hours before uninstalling it. Graphics are shockingly dull and gameplay is pointless. UI/controls are incredible unintuitive, confusing and cumbersome. Even a basic task like moving the turret of a tank or driving forwards is made complex. Watching eggs boil in an icebucket would have been a better waste of time. Disturbingly, there are people who claim to enjoy this game and its supposed to have improved a lot after patching. However, I would probably have to be lobotomised before giving it another chance.

hahaha, best review ever. A+++ would read again.





If you're looking for an actual review, Torn, basically there is only one MMORPG I've played so far that I wouldn't describe as aimless and boring, and that's World of Warcraft. Granted, that's not a review, but it sums up what I've experienced so far. However, I've only played EVE Online and Star Wars Galaxies for any proper length of time.

[Torn Dlo]

Hmm...I've heard a lot about World of Warcraft and I really like the feel of it as I've played on a freinds account for a short period of time. SWG was just something I couldn't get into. I tried it for about a month and it just flopped for me. I'm bigger into the mid-evil type things. I'm still undecided yet, but I'm leaning for towards WoW, but my friends are still wanting to go for DAOC. Though I'm hoping the answer will come to me in my dreams as the purchase will be made tomorrow. ^_^;

[Morgan Evanar]

DOAC is pretty much dead from what I've heard.

[Torn Dlo]

That's what I've been hearing, and honestly the only reason I am considering it is just because of the people that I work with.

[AmazonBabe]

WoW... All. The. Way.

I played SWG when it was first released up to about the time WoW came out. The amount of time playing SWG dwindled however as each month went by. I just got frusterated with the grinding aspect of the game to gan a tiny sliver of XP. No rewards = no fun. Hell, I even bought the expansion pack hoping that would make a difference in my view of the game, but it only worsened it as the missions for the expansion were repetative.

WoW has by far captivated me in a way no other game has. Ever. There's so much to see and do, and you get RWARDED for it. You've got your choice of PvE, PvP, or RP servers. You can lvl your character quite easily in the beginning, but not so easily that it's not fun. Towards the mid anf high lvls, the lvling process becomes longer, but again, it is still fun and does not leave you frusterated, high, and dry.

I have 10 characters running on 10 different servers right now in WoW, and am having crap-loads of fun with each. I see no end in sight to my addiction. :D

If I were to recommend an MMORPG... it would definitely be WoW!


P.S. - Yog's review of WoW is EXCELLENT! To the wisdom of Yog, you listen. :)


P.P.S - And if you do decide on getting WoW, come and join us in the WoW thread (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=37318), and share with us what characters you have on what server. A bunch of us have our character names and servers listed, so you can even join us in the same realm if you wish. :)

[Torn Dlo]

Hmm....this I must admit is a much more appealing idea. I'll have to see the costs of the two first, but I think my opinions have just been swayed.

[Baralai Lotus]

You wanna know what I got addicted too? It's a simple game, but it can be so addictive and fun. Ragnarok Online...I absolutely love that game. Uber amounts of fun...

[Drake Shadowstalker]

Dark Age of Camelot was better then any MMORPG before Trials of Atlantis and New Frontiers (expansions) came out. However, it's glory has long since died out and the fanbase has as well.

I haven't played WoW that much, but I assessed that it is quite fun but would probably get really boring after a bit, just like City of Heroes.

[Seven Maelsav]

Originally posted by Baralai Lotus
You wanna know what I got addicted too? It's a simple game, but it can be so addictive and fun. Ragnarok Online...I absolutely love that game. Uber amounts of fun...


Did I just read that? I played RO religously for months (Loki server)

In comparison to WoW, it fails to even come near it. No questing. Only grinding. And the graphics are anime/on sub-par. The only thing it has going is WoE (War Of Emperium). The patches are slow, they're content fails in the long run. 3-1 classes are a joke. (kRO only has them, and others can only have them if you play private servers.)

And before you start saying my view is flawed, I had a level 80 knight, a level 75 mage, 78 hunter, and 6x assassin that got deleted.

World Of Warcraft is the way to go.

[AmazonBabe]

I haven't played WoW that much, but I assessed that it is quite fun but would probably get really boring after a bit, just like City of Heroes.

My friend, WoW is NOTHING like CoH. Trust me... you don't get bored of WoW easily. :)

[Wei Wu Wei]

My roommate plays World of Warcraft and I've watched over his shoulder. It does look interesting, but I don't know if my computer meets the requirements to play it.

I realize that I could find out the system requirements on my own, but they never help me because I never know how to check to see if my computer meets those requirements. So I want to know 4 things:

1) the requirements to put it on my comptuer including memory consumption.

2) How to find out whether my computer can support the game.

3) How much the game will cost me.

4) How much it costs to actually play.

Thanks, folks. I appreciate it.

[Lady Vader]

Wei, buddy ol' pal. :)

Ok, here's the scoop:


1) Requirements...

The minimum system requirements for World of Warcraft are as follows:

Your computer will need a 56K or higher modem with an Internet connection. (Broadband recommended)
You must have a valid e-mail address.
For Windows® System/OS (98/ME, 2000, XP):

800 Mhz or higher CPU. (1.5ghz pentium 4 or AMD 1500+ recommended)
256 Megabytes or more of RAM. (512 recommended)
32MB 3D Graphics card with Hardware Transform/Lighting (such as a GeForce 2 or better). (64mb with vertex and pixel shader capability recommended)
4 Gigabytes or more of available hard drive space.
DirectX® 9.0c or above (this comes with the game if you don't have it yet).

2) Finding out what your comp has...

For comp specs...
Right click on the My Computer icon.
Left click on Properties.
Under the General tab, you should see CPU & memory your comp has near the bottom of the window.
For Graphics card…
Right click on the My Computer icon.
Left click on Properties.
Under the Hardware tab, left click on the Device Manager… button.
Left click the + next to Display Adapters. The name of the graphics card you have on your comp should appear below Display Adapters.
For hard disk space...
Double click the My Computer.
Right click the C drive (or whatever your main drive is).
Left click on Properties.
Under the General tab all the info you need for hard disk space should be displayed.

DirectX 9.0 comes with the game, so no worries there.

3) How much the game costs...
The game runs $49.99 (can be purchased on the Official Website Store (http://shop.blizzard.com/section1/?user=cGiDKFET0sp3CuZ2QYTn7RfFFk1ktGONEnAOXvUCNSY= #wow) or any local electronic retailer that sells video games)

4) How much the game will cost to play...

Here's a breakdown of the costs depending on which payment option you choose:

They accept the following major Credit Cards:

Visa
MasterCard
Discover
American Express
The subscription options for World of Warcraft are as follows:

1 month: $14.99
3 months: $41.97 ($13.99 per month) *
6 months: $77.94 ($12.99 per month) *
60-day Prepaid Time Cards: $29.99 (available at your local electronic retailer that sells video games)

*Please note that the 3-month and 6-month subscriptions must be paid in full at the beginning of the billing cycle

And there you have it. The info you requested straight from the WoW Guru (or if that title doesn't fit, I'll go for SWF Chronic Schizo as well :D )

[Figrin D'an]

I wouldn't put much faith in Bliz's "recommended" specs. Being realistic, if you want the game to run reasonably well, you'll want something in the 2 ghz range for a processor (or higher), 768 MB - 1GB of the fastest RAM your system can handle, and a video card at least in the range of a GeForce4/Radeon 9500. A clean HD partition without much else on it will help too. This is all even more of a necessity, IMO, now that the Honor System is active and Battlegrounds will be soon.

And try to find a friend who has the patches already dled and stored on CD, because trying to get them using Bliz's half-broken bittorent client can be a pain.

[Wei Wu Wei]

Oi. That all sounds pretty demanding. That, and I don't have a credit card. :( sad.

[Grev Drasen]

Originally posted by Wei Wu Wei
Oi. That all sounds pretty demanding. That, and I don't have a credit card. :( sad.
Got a Gamestop or EB around? They carry pre-paid game cards.

[Lady Vader]

Totally off-topic for the moment...

I think I heard somewhere that Gamestop bought EB? Or did I dream that up? O_o


Wei - You don't need a credit card to start an account. I should have been more specific in that area that you can use a pre-paid game card in place of a credit card.

[Yog]

I wouldn't put much faith in Bliz's "recommended" specs

Agreed. Blizzards specs are a bit of a joke honestly. 256MB RAM is about what windows XP consumes on its own. I am running the game at 512MB RAM, and I concider it the absolute bare minimum. Its playable at 512, but I recommend 768 or higher because it can be so incredible memory intensive (especially for PvP and in cities). It will probably chug along with a 1.5Ghz CPU, but really 2Ghz or better is highly recommended. You can forget about 32MB GeForce 2 as well. You need at very minimum a GeForce 3 ti or better or higher, maybe even a GeForce 4. Playing MMORPGs with 56K dialup? Please.

[Torn Dlo]

Ok...I've finally decided to go with WoW. So I'll let all you guys know what server Ill be playing on in a few days. I have to wait till Monday to get it.

[Nevlonniel]

Welcome aboard the WoW Addict Train! Please remain seated, and keep your hands on the keyboard and mouse at all times. Enjoy the ride! :crack

Oh, and be sure to let me know the name of your character, race, class, server, etc etc, so i can add it to the LIST! :D

[Torn Dlo]

Will do. :D

[Lady Vader]

Forgot to mention...

You can check out what all our names are and what servers we play on in this thread (http://www.sw-fans.net/forum/showthread.php?threadid=38278), along with a bunch of other helpful info and fun stuff. :)