For me its:

  1. Ultima Online

  2. Final Fantasy XI

  3. Ragnarok Online

UO was a game I just recently discovered and it’s fantastic, best sandbox experience I’ve ever had in a game.

FFXI was another recent discovery. It took the formula from Everquest and made it better. The game is even less grindy today with the QOL changes.

RO was a big part of my teenage years. I love the look of the game, it reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics. It’s a great casual game to just pop into and grind out some levels or explore.

  • Smeagolicious [they/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    4·
    29 days ago

    Unfortunately the only traditional MMO I’ve put any significant time into is SWTOR - which I did enjoy playing as a singleplayer experience, or going through storylines in coop with a friend. The voice acting and storylines for the classes could be great, though there was a lot of variance in quality between them. Too bad it was held up by pretty mediocre gameplay.

    I’ve played a little bit of FFXIV and while I believe what the fans tell me about it, going through early A Realm Reborn stuff was a boring slog which didn’t compel me to play more.

    If Warframe counts as an MMO then it’s my favorite, ez.

  • Lerios [hy/hym]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago

    in a few months i will have put 20 years of my life into world of warcraft, starting at age 7.

    so idk what the best mmo is, but i can say with absolute certainty that its not WoW

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      1·
      29 days ago

      Classic EverQuest (pre Luclin)

      Fond and painful memories of grouping in Blackburrow and Crushbone and getting killed by trains. I recently tried out modern EQ and there’s so much content, plus you can have an npc companion for heals which makes soloing viable.

  • Rose Thorne(She/Her)English
    3·
    30 days ago

    1. FFXIV. While it’s been awhile, due to life circumstances, it will always hold a place in my heart.

    2. Rift. I only started after it went F2P, but I had an absolute blast running around in that game. I still adore the Chloromancer/Stormblade as a class concept, running around whacking shit with my electric sword to heal back health.

    3. Florensia. This one is probably a bit obscure, these days. It was a F2P MMO with an added focus on ship building and combat alongside your standard dungeon crawling and such. Cartoony graphics, grindy as hell, and where some early cracks probably started forming in my egg.

    It’s high up on my list, but I have to admit, it wasn’t for the game itself. There was a community there like no other, one that I really felt like myself in. Every day, the same names, the same faces, most of us doing more chatting than anything else.

  • marx_mentat [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago

    I’ve only played a handful. Let’s see if I can rank them accurately by fondest memories:

    1. World of Warcraft
    2. Everquest
    3. Ultima online

    Guild wars and the old Republic are the runner ups

  • lil_tank [any, he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago
    • Guild Wars 2
    • Dofus (retro) / Wakfu (basically the same)
    • Path of Exile

    Any other French/Spanish zoomer who skipped WoW because everyone played the Ankama MMOs?

    I’m totally a casual tho I don’t think I spent more than 60 hours on GW and PoE each

  • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    3·
    29 days ago
    1. Star Wars Galaxies (pre-CU/NGE)
    2. ???
    3. ???
    spoiler

    I am gonna be honest I bounced off of basically every other MMORPG after that. Really ruined the genre for me, especially playing that game’s evolution into a F2P WoW-clone like many others in the genre. I had put hours into MANY others (and some very obscure ones, anyone here played Ryzom?) but didn’t really stick with any for more than a trial month. Then I got into Dota…

    • SSJMarxEnglish
      2·
      28 days ago

      Loved Galaxies. I was young when I played it, so I was constantly rerolling my character before I ever got to the real meat of the game, but it was such a vibe. Getting XP because people sat by my campfire, chatting in between mob respawns while half the group switched to Entertainer gear and danced/played music, there’s never been anything like it since. I usually played Rifleman but I was never fully convinced that any of my abilities actually did anything because the game’s feedback was so bad.

    • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
      2·
      29 days ago

      Star Wars Galaxies (pre-CU/NGE)

      I played on the Basalisk emulated server a couple years ago, classic SWG got me interested in Ultima Online since so much of it’s inspiration was taken from that.

      • Leon_Grotsky [comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        2·
        29 days ago

        The EMU servers are great, I just don’t have that kind of time to spend on games anymore.

        In the OG, I played a Bounty Hunter / Carbineer / Ranger chasing down motherfuckers in the middle of nowhere and leading Krayt Dragon hunts. Back when hunting a jedi actually meant something because there was only like a dozen of them on any given server and they were all sweaty no-lifing weirdos.

        I have yet to see any MMORPG with a more robust class or crafting system than OG galaxies.

        • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.netOPEnglish
          2·
          29 days ago

          In the OG, I played a Bounty Hunter / Carbineer / Ranger chasing down motherfuckers in the middle of nowhere and leading Krayt Dragon hunts. Back when hunting a jedi actually meant something because there was only like a dozen of them on any given server and they were all sweaty no-lifing weirdos.

          I had a marksman too I think iirc, carbines or heavier blasters, I didn’t make much progress at the time outside of just mucking around.

          Now UO I have a house in. So my goal if I come back to SWG again is to get a house and fill it with stuff.

  • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
    2·
    29 days ago

    I loved FFXIV although I last played it during Shadowbringers and I only got a touch through the MSQ there.

    As a dad I just have zero time for daily login bonuses. If China ever bans them and it ripples through the industry in a way that makes MMOs quit doing that toxic shit I’d consider coming back, but these days I just don’t have the time or energy.

    The quests/story were very cool though, and all three roles were pretty fun to play, in the more casual content at least, never touched the really hard stuff, even back in the day I didn’t have that amount of time to commit.

    • lorty@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1·
      29 days ago

      I mean if what you liked in FFXIV was the story, you can be pretty chill about it and not do the daily roulettes (specially since they only really give exp and take time to do). You can even do all the dungeons (and most recent trials) with an npc party, so no need to wait for queues.

      • TheLepidopterists [he/him]@hexbear.netEnglish
        1·
        29 days ago

        No, I do. Also like the gameplay, I just didn’t like having up-to-date gear being gated behind either playing an unreasonable amount, or having to play several days of the week to hit cap on tomestones.