Best MMO to start playing right now?

I'm looking to get back into the MMO scene, and I don't know what game I want to spend my time on. I keep hearing "WoW is dying" and "GW2 has no endgame" that I don't know what to pick. What are your favorites? Thanks!

GW2

Rift

Ya I would go with guild wars 2. It may not have the sheer content WOW does but it has no subscription fee. I've played both and started guild wars about 2 months ago. I enjoyed both but overall I think the more rewarding and easier to get into game is GW2. You can literally lvl too 80 by crafting or picking things up or exploring. It allows you to play the way you want too and still lvl at an even pace. Unlike other MMO's it doesn't get exponentially harder each lvl to get to the next. Yes the end game isn't necessarily like world of warcraft's but the game is set up differently then wow. Instead of wanting to get to lvl 80 to do everything like in WoW, GW2 has a sick system where you lvl up or down to the appropriate lvl of the dungeon/event or area so that all the content is available to play for everyone within limits. Now you may not want to go to a lvl 80 area as a lvl 10 your gear and you just won't cut it but for dungeons and pvp and world events(big events like lions arch(city) gets attacked and held for two weeks) you'll do fine.

If you want an MMO that has massive scale, has no subscription and want it on the top of the level of quality then guild wars 2 is for you. It's the MMO that stays true to the MMO theme park feel that everyone likes but changes enough up to make it feel new and fresh compared to other MMO's. If you want the pinnacle of World of warcraft kind MMO's then you should go for world of warcraft as it's still one of the best products on the market and it has arguably the most content out of any MMO.

I will say this though. I do find armor and weapons in gw2 and some of the boss etc.. to be stale and boring. Not all of them but some.

With wow I hate having to split loot between your party. It makes getting things so much harder and time consuming as you have to run it again because Timmy got it the last time. Also it's still 15 a month.

Well what are you looking for in an MMO?

GW2 HAS NO ENDGAME.... its truth, its awful. you level to 80 quickly, then there is little SKILLFUL/CHALLENING to do and you can barely progress your character. without grinding cosmetic armors.... it also has no trinity system and one of the most dumbed down combat systems ever concieved.

WoW isn't dying, still 7 million strong, still the best end-game even though its not as good as it once was... but a new expansion in a few months.

SWTOR has more content now... its ok.

FFXIV: ARR is a fresh WoW-style mmo with good graphics and decent gameplay... its end-game is... shallow but getting there.

Just one problem....you cannot "literally" level to 80 crafting or exploring or picking things up....it would require a combination of all. Not sure if that is what you meant or not, but the way you wrote it implied you could level to 80 by doing any one of the three.

Even if you twinked a new toon for crafting by providing all the mats and gold (which I have done) you will only get like 7 levels per trade up to 400 since they add ascended gear and knocked it up to 500. The trades that don't have 500 yet you can only get 10 levels off of. Seeing as though there are not 8 trades maxing out level on crafting is impossible.

I'd consider Elder Scrolls, it's soon to be released (less than a month right?). Here's why: MMORPGs are the best when they're brand new, the population is at top, the community is more forgiving, less elitist, friendlier. People haven't gotten tired of the game yet so they're in good moods. Many low levels which means you'll be surrounded with people right from the start. The time where mmorpg sfeels the most alive is always during the release.

This is why I'd wait 3 more weeks and go with Elder Scrolls.

@vfibsux: I meant more that you can use them to lvl instead of the general just fight shit.

I'd say wait for ESO if you don't mind a subscription. It has a great IP to work with and does just enough to make it interesting and different. Also as stated MMO's are top of their game at release.

If you want to play something now Rift and Tera are two f2p MMO's that are both solid games.

Planetside 2 is a fricking awesome MMOFPSRPG. It's a technological feat with good bullet physics even at peak playtimes. (That covers the FPS and,) the RPG comes into play when you use experience to enhance what aspects of the game you find most fun. The things you enjoy doing might surprise you.

One day I found myself in an enemy biodome fortunately surrounded by friendly mechs. They kept running outside chipping away at the enemy and then running back in while my engineer repaired them. I was getting 12 xp experience every second. Yes, there are way more fun things that you can do in Planetside 2 and, admittedly, other games than repairing mechs. But what was great was that it just organically happened based on what enemy PLAYERS were doing and what tactics my team PLAYERS were doing.

You might find yourself in the gunner seat of a friendly's "harrasser"...basically a space-dune buggy that does just that! It BUGGIES. Oh, no wait. I meant to say it HARRASSES. That's right. The thing is so superfast, you can scurry through an assaulting mob of enemy players and just fire at them while they all try to land shots on you while your driver than scurries you off, all while a massive space battle wages around you.

There was another time my platoon came to an entrance to a valley. Rocky crags outfitted the impasse which was so filled with gunsmoke and explosions that we couldn't even see the enemy. Talk about the fog of war? We just knew there were enemies because we saw hundreds of lasers pouring through the smoke at us as we fired back. Troops tried to flank us from the climbable parts of the mountains as we moved to counter. This went on for some time when I heard even our unflabbable leader mutter into his voicecom, "This is crazy." My description might not be doing it justice but.... It was...crazy.

I haven't played as much this year -- new year's resolutions and prior commitments -- but when I introduced someone to it the other day, I logged on for a second. I came up a staircase, out of a base, and onto it's roof and just at that time, a player-piloted enemy "scythe" ship swooped right down over my head. Even after 200-some hours, I still have to stop some times and catch my breath. Perhaps I am easily impressed but now I know how some space bumpkin on Tattoine feels the first time they see a Tie Fighter.

While my interest in MMOs has waned, my first and best experiences with video games were those player-created moments that even the best dev can't write for us while playing the City of Heroes MMO (rest in peace.) Planetside 2 is filled with these organic moments, but rather than them being just witty things a player did or said at just the right time. Or a chance encounter timed perfectly with a situational power, Planetside is evolving into a full-on, player-created, retro-tech, sci-fi, grandscale space battle. Who wouldn't want that?

Oh, and it's free.

Pretty much this. GW2 was boring as all hell, and Rift is free to play if you want a decent experience to try out. Of course I would consider WoW to be the best MMO out but I'm burned out of playing the game. It's certainly not dying, it is less likely to die than every other MMO out there.

How many people play Planetside 2 now? does it say?

I thought it was an awful mess of game on release but apparently its improved greatly?

When I came back to it at the end of last year, it was spectacular. While I don't know that it cracks my "top 5" games ever, I have played it for over 270 hours.

In terms of why it's better now, there may be others who can illuminate more than me but two things that I definitely noticed since coming back to it after a year is....

1.) My reward or incentive for DEFENDING. This means the fun, intense battles are more prolonged. RAther than just winning or losing, and then running to another base to "cap" that, only to find the next base is easy to cap because there is no one there, the fights last longer. This might also be enhanced by something else different that I noticed more recently and that is...

2.) Certain bases can only be captured if you've also captured nearby facilities. If this has always been true (and it may have been) at least now it is more clearly marked on the map. This seems to result in, again, more likelihood that you will encounter enemies.

While I only began playing in 2013, I have never really saw Planetside 2 as "a mess", I did see that it was not casual-gamer friendly right away. That didn't bother me too much, even as I got ran over by my teammates and sniped by enemies left and right.

What did bother me a little bit is this: You ever hear veterans of real war, or reporters of real war say, "War is like moments of intense action preceded and followed by long periods of boredom"?

I am not a war veteran, nor do I mean to lessen their sacrifice by comparing their service to a mere game (albeit a mere game that war veterans often play themselves.) I can tell you, however, that that above quote was my earlier impression of Planetside 2.

In 2013 when I played it, it could be SOOOOOO much fun, most of the time. Other times, there just wouldn't be much going on. I've heard they have made other game play tweaks here and there, and there are probably some improvements under the hood and balance issues corrected I imagine, but the two points I made above really seem to prolong the fun stuff and lessen the prep and downtime.

It also seems like there was some times a dichotomy between team leaders, who are thinking strategically and want to capture easy bases to increase resources production etceterra, and team players who just want action. A team leader might be thrilled that you have just capped three bases with no resistance. A team player is like, "Ummm. So, when do we, ya know, do something?"

Again, that has lessened lately. Oh, and it is PVP that appeals to a broad range of people. Young, teenage, male nerds play this game all the way up to, you know, old male nerds play this game. Some times you are going to be on a team with trolls.

Some times these trolls are the team leader. That's not SOE's fault though. (Although Star Wars Galaxies, Matrix Online, and the retarded gear grind that kind of ruins DC Universe Online IS SOE's fault, that is for another thread.) TIP: If you are a team leader in Planetside 2, please don't start sentences like, "I WANT so and so going over there, and I WANT so and so going over there."

This is a game. A break. A refreshing get-a-away from the d*uchiness of every day life. Giving orders like a human and not a troll is appreciated. Especially when some of the people you are talking down to might actually be REAL soldiers in Iraq/Afghanistan.

Ironically, since we are talking about SOE, MMOs and Planetside 2, I actually went back to DC Universe Online too a little bit. DC Universe Online has great action-rpg combat unheard of in an MMO (and don't try to tell me Champions-Online is good, too. It ain't.) But yeah, the gear grind at the end of DC Universe Online knocks DC Universe Online down from a great MMO to a good MMO.

But if you can't tell, I am more into sci-fi settings than fantasy ones. I make some exceptions here and there. For MMOs though, I recommend 1.) Planetside 2 and then maybe EvE Online or DC Universe Online secondly. As William Shatner once said, "Space. The final frontier. Where there are no garden gnomes, elves, or gay sh*t like that."