looking into joining one, wondering about suggestions to try out or avoid. Reasons would be nice

You should try Ragnarok Online, but not the silly pay version. There are all sorts of priv. RO servers out there. Sadly most of them go down fairly quickly however. If you interested I could run one here...


Dan

Wait for World of Warcraft should be nice.

WoW looks quite nice. All nice and purdy too. But, that'll cost, and last I heard it was like $15 a month, which is about norm now. Whatever you do though, stay away from Dark Ages of Camalot and Shadowbane. Those games need a fucklot of work before they will be considered good (game-wise, they are decent, but their servers crash, and they have no tech support). EverQuest is probably the best one out there, in terms of tech support, game play, and server stability. Only thing is, it sucks your life away (I have been quoted as saying, in game, 'What real life? There is no life other than EverQuest!'). FF XI is a new one (realitive to the others) and I have yet to play it, but I've heard a lot about it, and it all sounds good. Only thing, 1 character per server, so you don't have the problem with twinking as badly like in EverQuest.

Then again, might look for some normal RPG's with persistant worlds. And, by that, I am talking about Neverwinter Nights. The ability to make mods and set up dedicated servers is a wonderful things, because some very talented programmers and script writers have made some pretty damn good worlds out there. And another thing, once you get past installing, you don't need a CDkey so you can get that shit off Seek here. These servers usually enfore legit characters, which means that there aren't those hella hacked biotches out there. I am proud that I am a fully unhacked character, and can still beat the shit outta most of the hacked people out there.

All in all, I'd suggest trying out Neverwinter Nights first, until you think you want to devote that time to a real game. And it is a devotion, because it will take a good chunk of your time. I think that's all I got on the subject for now.

how is ragnarok? it looks sweet as hell but i'm barely able to keep up on FFXI.

I know quite a few people who are addicted to Horizons. It looks and phat as hell, and the gameplay seems sweet, but I had RPGs so I have yet to get involved.

I highly recommend that if you've never played one, you watch someone play one for a while. I've played three now (Eve Online, SW: Galaxies, Final Fantasy XI), and I've quit all of them after the first "free" month ($50 for the game). There are people that absolutely love those games, but I find them to be repetative and unrewarding. Make sure you like the type of gameplay that they have to offer before blowing money on it (I wish I hadn't wasted all that money..).

Anyway, if you do decide on any of the three games I listed, hit me up and I'll sell you my copy of it.

Ragnarok Online is probably the simplest MMORPGs that I've seen, all the controls are extremely easy to figure out. Fighting monsters get a little mundane like any other MMORPG but is still easy to by your self and simple. The skill system is simular to Diablo 2, and you gain lvls so much quicker than FFXI (no 10% exp loss or lvl down crap). The games worth playing and I think iRO (the legit server) is better than any private servers just because the number of people who play on it, and Gravity has really cleaned up its act managing the game in the past few months.

Utopia at games.swirve.com/utopia. Great game and it's free.