Viti

I asked about this once before, but decided not to venture into it at that time. I am thinking about it again. Keep in mind, I never played traditional RPG's like D&D...sitting in a room with a bunch of my friends doesn't make me feel like I am someplace else....online worlds offer true roleplay and that sounds fun to me. Which is the best for a beginner? Looking around the web it all looks very complicated...can a newbie just jump in feet first and still have fun?

Sakpo

It may not suit your taste, but I quite like Multi Users of Middle Earth. It's all text and is set in the Tolkien's middle earth in the years immediatly before the events of The Hobbit. It's free, it's based on reading and typing, and I find it fun. It can also be very frustrating though, and a lot of people are put off by the total lack of graphics.

Speechless

I would recomend against it. Most MMORPG involve about 1% role-playing, and 99% either fighting the same damn monsters over and over again, or sitting around waiting for the monsters to respawn.

If the idea of role-playing really appeals to you, the old-fashioned way of pens, paper, and dice is still the best.

tronvillain

I enjoy Anarchy Online, but I have not played any other MMORPGs. It offered enough variety to keep me interested, so I would not describe it as "fighting the same damn monsters over and over again." The complexity of designing your implant set, carefully spending your thousands of points on the few of the wide variety of possible skills, constantly buing better nanos (spells) and figuring out how to use them, assembling a decent team and doing a high level mission, acquiring interesting and powerful items, interracting with other players... lots of fun if you have the time. Granted, the temple can be irritating, since you spend forever trying to assemble a team and often discover that your teammates are greedy bastards or complete idiots. Still, it's a fun little game. I knew absolutely nothing when I started, but I did a little reading of guides and forums and didn't have any trouble.

I may switch entirely over to Star Wars Galaxies when it comes out and isn't too ridiculously difficult to get into.

Psycho Economist

Alternatively, instead of MMORPG's, you could go for stand-alone RPG games (unless you've played them all and want something to do until the next one comes out). The Baldur's Gate / Neverwinter Nights series rocks, though BG and BG2 for the PC look as old as they are.

BG, BG2 and NWN even have multiplayer modes so instead of sitting around the table, you can play one another online. But it'll still be a single story with a beginning, middle and end and not a treadmill: sounds to me like the best of both worlds. The one potential problem is finding a DM who can and would use computer interface to tell his story.

My favorite game review site is The Adreneline Vault (link to RPG section). While they don't have as many reviews as exhausive sites like Gamespot, the reviews are much more complete. Their Seal of Excellence award winners are a (relatively) short list of the best PC games across all generes.

Of course, I'm enough of a Sci-fi junkie to plunk down for SWG, after I get a job.

Nostalgic Pushhead

I am *greatly* looking forward to Uru: Ages Beyond Myst.

Uru

It has *fantastic* graphics and is puzzle-based rather than fighting-based. So maybe its not technically a MMORPG but it looks awesome.

Also looking forwards to Star Wars Galaxies.

Sadly neither of these will run on my computer so I hate everyone.

matthias j.

Lots of MMOGs out there these days, few good ones though.

There's Anarchy Online, it's nice, but it used to be extremely buggy so I quit. I was told it got a lot better, but I'm still too pissed of to start again

There's the original Asheron's Call, but it's a bit too old to start now I guess. But that might be because I actually care about graphics.

There's Asheron's Call 2, I've played the beta and it was awful, no content, buggy as hell (even at the end of the betaperiod) and rather simplistic. Last two weeks I've been playing the free trial and I have to admit it changed a lot, for the better. I really enjoyed it although the skill system still is very basic and the world somewhat empty. You might want to try it out, it's free for 15 days.

But I still like Dark Age of Camelot best. Very active community, very, very nice endgame experience (realm vs realm), nice and balanced classes, very good support, lots of updates and currently one expansion on the shelves with two free expansions and one commercial expansion on their way. I have to admit I'm a bit of a powerplayer, so I might not be a reliable source, but there are separate roleplay servers where roleplaying is obliged.

Neocron and Everquest are also worth the mentioning but I haven't played them so I won't judge them.

Eudaimonist

I second this. Even though there is monster fighting, there are also plenty of opportunities for socializing.

Orestes

If you want an mmorpg that isnt combat focused, i would suggest A Tale in the Desert .

MasterJackass

I would not recommend playing an MMORPG. They are all big time sinkers in one way or another and to ever remain competitive or important you must sink a lot of time to mean anything. Not only that, but you have no choice over who you'll be playing with. You'll have to deal with people who cheat, grief, and ruin your playtime.

Pretty much any of these games requires a serious time commitment in able to get anywhere. In everquest you spend months killing mindless shit in order to level and buy better equipment in order to kill harder shit. Shadowbane (which I am sort of playing) takes a different approach with having to farm a huge amount of money to keep your equipment fixed and your city from falling apart.

I'd suggest sticking to offline RPG's to get your roleplaying fix or maybe a game like NWN which allows both off and online play and the ability to easily create your own worlds. You might also enjoy morrowind which is offline, but allows you to create and download user created content.