That's the endgame, and that's only WOW, I am also trying to recommend others in the list I posted above.

But I will say this, everything you say about MMORPGs I believed in you once, but than I actually bothered playing it, and its not the worse games I have played. I got 3 characters in WOW at level 110 cap and had fun regardless.

As long as you realise what the negatives of the alternative can be : hiding/restricting gameplay mechanics behind a paywall, that you are confronted with at every turn. Immersion is a big thing for me personally, and something like that would kill immersion for me. So personally I prefer a subscription based model.
Though there are exceptions, like Path of Exile for example. Apart from inventory size, money can only be spend on cosmetics, which I'm fine with. It's a very Diablo like game, only way more interesting.

It's funny how aside from Elmofongo, all the people who answered the OP obviously haven't played any MMOs and hate them based on preconceptions.

Sorry to burst your bubble, but grinding is pretty much only a thing in Free to Play Korean MMOs and older ones like WoW. Most of the western-type MMOs only have farming as an endgame activity, and it's only necessary if you want your character to be able to participate in the tougher endgame raids.

In other words, the average player in games like FFXIV, The Old Republic, The Secret World, etc... will never have to grind or farm.

Second, your claims that MMOs are worse than singleplayer games in story or gameplay is highly subjective (TOR up until the expansions or TSW have a way better story than most single player RPGs imo, and Dungeon and Dragon Online has excellent level design and gameplay, at least in the older dungeons), but it's also not really the point.

The main reasons to play MMOs are if you like PvP or CoOp (or Cooperative PvP) and the social aspects. Those can't be provided by a single player RPG, and as such they're a completely different genre that appeals to a different kind of gamers. Comparing the 2 overall makes no sense at all, even if they share the "RPG" part in their name.


To answer the OP, I'm sure there are MMOs you would enjoy, the only difficulty is finding the right one for you. If, like me, you don't like the WoW style of combat with tons of abilities on cooldowns, that limits your choice since it's unfortunately the most popular gameplay in MMOs these days.

I'd recommend that you give The Secret World or Dungeon and Dragons Online a try. Neither have a subscription, TSW has recently gone full F2P, while DDO provides a good amount of content for free (enough to decide whether you like the game anyway). Both are far more oriented towards coop than pvp though, but they might provide a good starting point even if you're more into pvp.

How is RuneScape dated? Mind you, I do not recommend the game but dated?

It's funny becuse you're full of shit.

I played WOW, Star Trek Online, Star Wars the Old Republic, DC Universe Online and (very, very briefly) Lord of the Rings Online. And Path of Exile, but I don't really put it in the same cathegory.

So, if you've played all those, how can you say they're a "repetitive grindfest"?
I don't know about Star Trek Online or DC Online, but WoW and TOR only have about as much combat as single player RPGs, and you can easily level to cap and finish the story by just doing quests. You never have to grind anything if you don't feel like it, until endgame anway.

What makes you think that based on my post? oO

There are only a couple of MMOs that I've enjoyed (The Secret World and Lord of the Rings Online), mainly because a) the storyline and writing were good; b) you can mostly play them as single-player whenever you're not in the mood for interaction; and c) PvP is walled off into a separate area---other players can't hassle you while you're just minding your own business, going about a quest.

Because they are. Every damn quest in WOW is exactly the same. Every quest in TOR plays exactly the same. And the combat is about as dynamic and diverse as my social life.

I don't know I have the impression that its a very old MMORPG with reletively dated mechanics.

How is the game right now?

For games as massive as those, how to expect them to spice it up, and they have spiced it up that is not kill/collect quests.

TOR vs. WoW in diversity for gameplay mechanics is not really a good example. Its like compaing an green apple against an yellow apple.

Take TOR vs. EVE or WoW vs. Black Desert; there you will have massive differences even within similar thematical enviroments.

And that's different from most singleplayer RPGs how exactly? At its most basic, almost all RPGs have the exact same quest (i.e. go there, kill/fetch something, kill everything in the way) over and over.

I won't argue over the combat since I hate WoW-style combat too, but apparently people like it.

That being said, if you don't like the way WoW plays, maybe you should try something else instead of painting all MMOs with the same brush.

The Secret World, for instance, has investigation missions in which you (usually) don't kill anything. Instead, they're more like a mini-adventure game where you have to solve puzzles to progress.

Or Dungeons and Dragons Online, all quests are instanced dungeons (some of which are among the best level designs I've seen in RPGs) where killing stuff gives no xp unless it's a bonus boss. In fact you get bonus xp at the end if you can finish the dungeon while killing as few enemies as possible (it's based on D&D 3.5, so sneaking is just a matter of maxing 2 skills and being smart and patient).

The point is, MMOs are very varied in their approach once you get past all the WoW clones and try the more niche ones. I'm pretty sure anyone can find one they would enjoy, if they just take the time to find it.

i played mmos for years, various ones and finally learned my lesson. dont even get started with them, no matter how awesome they are you will feel like it was a waste of time and money later

that said they can be great,fantastic, immersive and all consuming if you have a good core group of people to play with for a long while even years. it can be very satisfying to be an important combat role in the group, better yet the healer to save a wipe. be aware that if that core group goes either thru quitting, drama llama, (even death) or not being on when you are the game can feel empty, lonely and bring up too many memories when it was great. you can continue on with endless temporary hook ups with strangers but its pretty hard to get that core group feeling again. grouping with strangers who are just grinding dungeons for gear takes all the fun out of it.

also, mmos have gone way to much into micro transactions and pay to win. my best advice is to just stay away, even the best games end up being nonstop shills for the store, sure.. you can grind some of the nice things but it gets frustrating to have to pass up so many goodies or else end up paying hundreds of dollars for your 'free to play' game from impulse buys.

there are many multiplayer games out there for that group feeling, skip the mmos