Best Starting Experience?
Saturday, March 6th, 2010 - 5:25pm
If you had to play an MMO from scratch (no help, no established characters, no friends, no currency), which would it be? In other words, which MMO do you feel has the best starting experience?
Calvin: The world is a complicated place, Hobbes.
Hobbes: Whenever it seems that way, I take a nap in a tree and wait for dinner.
Actually, its kinda funny but the first 4 levels of Allods Online are pretty awesome. Its f2p and in open beta currently.
LotRO is pretty good too. The elven area used to suck but now its the best of LotRO.
The Draenai and Blood Elf newb areas of WoW are great. If you count the Death Knight starting area a "newb area" then that is hard to beat.
Timorous Deep of EQ2 and the Trial of the Isle for Vanguard are also quite good.
Being fangoriously devoured by a gelatinous monster.
I really enjoyed the Dungeons & Dragons online starting area. It got you familiar with the classes in short order and has a very nice starting island to explore. Also if it doesn't fit the bill you're not out anything as it's free.
I think the best starting area is in Age of Conan. The first 20 levels in Tortage were awesome in my opinion.
XBL/PSN/Steam Gamertag: KillTrash
BF3 Soldier: KillTrsh
World of Warcraft has polished the new player experience like no other MMO before or since. The easy to understand fluid progression of WoW's newbie areas is a large part of the reason that Blizzard has managed to convince millions of players to subscribe to their game.
Steam | Xbox Live | WoW | EVE Online - Elycion
Right now I'd argue Age of Conan, but I'm sure my opinion will be revised once Cataclysm comes out.
"Antique Road Trip U.S.A. for $3 (use coupon code, 'what mistakes have I made to end up here?')" ~Lobstermobster
Another vote for Lotro. Storytelling is big in the intro and that carries through into the main game as well.
I'll believe corporations are people when Texas executes one by lethal injection. - Paleocon
We said they were people, we didn't say they were black. - Yonder
Same here. Lotro is one of the few MMOs where I've actually enjoyed playing through multiple intros and starting areas.
Steam ID
Thirded.
MilkmanDanimal wrote:
NSMike wrote:
http://steamcommunity.com/id/garion333
Fourthed for LOTRO.
I think the WoW blood elf and dranei starting areas are about as good as LOTRO, but all the others are worse.
Forgot about Lotro, and I have a Lifetime Membership. Yeah, I would go with that one first *vote changed*
"Antique Road Trip U.S.A. for $3 (use coupon code, 'what mistakes have I made to end up here?')" ~Lobstermobster
IMHO, AOC and LOTRO have good story-driven starting areas. Very interesting and fun.
For a MMO newbie, who is unfamiliar with typical controls and how it works, I might recommend WoW. Not so much with the story, but much easier to learn your way around a typical MMO.
When my son was born and I saw his beautiful face, I was so happy that it wasn't made with Bioware's character creator.
Agreed. If only Funcom had lavished such attention on the rest of the world. When I last played, about four months after the game went live, going from Tortage to the main world was like leaving a lush oasis for a desert.
"But 2004 might be ancient for a teenager, with their hippin' and the hoppin' and the bippin' and the boppin', they don't know what the jazz is all about." - Gravey
Right on. I've tried Conan, LOTR Online, DnD, and Runes of Magic, and none of them grabbed me the way WoW's first couple of hours did. I couldn't tell you what the differences are, but WoW was as addictive as a slot machine.
Ultima online?
I'd say City of Heroes/City of Villains, but gotta give LotRO its props.
Quote:
— SpacePPoliceman, on Joe Paterno and responsibilitySetting foot into Dun'Morogh with my gnome rogue back in US open beta what seems like decades ago will always be remembered as my favorite starting experience. The first levelup (even with 9 out of 10 classes taken to at least level 70 I still loved the levelup effect) and this big scary named troll we thought we would never kill. A few hours later we were hunting the elusive Bjarn (back than rare spawns actually deserved that name). A couple of months later Ragnaros was equally intimidating, but nothing came close to these first few hours ever again.
In DAOC I was rushed through everything to get to level 50 quickly (elite pvp guild). AoC I quit before even finishing Tortage. When starting Aion I already had the "well, another MMO with potential that will probably screw it up in no time *sigh*" mindset, so I remained underwhelmed.
I liked WAR and it really provided some sense of purpose with those PvP zones and scenarios from the start, but it was already too deserted, when I tried, so I had trouble keeping my RR close to even roughly a third of my actual level. The only other game that can provide purpose from the start is EVE Online, which coincidentally is the only MMO I feel I spent too little time with.
I think apart from those last two, every MMO I have ever played failed to make me feel like my role in this world matters right from the start. In most PvP centered MMOs you weren’t worth jack if not at max level, most PvE centered MMOs outgrew their original content in a way that made newcomers feel like they play an oversized single player RPG until they reach max level, at which point they are laughed and spat upon by wannabe elitists because of being late adapters of the game.
Oh yeah, and then there was UO. But I won’t throw it into the fray because it’s in a totally different league. With enough fantasy EVE could compete with UO, but it always feels like comparing apples and oranges when talking about UO vs X. I mean we’re talking about the reference game from a time when “MMOG” hadn’t become a derogatory term yet.
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