My fiance would like to get back into the MMO gaming scene with me, and I’m wondering if Vanguard would be a good choice for a duo to tackle? Games we have already played include WoW, LotRO, EQ2, WAR, DDO (making my fiance more qualified than all of EGs staff when it comes to MMOs), so all of those are out, and she is too carebear for DarkFall.
The game more or less has to be a fantasy themepark, so games like Fallen Earth are out as well. Ideally the setup would allow us to play about an hour or two a few nights a week and make some progress. Does Vanguard fit that bill as something to play for a few months? Hardware requirements are a non-issue as we don’t play on toasters. Things like endgame and min/maxing are not a factor here as well; we likely won’t get that far.
And if not Vanguard, any other suggestions?
Hardcore Casual 
Guild Wars
Why?
edit: GW is rather short on PvE content for leveling, the group stuff would be off limits to us, and we would not touch the PvP. Plus you still have to spend a decent amount of cash just to get all of the boxes, and the no sub thing is not a huge plus since we won’t be playing a super long time anyway.
I wouldn’t be so quick to dismiss GW. First of all, cost is a positive, not a negative. $42 one-time fee (http://www.amazon.com/Guild-Wars-Trilogy-Pc/dp/B001DI6O6C) instead of a monthly. And I bet you could find it even cheaper.
With the hero system they implemented, 2 people can pretty much conquer any content in the game. And with 3 releases, I don’t really agree about being short on PVE content.
Plus, IMHO, it is the most visually appealing game I’ve every played. Then again, I’m quite biased! Can’t wait for GW2!
I’ll have to take the trial for a spin. I’ve not played the game in a long time, so maybe my general opinion of it will change as well (for whatever reason I remember not being a huge fan of it’s combat system)
I’m not quite sure what you are looking for, but I can at least relay my experience with GW. I bought it when it came out, beat the PvE content (Prophecies campaign only), and then left the game until recently.
A friend of mine bought the game wanted to play GW with someone, so I started a new char and the two of us started playing semi-regularly. As of now, we are about done with the Prophecies campaign, and we’ve been playing for about 60 hours (we may move onto Factions or Nightfall next, we’re not sure). Our play sessions tend to be between 1 and 3 hours at a time.
We haven’t spent any money on the ‘extra’ stuff, and it hasn’t hindered us yet. As far as an enjoyable game to duo, I’d say give Guild Wars a try.
If you think GW is short on PvE content, isn’t that a plus for a game you don’t intend to play for mroe than a few months? Also re: subs, of course it’s a plus, even if you have $Texas – why throw money at something if you don’t have to? (especially when you just cited the expense of buying all 3 chapters plus the expansion)
If you don’t like the combat system, though, fair enough.
Not left with a whole lot of options. Could go back to the original EQ if you’re willing to put up with that.
DAoC is out for PvP reasoning.
Lineage 2 is probably out as well for the PvP, but then again, early on it’s all about the grind.
EVE is out for PvP as well, plus the complexity might be more than she’s willing to put into a game (sounds like she wants to keep it light).
Champions Online would be perfect for you guys if she just would do fantasy stuff. It’s super casual, pick up and go, fast action, not overly complex.
You have a lot of qualifiers on this request! Is she opposed to free 2 play games? If not, that opens up a lot of options. You could go into Allods and start reading K&G for a new reason. *grin*
F2P is fine, but she is not a fan of grinding Asian style, so many of those games are out (as is Aion). I considered Atlantica Online, I played that before and found the game a lot of fun, but I wonder if it might not be a bit too grindy for her. It is a decent duo game though…
Allods would be an option, but it’s not out yet (and I still read K&G, can’t wait for the Allods fallout post).
I did say a NEW reason.
You know, beyond the lulz.
aside from the fact that CO is shit.
Obviouse troll is obvious!
But I’ll bite.
The biggest downside to CO is that it’s a very shallow game with little to no endgame. That said, playing through the first time on a hero is fun. Particularly since they smoothed out the leveling. The combat is engaging, the gameplay is smooth, the graphics are slick, and it just works.
Given the other criteria (low on grinding, themepark, not time intensive, not a PvP game, casual, and end-game being unimportant) it would have been a perfect fit, if not for the “must be fantasy” thing.
/shrug
My problem with CO is that I don’t find the combat entertaining at all, and fighting in one warehouse after another got very boring, very fast. But that was… a few years ago, so perhaps things have changed. That might be a possibility if the more fantasy-based suggestions don’t stick.
i wouldn’t say i’m trolling. i’m just being honest. i missed the whole City of… train, and figured i’d try out CO. the idea of making your own superhero is compelling and interesting. sadly, Cryptic has no idea what they’re doing with all their great ideas. their execution is abysmal. the endless instancing is awful. the combat is awkward and disconnected. the inventory, itemization and stat systems are strange and unintuitive. but more than that, CO just isn’t very fun. it never feels like you’re a real superhero kicking the crap out of bad guys. it all feels like a staged play where a developer is giving you what he thinks you want, like a kid on a pony strapped to one of those go-round things. once you realize how cloying and pandering it is, you lose all interest. at least, i do. that’s why games like EVE and Darkfall appeal to me. not because i’m “hardcore,” cause i’m not, but because the developer isn’t insulting me with trite, tired bullshit and holding my hand through the hoops every step of the way. heaven forbid we expect players to earn an experience instead of having it handed to them as shiny baubles at the end of a convoluted quest rope.
@Syncaine
Think your mixing “City of” with Champions Online (unless you’re being intentionally sarcastic). CO had pleasently varied, open world maps to fight in.
@Adam
We’ll just have to disagree about the combat feeling like a hero kicking ass. Maybe it was the power-set I created, don’t know. Wading into groups of enemies as a Power Armor, blowing them away with rockets and lasers. Or using force to send concusive bolts from far away, and knocking groups of enemies into the stratosphere always fealt imperssive.
As for the rest, I agree, it was extremely simplistic at one end, and the stats were pretty unintuitive, requiring you to read them all and figure it out. The rest of the complaint just seems to be in the direction of the game being a themepark. A strapped in pony ride is what they do, and that’s what was being looked for.
Actually I think Guild wars could be an excellent choice for casual play as a couple. The short missions mean that you can make real progress through the game in bite sized pieces (an hour or so at a sitting is plenty). The instanced content allows you and your girlfriend to play together at your own pace. The availability of henchmen and heroes means that you can tackle group content easily. Two humans + a suite of heroes will get you through everything except the hardest end game content. As regards PVE content I am guessing its been a while since you played – Guild wars plus its expansions now has thousands of hours of PVE content, more than enough I would guess for the play style you suggest. The game also looks very pretty and plays smoothly on anything with more processing power than an Iphone.
The downsides are that it is very combat focussed with no real crafting or collecting outfits or any of that girly :) stuff. The story is pretty good though especially in Prophecies and Nightfall. Prophecies (orginal campaign) is my favourite but Nightfall is the prettiest looking if that is important to your significant other.
Damn convincing commentators. Gonna give the GW trial a shot tonight.
I disagree, there is absolutely girly outfit collecting in Guild Wars! Gotta have all those pretty elites, or mix and match the 1k sets, ya know!
You know you’ve been playing Mass Effect 2 too long when you see the headline to this post and this, “Hell, yeah! Shockwave and Biotic Charge kick ass.”
Sorry, I now return you to your regularly scheduled commenting section.
LOL. This makes me laugh because basically the game that you are describing she would like best is — WoW.
**runs for cover**
I mean, seriously, if she enjoys themeparks and hasn’t played Wrath then she’s really missing out on the grand daddy choice of them all.
Sometimes if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck — it’s a duck.
But I guess that’s just too much of a stretch for you to “DUO” the most popular MMO expansion of all time with her. :P
We played WoW up to WotLK, so 10 more levels is not a huge draw, nor is facerolling instances in silence while staring at a 2002-quality engine.
I’m just saying that it’s ironic that while you may find no value in WoW, it ‘sounds’ like the perfect fit for her. Millions and millions of sheep (and some non-sheep) have loved it — and they played BC also.
But, as I say, imagining that YOU would set aside your objections on her behalf and take the plunge with her into Wrath is a BIG stretch.
Even going beyond that though, how long would Wrath keep us entertained? We would get through the 10 levels quickly, and we don’t do end-game grinding, and while we are looking for ‘more of the same’ in terms of a themepark, we are not looking for EXACTLY the same, which is what WotLK would be.
I think you underestimate how much being able to PuG raids has changed this game for casuals.
LOL! I just saw your comment over at TAGN where you noted that your fiance DOES want to play WoW! You left that little tidbit out :P
You could try CoX, as the community is good, and you can probably “play through it” in a reasonable short time, so the progression is quite fast. <= also certified GF conform
Or ATitD? … if you can get over the graphics, the gameplay is quite nice (and who doesn't like social and crafting PvP?). But it is more time intensive than most would expect, because most of the time is spent chatting with people to convince them to help you. Also the first 24 in-game hours are for free. <= certified by GF, but difficult to get said one away from chatting 24/7
Or roll out the good old Neverwinter Nights 2, which you can play together.
You understand if you subscribe to a fantasy themepark MMO, you’re asking for more of the same?
hah, everyone the only MMO actually rebounding for its disasterous start.
Age of Conan. It’s fantasy, it’s themeparky, and it is as carebear as can get as long as you roll on a PvE server.
Anyhow, no one actually answers your question about Vanguard i see. The fact that everyone is telling about MMOs -other- than Vanguard should probably tell you something.
I played Vanguard recently [thank you steam for cheap specials]. It’s a nice MMO, good graphics got some interesting aspects like the “diplomacy” [a whole non-combat way of leveling up by playing a little card game].
The controls is not as snappy, but acceptable. THe only thing that turned me away eventually was the emptyness, lack of activity or at least the sense that i’m all alone in one freakishly large world.
Plus it did not exactly feel original. I just could not find a reason why i should play Vanguard instead of Everquest 2, other than it being a game that seems to be circling the drain…
hah, everyone missed the only MMO actually rebounding from its disasterous start.
Age of Conan. It’s fantasy, it’s themeparky, and it is as carebear as can get as long as you roll on a PvE/RP server. It is atmospheric, amazing graphics, in fact the first 20 levels is unlike any other MMO in terms of “story” .
Anyhow, no one actually answers your question about Vanguard i see. The fact that everyone is telling about MMOs -other- than Vanguard should probably tell you something.
I played Vanguard recently [thank you steam for cheap specials]. It’s a nice MMO, good graphics got some interesting aspects like the “diplomacy” [a whole non-combat way of leveling up by playing a little card game].
The controls is not as snappy, but acceptable. THe only thing that turned me away eventually was the emptyness, lack of activity or at least the sense that i’m all alone in one freakishly large world.
Plus it did not exactly feel original. I just could not find a reason why i should play Vanguard instead of Everquest 2, other than it being a game that seems to be circling the drain…
Guild Wars is probably the best current option. It has (at this point) HUGE amounts of PvE content, probably more than most MMOs out there considering the story based nature of the mission progression. You will hit the level cap (20) relatively quickly though, so if you need the leveling carrot to keep going rather than just enjoying the content GW won’t keep you hooked for long. I agree with an earlier poster that two people with heroes can tackle almost any content in the game. A vast amount of it is soloable with heroes+henchmen, and the henchmen generally suck compared to heroes or real players. I’ve soloed Prophecies, Nightfall, and Eye of the North from start to finish. It’s well worth playing.
However, the one issue I’ve had with Guild Wars is the instancing frequently breaks your group, and it’s ANNOYING. When you’re doing pickup groups for a mission it’s no big deal, when you’re trying to duo through the content with someone it’s a serious headache.
I think the best option for a traditional MMO is Allods Online. It is currently stil in closed beta, but for the next week it’s open to anyone who wants to grab it. Open Beta is anticpated to start pretty soon, and characters created in open beta won’t be wiped, so it’s essentially a soft release.
I think Vanguard is an excellent choice. I have posted this a couple times: I recommend choosing a somewhat open weekend and doing the Vanguard Trial. Level your adventuring, crafting, and diplomacy up to ten, and get your harvesting up to 100. I think you’ll find it fun and satisfying. You can then make an informed decision about playing Vanguard more. The full game is more open world, open dungeons, great for adventuring and exploring.
I quite enjoyed the game when it came out but it was hugely bugged and lacked content. Apparently it’s really shaping up into a nice game though so I’d recommend giving it a shot. Let us know how it goes :)
Maybe you should try love?
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2010/01/04/what-is-love-beta/
I’m not sure my brain could handle wandering through AoC, WoW or LotR… no matter how worthy the cause.
Love is a great game, but I don’t really think it is what they are looking for.
Hey Syncaine- Khard/Honeybuns here.
You guys might want to check out Allods Online. It’s finishing up closed beta supposedly on 2/10, and its very nice in terms of what you described you guys would be looking for. And there’s pvp (both land based and at endgame out in the Astral Sea). I’ve enjoyed it and it’s very polished, moreso than a lot of “AAA” titles in the last couple of years.
Just something to think about!
Hey buddy, good to hear from you. I’ll have to see when Allods goes into open beta and give it a shot, hopefully it’s not so ‘cute’ that it kills me.
I dunno it might coming from the world of Darkfall. :)
Hope you guys are doing well!
Allods is actually really solid… Its going to be free to play. Open/closed beta was just extended another 7 days but you can expect openbeta/launch within two or three weeks, tops.
Most of the classes have an interesting mechanics. The instances are challenging and the quests are *very* party friendly.
Really it seems like the exact sort of game that you’re looking for… and to top it off its free to play.
i played Vanguard for a bit. it’s all right. worth checking out, but i only lasted a few weeks before i lost interest. might’ve been because i bore easily.
EQ2 reminds me strongly of Vanguard. maybe it was the graphics. i recently wrapped up my month trial of EQ2 and thought it was fun, but again lost interest after a few weeks.
i’d try either, EQ2 or Vanguard. both have trials. see which suits your chick’s tastes best. you never know with girls.
Vanguard is absolutely wonderful.
Huge, open, truly fascinating world. Great classes, wide choice of races. Superb starting area if you take the Isle of Dawn option and excellent wide range of original racial areas if you don’t.
The best crafting in any MMO. Unique diplomacy system. Quality housing.
Complete freedom of action while levelling. You can do the traditional theme-park quest hub thing with full range of quests for gear sets and so forth. Or you can wander the world, explore, follow your instinct and let the levels flow. Plays as a sandbox or a theme park according to taste.
Great to solo, even better to duo. Masses and masses of content – more than any game that’s never had an expansion could possibly be expected to offer.
I could go on, and on. If Brad hadn’t been such an arse it would have been the best MMO ever made, and even despite him it’s pure dead brilliant.
Just don’t expect an end-game.
Agreed! Vanguard is awesome and I’ll be resubbing after my house move next week.
I actually played Vanguard for several months for a couple of hours a night with my other half. We have two PCs set up in the same room which is a brilliant way to play an MMO, none of this teamspeak nonsense, I can go and bash him when he fails to heal me and I die.
It is an incredibly hard game to solo – in fact barely possible. But a well-calculated duo can have endless fun. Choose two races that compliment eachother (we had a blood mage and a dread knight) and you’ll find that it’s just hard enough to keep you interested (you’ll have to find groups to do some of the most interesting quests) and not so easy that it’s a boring grind to the endgame like others in it’s genre.
The only issue is the server population – when you reach those parts where it’s absolutely necessary to group, you might find it very difficult to find someone at the same point as you. In a way that makes it even better, you have to go find something else and keep coming back when you’re more skilled or have managed to find other people to help. More like an actual quest, then, rather than a guaranteed (dull) success every time.
I tried WoW, but couldn’t be bothered past level 15. I tried countless other themeparks. I tried Darkfall (oh how I tried but I’m just too carebear. I WANT to play that game so much but I fail so badly at it. I am too easily freaked out when scared or nervous and Darkfall sends my nerves to shreds to such an extent that I can’t even focus enough to escape on a mount. Awful, and a real shame.)
I really think you and she should give VG a try. It’s dead cheap and has a free trial. I would love to know your opinion on it, actually. Keep us posted if you do!
If you don’t go for Vanguard, though, EQ2 is incredibly female-stereotype-friendly if that matters – best housing in MMOs, loads and loads of non-combat content, very non-macho vibe. And Allods has the cutest playable race imaginable in Gibberlings and they have an even cuter pet! Plus it’s a cracking game and it’s free.
oh, yeah, Allods is pretty fun. i stopped playing the beta around level 13, but not because i got bored. if i’m gonna waste my time with a game, i want my progress to be permanent. i have some concerns with the way the stats work–if you don’t have adequate stats for your class/level, fights take an eternity.
Allods’ “talent” system wasn’t particularly inspiring in beta, but neither was WoW’s when that started.
could be a good game. and it’s free.
Quick update:
Tried Vanguard, feels WAY too much like EQ2 to me, and I really dislike EQ2. EG-review: 10/10
Guild Wars: It looks decent enough maxed, and the art style is better. Killed 3 creatures, decent enough to load up again. EG-review: 5/10
I was going to recommend Allods as well – I didn’t like it myself, because I’m just tired of race/class/level fantasy themeparks, but there is no doubt that it is slickly done, and if you want something other than the major themeparks that you’ve already played, I think it would be a solid choice. And I don’t believe it is too grindy is it?
This of course assumes that the fact that it’s not quite out of closed beta is not a deal-breaker? As KevinJC said, that finishes on the 10th, supposedly, and I think the open beta is just going to segue into release without another wipe? You’d want to double-check that.
Has the change to a World of Warcraft-style pvp flagging system destroyed all of the open-world pvp in Allods or is the game still worth trying?
Selfishly, I think you should play Vanguard so I can see a review based on the current state of the game. :)
LOTRO
I’d go with the guild wars recommendation for the reasons given above. :) One thing that doesn’t appear to be mentioned is FFXI, but I dunno if that might interest you.
If not, you could always try playing a console game together.
Make her try DarkFall. Even if she is too “carebear” she might be able to enjoy it. It’s worth a try in my opinion.
Myself and a (R/L) friend play Vanguard in a regular duo. And it is awesome, I would thoroughly recommend it.
We initially played a Dread Knight/Bloodmage. He was new (I had played before) so eventually we switched to a Shaman (Bear) and Psionicist. We have an absolute blast, great fun.
Vanguard is a great game for Duo’ing as each class is strong in it’s intended role (tank, healer, DPS, CC etc) but also has enough versatility that you don’t grow bored with it and also in the context of your duo, you have the ability to deal with a little outside the norm.
So A+ choice for me, you wont be disappointed.
I would highly recommend Vanguard. My wife and I really enjoyed duoing.
As you get higher and higher in levels, it does become more EQ/grind-ish, but their lower and mid-to-upper tier PvE is really good. Plus, the world is so large that you can level up multiple times and never see the same content twice. There are preferred paths, but some of the out of the way places are really interesting.
I also feel that, class-design wise, they did a great job. Each class has some nice twists, and each alt I raised up never felt that cookie cutter. That was one of the main differences I felt when I went “back” after a while to try and replay EQ2. After VG, EQ2 felt too bland class wise and content wise, and I felt EQ2 went overboard in rewarding you for little achievement every 2 seconds.
The main reason I left was that I felt that Smed and SOE management refused to give the dev team the support they needed. They pretty much crapped on them and left the game to whither, whittling resources little by little over the last couple of years until you end up with their latest state of the game post where they are essentially putting their bigger plans on hold, cause the dev team is down to just a skeleton crew. Eventually I just ended up getting ticked off thinking about the horrible waste and decided to finally move on.
I would highly recommend trying out the trial.
Oh, and diplomacy and crafting are excellent too. I really wish more MMOs would look at how VG did both of those.
Oh, and if you try it, I HIGHLY recommend you check out the map mod from (soresha.net)? I played with default GUI and that map mode. Huge plus.
Sorry, cant remember it off the top of my head… can certainly search for it in their forums if necessary.
Ahh, thanks… thats the one. I was in a hurry last night and couldnt quite get it. It’s so helpful and such a leap over the default map they really should just incorporate it into the base game UI :)
Yes also highly recommend the soresha.net…the mod is called InfoMapAdvanced.
“…while we are looking for ‘more of the same’ in terms of a themepark, we are not looking for EXACTLY the same…”
Hah. So, in other words, you’re going to be part of the problem. Quite the testicular fortitude, you real MMO gamer you.
Vanguard is excellent for duoing.
+1 on Age of Conan.
The atmosphere is great, the graphics and sound are very nice. The quests and gameplay are on par with what’s being done in the classics of the genre (WoW, LOTRO).
There are some mini instances that you can duo, but the classic ones will be out of your reach without a group. Which is a shame really, as again the atmosphere in them is cool and they are well done (traps, some puzzles once in a while).
The game is now stable and the bugs have been smothed out, it’s become a very solid PVE game with an interesting combat system.
I am surprised I don’t see anyone mention Runes of Magic. It is also a F2P MMO game that definately has that WoW similarity feeling.
I havn’t played this one much as I am currently still heavily into LoTRO.
I was going to say the same thing. I haven’t got near the endgame yet, but it’s pretty good. The dual classing system makes for interesting ways to build characters.
Ahhhhhhhhhh Vanguard………/eyes mist up.
Vanguard was going to be the game I was going to play for at least a decade. My next EQ. I followed the development of the game long before they ever got to beta. Had the lengthy, delicious faq memorized the day after Brad posted it on the original website. Every point in the faq was exactly what I was looking for in my perfect rpg. A huge, epic, seamless world. Zero instancing. Tons and oodles of PvE content and items. A little slower paced but much more involved and strategic combat. Long travel with caravans where you could basically “set up shop” in an area of the world and explore it for a few weeks/months before moving on to the next area of interest. Very intriguing classes. Ships. Flying mounts. No fast travel. Diplomacy…for the first time truly get involved in the politics of the world! Deep crafting. A meaningful death penalty that would make you think twice about descending down into that dark, dank, unknown dungeon where powerful items were there for you to take, and powerful mobs were awaiting to take your life. A realistic “high fantasy” graphics style that was exactly what I was looking for…huge draw distances where you could see that mountain way off in the distance and it would literally take you 10 or 15 minutes to travel there. An “Equipment Expertise” function that would give you more flexibility on the items you could wear.
It was perfect.
Then, it was released.
And, even though by participating in beta I knew what was happening, it was still crushing to see what the orginal vision had devolved into. But despite the reality of the game, at that point it was still a good game and worth my money and time to play. It was buggy, but not unplayable for me. It had been watered down, from the death penalty to the mobs to the size of the world to the affect diplomacy had on the world etc. etc…but still at that moment in time it was a game I wanted to play.
Then, the crafting dev. Silius was made lead dev. after the game bombed and most of the original team was asked to find another job. Silius took what was still a good game, albeit nothing like the original vision, and was able to completely destroy whatever good things were left inside of 18 months. Death Penatly? Made it a joke. A huge world? Lets put insta-ports every 100 yards so you never have to travel through any of that huge, beautiful world. Equipment Expertise? It’s too complicated for our now 100% care-bear clientele so lets get rid of it. Lets also increase named mob spawns to that they are almost more plentiful than regular mobs…thereby eliminating any excitement by actually seeing a named mob. Lets increase the leveling to be so incredibly fast that you actually outlevel a quest line before you are finished (sadly I’m not exaggerating)…w/out even doing any other quest lines in that level range!! Smart! Also, lets speed up the leveling so fast that unless you like playing 10 alts you’ll miss 90% of all the admittedly plentiful beginning and mid-level content only to quickly get to and end-game that…well…doesn’t exist!
It’s incredible that almost every single major decision they made with that game after release was the wrong one. How do I know? Play it for a day and see how empty it is. It’s a dying, if not already dead game that could have been so, so much more than what it turned out to be. Yes, some of that is due to the bugs and the engine performance, but certainly not all of it. I can play it pretty well on my computer as long as there isn’t 20 people on my screen. Despite the engine it could have worked and been a success on a smaller scale. Instead…it’s a shell of a shell of a major disappointing shell of a game.
No, I’m not bitter.
Yea I don’t detect any bitterness :)
Quite a bit of comments here.
My girlfriend plays WoW; I play Darkfall.
We use Madden on my old PS2 for our duo gaming. And, while she might not know how uber my defense is with Ray Lewis, Brian Urlacher, Ed Reed, and Troy Polomalo- she enjoys the fact we’re playing together.
I guess my point is that it’s not so much the game you’re playing, but that you’re playing it together (this would be the perfect line to drop for getting her to play Darkfall- even though it didn’t work for me).
Willie and Atnor were right on the money with their review of Vanguard, it’s past and present form. I played during Beta and continued playing for a few months after it released. I later went back and played the game again after they fixed alot of the bugs and it was a good game to play. The low server population is it’s major downfall right now.
A great game which is understimated by folks is Runes of Magic. It is a free-to-play game that is better than most pay-to-play MMOs. Most free2play mmos require you to use real money to purchase in-game items so that you can unlock skills, zones and so forth. That isn’t the case with Runes of Magic. You could play the game for years and not drop a single dime. What they sell is mostly eye candy fluff items such as costume armor. It looks great, but doesn’t add any stat bonuses.
RoM is easy to solo, different class combinations, large world and raid instances. Crafting is so-so, but the good thing is that you can add different stats to items to make your own unique gear setup.
As a side note:
I have played UO, AC, AC2, EQ, EQ2, DAoC, Shadowbane, Vanguard, AoC, Warhammer, WoW, CoV, GW, DFO, AO, SWG, and a few others. In my opinion, when it comes to MMOs;
SWG has the best Housing system.
EQ2 has the best Crafting and Guild system.
Asherons Call has the best system for handling death penalties (vitae).