MMORPG like wow

[Rivanon-shadowsong]

The calculations as put forward on these forums put WOW at around 2 million (maybe slightly more), excluding China. Last figures released for ESO and FF14 put them at 1.2 and 1.1 million active players, respectively with a rapidly increasing trend. The difference isn’t as huge as some would like to think, but the genre is far more splintered now, so I highly doubt we’ll see any MMO hit the numbers WOW did at it’s peak.

Haven’t played Rift in years, but Izvestia been told going FRP has pretty much killed it.

[Lxser-draenor]

1.2 million is still way way less than 2 million.

[Eyesore-ravencrest]

The invisible walls in FF14 out in the world are mostly restricted to the 1-50 ARR zones, that restrict you from swimming or jumping to your death in certain places. Can be annoying if not used to it, but it’s a choice they made. Once you get into HW content, the number of these invisible walls is vastly reduced.

With the leveling being as stale as it is already I don’t think it’s exactly inviting to new players that all the small little annoyances are especially prevalent during the early game.

The story/lore of FF14 is actually very good… if you take your time to actually engage with it, instead of clicking through it all. Voice acted scenes don’t really kick in till HW content and even then, far from everything is voice acted.

I guess I’ve never really been a lore kind of guy, if I want to immerse myself into a story I’d read a good book. When I’m playing games I just want to challenge myself.

Only content you can’t skip the cutscenes in are the 3 level 50 story raids, as they are there to wrap up the original story. It’s somewhat annoying, but you do get rewarded very nicely for running them, even if you’re level 70, this to encourage players to help people levelling clear them.

These dungeons are extremely easy gameplay wise. You’re pretty much not getting any challenge out of it you’re just waiting till the annoying cutscenes are over.

Graphically, I’d rate FF14 above WOW, with some truly stunning zones, but the art style is completely different. Not everybody appreciates the more Asian style and don’t go expecting armour with godly over-the-top glow effects etc. They’ve gone for a more humble/realistic approach in that department.

I’d honestly rate WoW above FF14 in terms of graphics. Sure the earlier vanilla zones in WoW look dated, but when you stand on a mountain and look upon boralus or dazar’alor it looks far better than anything FF14 has to offer graphically imo, that’s not to say FF14 looks terrible I just think WoW looks better.

Levelling is slow and spells/abilities stay pretty basic till level 50, but this does give a very solid linear learning experience for a class as you level, akin to Vanilla WOW. Don’t expect to hit level 70 within a week and don’t bother with a level skip. I purchased one for a second job after getting to level 70 on my first job and highly regretted it. After you level your first job, you get a huge XP boost if you decide to level other jobs, so far better to go through the full learning process.

It’s not just that the spells are basic, it’s also the fact the game has a 2.5 second GCD. I’m sorry, but im not the type of person that needs weeks to slowly learn a class and I don’t think most people are.

I found the world is actually a threat when levelling, there are times when you need to decide if you will stand and fight, or leg it, if you manage to pull extra mobs, etc.

didn’t experience this as much, but then again I quit the game every 10 levels I played or so, so didn’t exactly have a linear experience.

[Ishayu-frostmane (Ishayu)]

It has gotten quite diverse. With structured pvp, open world pve bosses and achievement grind, raids, fractals (sort of dungeon like), server vs server pvp.

No, I mean it isn’t an MMORPG. It doesn’t have a persistant world with massive amounts of players.

Granted, WoW isn’t much an MMORPG either, for the same reason, but I’ve already QQ’d everyone an earful about that, and it’s offtopic for this thread anyway

[Rivanon-shadowsong]

And 2 million is way less than 12 million, your point? All 3 games are quite happily sustaining themselves with the player numbers they have. I certainly bump into far more people out in the world in FF14 than I do in WOW, with it’s sharding.

Both ESO and FF14 are rapidly growing at the moment, WOW is pretty stagnant in player numbers. Will they beat WOW soon? Unlikely with 8.2 and Classic on the horizon, but they are certainly capable of biting at Blizzard’s heels and keeping the pressure on. There is a reason for Blizzard likely releasing 8.2 at the end of June/early July…

[Voodoodle-doomhammer]

True. The only actual MMORPG that I feel like was really massive multiplayer was Star wars galaxies. Until it shutdown.

[Lxser-draenor]

My point is that they’re still not “almost/as popular as WoW”

[Ishayu-frostmane (Ishayu)]

Nah, WoW was, too, in the ye olden days. At that point it had a huge persistent world with 4-8k people online at any time and easily 50k accounts playing on a single server. I think that qualifies as being an MMO.

Now, though? People are disappearing around you, you’re getting pulled from instance to instance all the time, phasing, sharding, CRZ, the game tries to keep a zone having ~50 players, and it has clear cut-off phasing points when you leave one zone and enter another. WoW is not an MMORPG anymore.

[Laffey-kirin-tor]

If you want something that really ressemble WoW, although I don’t know if this game is still alive, there is Rift.
Otherwise jump on FFXIV and get ready for the next expansion. It’s the best time to currently raise a character as you’ll not fall behind.

[Rivanon-shadowsong]

But they are, those numbers for ESO and FF14 are already 2 months or so old, with a rapidly growing trend since January. I wouldn’t at all be surprised if both games are approaching the 1.5 million mark by now.

Anyway, OP, just try a few of the games mentioned out and make up your own mind. If these forums have tought me one thing, it’s that reaching any form of consensus here is impossible.

FF14 is probably the most traditional MMO of the ones mentioned. ESO has a more dynamic combat system and isn’t as reliant on the holy trinity, but I couldn’t get into it, though it’s FTP with optional MTX, so trying it won’t cost a dime. GW2 is also pretty good, but more single player oriented. I dive into it very briefly on occasion, but never last long, again, just can’t properly get into it.

[Moothilda-aszune (Moothilda)]

as wow

I think it is unfair to a game to enter it and having expectations and wishes from another game.

You can’t play them and think of WoW at the same time - people prefer different games for different reasons.

Has a mature/Friendly player base

Some multi player games might not have the same interaction system, but most have forums, chat rooms and a mail system so you can have great conversations and cooperations

Some games can bring the worst out of the most mature players too, so I wonder if you ever can have a guarantee to find only mature and friendly players

Must have graphics either same or better than WOW

A lot of games have that, but if you look for a specific type of gameplay, then you might have to tone your wishes down a bit for this

---

When it comes to a change in games, I think you’ll do yourself a favor if you enter it with a mind of only wanting to try something new and hoping for an awesome gametime.

The other way where you want it to be like something else will only give dissapointments.

I think you should be dragged to a game - the looks of the game keeps you returning to buy pages and youtube vids

[Lilîith-silvermoon]

you will all be back to WoW once 8.2 lands anyway

so who really cares

[Lxser-draenor]

But they’re really not? ESOs/FF14s playerbase is still at least 25% smaller, so OP won’t find a game that’s “almost/as popular”
IDK what you’re trying to achieve.

[Rivanon-shadowsong]

Classic - still under debate
Retail - extremely unlikely till 9.0

But my reasons are my own and I don’t expect everybody to agree with them. It’s a big games world out there and to each their own.

I’d be a hypocrite if I jumped on the ‘WOW bad, will never return’ wagon. I’d love to still be able to enjoy the game, but I don’t. Others, on the other hand, are having a blast, so power to them.

I just don’t like the attitude many like to adopt of ‘It isn’t WOW, so it is bad’. Various people have various reasons for enjoying various games.

As for what I’m trying to achieve with player numbers, I’d go into the basics of trends and statistics, but I’d be wasting my time, all that matters is that all 3 games are making money and have a healthy/viable player base and that isn’t going to change anytime soon. I’ve seen comments from several market analysts that if Blizzard isn’t able to reverse the current trend with 8.2/Classic, they could lose their top spot over the Summer. These guys make a living out of this, I don’t, so I’ll take their word for it. That being said, I believe 8.2 and Classic will be enough to prevent this, at least for a while and we’ll have to see where Blizzard takes WOW from there…

[Lxser-draenor]

Dunno if you mean me but I don’t have an “it isn’t WoW so it’s bad”-Attitude, I was merely saying that he won’t find another MMO currently that is as popular as WoW.

[Rivanon-shadowsong]

Then it comes down to your interpretation of ‘almost as popular’. If 10000 people drive a Ford, 7500 people drive a Toyota and 500 people drive a BMW, relatively speaking the Toyota is popular and ‘almost as popular’ as the Ford.

Same in the current MMO market, comparatively speaking ESO and FF14 are ‘almost as popular’ as WOW, when you take into account the vast majority of MMO’s survive off under 100k players.

[Blindrush-silvermoon]

I tried FF14 as most of you suggested here… Well, it’s pretty decent… Maybe might entertain me for a while. Thanks.

[Gonalon-kazzak]

I would rather be a hardcore Fisherman in WoW than play these terrible games mentioned here.

#Since2004

[Lísc-the-maelstrom]

There are different options for different reasons. My two favourites:

GW2 has the most complex/detailed areas in the industry. Lots of hidden stuff side stories. Complex storybased multilayered areas later game. It also has the best / most diverse combat out of the bigger MMOs.

TSW for its story telling. By far the best in the industry. Its talent trees/customization used to be crazy good. But they dumbed it downed sadly enough.

[Crisswyn-outland (Crisswyn)]

After being loyal and honest to WOW for 10 years

Wait…wait… wait, Were you in a romantic relationship with WoW? Dude, that’s taking RP too far.