Most Successful MMOs Ever.

[Cuchulainn]

Alright, I thought it might be fun to have everyone to make a list of the most successful MMOs. Start from most to less prestigious. Your list may contain any number of MMOs you would desire, and you may rate them by any means you deem suitable. Whether it be based upon subscriber count, or innovation, the choice is yours. However, there is one rule: you can't list MMOs that haven't been released yet.

My list is rated by effort, innovation, and daring.
1. Everquest (Dared to challenge Ultima, and became the father of modern MMOs)
2. World of Warcraft (EQ killer. 1.0-3.1, enough said IMO)
3. Ultima Online (set the stage for MMOs)
4. Guild Wars (casual F2P and deep lore. A very fresh idea for the time)
5. Age of Conan (a very innovative battle system, would have been great but the bugs killed it)
6. Aion (Had some good ideas, but were quite restrictive about them)
7. Rift (Their DEs were a step in the right direction)

Remember, this is all just opinion, let's not start any flame wars over each others lists.

[ro9ue]

The only MMOs I ever liked were WoW and EQ. I played Warhammer, Rift, GW1, and probably a few others, but really didn't invest much time into them compared WoW/EQ. Rift almost reeled me in, but when I reached level 50, I realized I was just playing WoW again.

2 MMOs I regret not playing: DAoC and Age of Conan. I've always heard DAoC's PVP was amazing, but I was too engrossed in EQ at the time. Same with Age of Conan, heard it was great, but WoW had my full attention.

List:
1. WoW
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2. EQ

[Autofollow]

I'm gonna agree with WoW and EQ (but I'll lean on EQ2 instead of the original)
I also want to place Vanguard in the list. It tried to have the feel of EQ2, with the end game feel of WoW with reputation grinds. The Ambassador talents were a good thought. It just never really took off. I played for a few months and gave it up.
Played AoC for a month until I couldn't take the bugs anymore.

[glo]

Alright, I thought it might be fun to have everyone to make a list of the most successful MMOs. Start from most to less prestigious. Your list may contain any number of MMOs you would desire, and you may rate them by any means you deem suitable. Whether it be based upon subscriber count, or innovation, the choice is yours. However, there is one rule: you can't list MMOs that haven't been released yet.

My list is rated by effort, innovation, and daring.
1. Everquest (Dared to challenge Ultima, and became the father of modern MMOs)
2. World of Warcraft (EQ killer. 1.0-3.1, enough said IMO)
3. Ultima Online (set the stage for MMOs)
4. Guild Wars (casual F2P and deep lore. A very fresh idea for the time)
5. Age of Conan (a very innovative battle system, would have been great but the bugs killed it)
6. Aion (Had some good ideas, but were quite restrictive about them)
7. Rift (Their DEs were a step in the right direction)

Remember, this is all just opinion, let's not start any flame wars over each others lists.

WoW wasn't an EQ killer. Sony retained almost all of their user base, they still do, even to this day.

[Ulfric Trumpcloak]

4,5,6,7 are crap and of all the 1st 3 WoW is by far the most successful

[babalou1]

Dont care where in the list, but Asheron's Call is definately ranking.

[YouAreAllWrong]

Eve online is truly a remarkable MMO. CCP is a very unique company, it has some crazy ideas and game design philosophy that is out of this world.

[Glaucus]

IMHO Ragnarok Online should be in that list, I've still played it longer than WoW and I've been playing since mid Vanilla.

I've played EQ only briefly, but never really got into it. Age of Conan wasnt bad but it had some major drawbacks (instanced fields were a huge drawback for me).

1. Ragnarok online (prolly more nostalgia why its my nr. 1 but meh :P)
2. WoW
3. Age of Conan
4. Cabal Online (flashy skills and spells ftw, was/is a great game for a F2P)
5. Everquest

[Gaios]

IIRC "Anarchy Online" was quite successful. And what about "Dark Age of Camelot"? I think the list needs to be extended and reevaluated.

[Doriath]

Ive played alot of MMOs,not many kept my attention for to long.WoW was usually my main attraction..but Eve online is without a doubt the most well done MMO out there.Beautiful and absoultly MASSIVE universe,Diverse gameplay,and kept the "journy" aspect in the game which wow has lost and focuses only on the destination..which other mmos are sadly doing.Fucking difficult learning curve and tough to get to into.Always sad when you blow almost all of your ISK on a new ship and it gets destroyed.

[Poinen]

1. Dark Age of Camelot by Mythic - Great norse mythology and undisputed champion of PvP ( BEST GAMEPLAY - Loved the attack system, combo styles etc. )
2. World of Warcraft by Blizzard - Cute cartoonstyle and easy to play ( no brainer )
3. Warhammer Online by Mythic - Almost had a DAoC feel about it but it was never able to compete.
4. Eve-Online - Beatiful game with a huge world to explore, although gameplay is slow as hell and character progress is a pain in the ass. Takes years on end to get maxed.
5. Aion - Great idea just too buggy and didn't have a feel of being in charge when lvling in the zones... the direction you could go was laid before you, no real choise in how to get through most zones.

[Deleted]

1WoW
2 Everquest preWoW

No other MMOs are worth mentioning because they are inferior.

EDIT
This is if you see "successful" to be equivalent with a big audience. Which imo is correct in this context.

[Dorfie]

DAoC...? Come on!

[Poinen]

1WoW
2 Everquest preWoW

No other MMOs are worth mentioning because they are inferior.

Wrong, you can't list any besides those two because you haven't played anything else. I've played just about every mmorpg out there, just Lineage1-2, Conan etc etc was so bad in my opinion... actualy all mmorpgs are bad compared to Dark Age of Camelot, god i wish we could turn back time to 1997 and start again with DAoC.

[Deleted]

1. Dark Age of Camelot by Mythic - Great norse mythology

Never played but Camelot is english folklore and norse mythology is located in north europe about 1000 AD. Seems publishers failed in history.

[ElfinHilon10]

To follow how the OP said to list it, this is my ranking,

1. Ultima Online. No explaination needed.
2. EverQuest 1. Changed from 2d to 3d. More people in world etc.
3. World of Warcraft. DRASTICALLY changed how MMO's in the western world are played today.
4. Runescape. Forever changed browser gaming to be a full experience.
5. Tibia. This game isn't known by most, but at the time it came out, it had many innovative features, such as player housing, along with the ability to actually drop items on the ground for others to pick up. This, along with graphics design akin to UO, and a spell system that is very unique (very outdated in todays terms) makes for a game that really set up the fantasy genre grow.
6. Dark Age of Camelot. This is rather obvious. Changed the way pvp was played.
7. Runes of Magic. This may seem rather strange, but with the implementation of the "dual-class" system , it had a few games following after it in it's own way, ala RIFT.
8. RIFT. RIFT really brought back the world events, and started the dynamic world even trend that we are seeing in so many games.


Honestly, a lot of these are really close. Some I want to rate higher (RIFT) and others lower (Tibia/Runescape) but I feel the spots are somewhat just.

[Deleted]

Wrong, you can't list any besides those two because you haven't played anything else. I've played just about every mmorpg out there, just Lineage1-2, Conan etc etc was so bad in my opinion... actualy all mmorpgs are bad compared to Dark Age of Camelot, god i wish we could turn back time to 1997 and start again with DAoC.

If you read my edit you'll see why. DAoC maybe is a superb game, but how big was their playerbase?

[Toccs]

Your forgetting...

EvE Online
Star Wars: Galaxies

[Edge-]

1WoW
2 Everquest preWoW

No other MMOs are worth mentioning because they are inferior.

EDIT
This is if you see "successful" to be equivalent with a big audience. Which imo is correct in this context.

If you're going by that standard, there are a TON of F2P MMO's that have WoW beat in terms of registered users or concurrent users ect.

I'd toss something like Maple Story up there, as it's the earliest F2P MMO I can think of and it's still around. The early F2P MMO's DEFINITELY deserve a mention for pioneering an increasingly popular part of the market.

[Poinen]

Never played but Camelot is english folklore and norse mythology is located in north europe about 1000 AD. Seems publishers failed in history.

But mate, i am from Denmark so that is why it appealed to me. Big strong vikings and the britania kelts + midgard trolls and other magical creatures.

+ all the places in the game was actualy REAL LIFE LOCATIONS... such as Salisbury plains where we had the Stonehenge Instance, even had Lady of the Lake story.
http://darkageofcamelot.com/content/classes-races