New to MMOs.

human_male

Math and girls is hard.
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Hiya. I'm a hardcore single player role player but I'm out of single player games to play at them moment. So I was thinking about trying out an MMO for the first time and I wondered if you guys would recommend something for me. I have a fairly old computer (it was pretty grunty when Oblivion came out but it hasn't been upgraded since), I don't have any friends so it would have to be something that is amenable to solo play (you don't need to be in a group), perhaps something that's not the most popular (and populated) game because I don't want to stand in line to do quests and things, and something that has a free domo period so I can try it out before paying.

Or perhaps even an MMO that can be played offline, if such a thing exists. "Why would you want to play an MMO offline?" You ask. "What the hell kind of sick weirdo are you?" Well I would rather play by myself as I said, but I've run out of things to play. For some reason the last time I asked that on a forum someone got very upset with me.

I've been looking at Age of Conan - Hyborian Adventures because I can get it pretty cheaply and it's mature but it looks quite arcady and I'm not sure if my machine will be able to handle it.

Thanks very much indeed.

Win XP
Athlon 64X2 dual core 4600+
Geforce 7800GTX
2 gigs RAM
 
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World of Warcraft. You can play it like a single-player game up to level 80. You will make friends with other players as you go along. You won't have to stand in line to do quests. Your machine can handle it no problem, and it has a free demo. The basic game costs hardly anything anyway.

Any game you can play offline is not a real MMO.
 
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Try Guild Wars. It's not MMO but more like co-op cRPG where you can go with NPCs instead of players to do quests. You don't pay monthly fee, just buy a game and that's all. It has free trial if you want to check that out.
 
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Just play all the demos like Warhammer, World of Warcraft etc. for free until new single player RPG like Risen comes out(less than a week from the date of this post)
 
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I think Guild Wars would be great. Lots of info on it here on the boards as to game play...but bottom line....you can play the entire game using NPC team rather then relying on other people to help you do the quests. All instances are private to your team. Check it out and as was stated, no monthly fee.
 
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Quoting my previous posts in regards to MMOs.
Graeme said:
Indeed. Most definitely World of Warcraft. If you've played the predecessor-games, the Warcraft series, you'll notice that the Warcraft 3 and World of Warcraft lore is simply amazing. Not to mention that there are many RP/RPPvP servers to play on, which makes it even better.
However, the game is very addictive. Of course, it depends from one person to another, but chance is you'll become addicted to such an amount that it becomes unimaginable. I known and have seen several people who messed up their study and life because of the severe addiction World of Warcraft has to offer. I, for one, have been a World of Warcraft player, destroyed one year of college for the sake of role-play that was going on on the server.
Not all too long ago, an expansion has been released, also known as the Wrath of the Lich King. Personally I think that expansion pretty much destroyed the whole fun of playing the game. It was utter and complete boredom. I hope the upcoming expansion, Cataclysm, shows much more promise.

I have not played the other MMORPG games you've put in the poll, so I can't really choose. But this is my advice; give World of Warcraft a try and see if you like it. If you do, be sure to visit a role-play (RP), or a role-play player-versus-player (RPPvP) server. These offer the best gameplay experience.

Also, if you aren't aware; World of Warcraft does require a fee to be paid monthly/each three months/etc. depending on your method of payment. If you can't afford/want it, you could always try a free one. If that's the case, I'd recommend Perfect World, also an awesome MMORPG from Malaysia. Give it a try as well, I'd say!
So yes, my recommendation would either be World of Warcraft or Perfect World.
 
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I gotta tell ya… I don't think any MMO is fun enough to play solo the whole way. Seriously. What's the longest you've ever played a single player RPG? 100 hours? That won't get you much in an MMO. Most of those are designed around five times that much playtime over the course of many months. I think you'll find every one of them turns into a horrible, nasty grind before you get a character up to the max level. Just like you would find any single player RPG turns horrifically dull if you try to play it for 500-1000 hours.

I would strongly suggest breaking some ice and making a few friends online. There are plenty of not-stupid people out there. Maybe toss a few quotes out from the RPGs you do play and see who recognizes them, then hang around those folks if you can find them. If not, keep fishing.

And while I'm plugging, don't skip City of Heroes! http://www.cityofheroes.com/trial/index.html
 
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Thanks for the replies. Now I come to think of it I have in fact played WOW but only for five minutes. It was too old looking. It doesn't have to be state of the art (I don't have a computer that fast anyway) but that was just too dated.

I bought Age of Conan because it was cheap and I'd read somewhere you can play to level twenty offline. So I figured I could try it out, see how it runs and see if I like it without going through the hassle of updating and creating an account and stuff. Turns out though you can't. You can only play online. Fair enough, it is an MMO after all. So I started updating and saw how big the patches were! The first was 500MB, the second 1.8 gigs! I don't know if that's a lot for an online game but I only get five gigs a month. So I don't think I'll bother as I'm almost certain it won't run well anyway.

Maybe I'll give Guild Wars a try but I think Zloth is right, it wouldn't be much fun playing by myself.

Thanks again everyone.
 
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…So I started updating and saw how big the patches were! The first was 500MB, the second 1.8 gigs! I don't know if that's a lot for an online game but I only get five gigs a month and I use pretty much all of it on Robot Chicken, sci fi and porn. So I don't think I'll bother as I'm almost certain it won't run well anyway.
You seriously need a new internet provider/subscription! Even WoW have gigs of updates now. How much do you pay? I pay about 90 NZD a month for a 6Mbit line.

You're right in your PC looking a bit weak for AoC, but it's a solo friendly game and the early 20 levels are pretty much "state-of-the-art" in MMOs when it comes to story-driven leveling. After that, the game reverts back to the old quest->kill/gather/deliver->collect cycle.
 
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You seriously need a new internet provider/subscription! Even WoW have gigs of updates now. How much do you pay? I pay about 90 NZD a month for a 6Mbit line.

You're right in your PC looking a bit weak for AoC, but it's a solo friendly game and the early 20 levels are pretty much "state-of-the-art" in MMOs when it comes to story-driven leveling. After that, the game reverts back to the old quest->kill/gather/deliver->collect cycle.

I pay about $40 a month on Vodafone/ihug. I've looked around a bit and that seems average. I don't want to pay any more than that. Five gigs is usually adequate. If you go over they bump you down to dial up speed, which is intolerable so I have to be careful what I download. So I guess MMOs aren't for me.

Cheers, and may His shadow fall upon you.
 
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. So I guess MMOs aren't for me.
Guild Wars was mentioned already in this thread and i think you won't regret trying it. It's one of the few mmo's with some depth and even if you only play the main campaign solo one time you'll get more game time than from most single player games. They also have an interesting update mechanism and you won't download gigs until you can start to play. You will get the updates needed upon entering a region. I was in parties with modem players many times and we had to wait a little bis longer (30 sec-1 min instead of about 5 sec) to enter a mission but considering a mission usually at least takes half an hour this is no big deal.
 
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Guild Wars was mentioned already in this thread and i think you won't regret trying it. It's one of the few mmo's with some depth and even if you only play the main campaign solo one time you'll get more game time than from most single player games. They also have an interesting update mechanism and you won't download gigs until you can start to play. You will get the updates needed upon entering a region. I was in parties with modem players many times and we had to wait a little bis longer (30 sec-1 min instead of about 5 sec) to enter a mission but considering a mission usually at least takes half an hour this is no big deal.

I just assumed it would take gigs to update before I'm even able to log on and start playing.

Since it's an older game should I check if there are still servers in my region or anything like that?
 
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I just assumed it would take gigs to update before I'm even able to log on and start playing.

Since it's an older game should I check if there are still servers in my region or anything like that?

They have servers in asia europe and america and since this is no shooter where you need a good ping you can probably play on all of them. You can switch in game between the different districts. I usually switch from europe to america when i come home late and it's quite in the pvp arena in europe.
 
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Ok, I ordered Guild Wars (game of the year edition). Everything I've heard about it encourages me, but frankly the screen shots and videos put me off quite a bit. It looks nearly as dated as NWN 1 and the combat's lots of effects and particles and weapon trails and whatnot, which I'm not a fan of. But hey, it will be fine if it keeps me occupied for a while. I just find it hard to get into games who's "look and feel" don't appeal to me. But we'll see.

I have a question about MMO etiquette. I like to play as a female (don't ask why, I don't know). Do people care if you're a guy or a girl? And do you tell them? I mean if you arrange to go questing with someone, do you let them know? Do I say to people "I'm happy to go questing with you, but just so you know I'm really a guy." Or do you just not say anything?
 
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Being polite is the only rule i can think of. I play online since about 10 years and heared the question are you really a girl only from one person. Was probably a teenage boy looking for anything female and the guy asking was harassing female charakters most times i saw him. It was in world of warcraft where meeting the same people is much more common than in guild wars. I think male/female can cause some hurt fellings on roleplay servers where people spend a lot of time together and in some games can even marry but never tried that kind of server. Due to game mechanics guild wars is quite anonymous and you will probably rather see a lottery win than anyone caring if a character wears skirt or trousers in this game.
 
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Be careful or you might end up married. :)

There are generally two kind of MMO-players. The first ones are those that like socialising and play the game with friends or uses it to make new ones. The last ones are those that play it as a sport, also known as raiders. It's very much like being part of a sports team, though a lot more demanding when it comes to how much time you need to spend.

May His Shadow fall upon you, preferably.
 
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In my case sometimes I ask someone or someone ask me about sex but it's not often, and only if we actually wait for someone or something like that. Then sometimes we talk about 'real' us like, for example, where are we from etc. Actually talks about sex or age happend to me just a few times, while talks about where are we from happens from time to time. People in MMOs are mainly kind, they give their items for free to others, help with quests etc, just not everyone. You may meet some retards who will annoy others with their retardation but that's not very common. If you meet someone who insults others just don't party with him an ignore him (but I'm sure I don't have to tell you that ;) ). In the end it all comes to just having fun together and do whatever gives you fun.

PS. That wasn't kind of me but in Endless Online I was killing mobs, getting their cursed helmets and giving them to newbies as a free gifts :p Sometimes I gave them to, like, 30-40 people per day. That was funny as hell for me when they were confused why they can't take it off ;p But no, I'm not that evil person in overall, I often give free items to others (no, not cursed :p ), help them etc as others do to me as well.
 
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The beauty of MMO play is the fantasy of roleplaying. You don't have to tell anyone anything nor would I personally, unless you want to. Being polite is my only rule as well. Too bad some do not follow that, but most are nice. GW will allow you as much or as little contact with others as you desire. I hope you enjoy it, and if you want to get an addon for it I would suggest Nightfall first. Graphics are not the best, but certainly not as bad as NWN imho.
 
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Played GW on the International server with no issues, other than having CM as a teamate!! :)
 
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Adds Corwin to one more list. :deal:
 
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