AoC or WoW or FFXI?

[Rayman1300]

I am having a really hard time trying to figure out which MMO to play! A few years back i started playing Final Fantasy XI online and that was my first MMORPG i love the magic in it but i just got tired of having to be in a party all the time to do anything, and the storyline was lame to me haha. Then about 8 months ago I bought World of Warcraft and i thought it was a neat game, different but cool in a way, i got kind of lonely lol cuz i was playing by myself all the time, maybe its because i am only lvl 35 who knows, But then Age of Conan came out and it looks really promising! I spoke with a guy that works at gamestop and he said its selling like crazy and that he plays it all the time. I just dont know which one to play! i want one with lots of interaction with players, great graphics, awesome customization,good character classes and races and just all out fun!! im leaning more towards Age of Conan, please help guys!!! THANK YOU!!!I guess im just bored of FFXI and WoW and just need something more fun and interesting.

[forever123456]

FFXI has gotten better abut how long it takes to do things. They've made leveling easier, added alot more items, and added alot more content in general. In addition they've added alot more. It is the best game for interaction, as almost everything requires it. Plot was lame in your opinion? Maybe you didnt get very far. FFXI is hailed as having the BEST plot among mmorpgs >.>WoW is mostly solo until you cap out. Its all about getting better gear so you can kill more people. It gets old fast. Honestly, dont bother if you want any sort of sophistication or in depth interaction. I don't think blizzards did much market research before pushing WoW out. It could of been a much stronger game. If you want strong PvP, i'd suggest looking into the lineage series as well.Age of Conan looks very promising, but I'd wait to see how it pans out with the 360 release. Looks like it could be very interaction based. Id say go with ffxi, or wait a little while and watch to see what age of conan does.

[xtmo]

I couldn't get in to FFXI for the same reasons. I leveled up to about 40 when it came out and at that point it just became brutally painful to do much of anything without a group, but the thing that got me was that a little help from a friend wasn't enough, you needed to get full on groups together to do much of anything and quite frankly I have better things to do with my time than stand around spamming "LFG" over and over. This sort of leveling is obviously falling out of favor as is evidence by the success of WoW and Guild Wars. Still, it's a great game but I personally expect to see more progress in a month of play than what I was getting with FFXI.WoW, I really don't have anything bad to say about it. There's a mixed bag of solo stuff and group stuff from 1-70 so they leave the choice to you as to whether or not you want to group. I'm usually content with solo questing or 2-3 manning my way up to 70 but I always keep an eye out in the LFG channel because there's nearly always somebody wanting to group you just need to pay attention. Getting in to a decent guild is also pretty easy and helps a lot. The PvP is hands down the best I've seen in an MMORPG, mainly due to the overall balance of the game, but also due to the variety of play modes and the actual reward for you time. The story and universe is rich and is supplemented by both the Warcraft RTS games and a handful of novels. WoW is also constantly updated and fine tuned. There's interesting events all the time as well as thought put in to progressing the games story in the way of new dungeons.AoC I have yet to personally play but I also don't know anybody who has anything good or bad to say about it. I would imagine if it really was an awesome game that I would have heard as much by now since that's the nature of buzz worthy games. I'd suspect that a guy at gamestop is more interested in getting a sale then telling you how it really is.I might also suggest Guild Wars or EVE Online. Both are a little more PvP centric but the amount of customization and overall production value definitely make them worth competitors. They're also both constantly getting new major content added for free.

[Racerx111]

I honestly hated WoW. The grayhics were horrible, and the amount of annoying perverts were high. Not to mention, getting to different areas were much harder than FFXI. FFXI has magnificent grayhics, easy-to-use controlls, and a horrible storyline... I admit they had a bad storyline, but that's just the thing; you must make your own storyline. That is what is great about FFXI... You can make your own story. An epic one, at that.. -.- And, the chocobos allowed you to go anywhere you wanted. That was always great, and only for 100 gil.Never played.. AoC?

[Bnjmn11]

I prefer Wow. I joined a guild that had just formed, when I was level 10. Now my main is a 68. The higher levels will gladly helpyou level up, and we each devote one night a week to move players up in lvl. We also do instances at least twice a week, which gets you good gear, and when you're in a lvl 35 dungeon with an experienced 70 watching your back, the reward vs risk ratio iis really attractive.The world is rich in storyline and history. When you are out and about grinding mobs, if you see someone workig the same area, just left click them, right click their potrait for the dropdown, and ask them if they'de like to group. Grinding ods so much more fun with another player, and you can grind upwards of 100 mobs inn an hour without breaking a sweat.And a lvl 35 of any class and race will be welcomed in most any guild. Look for guilds with open enrollment, and stay away from raiding guilds until you hit the higher levels. The people in those guilds tend to be a little obsessive, too much like work.My guild, of which I have been an officer for two months, is full of really fun people, lots of chatter, and calls for help are usually reponded to quickly. IMHO, a guild is the only way to go.

[chrizzur]

I've only heard of one person disliking FFXI storyline.Maybe you didn't get far enough? Its the top PvE mmorpg and its plots (especially CoP's story arc) are praised by almost everyone.WoW = trapped in a bad game of warcraft 3 while forced to listen to immature whiners complaining about gankers and 'noobs'. Its just a PvP engine with quests throne in at the end and an instance system to get your leet loot. The game added little to nothing to warcraft's lore, everything is recycled from the previous games. And there is no plot what so ever. Theres not even a diurnal and nocturnal system, day to night is only cosmetic. The agro system is also overly simplified, based only on proximity. Did Blizzard do ANY market research?Every MMORPG is continually adding new stuff and making adjustments. Blizzard overtunes and add new raids, and items. They just throw stuff in there and make big changes and hopes they hit a balance. Square finetunes and adds new quests, missions, items, and sometimes whole new activities or systems.Most of FFXI's complaints are really old school complaints that have been addressed and adjusted many time by ffxi since then and aren't really valid anymore.WoW is newer, uglier, and the lesser of the two games. What was blizzard doing with all that time they were working on it? Still no guild halls, and still cant get houses like they said you would... They delivered less campaign promises than a politician. Hopefully they wont screw up Starcraft 2I havn't played AoC, but the previews looked interesting.

[Trapez]

Well no one has answered you yet that is not a retailer looking for a sale on AoC, so I'll put in my 2 cents. Never played FFXI, so that takes care of that. Played WoW for 3 years.. soloed most way thru except instances (not many there either) and at 70 you have.. well PvPing is easier to get gear than running the same instance 100s of times for a few items. Now AoC has just come out a few months ago. So let me make this clear because there WILL be ppl who try and cut it down: It has bugs. They are being worked on. Ppl need to realize it is only 2 months old. WoW has had 4 years to work out their bugs so anyone who compares the two on that basis are idiots. Graphically, (again, not played FFXI but going by screenshots and reviews I'd read on it) AoC beats them both hands down. They are simply amazing. Water effects are astounding by themselves, the water in one area may be crystal clear, while another area it's dark.. in other words, water does not look the same everywhere you go. Combat: WoW combat - click on a target, get up, go make a sandwich, watch some tv, come back and mob is dead. AoC - mob comes at you, either you fight or you will die. Combat in AoC requires you to actually FIGHT, not just click the target and walk away. If you do nothing, your char does nothing. Combat seems daunting at first, but it's very easy to learn, the initial 20 levels in fact are meant to get you used to your class and it's strengths/weaknesses. Magic: WoW magic, Shaman's Lightning Bolt spell = a little ball of lightning that flies towards the target... Druid's Wrath spell looks similar, just colored different. AoC's spells, you cast Lightning strike, and a burst of actual lightning bolts come DOWN (not from you like on WoW) from the sky.. awesome graphically. Fire spells look great, cold spells... seeing a Necromancer walking around with a horde of pets is sweet too Solo/Group: WoW's only real group type play comes in from instances and PvP, other than that, you can solo your way thru if you want (instancing your way thru is possible as well if you don't mind running the same instance a dozen times before moving on to the next one.) AoC is close, you CAN do quests solo (some you hafta group for, or wait til your level makes it easy for you to solo it yerself.) Not much diff there. Races/Classes: WoW has 8 races and 10 classes, picking and choosing one over the other can be a chore.. nothing worse than playing for hours then deciding you don't like being a 2 ft tall gnome and rerolling. AoC has 3 races, all pretty much the same, only diff I've seen is where their homelands are, and 12 classes.. classes are broken down by archtypes, 3 classes per archtype: Soldier (Guardian, Conqueror, and Dark Templar), Priest (Bear Shaman, Temptest of Set, Priest of Mitra), Rogue (Assassin, Ranger, Barbarian), and Mage (Demonologist, Necromancer, and Herald of Xotli). Each class in AoC brings something to the table, and after 2 months I can honestly say (unlike WoW), I love playing EVERY SINGLE CLASS... that's right, every one is great, they all have their own playstyles to learn and while balancing is an issue so far (PoM are killer right now) it is being worked on. Specialities: WoW has had 4 years development. Their PvP system IS good, better than any out there (currently). What else do they offer? Cheesy looking spells (some look good but game is 4 years old), cartoonish graphics, levelling begins to take so long between levels you may need a walker and a cup of water for your teeth by the time you hit max level. AoC - PvP system up, can use some balancing but fun from what I have heard ingame. Graphics kick WoW to the curb, and Mature rated game which means blood, gore, yes some nudity and foul language (It's CONAN!!!!) but best of all.. Fatalities! Why just swing at someone until they drop when you could impale them, decapitate them, send them screaming as they run around engulfed in flames, electrrocute them, lift them from the ground and suck out their soul and then watch the body tossed aside like a rag doll, knock them down with a big ol 2h hammer and then crush their head with the heel of your boot... the list goes on.So all in all, WoW has it's highlights, but it is 4 years old, very cartoonish, teen rated, and basically filled with little whiny kids. AoC has better graphics, Fatalities, combat system is great, and overall a much more realistic and rich experience... it's only downfalls are it's newborn status, of course, and you really need a very good computer to run it (GeForce 8800 graphics card minimum I would recommend -- what I run it on). So if you want cartoonish whiny kids = WoW, if you want blood, gore, awesome graphics and fun and are willing to go along with AoCs newborn growing pains, then come on over to AoC The community on AoC is older and from the server I'm on (Mannanan) seems very helpful and friendly.. many ex-WoW players that have come over. Long post, but hopefully enough info to help you make a better decision on whichever one you choose to get in the end. Happy Hunting!--Syric, Ranger, Mannanan Server, AoC.--Jaleth, Necromancer, Mannanan Server, AoC--Drakkanas, 70 Hunter, WoW (acct cancelled)--Syric, 70 Rogue, WoW (acct cancelled)-- like 7 other WoW chars that don't matter, acct cancelled.