New to the MMORPG Experience.

[Khaotic]

FFXI, hands down.

[Markus. D]

^^ theres a person who knows what to say

[Madame Adequate]

WoW, without question. Don't think about Guild Wars, and don't even utter the name F---l F-----y XI here. It's alright, to be fair - assuming you like a game which forces you to party once you pass level 14, and does so all the way up to the max level. There's something to be said for FFXI but not that it's casual-friendly or even casual accessable. At least with WoW you get a good 60 levels of doing stuff before endgame hits and you need to get serious to progress further.

Warcraft hasn't become the biggest MMO ever because it's from Blizzard, or because it's Warcraft, or because it does anything especially new - it's done it because it takes everything expected from an MMO and does it better than anybody else, except for PvP. Hopefully PvP will be fixed in 1.12, as intimated (And if not then, then by the time The Burning Crusade rolls around.), but until then it's nothing special. (Of course if you never knew world PvP to begin with, it won't suck half as much not to have it, but you've not played PvP WoW until you've spent four hours fighting a constant battle between Southshore and Tarren Mill. Not for honor points, not for money, not for loot - for glory. For the Horde.)

On the downside, WoW does have more l33t kiddies and whatnot, or at least more vocal ones, but it's a small price to pay and they're easily ignored for the most part.

Guild Wars is excluded because it's not an MMORPG, it's more like a third-person Diablo, only not awesome like Diablo is.

If you have six months to devote to levelling a single character in a single job class to the max level, and are content to spent at least two months cumulatively doing nothing except looking for a group, FFXI might just be for you. If you want a game where only certain content is reliant on other people, where you can play casually and still see something worth seeing in advancement terms, and can generally have a good old time, you'll be wanting WoW.

Of course, nothing is as hardcore as EVE Online, which is totally awesome but gives me headaches. =(

[Miriel]

The experience you have in FFXI will be greatly enhanced by the friends you make in that game. Without a good linkshell, you're gonna have a limited amount of fun and help. Luckily there's a good chunk of people from EoFF who play with me on the Pandemonium server and we manage to have lots of fun.

And seriously, who wants to spend on their time maxing out a character's levels? You people make it sound like that's the only goal for people who play FFXI.

I spend about 20% of my time in FFXI leveling, and the rest of that time I'm running around doing quests/missions/unlocking new jobs, fighting pirates, dying from fighting pirates, and general goofing around.

[Markus. D]

The experience you have in FFXI will be greatly enhanced by the friends you make in that game. Without a good linkshell, you're gonna have a limited amount of fun and help. Luckily there's a good chunk of people from EoFF who play with me on the Pandemonium server and we manage to have lots of fun.

And seriously, who wants to spend on their time maxing out a character's levels? You people make it sound like that's the only goal for people who play FFXI.

I spend about 20% of my time in FFXI leveling, and the rest of that time I'm running around doing quests/missions/unlocking new jobs, fighting pirates, dying from fighting pirates, and general goofing around.

theres a person who knows what shes saying





edit: WoW is overhyped

edit edit: when will people learn to stop calling GW/GW factions a third person view Diablo, gameplay wise it requires a grand amount of skill once you reach the "level cap" instead of PWNING everything with like... 4 differant skills (diablo), The games storyline has greatly improved in Factions ( a sort of combination of Resident Evil and some classic Eastern Eye Film), Diablo II was just some kinda field trip to a few demonic brothers... your classic... world is going to end or something story, just to be brambled by the fact, that the only reminder of Diablo in the expansion (apart from his brothers) is through a secret boss called "uber Diablo".

besides... GW can be played from many differant views, including first person

[Khaotic]

People only look at the negatives in FFXI while looking at the "forced to party" scenario, however, you CAN solo, thats why there is such thing as a beastmaster. Besides that fact, I think being forced to party is a good thing, it allows you to do things while searching for a party, whether that be crafts, having a bazaar set up, or simply looking through the auction house, I find it more convenient to "seek party" than to go out and boringly solo myself up levels. Not to mention the potential in making friends, linkshells are also easy to get, just simply PM someone nicely asking if they're looking for recruits to their LS and if you're nice enough you'll almost always get a pearl, unless its an HNMLS or endgame, then you'll probably need a certain level and/or rank.

[Kyri]

I've only played Final Fantasy XI, and I can tell you it's worth it.
I had friends on game who quit for WoW before, but they came back on FFXI. They said they liked FFXI better. I never tried it though so..yeah..

[Madame Adequate]

People only look at the negatives in FFXI while looking at the "forced to party" scenario, however, you CAN solo, thats why there is such thing as a beastmaster. Besides that fact, I think being forced to party is a good thing, it allows you to do things while searching for a party, whether that be crafts, having a bazaar set up, or simply looking through the auction house, I find it more convenient to "seek party" than to go out and boringly solo myself up levels. Not to mention the potential in making friends, linkshells are also easy to get, just simply PM someone nicely asking if they're looking for recruits to their LS and if you're nice enough you'll almost always get a pearl, unless its an HNMLS or endgame, then you'll probably need a certain level and/or rank.

But in WoW - and indeed a whole slew of other MMOs - you can quite easily go out and party, but you can also do stuff on your own if you want to. In FFXI you can't easily do that until you've already reached a pretty high level. Back when I played FFXI I regularly heard stories of magic-using classes trying to solo enemies "Too weak to give experience" and getting WTFPWND. Sorry, I prefer a game where you can go and seek such foes out, rather than them being de riguer. WoW could win here based purely on it having more options open to you.

[escobert]

I solod to 15 in FFXI, and I could probably solo more if I choose.

[Lionx]

Unfortunetly that doesnt promote team play and makes it so that only a select few people know how to work together and that when you do end-game things with a huge alliance of some sort, its going to be much mroe chaotic. Not that WoW has any big strategy that i really heard of other than hack and slash...i mean i heard bosses do cool things but...nothing that dramtically changes a battle like massive AoE damage or petrification or something that really pushes you. Personally i find that most MMOs that allow you the option to solo all the way to max level, boring and flawed, as the basis of MMO is to play with other people, and one of the main reasons why i dont play RO, no party play is required and that i switched to FFXI.

You just dont feel as important as a Priest in RO compared to a WHM in FFXI.

[Miriel]

But in WoW - and indeed a whole slew of other MMOs - you can quite easily go out and party, but you can also do stuff on your own if you want to. In FFXI you can't easily do that until you've already reached a pretty high level. Back when I played FFXI I regularly heard stories of magic-using classes trying to solo enemies "Too weak to give experience" and getting WTFPWND. Sorry, I prefer a game where you can go and seek such foes out, rather than them being de riguer. WoW could win here based purely on it having more options open to you.

When was the last time you played? Even in recent months, they've added NPC buddies (allows you to "call" a NPC to be your sidekick), empress bands (to help with the leveling), etc.

Plus, what's so wrong with leveling and helping each other out? I guess if you're more into playing by yourself, you should go with WoW but I love the community in FFXI. I love banding together with other people to do quests and missions and kill ugly dragons. I *like* doing things together with other people and how each person has a role to play in a party situation. That's why a MMORPG is so fun, cause it allows me to be part of a real team. And like I said, if you have a good linkshell (which I do) you can usually find people to help you out with whatever it is you're trying to do.

If want to do the Promy quests, I have to do it with other people. You're right, I can't do it alone. But I don't see a problem with that. Yes, you're dependent on other people, but man, those quests can be really fun with a good group of people and friends. Even if you die, at least you're not dying alone.

[Freya]

FFXI: I played a while ago. got the HDD and everything, to my waste of money, didn't like it. It seemed to hard to level and to get your skills up, to much time involved.

GW: Never played but i've heard good things, 'sides that the graphics would kill my computer.

WoW: WoW is a game you can just pick up and play. It's easy to level your character through the newbie lvls. Since WoW is such a big thing you can always find a group to quest with. If you don't like the people and need a story, go to a Roleplaying server. If you want to kill horde or allies, then go to a pvp server. If you want on character to be on a pvp server and another on a normal then you can theres no limit. If you hit the 60 cap go for epic sets in Molten Core. By the time you get a few the expansion will come out and you have 2 new races a new class and a 70 cap. Plus there's this thing called /ignore and those little 12 year old kids in thier moms basements are go forever(well at least you don't have to listen to them)
My recommendation, go for WoW. It's easy to play but fun (if you do all the quests). It's so popular your bound to find friends, unless your a jerk then they will use /IGNORE.

[Madame Adequate]

When was the last time you played? Even in recent months, they've added NPC buddies (allows you to "call" a NPC to be your sidekick), empress bands (to help with the leveling), etc.

A few months ago, so I admit my info isn't current, but it really shouldn't be necessary.

Plus, what's so wrong with leveling and helping each other out? I guess if you're more into playing by yourself, you should go with WoW but I love the community in FFXI. I love banding together with other people to do quests and missions and kill ugly dragons. I *like* doing things together with other people and how each person has a role to play in a party situation. That's why a MMORPG is so fun, cause it allows me to be part of a real team. And like I said, if you have a good linkshell (which I do) you can usually find people to help you out with whatever it is you're trying to do.

I like all those things as well. It's a great feeling downing some uber baddy with a band of your friends - or even strangers. I just object to it being the ONLY way to play the game. Don't assume that just because I want there to be other choices, that I necessarily dislike the choices we have now. I just don't like them enough for them to hold my attentions.

I'd also note that WoW is, barring aforementioned 12 year olds, a very friendly place. Almost every instance run I do gets a new person or two for the friend's list.

[Erdrick Holmes]

Either Guild Wars or Phantasy Star Online, because if you're payinf a monthly fee for an online game you're getting ripped off, period.

[Gnostic Yevon]

There's a freeware one called knights online that seems pretty good. I've only played the first few levels, but it's entertaining.