For people that like MMO’s but don’t have time for MMO’s, what scratches the itch?

[rommelrommel]

This is going way back, but I was in a high level SWG guild. That was probably the best gaming experience I had, but when SOE ruined the game our guild kinda broke up, the core went between a bunch of MMO’s, eventually landing on WoW for TBC which was also a really good time. We certainly weren’t a super high level guild that round but we did a lot of high level raiding. Went from that, to a bit of WOTLK, then SWTOR for a while. I then spent a couple years involved with a project to emulate the glory days of SWG, more as a tester/qa person.

I got pretty busy in life and didn’t play much seriously for quite a few years. But over the last couple I played Division 2 heavily, then went back into WoW and really had a good time, ended up succeeding at heroic raiding, invited to mythic raid, and doing some fairly high mythic plus stuff.

I’m kind of short on time again so going into another expansion of WoW is kinda out. Division 2 is a dead game, no one is raiding or doing high end content really.

I also enjoy single player stuff, fallout 3, GTA5, RDR2, have been something to do in small doses. Couldn’t get into fallout 4, been playing cyberpunk 2077 but I find the talent system a mess. Game is beautiful tho.

Anyone have a similar gaming history and find something to move on to?

 

[DigDog]

The appealing aspect of a MMO is that you play with other people. Whether PvE or PvP you are still working in a team, so you would need to look into something like that. Gameplay-wise, it won't look like a MMO. I think tactical shooters are probably your best bet at finding short games that require teamwork. But, really, anything that's got a social aspect. Idk, Deep Rock Galactic for example is lots of fun and a mission lasts around half an hour, *maybe* one hour for the more difficult ones.

 

[KMFJD]

Dark and Darker has gotten a lot of positive reviews from the group i used to play MMO's with, Warhammer 40k : Darktide also got some positive reviews.

 

[quikah]

FFXIV is probably the most time friendly MMO I have played. You can play the entire game solo at your own pace. They added a system to allow you to go through story dungeons with NPCs (there might be some early dungeons that haven't been updated). Even without that, you can use the automated party finder to go through MANY dungeons and raids with relatively short waits.

The only negative for FFXIV IMO is the loot is very boring.

Lost Ark is also decent time wise, though it becomes a major grind (or P2W) once you get to the higher end content.

 

[Zenoth]

I'm not sure if this would (or should) apply but - to some degree - The Old Republic.

Specifically in regards to playing the main story missions (the main 3 Chapters, prior to going into the expansions story arcs). All the story-related content can be played solo, at your own pace; and even getting gear is pretty much done for you as you progress (from quest rewards, they're enough for story content). No need to find groups, or guilds. Each class of the game have their own unique "origins" 3 main Chapters to go through.

That's what I did anyway, back when I had an 'itch' for MMOs. I just played the 3 Chapters of my favorite classes and called it a night. When it comes to all the rest of the game's content I cannot really speak much about it, since I didn't really participate in any of it. But I did genuinely enjoy playing it like a sort of "interactive Movie" with the classic BioWare formula (I.E. start alone, get a ship, find new people to recruit along the way, have them on your ship, talk to them, create bonds and go on your journey with them).

However, I must say, that I only enjoyed the story portion of it. I did not like the combat, at all. It is brutally outdated.

Outside of TOR, there's really been no other MMOs that 'grabbed' my attention for more than maybe 2 weeks at best since the past 5 years or so. For me, the MMORPG genre had its peak between 2009 or '10, up to around 2014; and from there we started losing them gradually as they all started to go down the drain one way or another. But that's just me, I'm saying this based off of the ones I did play and the ones that quite literally vanished and were shut down (last one was TERA, which I loved back in 2012 and 2013).

 

[KMFJD]

Evercraft Online looks interesting

~ECO is heavily inspired by EQ, so if you've played EQ before you'll feel quite at home. A lot of the class names and many of the design decisions (e.g. in-game money being copper / silver / gold / platinum) are basically taken directly from EQ. However, this isn't an exact EQ clone! They've built their classes from the ground-up, keeping some of the core elements of the classes intact while putting their own unique spin on them. They've built a seamless world completely from scratch, and what they have so far is beautiful.

 

[quikah]

Oh, one thing I forgot to mention. FFXIV free trial goes through the entire first expansion Heavensward with very few restrictions on the free account. Play to the end of Heavensward on the trial before buying the game to minimize your costs.

The story is excellent (it drags quite a bit in the beginning though), so if you just want a good RPG to play regardless of MMO or not I highly recommend it.

 

[GodisanAtheist]

Kingdoms of Amalur feels very much like a single player hack n slash MMO.

Fun gameplay, cartoony graphics, solid leveling system, plenty of zones, interesting universe/premise, and a solid 80 hours of playtime (although the game does begin to drag after a while).

Probably get it on sale for $10 or less, worth checking out.

 

[SMOGZINN]

Gedonia is another game that is a lot like WoW but single player. It is still in active development, but already has a ton of content.