Any games similar to WoW?

[Deleted]

I'm not sure if there are any threads like this, but anyways, long story short. I got fed up with WoW, I burn through content way too fast, ALL of my friends (real life friends I played with and "WoW friends") quit and it's boring to play with random players (who 99.9% of times turn out to be rude baddies) yada yada etc etc...

I'm wondering if there are any alternatives to WoW? I know there is a reason WoW is number 1 (still, surprisingly)... but there must be a game as good out there? I tried Rift and it's not nearly as close, I heard Aion sucks... oh and I don't wanna hear about those free RuneScape's and Perfect World's out there.

Just want some epic as TBC or WoTLK. I guess the biggest problem is that in the past year WoW's community completely reshaped and new demographic took over. Or it's just maybe cross-realm dungeons/BGs that fail. I miss the 'good old times' when every realm had it's color per se.... you could have easily avoided bad players, you could have built your reputation up by being a good tank, people actually communicated and all that crap.

[Edge-]

TBC AND LK were vastly different, so you'd have to specify which one you're looking towards (TBC being more raider centric and closed off and LK moving towards making the game more accessible to casual players).

But as for the community, you're really not going to find the kind of community you had in classic or BC (it was hurting a bit at the end of BC and died during LK) outside of smaller games like Eve Online. Just about every game has been doing everything they can to connect EVERYONE who plays the game. I haven't really seen any company make small community building a focus of their game unfortunately.

Also, you're probably looking back with rose colored glasses. I know I do that frequently and even knowing it doesn't change the fact that I can't really take them off : /

[Deleted]

The kind of Community you remember completely died when the dungeon finder was implemented. Back in tbc, realm-wide reputation meant a lot - if you knew the right people, you were invited into raids, which made bigger guilds notice you... and you met the 'right' people in dungeons. people actually talked to each other during dungeons, and bad behavior like insulting, griefing or ragequitting dungeons actually hat consequences - these people wouldn't want to group with bad-mannered players. that way, people actually cared about other players...
you won't find this sense of realm-wide community again. it's long gone, and blizzard won't bring it back... actually blizzard caters specifically to that kind of rude, bad-behaving player that wasn't invited into groups back then...

[Deleted]

Also, you're probably looking back with rose colored glasses. I know I do that frequently and even knowing it doesn't change the fact that I can't really take them off : /

Maybe, but if I played end TBC and WoTLK again with same people I'm sure I'd love every minute of it.

[insmek]

Apparently Everquest II has a good community. I can't say for sure how it compares to the old WoW community feeling, but that's just what a quick Googling revealed. From personal experience, by far the friendliest community I've experience was Dungeons and Dragons Online, followed closely by Fallen Earth. Both of those had plenty of people in the starting areas willing to answer questions and help people out. There was also a great deal of grouping opportunities.

[Uennie]

Maybe, but if I played end TBC and WoTLK again with same people I'm sure I'd love every minute of it.

You can enjoy the worst MMO in the world with a few good friends. That, has nothing to do with your main question. You need to factor out your friends and look at your hunt as a fresh start. You need to consider the idea of starting from scratch in a game - even if you know some friends may join you. It's important to consider the "alone" factor, and making new friends. Considering the community is important for a game for some people, and it seems it is for you as well.

Allods, I cannot recommend highly enough. The graphics are great, it's a little scifi pulpy, it's free, and a lot of it is innovative in design. Admittedly, it has its cumbersome aspects, but I enjoy it enough to keep a "vacation home" there when I'm burnt out from WoW. There is a cash shop, but you can level and excel without investing money into it. Allods is actually Russian-based, so you won't be able to understand any of your emotes, but it still sounds really cool.

Rift is similar. I don't like Rift though so I'm going to try and be as unbiased as possible for your benefit. Rift tried really hard, and it excelled in some areas. I don't feel it is user-friendly though. The basic UI while claiming to be customizable is buggy and always screwed up on me when I tried to do anything with it, you can't solo a good bunch of Rifts at lower levels (which encourages you to join their public groups and get to know people but I had a hard time finding anyone around). Everything is very loud, but I found that when I turned down environmental effects the atmosphere of the dulled explosions made it exciting and anticipating versus it being straight in my face.

If you have a hard time differentiating colours, beware of Rift's mob "nameplates". The default ones are really hard to see against several backgrounds. If you're into RP, you'll have to work behind the entire storyline of you being THE ONE. You're basically Neo, and if you're into that then awesome. Unfortunately it was weird for them to constantly be insisting that I was the bigtime story hero. WoW has that but it's a little more understated. Rift really pushes that on you in their effort to be "epic" all the time.

Rift made a good effort. I do feel it could have been more polished. It still feels like it's in beta testing for me.

Guild Wars 2 is something to look into, Aion has apparently made some big changes where it's not so grindy anymore. Aion is actually pretty cool so I'd suggest for you to also give these two a look. If you want something else that is also along the F2P lines, then check out Dungeons and Dragons online. DDO is a little frustrating if you're unlucky to get a sigil to continue leveling, but the mechanics are fun. I had a lot of fun two-manning dungeons with a good friend of mine and finding clever ways to use dungeon traps and player skills to make the dungeon more interesting than hack-and-slash. I thought that was really really cool of DDO to do. LOTRO also isn't bad, music and atmosphere is great. Quests can be kind of repetitive (moreso than WoW). I remember in one of the starting zones I had to run back and forth between these two NPCs acting as their messenger go-between. It was really irritating the 7th time around. I was almost begging for an escort quest.

But either which way, browsing these forums is a great way to see people mention MMO's to play. Good luck!

[Scrabblet]

DCUO is f2p. It's more Action-y but it's still VERY fun.

[Fencers]

I'm wondering if there are any alternatives to WoW? I know there is a reason WoW is number 1 (still, surprisingly)... but there must be a game as good out there? I tried Rift and it's not nearly as close, I heard Aion sucks... oh and I don't wanna hear about those free RuneScape's and Perfect World's out there

I would suggest either Rift or The Old Republic (release Dec 20).

Both are hotkey MMOs with a heavy emphasis on stat crunch as the gameplay mechanic.

Rift has a gimmick open world content called, um, rifts. But retains the fantasy genre tropes, raids of 10/20 variety (very good ones too), darker toned art style and plethora of dungeons and NPCs with ! above their head.

Feel of combat in Rift is fast paced and the most well executed of any MMO on the market since the original World of Warcraft broke the EQ combat feel. Many of the class concepts are analogous in playability to Warcraft's classes.

Rift has a really robust community of high end radiers and all the stat crunch of endgame World of Warcraft.

Typical raid boss encounters are of this mode:



The Old Republic has 2 gimmicks; Star Wars and (awesome, IMO) story telling. It has raids and dungeons, companions for easy soloing, cartoony art style and a really tight feel to combat. Many of the class concepts are analogous in playability to Warcraft's classes.

The Old Republic is yet to be released however. But it's in Beta and quite good.

Both are totally excellent games with a AAA western MMORPG feel and structural conceits of World of Warcraft.

[Valeron]

Rift is probably your best alternative to WoW if you are looking for a similar play style.

[MightyHobbit]

I did quit WoW because of same reasons as OP, and later found Rift as a very good alternative.

Of course there are jerks in that game aswell, but it's often easier to find a tank since 3/4 of the classes can tank

[Drofdel]

Rift is probably your best alternative to WoW if you are looking for a similar play style.

This. They pretty much emulated many features that you've seen in WoW.

[Bodaway]

Rift is a great time waster but after a month or two it wasn't very exciting for me.

I think if I had found a good guild that had raid times that met mine it would be better. I did manage to do one full raid (drowned halls) and it was very fun.

[Deleted]

Rift is basicly WoW with better graphics. And it certainly is fun for a while, but I got tired with it a lot faster than with WoW, it's missing something, don't know what. But it is definitely worth a try, if money is not a problem.

[Deleted]

Hm, someone mentioned The Old Republic. Is it possible to enjoy that game if I never watched any Star Wars movie and if I'm not into light sabers?

[Fencers]

Rift is basicly WoW with better graphics. And it certainly is fun for a while, but I got tired with it a lot faster than with WoW, it's missing something, don't know what. But it is definitely worth a try, if money is not a problem.

This is common among former WOW players because Rift offers what is very close to WoW in structure and feel.

You know you are doing X, Y, Z dungeons and soon to do raid A, B, C and speccing your heals, tanking DPS just so. Etc.

Familiarity where one is looking for novelty.

Hm, someone mentioned The Old Republic. Is it possible to enjoy that game if I never watched any Star Wars movie and if I'm not into light sabers?

Absolutely!

I am not a Star Wars fan by any means. But the story is excellent and not based on anything from the movies I can recall. In fact, they are just personal stories of duty, betrayal, world conflict set in the Star Wars universe. I am sure there are Star Wars touches and Easter eggs for those in the know.

I have no idea what any of that stuff meant but was totally sucked into the story/world right away. Totally excellent. Not a lick stale quest text to read either- all NPCs speak and you have multiple dialogue options effecting outcomes and your character permanently.

If you want to be an evil bastard... you can be REALLY evil. If you want to be a shining knight, you practically sprout angel wings. But you can also make a lot gray area choices that are truly ambiguous.

There are non-Jedi classes like Bounty Hunters, Storm Trooper and Smugglers. If the space magic angle doesn't appeal to you.

It plays exactly like World of Warcraft. They call Steady Shot by another name, Shield Wall becomes Jedi Force Wall or whatever. Conceptually and playability-wise you will jump right in with any familiarity of World of Warcraft.

TOR handles dungeons/raids somewhat differently than WoW. If that it your thing, than Rift is a more suitable game for PVE raider. At least at this time.

[Daarksoul]

If I told you what wow guild I was in, you'd shit your pants.
We disbanded right about when Blizzard launched a one room dungeon and called it tier 10 - if yo'ure the curious type.
I did stick around to pug TLK before the nerf though, but Cata... sigh...

Anyway, the best thing right now would be to tool around in Rift for a while and just enjoy the different look and feel of the graphics.
If Rift isn't your thing, LOTRO is also well put together, and I spent some time fooling around there too.
LOTR is f2p and Rift has a 1 week free trial, so take your pick.

But only do a 1 month Rift sub, and grab yourself an early order of SWTOR which comes out December 20.
This will be THE place to be from launch until GW2 comes out.
Sure, wow will have more subs, with most of them spending all their time QQing while they wait for Diablo 3.
But the most fun will be had in the Star Wars Universe for that period of time - whether you like star wars or not.
Will it make it unitil end game? Who knows or cares except for the wow fanbois that have the future all predicted out.

Once GW2 comes out, well it's going to be a different world - buy it, and you can play for free with no sub.
I imagine there will be some shuffling around at that time between SWTOR, GW2, Tera, and wow.
no one really knows what's going to happen next spring.... especially given the upside down feel of most wow players with pandas inc.