No, not the “Top 5 Greatest” or “Most Creative” or “Best Experience,” I’m going with “Most Memorable.” Mainly because none of these games were perfect, they all had design flaws, and a lot of them are for niche groups. That also is what makes them memorable, these games were designed with a specific group in mind (for the most part).
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EVE Online, you’ve probably all heard of it. You’ve probably all heard some interesting things about it. “Desk Job Online” or the game with really difficult learning curve. It does indeed have quite a difficult learning curve, some people have even called a learning cliff, but that’s not why I’ve chosen it.
EVE Online has two primary mechanics that keep is quite a distance from an most other MMOs currently on the market. First of all this game is not nearly as quick as most other MMOs. This game requires a constant cultivation of skills to be able to do well on your own. To do this, the game employs a skill queue. You can queue up skills that take real-time to learn. So in essence you can still be productive while offline.
The main thing that makes me like this game is that fact that players have real power within the game. Not strength, or necessarily health points. Players have Corporate power. Power like you see today, where money talks. That is one mechanic I want in more MMOs. Most people would argue it would be unbalanced, but I think that would be exciting, much like the real world you have to work for what you want.
Corporations can basically claim parts of space if they have enough guilds, they can even send out bounties on players they don’t like. It just feels realistic, and I want more MMOs to be like this.
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Ragnarok Online. Yeah, that game. One of the most memorable “Korean-Grind-Fests” I’ve ever played, and I literally don’t know why it stuck with me. Perhaps the awesome classes or maybe the War of Emperium battles, or just the comraderies that you could form in the game, or perhaps it was the unique art style that set it apart from the rest?
If you’ve played Ragnarok Online, chances you’ve played on a Private Server before it went Free-To-Play, or even after that… or still do. Ragnarok is similar to most MMOs on the scene today. It features a class system, a combat system, a quest system, trade, markets, etc, but one of the most notable aspects for me is the classes.
You start out as a Novice, and as a Novice you must get your Job Level to 10 before you can change your class. You then have 9 different classes to choose from, or you can choose to increase your Base Level and become a Super Novice. Six of these base classes, have advanced classes, each with two to choose from. For example, from a Novice I could become a Swordsman, from there I have the choice to become either a Knight or a Paladin. Say I become a Knight, I can continue to level up and eventually I can become a Lord Knight. It’s not over yet, after that if I continue working through the game I can become a Rune Knight. The class system is just awesome, and if you want to see more head over here.
The game also features a really fun Guild system. The Guild system in itself is fairly typical, the fun part is the land you get to claim during the War of Emperium! This war consists of various castles strewn across the land, each guild battles to destroy the giant jewel at the heart of the castle (The Emperium.) So you get to attack and defend, the bigger your guild the better chance you have of capturing and keeping more castles. This breeds really good friendships among players if you find a really good guild.
Ragnarok Online also has one of the most unique art style I’ve EVER seen in a game. Utilizing 2D Sprites for character and mobs, while existing in a 3D environment is really fun to play in.
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You probably haven’t heard of There, that’s probably due to the fact that is was overshadowed by Second Life. There is a 3D Social Game, and I personally think it was more refined. It was designed for players to be able to meet and have fun with people around the world. There were no quests, no classes, or mobs, the main focus was to just have fun, and meet people.
“That doesn’t sound fun.” Well if you’re looking for a typical MMO experience, maybe not. There was filled with fun an interesting people, user created content, and exciting and fun mini-games to enjoy with the friends you made online. Players could build their own houses, or build a place to play games or design places to just chill. Players were designed to easily form chat groups to communicate with others with ease.
One of the cool things in There was the map. It was literally a massive globe that was completely explorable, and could be explored in many of the various vehicles used for transportation such as a Dune Buggy, or A HOVERBOARD, OR A FREAKIN’ JETPACK! Literally, there wasn’t anywhere you couldn’t go, there was no height limit, so you could fly miles into the fly to skydive and smack right into the ground! There was one of the most fun communities I had ever been apart of, and unfortunately in 2010 it closed it’s doors, but luckily re-opened again in 2012.
I think I had the most fun flying around on my hoverboard, going off cliffs, and sweet jumps. If you’re interested in checking this place out, head over to There.com.
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Yes, I’m serious. Puzzle Pirates. Puzzles & Pirates! Puzzle Pirates is not your typical MMO, obviously. As the player you take control of a pirate, adventuring out on the seven seas, pillaging money from roaming vessels. “That sounds awesome!” Yes, it is. ESPECIALLY if you enjoy puzzles. Puzzles are the primary mechanic in the game.
Living on a ship on the high seas, certain jobs must be done! All the various jobs that must be done on a ship are completed with puzzles. For example, for a crew to be able to effectively sail a ship, players must play these puzzles which represent working the sails for speed, or pumping bilge water to remove it from the ship, or a carpentry puzzle to fix any damage to the ship.
Puzzle Pirates, is also open-ended, and community-driven. Over time, players can join crews, progress in rank in said crews, buy and sail ships, or even become the captain of a crew, or become the governor of a island! All islands, and shoppes are managed exclusively by players. Yes, another game where the players have the real power!
In my experience playing this game, the puzzles are A LOT of fun, and can be quite addicting if you’re not careful! Joining crews, buying new clothes to look more noble or look more like a pirate was also awesome! If you’re not opposed to trying something really different then you should definitely check it out!
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City of Heroes was the first MMO I ever had a subscription to. I remember I had wanted to play it since it was released, and one day there was a trial for it in PC Gamer, and I almost died! I played as much as I could, and back in that day there were no restrictions for trial members. This game has a special place for me.
City of Heroes/ Villains is an MMO in which the player takes control of either a newly branded Super Hero, or a recently escaped Villain. The game featured many similar mechanics other games had, but the versions featured in CoH were a bit different.
One of the biggest differences was the Enhancement System, and the Inspiration System. CoH featured no equipment, or gear, so the drops consisted on Enhancements and Inspirations. Inspirations were consumable items that could buff you, heal you, recharge you, or even revive you, which proved to be a really versatile mechanic. Enhancements were the real drops. Every other level you could add an enhancement slot to your powers (skills), these slots could be filled with Enhancements. Enhancement varied from increased DPS, range, how much a healing ability would heal you, it could enhance a stun, or a debuff, it made different builds very versatile.
In a later patch, they introduced an Invention System, which would use various junk you’d pick up from battles and you could convert them into Enhancements, but these enhancements could be grouped together for even better buffs!
Obviously looking the part of a Super Hero was important, and the CoH features an extensive array of costume options to make your characters as heroic or as villainous as you wanted! Luckily you weren’t stuck with just one costume, as costume slots were unlocked as you leveled up, which you could change into whenever you chose.
Another thing I really appreciated about this game was the mission mechanic. Unlike many other MMOs, CoH didn’t really feature quests where you had to kill mobs to grab items, and if you did have to kill mobs, either there weren’t many to kill, or the payoff was really worth it. Most of the missions consisted of instances, and these instances would vary. You could be rescuing a hostage, finding some incriminating evicence, robbing a bank, or taking down the boss of one of the various gangs within the city.
Some other interesting features were the Side-Kick feature which allowed low-level characters to join you on high-level missions, or the epic classes which unlocked once you got a character to the max level, or the Ouroboros, which allowed you to play missions over again.
This game was so much fun and I’m sad it was shutdown in 2012. Luckily for me, and other fans, some even more hardcore fans are working on Spiritual Successors to the game, which can be found over here.
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There you have it, my Top 5 Most Memorable MMOs. At least for me they are, and I think after you try them out, they will be for you too.