Most fantastical feeling current MMORPG

[ravenmoon]

You remember when you first picked up the game, before all the grinding became a chore and before you got to be an oh so expert, when the world was full of wonder and you enjoyed it.

I'm looking for the most engaging and fantastical feeling MMO currently online, and with their presentation, their trailers, opening cinematic, lands to explore, and ofc lore - their story... which MMO feels the most magical to you? WHich gives you that feeling the most?

Here are the options in no particular order

EVE
DoTA 2
Tera
DC Universe Online
EverQuest series
Aion
Star Trek Online
Lineage II
Lord of the Rings Online
Rift
WoW
Guild Wars 2
Star Wars the Old Republic
Final Fantasy XIV
League of Legends
ESO - Elderscrolls Online
Wildstar
Skyforge
Blade & Soul


For me of the one's i've tried, I think the toughest choice is between FFXIV, SWTOR and WoW, then ESO. A game like EVE is great, but it has little fantasy embellishment still has it's own fantasy. Rift I always felt was a bit too thin - they don't have the advantage of games like ESO that have many installments, or Warcraft or SWTOR representing the gigantic star wars universe, of Final Fantasy which started before most of us were born.

Anyway, as you've played these MMOs, which really had the magic touch to you?

EDIT: DoTA and LoL have finally been replaced with LoTR and TSW

[Herecius]

For me? Guild Wars 2. The art style and the entire world just feel tremendously alien and fantastic. FFXIV would... if it weren't for the fact that its world feels and looks like a Final Fantasy world, something I'm already super familiar with. Not that that's a bad thing! It's just not... unfamiliar and strange.

[Fencers]

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the most engaging and well executed story presentation in an MMORPG that I have played. I actually don't like Star Wars or the films very much. Yet I found The Old Republic very compelling and fun to play- every expansion I resub and play through the story elements once or twice. That's saying a lot in my book considering I have no attachment to the license and do not care about story in video games generally speaking.

[Eleccybubb]

For me personally its Guild Wars 2 and FF14. I love the PVP that gw2 offers and the pve in ff14 is amazing so far.

[Vespian]

My first MMO: Ragnarok Online. It was wonderful and new and lots of lag, but it was still enjoyable. Until like, level 80+, that was when the grind really set in. And after that, SW:TOR did a good job for a while, until the MMO-grinding part just became a chore. I never even made it to 50. I think, that if I hadn't been all bled dry by WoW and Rift, that would have been a similar experience, although aesthetically speaking, the anatomy in SW:TOR is...horrendous.. Limbs don't move that way. Yeah, I think they really could have done some parts a lot better, but in general, it does what it was meant to do. Provide an excellent narrated storyline.

[Val the Moofia Boss]

EVE. EVE so much. The lore draws you in, and traveling the galaxy while seeing snipets of the game's vast backstory is awe inspiring. The galaxy has so much history that just have to stop and observe while passing by, and yet so much of it his shrouded in mystery, causing on to wonder.

[Ol Scratch]

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the most engaging and well executed story presentation in an MMORPG that I have played. I actually don't like Star Wars or the films very much. Yet I found The Old Republic very compelling and fun to play- every expansion I resub and play through the story elements once or twice. That's saying a lot in my book considering I have no attachment to the license and do not care about story in video games generally speaking.

The only thing really great about SWTOR are the class quests, in which you actually feel like you're playing your particular role. Especially the non-force users. Smugglers feel like criminals, Troopers feel like they're in the military, Bounty Hunters actually go out and collect bounties, and Imperial Agents actually feel like bad ass spies. It's wonderful.

The gameplay, however, sucks. As does the ridiculous time, money, and in-game currency sinks they have.

[Hey There Guys its Metro]

That feeling is rooted in experience.
Once you become experienced in a single MMO, you view the others different.

No other game can restore that feeling. Its not a feature. Its just your mind unraveling the mystery of an MMO type environment.

I grasp for the same thing, but every time I play another game like those on that list I end up quickly getting bored of leveling and relearning everything.

[Adamas102]

League of Legends is an MMO now?

[Deleted]

Star Wars: The Old Republic is the most engaging and well executed story presentation in an MMORPG that I have played.

I can not say that at all. Only the class stories are interesting, and not even some of them.

[notanmmmonewbie]

EVE. EVE so much. The lore draws you in, and traveling the galaxy while seeing snipets of the game's vast backstory is awe inspiring. The galaxy has so much history that just have to stop and observe while passing by, and yet so much of it his shrouded in mystery, causing on to wonder.

Ohh yah EVE online was pretty good...

I had played Star Trek Online, SWTOR, and various other fighter plane/space sim type games. But some of the space animations and even the warp tunnel effect in EVE was just really good. One other thing i liked which might sounds cheesy is that the background music was pretty good too, like it was soothing. I started playing it during Crucible and even the loading screen had an ok soundtrack. And i also liked how it had an in game media player where you could pick and choose what you wanted to play and if you wanted to put something on repeat. But back to the warp...another thing that i liked is how you had the British-ey sounding announcer chick "Aura". Activating warp and listening to her say "warp drive active" or actually it sounded more like "whappp drive actuv" when she said it lol. Then going through the warp tunnel where it would rumble at first and then smooth out and then maybe it would start to rumble again. In the videos below i was actually in awe at some of those things when i first saw them too. Like the light patterns of the nearby star and also seeing the nebulas with the cool patterns similar to the one in the video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BGaaKKqIG8

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGnF1HmO7bQ

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N6N2-Vj2Jgo

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Rxp_qrnO34

The last one is the soundtrack and my favorites are 1:27:13 "Red Glowing Dust", 1:22:43 "Nouvelle Rouvenor Hero" and 0:00 "Miner Stories". I would put those on repeat along with a few others and just mine ore while kicking back.

[RadasNoir]

I couldn't help noticing that The Secret World was not on that list, which would be my vote.

Please note that I'm neither surprised nor upset by this. For one reason or another, TSW always seems to get lost in the MMO shuffle.

[nyc81991]

Guild Wars 2 hands down.

[ParanoiD84]

Guild wars 2.

[Lotus Victoria]

Guild Wars 2 hands down.

You bet it!

[pateuvasiliu]

I recently played GW2, SWTOR, TESO, LOTRO, Archeage and none of them compare to WoW in any of its incarnations ( including the shitstorm that was Vanilla ).

WoW's controls, PvP, lore and world are simply out of anyone else's league.

Guild Wars 2 is nice for the first 10 levels until you realise that the whole '' No quests! Dynamic events! '' thing is just another way of saying ''Quests''. Kill 10 oompa loompas or gather 10 apples, it's still a grind.


Archeage is an amazing game if you like roleplaying, but mechanically it has a lot of flaws WoW 2004 did not have. For instance if someone casts a spell at you from 30 meters, which has a max range of 35 and you run out of the cast range up to 40 meters the spell will still be cast. Basically your only hope when fighting a caster is to chainstun because you can't dash in and out of their cast zone.

Which is just shitty mechanics not worthy of a game in 2014/2015.

SWTOR is blatant pay to win.

LOTRO is about as old as WoW but the difference in fluidity of combat and controls is absolutely staggering. It's like you're controlling pinocchio and trying to make him walk like a real boy.

[Deleted]

I loved levelling in SWTOR so much, i was completely gripped by my story. FF on the other hand was the most frustrating and boring storytelling i'd ever endured

[Vespian]

Archeage is an amazing game if you like roleplaying, but mechanically it has a lot of flaws WoW 2004 did not have. For instance if someone casts a spell at you from 30 meters, which has a max range of 35 and you run out of the cast range up to 40 meters the spell will still be cast. Basically your only hope when fighting a caster is to chainstun because you can't dash in and out of their cast zone.

Was this meant sarcastically? Because the example you gave, works like that in WoW too... They changed how casting works somewhere in tBC as far as I recall. It used to be that going out of bounds by even a fraction, your cast would be interrupted, but it's been like ~2 to 3 yards extra 'out of bound' range (10% of a spells range, I think?) for a looooooong time and was considered a much needed change to the way spells worked.

And tBC, was, mechanically, the best state WoW has ever been in. It was hard, but fair. Storywise, Frozen Throne tops it, but that came with some severe dumbing down on the gameplay.

SWTOR is blatant pay to win.

But it never used to be, which still makes a difference, because the poll is not about any game being pay to win, but about the experience you had when first playing it, or for as long as you played it.

[Beloren]

I never felt the magic of Rift or ESO. Rift felt too contrived and a bit rubbishy on the main theme, but I did like their take on te advenurer. ESO felt too dark and gloomy plus I didn't like everyone starting in the same area.

Wow I had a friend with which made it a lot of fun, but my vote goes to SWTOR, the Jedi starting area felt so magical. Made you really feel the part

[pateuvasiliu]

Was this meant sarcastically? Because the example you gave, works like that in WoW too... They changed how casting works somewhere in tBC as far as I recall. It used to be that going out of bounds by even a fraction, your cast would be interrupted, but it's been like ~2 to 3 yards extra 'out of bound' range (10% of a spells range, I think?) for a looooooong time and was considered a much needed change to the way spells worked.

Eh? No, it's literally the same. If you're at 30 meters, I cast Frostbolt and you take 2 steps back when my cast is over no spell is launched and I get '' out of range ''.

But it never used to be

Well, it has been so ever since I played it.