crdy123: Hey GOG, I'm looking for an open ended mmo, not un-like SWG pre-NGE (best MMO ever made) and not like WoW or SWG killer TOR. A game where you are on your own for the begging so you have to get things like fish and go sell them to other players to make some money, or the economy is player run. I have tried the EVE trial and there was one reasons I didn't think I could play: It is way too complicated. I have been suggested Ultima Online, can anyone tell me what that is about also? Thanks guys!
Ultima Online is probably the most open ended (large) MMO to date.
You get to pick what character to play. There are no levels, instead you have skills that you raise individually. To avoid players becoming totally overpowered you get a maximum of 700 "skill points", and the cap for each individual skill is 100. So you can max out 7 skills, if you want to, or dabble in a lot of skills. And yes, it is entirely possible to make a fisherman/carpenter/smith/mage/animal tamer/musician/medium (as in speaks to the dead), if you so desire, but there are skills that complements each other, so you should not do that, unless it sounds fun. Still, the game also rewards some mix & matching. Also, some skills are just there for fun, and serve little real use (sure, forensic evaluation might be a fun skill, but really, it is pointless)
The world has no restrictions on where you can and can not go, apart from logical things blocking your path, like walls & mountains. Nor are there any designated newbie or "high end" areas, though obviously a brand new character should not fight dragons, unless it is in a party with more skilled characters. You get to pick where you want to start (any of the major cities), and then it is up to you what you do next.
The game is not instanced, meaning that if you so desire, you can find 1000 persons and start killing dragons together, or stand in front of the castle, mooning it. You always have to share your space with other players, which is both nice & annoying (though some spots are obviously more popular than others).
Players can own property. This includes houses & ships. You also get to decorate your own houses with whatever you want to decorate it with.
Sadly the actual gameplay is not that great. UO is a game that lives & dies with its community, and the official servers are getting pretty depopulated.