- For your reference, I played World of Warcraft from beta pretty much until December 2011, though I had a couple of breaks and at the end, I wasn't playing much at all. I also played SWTOR for a couple of months.
- Bartle: EASK. That's somewhat unfortunately since PvP is probably the easiest way to have fun in short spurts, but it's just not my style. Exploring, crafting, and questing are what I've spent most of my time on. I've done dungeons and raiding, but they will be very limited (if at all) when you only have one night a week.
- I can afford a monthly subscription game, but with such limited play time, it seems wasteful, particularly when there are so many Free-to-play (in name, anyway) games out there. I'll have no problem paying for additional content, but since I won't be playing that much, it shouldn't be difficult to end up paying less than $15 a month on some games out there and still have fun.
- However, I am open to a limited subscription. There is appeal in starting a WoW trial account and getting a bunch of Horde alts up to 20 since I played Horde very little in all the time I played.
- No (or at least very limited) huge grinds when on such limited time, but I don't find crafting or harvesting to be a grind (even though I know others do).
- I'm hoping part of the fun of this will see how different games that might play great when you have a lot of time might not work on limited time. For instance, I enjoyed SWTOR at first when I put some hours in during beta and at the beginning, but once I limited my time, I found it was difficult to pick up the story where I had left it, though I guess the story had lagged some at the same time, too.
I'll appreciate any help I can get and feel free to ask questions that you think will help you figure out what I might like!
Hi there. I'm haven't played that many MMO's myself so I'm probably not your best source, but my personal favorite of all time is LOTRO. If you like questing and exploring it might be the thing for you. The world is large and has a lot to do until you reach end-game. I'm a slow leveler myself and it took me ages to explore everything.
ReplyDeleteLOTRO is free-to-play, but the easiest way is to subscribe for one month to open up all areas, and then unsubscribe and continue as F2P-er.
The game dates from 2007 by now and the questing (especially in the starter areas) is much simpler than in SWTOR, so I would recommend it if you specifically like the Lord of the Rings. The landscapes are beautiful, I love the outfitting system and the lore that's woven into the game everywhere. I personally especially enjoyed rolling a hobbit and starting in the Shire, as the quests are just hilarious and cute.
I can imagine that whether or not you like LOTRO really depends on if you like Tolkien's work or not. If you don't, you might want to try something else instead. :)
Thanks, Ravanel. I'll definitely consider LOTRO. I was in the Beta briefly but didn't have time (a theme here) to play two games at the time. I'm definitely a Tolkien fan having read LotR several times, though not recently. If I do, I'll plan on a hobbit (though I normally play dwarves) since I have heard multiple recommendations of the Shire.
DeleteI don't want to rob your from any dwarf-pleasure. You should know that all areas are freely accessible to all races. So if you like dwarves, you can start one, skip the quests in the dwarf area (Thorin's Hall/Ered Luin) and travel to the Shire. It'll take a while on those short legs, but it's certainly doable. You can of course also try out the dwarf in his original area one day and try a hobbit next week. Comparing your experiences would already be an idea for your first blog posts.
DeleteI'm curious as to what you'll do! :)
Comment from Killington on NBIHQ forum:
ReplyDeletehttp://nbihq.freeforums.org/need-advice-please-t54.html
You might want to check out Rusty Hearts. I've played it before and had a lot of fun with it. It is free to play and the gameplay is based on short missions, which works well if you have limited playing time.
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http://wasdway.com/
A little odd commenting on my own post, but it isn't really my post. Thanks for the suggetions on Rusty Hearts. I've read a little about it on Massively, but don't know much. I'll keep it in mind since the idea of short missions sounds promising.
DeleteFollowing the discussion on NBIHQ as well. You should be able to allow commenters to use Name/URL as well. See how much spam you get and switch it off if it gets annoying. But keep it easy for people to respond to your post.
ReplyDeleteAs for F2P suggestions, try Everquest or Everquest 2 as well as Fallen Earth. Vanguard is going F2P later this year, which might be interesting as well.
Thanks, Feliz. I changed my comments to allow anonymous. We'll see how that goes. I'll ask Killington to try it out now.
DeleteHow do you think Everquest or Everquest 2 would work one day a week? My thought was that EQ probably involved to much grinding still to be practical, though since it set so many standards, it would be good to try out eventually. I've heard the crafting in both EQ2 and Vanguard are interesting, so I'm interesting in trying them out, but still not so sure how they'd be one day a week. Fallen Earth is another interesting one with a very different model. I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.
EQ1 in its current iteration isn't much of a grind anymore. It's aged, but might not be the best for one night a week. The same's true most likely for Vanguard.
ReplyDeleteEQ2 is another animal. I can imagine playing EQ2 once a week. And the crafting is pretty involved on EQ2.
FE is loads of fun with a friendly community. Similar to EQ2, you'll have to put some effort into researching character builds, but once you got an idea, you are good to go. I liked FE crafting as well. Even more than EQ2, since you can craft offline and while adventuring.
PS: posting this using name/URL option. Not sure if Blogger can do that, but Wordpress has an option to put comments from people who haven't posted before on moderation. Second and subsequent posts will go through without delay.
Thanks again for your suggestion making comments Anonymous. No spam so far and I'll keep it open unless it gets too bad to delete manually.
DeleteI'll definitely keep EQ2 and FE on my list to try, whether or not they are the first one. I'd like to try out both.
Dungeons and Dragons Online is also Free to Play now, and might be worth checking out.
ReplyDeletePosting via the name/url option, thanks for the change!:)
Any particularly good or bad things about D&DO for playing one night a week? Thanks again for the suggestions!
DeleteYou could try Guild Wars 2 when it comes out. It seems very conducive to short gaming spurts with a wide variety of activities.
ReplyDeleteI'm a little reluctant to pay full price for GW2 when it first comes out and everyone will be pushing for time. It was fun being one of the first on WoW and SWToR, but I looking for something a little more relaxed this time. Thanks for suggestion and I might try it out when the rush is over (and the price is a little cheaper).
DeleteI'd vote for Guild Wars since it doesn't have a huge grind and the campaigns have a strong storyline that you can follow. If you can't find people to group with, you can use heroes and henchment to round out your group. When Guild Wars 2 comes out, I'm sure it will play similarly.
ReplyDeleteGuild Wars is an interesting suggestion I never really thought about, but it makes sense since you only pay for it once and I'm guessing it's pretty cheap now. I'll keep it on my list. Thanks!
DeleteWelcome to the NBI! Have fun blogging!
ReplyDeleteThanks for providing a good model about how blogs can be both fun and informative and also a nice chance to get some start up traffic!
DeleteFallen Earth is worth a go if you enjoy crafting. It's a little rough, but it's free to play and most restrictions can be removed with a one off £5 purchase.
ReplyDeleteBest of luck finding something you enjoy!
This is the second suggestion for FE and wasn't it 'Syp' who kept coming back to it? I'll definitely put in on my list to try.
DeleteCity of Heroes/Villains
ReplyDeleteI didn't see it mentioned so I will do so.
This recently went free to play, there is quiet a-lot of content you gain access to without purchasing or going VIP. You can comfortably pop-in complete a few missions in an hour window, so it may fit into the time-scales you have allotted.
In terms of suitability with children around, I have a friend whos child has been playing accompanied it since they were 7-8.
Maybe one to look into :)
Hope it helps.
Thanks for the suggestion. I'm not much of a superheroes fan, but I'll keep it in mind.
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