SO! What MMO's are you all playing?

[Fallschirmjager]

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Sheytan

Curious, I gave up on DAOC, WOW, and finally Warhammer. Is there anything good you folks are playing currently? I plan on buying a Alienware rig in the next month or two and need some MMO suggestions.

Merry Christmas!

In the few minutes I break my WitE addiction I still return to WOW and Warhammer, great games. MMO's? Try Vindictus, City of Heroes going Rogue or LOTRO. I, like ilovestrategy, enjoy the pace of LOTRO.

I have been buying Alienware rigs since the company started many years ago, it's worth the investment. BUT, my son just had Falcon NW build a killer rig-intel core i7 extreme 980x 3.33gh processor, 12 gig ram, 2 GE FORCE GTX80 video cards, 2TB hard drive, 240GB SSD, and other goodies. YES he dropped $6800 on it, but I think Falcon is something to look into. I just looked at some rigs a moment ago and you can bet one that beats Alienware for about the same amount of green. I am impressed. Sorry for the swerve, but I think Falcon may have finally overtaken ALienware as king of gaming rigs. Check them out.

I built one that is about 85% of that 9 months ago and paid 2700 with shipping and tax. Unless you are rich and just don't have the time, giving money to Alienware or Falcon is a complete waste of money.
You can build one just as nice for 40% less.
Plus mine has an Asus MOBO vs a generic Intel one and the GFX cards are BFGs instead of generic ones. And I didn't have to spend 10 hours clearing away bloatware.

$6800 for the system you described is beyond a rip off. Did he have it custom painted? Even knowing Falcons inflated prices I can't find why he spent almost 7 grand.

My system is an i7 920 overclocked safely to 3.3 GHZ. 2x600 GB TB 10,000 RPM HDDs in RAID 0
Three older 7,200 RPM drives that are 250 GB each in Raid 1 I had those from an old system and stuck them in because I had room
12 GB of DDR3 RAM
2X Geforce 295's with 1.8GB of memory each They are high quality BFGs so they are factory overclocked to 750 MHZ core speed and 2.4 GHZ memory speed
1,200 Watt PSW
A top of the line Asus MOBO vs a generic Intel one
I have a new nice extras like a Blueray drive and SB X-Fi Titanium
I don't have an SSD but back when I built my system those were still prohibitivly expensive and I could not justify adding one. So that is one thing his system has over mine.

But I stayed below $3,000 and that is with another 23" NEC monitor that I use with an older system.
The only thing I overpaid for and that I could have saved money on was if I purchased individual liquid cooling components and built my own liquid cooling system. That was a few steps above my experience level though and I did not want to bother.
So I splured and got a top of the line Thermaltake liquid cooled case with a 120mm copper Zaalman fan
The case comes with a 5 year guarantee that if the cooling ever ruptures or leaks and ruins my system it is covered up to $2,000

I am not trying to start a dick sizing contest over who has the better system nor am I trying to put you or your son down. I am just pointing out to potential buyers about the possibility of a homebuilt system that can save a lot of money.
So before you give your life saving to Alienware or Falcon or anyone else, evaluate all your options and do some research.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: Anthropoid


So does it really just boil down to games becoming less challenging and more forgiving?

No, I cannot agree with that. I think it's a case of today's games being less annoying, with today's interfaces on all genres being better. I think the death penalties in the older MMOs were just.....I have to say annoying.

Before games catered to a small niche of people like myself that were willing to learn a cumbersome interface or look through chapter one, page 2, paragpraph 3, 2nd word from the left on the 5th sentence to satisfy copy protection. Anyone that played games in 90s knows what I'm talking about.

I don't miss those days. That's what difficulty sliders are for.

[Sheytan]

Ugh, I have built systems in the past, in fact my current computer is a Frankenstien spanning components of three different systems that were recycled as I upgraded components. I frankly dont want to do it again. You are right though, if you want to save money build it yourself.

ORIGINAL: Fallschirmjager

ORIGINAL: parusski

ORIGINAL: Sheytan

Curious, I gave up on DAOC, WOW, and finally Warhammer. Is there anything good you folks are playing currently? I plan on buying a Alienware rig in the next month or two and need some MMO suggestions.

Merry Christmas!

In the few minutes I break my WitE addiction I still return to WOW and Warhammer, great games. MMO's? Try Vindictus, City of Heroes going Rogue or LOTRO. I, like ilovestrategy, enjoy the pace of LOTRO.

I have been buying Alienware rigs since the company started many years ago, it's worth the investment. BUT, my son just had Falcon NW build a killer rig-intel core i7 extreme 980x 3.33gh processor, 12 gig ram, 2 GE FORCE GTX80 video cards, 2TB hard drive, 240GB SSD, and other goodies. YES he dropped $6800 on it, but I think Falcon is something to look into. I just looked at some rigs a moment ago and you can bet one that beats Alienware for about the same amount of green. I am impressed. Sorry for the swerve, but I think Falcon may have finally overtaken ALienware as king of gaming rigs. Check them out.

I built one that is about 85% of that 9 months ago and paid 2700 with shipping and tax. Unless you are rich and just don't have the time, giving money to Alienware or Falcon is a complete waste of money.
You can build one just as nice for 40% less.
Plus mine has an Asus MOBO vs a generic Intel one and the GFX cards are BFGs instead of generic ones. And I didn't have to spend 10 hours clearing away bloatware.

$6800 for the system you described is beyond a rip off. Did he have it custom painted? Even knowing Falcons inflated prices I can't find why he spent almost 7 grand.

My system is an i7 920 overclocked safely to 3.3 GHZ. 2x600 GB TB 10,000 RPM HDDs in RAID 0
Three older 7,200 RPM drives that are 250 GB each in Raid 1 I had those from an old system and stuck them in because I had room
12 GB of DDR3 RAM
2X Geforce 295's with 1.8GB of memory each They are high quality BFGs so they are factory overclocked to 750 MHZ core speed and 2.4 GHZ memory speed
1,200 Watt PSW
A top of the line Asus MOBO vs a generic Intel one
I have a new nice extras like a Blueray drive and SB X-Fi Titanium
I don't have an SSD but back when I built my system those were still prohibitivly expensive and I could not justify adding one. So that is one thing his system has over mine.

But I stayed below $3,000 and that is with another 23" NEC monitor that I use with an older system.
The only thing I overpaid for and that I could have saved money on was if I purchased individual liquid cooling components and built my own liquid cooling system. That was a few steps above my experience level though and I did not want to bother.
So I splured and got a top of the line Thermaltake liquid cooled case with a 120mm copper Zaalman fan
The case comes with a 5 year guarantee that if the cooling ever ruptures or leaks and ruins my system it is covered up to $2,000

I am not trying to start a dick sizing contest over who has the better system nor am I trying to put you or your son down. I am just pointing out to potential buyers about the possibility of a homebuilt system that can save a lot of money.
So before you give your life saving to Alienware or Falcon or anyone else, evaluate all your options and do some research.

[tinydancer]

I can't say I'm a massive fan of LOTRO...it seems all the best features have a pricetag. Hopefully next year the developers will unlock more free-to-play options in the role playing game...

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: tinydancer

I can't say I'm a massive fan of LOTRO...it seems all the best features have a pricetag. Hopefully next year the developers will unlock more free-to-play options in the role playing game...

It's an acquired taste. Either you love it or hate it. I happen to love it. It's like me and WiTP, I tried 3 times to get into it and I just cannot.

[hadberz]

I play Ultima online, have been off and on for the past decade. I play it for the sandbox world, freedom to create whatever kind of character I want, no levels so changing a character skills is easy. Custom housing, design whatever house style you want. Gone are the days of bring pk, most of the game is using the trammel ruleset meaning no pvp in that ruleset. There are drawbacks, the game is 13 years old so the player population is much smaller, pvp sucks compared to newer MMO, their not free to play.

I play Warhammer for the pvp, but that's only every now and then. I started playing LOTRO just few days ago, so far I am impressed with it. Since it's free I will probably stick with it for bit.

[ilovestrategy]

ORIGINAL: hadberz

I started playing LOTRO just few days ago, so far I am impressed with it. Since it's free I will probably stick with it for bit.

If you decide to stick with it but only for Free to Play I would subscribe for one month($15), drop the subscription and then you can play as a Premium player for free. I'm not sure what the benefits are but I do know they have more ingame stuff than strictly F2P players do.

[diablo1]

I think the death penalties in the older MMOs were just.....I have to say annoying.

[:'(]

[diablo1]

that "hardcore" really means: la masochistic liking of complexity/difficulty?

That's me when playing role playing or adventure or MMO's in a nutshell. I want the world to feel like the real thing. I want to be afraid of losing my life or my toys. It's a rush when things are going bad in worlds like this. EQ even had an even harder hardcore server for awhile. If you died you went back to level 1 no matter what level you were. I loved this kind of play.

Too many of these MMO's MMORPG's just allow you to rush to maximum level now and there's really no penalties for dying. DAOC and SWG has or have deterioating items now. I think that's GREAT in these worlds. This keeps everyone adventuring for more stuff and nobody remains king of the hill or "I got the best stuff cause I rule blah blah lol". Also with things growing old or breaking this keeps those that enjoy crafting busy and doing what they enjoy continously. SWG's was like this but I've found it's not like it used to be.

See the carebears whine about they can't keep up and enough of them whined the developers and companies listened. Now the carebears run around with all the great stuff and they are happy but the hardcore players aren't. We get pushed aside in nearly every game out there now. I don't want some snotty nosed 8 year old playing next to me with stuff he doesn't deserve but because the developers made the game so easy he can have all of it by just whinning to guildies or even worse whinning to daddy to buy him gold off ebay so he can buy it. I'm a firm believer in NO DROP NO TRADE SUPREME items. You have to earn these items yourself you can't buy them or trade for them. Only the hardcore will ever get to play with these puppies. [:)]

[bairdlander2]

nevermind

[diablo1]

oh come on baird speak your mind lil buddy.

[Anthropoid]

I always thought a "game" was something you could lose. While some of the hardcore old-school versions seemed to approach that, it doesn't seem to be the case anymore. Not sure what you call a "game-like activity" in which there is no real losing, but "game" just doesn't seem right.

[Lützow]

True. Games are 'zero-sum', means if one wins, another one have to lose. Modern MMO's, however, let everybody become a hero and in a world without losers there can't be winners either.

[Anthropoid]

"Play" might not be inaccurate, but "game" doesn't seem accurate.

[diablo1]

Yeah MMO's are akin to an "activity" but if you called them activities people wouldn't buy them because it sounds too much like "exercise" lol so they call them games. [:)]

[USSAmerica]

[/quote]

LOTRO now is free to play although you only get a small part of the content for free. The rest has to be bought in the item shop, which , for me at least, is a no go.

I was thinking of checking this one out, but this would kill it for me, too. Thanks for the heads up, Rainer!

[hadberz]

If you decide to stick with it but only for Free to Play I would subscribe for one month($15), drop the subscription and then you can play as a Premium player for free. I'm not sure what the benefits are but I do know they have more ingame stuff than strictly F2P players do.

Don't even have to do that, just buy the smallest point pack $6.50 and your premium. Premium give extra character slot, faster login, and higher gold limit.

I was thinking of checking this one out, but this would kill it for me, too. Thanks for the heads up, Rainer!

You get 3 quest packs with option to buy up to 8 more quest packs, looks like 70 to 200 quests per pack. They cost around 6 to 8 bucks each depending on point cost. You buy points and use the points to buy content. You can also earn points in game. I would give it a try, you don't have anything to lose other then the time it takes to download. 10 GB download for the high res client. 4 GB regular client.

[Titanwarrior89]

WOW in the past but now, none......Don't see myself getting into one. Between my Matrix games and board gaming I don't have the time.

[LarryP]

ORIGINAL: ilovestrategy

It really depends on taste. What is good for you may not be good for me. For example I have been playing Lord of the Rings for over 3 1/2 years and LOVE it! Some folks don't like it because it does not emphasize magic and it not a flashy game. It's also PvE based, very little PvP.  If you're a die hard pvper you will not enjoy it. 

I want to thank you for this recommendation of LOTRO (Lord Of The Rings Online). [&o] I have been playing it for a couple days now, and this has to be the finest game of this genre ever. I hate MMO games, and also hate PvP which is usually what MMO's are about. However, this is different since it's like you said, mostly PvE. Turbine paid close attention to detail too. The menus, the tooltips, colors, options, scenery, just everything is superb. I turn up the settings and my laptop fan seldom even comes on! Now here's the best part too... it's FREE! Even the game is a free download. World Of Warcraft, I had to buy it then install it before logging onto their server. Then pay per month. Not so with LOTRO. FREE all the way. I'm still amazed. [8D]

Their attention to the details of every aspect of this fine gaming environment is a must see. I can interact with other players, or I can do quests solo. There are so many options for every item, that the most fickle gamer should be satisfied. The way the inventory works with buying and selling items should be the gaming standard. I can't say enough good about this game.

Thanks again for posting what you did about LOTRO. I will be playing this for a loooooong time. [:D]

[D.Ilse]

Used to play WW2 Online...but nothing now.[:(]