I'm sure a lot of you are very sick of this question. Like me, you've probably remained on the hunt for that perfect mmo experience for 10+ years. I'm not sure if there's anything else for me to find I haven't looked into, but I still really want to hear from the lemmy community on this. I'm not just looking for reccomendations for me, but also just wanting to know what you like. I'm expecting this to go about the same as the reddit threads asking the same thing, but I think the conversation is still worth having!
As for what I like, I was a classic runescape player before moving onto guid wars 2, but my all time favorite is dungeons and dragons online. I value character expression above almost everything else, and ddo is pretty good about giving you the same freedoms you would have in pen and paper did. Despite its shortcomings, this alone is why I keep going back to ddo over things like gw2 or elder scrolls online. With eso, and most others, I feel like my character is the same as everyone else's. Ddo makes my roll as a Rouge or cleric feel much more rewarding, and I still feel like I'm playing an individual custom character.
Honorable mentions would go to Black desert online for its amazing graphics and game play, and Albion online for being one of the most unique and interesting mmo experiences I've had in a while.
I don't think there is currently anything out that will be 100% what I like, but anything new to explore is welcome. Of course the goal here isn't really to find anything new, I just want to hear your thoughts on some of your favorites.
I'm bad with acronyms so I would appreciate it if you said the games real name at least once. Throw whatever you want at me even if it's way off topic. Upcoming or in development games are fine too!
I'm totally desperate to pick xiv up, but I'm pretty sure I've used my free trial and the subscription fee isn't something I can do right now. I think this is as close as a perfect mmo will get for me depending on how the community and group play is. I have no recollection of the free trial, so I think I signed up and forgot and it won't let me use it again lol. I probably didn't have a computer that could actually handle it and forgot. I'm going to look into it more tonight, I keep deciding this one needs to be played, maybe I can sign up for a new trial with a different email and card?
If you bought the base game then you aren't eligible for the free trial anymore unfortunately.
The xiv free trial isn't based on time; you can play through the base game and the first expansion on a trial, your jobs are capped at 60, and you have some social restrictions.
Definitely recommend going through the site for the trial rather than steam, as there are sales on expansions that don't go on steam. I don't think you need a card to do the trial?
That is great to know! I will be downloading and trying that tonight with any luck. It honestly looks amazing.
Best story of any MMO I've played, best music of any MMO I've played. I am least confident in the ARR storyline, and it's still pretty decent. It's just less so in comparison, so I'd definitely recommend letting yourself read stuff and watch cutscenes and get invested in the characters. It pays off.