I’ve been bitching about World of WarCraft for some time now. As I said before, the pinnacle of the game for me was many years ago with the Mists of Pandaria expansion. So, the stuff revealed so far in the Activision Blizzard lawsuit was just the push I needed to quit WoW. It was a long time coming; I don’t think anyone will be surprised.
At this point, MMOs are in my blood. I’m not even going to attempt to forsake the genre. The field of choices of a new main game is enormous these days. I have been meditating for a month trying to come up with the top things I really want in an MMO. I’ve come up with some criteria and a list of games I delved into to see if they hit or miss the marks. The list in order of importance:
- How Casual
- PvP
- Gear Grind
- Cost
I’m older now, and I need a more casual game. When, how much, and with whom I’m able to play an MMO is going to be up in the air at all times so having enough soloable/small group content is a must. I love open world PvP and instanced PvP, especially WoW Battleground like modes. Gear Grind comes in two forms, endgame PvE and PvP. PvE Gear Grind doesn’t mean anything to me. I’m fine with it, but PvP Gear Grind better be none or very quick and accessible to everyone. Cost is last because it concerns me the least. There will always be some kind of cost.
Final Fantasy XIV
How Casual
For the most part the main story is soloable, but it forces dungeons on you to progress. Sometimes the queue can be quite long. The endgame stuff that matters is around 8 person groups. The community is rather nice, but just above the middle road of as far as casual content even though there is tons of stuff you can do not much is possible or even worth it without a large Company.
There is no need to run an Alt in this game as your main character can be everything and can switch on the fly. Major points for this.
Worst of the bunch. The PvP in this game just feels awful. I don’t know if they can ever address this. Yoshi-P and crew have given the community many things they wanted, and if the PvP community was larger they would probably … slowly address PvP. But, that is neither here nor there.
Also, the particles are WAY too wild for PvP clarity. Like, holy shit. Looks fine in PvE, but maybe since you have all custom PvP abilities already, you can give custom animation and particles so it isn’t so over the top. Yes, I know there is an option to lower the particles, but it will literally go from massive firework confetti vomit to literally nothing with one reduction in the option.
PvP
Gear Grind
It’s fine. Kind of boring. Normal treadmill we are all use to. One interesting thing is when newest raid falls off the hotness to an even newer raid release. It now becomes easier and able to do it with a larger group. Pretty cool catchup mechanic, but you really have to loke PvE.
You have to buy the game, buy the expansion, pay a monthly fee, and the in-game shop items are not cheap. Second rating that is the worst of the bunch.
Cost
Final Verdict
FFXIV probably has the best presented story of any MMO. SWTOR still has better dialogue. To be honest, FFXIV feels more like a Final Fantasy JRPG with some co-op raids and dungeons. Definitely too expensive for what I’m looking for, and there is no way in hell I will be able to talk others into it easy anyways. That being said, the dev team for FFXIV seems to deliver what the fans want to them on the regular. I will probably chip away at the main storyline over time, but being forced into dungeons and boss kills to have to queue up really slows down the pace for me so this will be a long endeavor if I even manage to re-subscribe enough do it.
Guild Wars 2
How Casual
As casual as they come. So many things you can do, and they are accessible solo for the most part. If not, it is very easy to find a group or train and join them. I’m going to lower the score some because then big fights, hell even small fights, happen there is so much shit happening that I have no idea what is going on.
I would also like to give a shout out to the dev team for keeping all progress useful on our character no matter how much new content is added. All the masteries and open world stuff you work up is useful.
So, you have the big WvW zones. You can roam around and take small nodes of interest or join the blob. Easy enough to get in, but unless you’re max level and have access to expansion professions, I would stick with the zerg. Structured PvP is nice, but is really only one mode that matters, 5v5. Same kind of maps as well. Capture and hold 3 points. Boring compared to WoW Battlegrounds. I need like
PvP
Gear Grind
You can just buy the second most powerful gear right off the Trading Company for cheap. This gear will carry you through all content except fractals, the hardest PvE content. Structured PvP’s gear is normalized so that’s good. Ascended gear has the highest stats. It’s not too hard to get a full set if you play often. Legendary is another matter. You have to do some convoluted crafting just to make it. What’s great about Legendary gear is that it is the same power as Ascended gear only you can change the stats to anything you want at any time. A really cool system.
Don’t be fooled. There is no monthly fee, and you only have to buy the current expansion. However, there are many convenience purchases you will make to fully unlock your character / account’s potential. If you’re late in the game and you want to see the main story quests, you will pay for each of the quests, each one. I’m docking it a few points because locking out bank space, bag space, total resources stored, and other things like gathering nodes in your home area shouldn’t be a cash shop thing.
Cost
Final Verdict
I’m going to be up front. I love GW2. I have for a long time. It’s the greatest MMO that I can never get friends to stay on. I think the main issue is GW2 endgame. Starting out is fights are clear and make since. What attacks you’re doing and stuff the enemies do makes since. As you get into endgame, there is so much shit going on that I can’t tell if I am even being effective or not. What was that? I died? Why? To what? Too many boons and conditions as well as the telegraphing for player abilities all look the same-y. There are people who cracked the code, and I might would have if people I knew played the game. You need to be galaxy brain to understand all the crap that goes on in end game fights for both PvE and PvP. Too be fair, I’ll still log on to GW2 because there isn’t a gear grind so I’m always just as power as the last time I logged off … 6 months ago.
I know they are finally getting DX11 support which is awesome, but it might be too little too late for it to make this my main game. Making combat much more visually clear would be a huge step in the right direction.
Destiny 2
How Casual
There are a lot of solo and small group modes in the game. And, they can take you to the max power level. You won’t get all the legendries or mods you need to be top tier without a full raid group and/or Nightfall group. On the surface, Destiny 2 feels casual, but it’s not anymore. Maybe when it first launched, but content creatored bitched enough about not have GeAR To GRinD so now nothing about Destin 2 is casual. You can play the bottom feeder stuff. That’s casual.
Gear power level is equalized in some PvP modes and not others. Also, all the stats and mods in gear that we talked about earlier have a huge impact in PvP. If you don’t have access to the right equipment load out you will get rolled and smoked.
PvP
Gear Grind
To get your power level up is a slow burn. Especially so it you don’t run alts. That isn’t the issue. You have to get the right drop with the right stats that you want. Then, you need to unlock all the mods you want to slot into the gear. There is also a seasonal item you upgrade with it’s own seasonal currency. This is for every piece of gear. It sucks to be honest. They are adding in weapon crafting in the next expansion. If they also add in armor crafting and it doesn’t take a billion years to grind the system so you can craft what you want then Destiny’s biggest flaw will be fixed. I’ll never understand why people like grinding the same shit over and over for the small chance of a god roll item.
I have a feeling the crafting system is going to need another year for them to make it tolerable.
Buy the full game and current expansion. No monthly fee, but lose a few points for tying-in the best cosmetics to a confusing, rotating cash shop, and also, for the mental cost of actually grinding this game.
Cost
Final Verdict
You would think with my rating I hate this game. That’s not true at all. This game makes me saddest. It’s is a beautiful game. The art and music team knocked it out of the park. The gunplay is top notch. It just feels good to play the game. But man, PLAYING the game the way Bungie wants you to is the problem. Too many systems and too much grinding. Also, daily and weekly quests to progress your character are just chores. It’s a job to play this game. Feels way to much like WoW. Remember when you could just play the part of a game you liked and not be shoehorned into bullshit?
Lost Ark
How Casual
There seems to be a ton of soloable content. The higher end stuff looks like groups of 6ish or 2 groups of 6ish. It seems fairly access able. Tons of different activities to kill time with. Seems decent.
However, you are encouraged to run multiple Alts. I don’t like Alts. So, I am cutting myself off from all the currencies you would gain from running dailies on Alts that you can transfer to your main. I can think of no greater hell. We’re shooting off 2 stars.
So Lost Ark had 3v3 arenas. It can be all 3 versus all 3 or one at a time like a fighting game. The arenas look like the best part of the game to me. It is very flashing, but you can follow what is going on. Also gear doesn’t play a factor in PvP so that’s a huge bonus.
The PvP does look fun, and if that is all you did in this game, you can casual the fuck out of it.
PvP
Gear Grind
Looks like you can solo your gear up to the point you need to do group content. The grind is much like other ARPGs. Some randomization, I hope you like killin’. You will kill waves and waves of enemies till your eyes bleed. Then you will change up and do Monster Hunter-esque big monster kills that take a bit of time. It all seems ok, but what has me mostly interested in the gearing is the fact that it l0oks like you can trade most gear between players. If this stays true when it hits the US, could be a huge factor in how much I am even able to enjoy the game.
I’m putting this at just above middle of the road. Too many unknows right now. The game itself is free, but what exactly if going to be for sale on the cash shop? Just cosmetics and stuff? XP Boosters? Currencies? From what I can tell from the Korean version, the cash store is the extensive. I’m not worried about pay to win. If you read this far into the article. you know I’m all about casual and cost is the least important thing to me. Now I’m no Whale or Dolphin (if I had the money I might be), but I’m all for buying currency than spending hours and hours and hours grinding some shit I’d rather not.
Cost
Final Verdict
So, Lost Ark is free to try. I will give it a whirl. Maybe it will scratch that ARPG itch I get from time to time. If so, great. Maybe it will actually draw me in. I just don’t know. Besides, the class gender combo I’d like to play it probably a year away from being released anyways. I don’t think it will captivate me at launch. Maybe after it gets more of the content added from the Korean version, and the in-game economy is developed enough that I can just buy some top end gear for cheap to bypass all the grinding, but that is a long ways off.
The game looks fun to play though so if that’s your thing….
New World
How Casual
Nothing seems too crazy to accomplish in this game. Accessibility seems casual enough. From what I’ve see the Dungeons look fairly puggable. No need for Alts in this game that I can see. PvE doesn’t look like some convoluted horseshit where I have to memorized 1000 different phases and enemy abilities so that function enough to make it to the next level of PvE shit I have to learn. Keep it simple.
Level scaling and item scaling in all aspects of PvP. The strongest rating for this game. It should come to no surprise. New World was originally designed to be a hard core PvP game. If not full loot then partial loot. Luckily, they walked away from what would have been the normal zerg fest open world PvP. People can flag for PvP or not. There are 50v50 scheduled wars between factions for control on zones. Easy to duel people. They have a 20v20 instanced battle. This is getting really close to what I like with WoW Battlegrounds. I’m a tiny cog in the machine. I don’t need to be the best of the best to PvP and have some fun. Please add more modes around this play count. Maybe 10v10 and 15v15 to. Go crazy.
They also said small scale arenas might be a thing. Since you can respec your character this actually sounds pretty cool.
All this being great is contingent on them normalizing gear in PvP. Keep. It. Balanced!
PvP
Gear Grind
There is one, but it doesn’t look like you need to be a rocket sciences to dungeons and quests for legendary gear thank god. With PvP scaling gear isn’t something I have to stress about getting just to be competitive. Which is a huge headache I don’t have to deal with that I had in WoW, thank fuck. Keep it smooth.
You buy the game, and there is no monthly fee. The in game shop seems to be cosmetics, but we will know for sure with it’s full release. Keep it stylish.
Cost
Final Verdict
The title of this article might have given my choice away. Yes, New World is the next MMO I’m going to try. It seems to check off the most boxes. Will it suck ass at max level? Will content creators crying like bitches about NORMALIZED and BALANCED gear influence the devs? I hope not. Fair PvP across the board in an MMO is something new and fresh, and I hope the devs stick to their guns.
The story sucks and is weak. Honestly, that might be the best thing for an MMO with proximity voice chat. Hard to feel like an epic quest when the turd you just killed calls you a fag and I’m pretty sure you will hear the N word a few times every time you walk into a town for the first few months until Amazon bans enough shitheads. You don’t need story in an MMO. None. Cool content. That’s all you need. Keep it stupid.
If it isn’t clear from the video, New World’s combat is clean. I can follow what the hell is going on. This is a major departure from most MMOs out there. If that is a biproduct of the other systems (abilities, gear, perks, buffs, potions, etc.), then be damn sure that future updates don’t convolute the system. I just want one god damn MMO that’s not miserable to play and doesn’t force me to log on several hours a week just so I can barely compete against those with more time. One. That’s all I’m asking. You do that then you don’t have to worry about me sending money in your cash shop, cause I will.