Aerrevan - I think this might be a Canadian MMO, possibly the only one ever. Spent quite a few hours in the starting area. I always had an unreasonable affection for it, considering it was almost unmitigatedly terrible. Never saw any other players in game or heard of anyone else playing it. The website is still up but the game isn't.
Aika - Typical Eastern MMO. Quite pleasant, passably translated. Got to about level eight or nine. It's still running.
Alganon - The infamous David Allen/Derek Smart controversy engine. I quite liked it in beta, although it was laggy as hell and patently incomplete. Post-launch it was laggier still and unplayable, at least for me, something it has in common with David Allen's previous effort, Horizons. Almost unbelievably this is not only still running but just produced its first expansion.
Allods - Another controversy generator. Really liked this in beta. Beautiful world, enjoyable low-level gameplay, great sense of humor. Got to about the mid-twenties, I think. Didn't go on to play it at launch partly because of the notorious cash-shop issues but mostly because while I liked the start of the game I could see the later levels weren't for me. Went back for another run a year or two later and had fun. Still running and getting updates. I may well play again.
Anarchy Online - My first beta. We were all on dial-up back then and Funcom sent out the beta discs in the mail. Bought it and played throughout the extended free period that followed what remains possibly the worst MMO launch in history. Didn't subscribe when they finally started requiring payment. Went back and played some more when it went F2P. Had a lot of fun there, on and off. Game's still up. Might take another look if they ever get that graphic reboot up and running.
Argo - One of the best Eastern MMOs I've played. Passably translated, simple but effective art design and just very comfortable to play. I made an Allaplaya account to play this and then they closed it down. Yet another black mark against PSS1. Possibly still running in some territories. Would play again if I could..
Asheron's Call - Bought and played back when there were very few MMOs and you were glad for what you could get. Even so I only put in a few hours and had stopped well before the end of the free month. Not my cup of tea at all. Still running.
Asheron's Call 2 - Never played it in it's brief lifetime but curiosity led me to try it out when it unexpectedly returned from the dead. Didn't like it any more than the first one. Still running, to everyone's surprise, although I believe it's only available if you are subbed to AC1.
Atlantica Online - Horrible game that I never really understood. Very, very ugly to look at. Played maybe two or three sessions then uninstalled. Running.
Celtic Heroes - Mobile MMO for iOS. Very reminiscent of Everquest. Would play if I had an iOS tablet but iPod Touch is just too small. Running.
Champions Online - Played when it converted to F2P. Got to about level eight or nine. Given that I love superhero comics it's surprising how hard I find it to enjoy superhero MMOs. Still running, although no-one ever mentions it anymore.
City of Heroes - Speaking of superhero MMOs, the grandaddy of them all. Beta-ed this and enjoyed it but found it too repetitive to imagine playing long-term so I declined to buy it at launch. Now sadly and famously defunct.
City of Steam - I have a long history with this game, thoroughly documented on this blog. One of the great could-have, should-have stories of MMO development. An opportunity missed, to put it mildly. Running and I am still nominally playing although I haven't logged in this calendar year.
Clone Wars - Played once or twice. Surprisingly enjoyable. Closing down in March. Kind of wish I'd played it more...
Crowns of Power - Great, little-known indie MMO with a classic feel. Got to the high teens, which took quite a while seeing speed of leveling was very similar to early EQ. Now closed, unfortunately. Would play again.
Dark Age of Camelot - Failed to get into beta, bought at launch, played solidly for six months and remained subbed for more than a year. Highest character topped out in the low 40s. Never hit max level. Enjoyed it a lot at first but over time PvE became too grindy (much more so than EQ was at the same time) and open-world PvP was far too inconsistent (so many evenings spent running about looking for someone to fight). Played a lot of Battlegrounds on weekends, the first instanced PvP I'd ever seen. Still running.
Darkfire - Have a password for this but no memory of it whatsoever.
Dark Solstice - Waited years for this 2.5D effort to appear and by the time it finally hit beta I'd lost interest. Putzed around for a day or two and never went back. Never released, not sure if development continues.
Dawntide - Ambitious sandbox project that never happened. I spent an ungodly amount of time in this thing considering so little of it ever worked. The world felt very "real" somehow, even if nothing about the gameplay (what little there was of it) ever did. Development discontinued.
DCUO - As a lifelong DC fan I was always going to try this. I got into the beta and had a great time. Bought it at launch and played it intensely for a short while. Made nominal max level (20) which might as well be the tutorial for all the relevance it has to the main part of the game, a never-ending gear-and-rep grind of the harshest stripe, as excellently, entertainingly and sometimes despairingly chronicled by Tipa. Went back briefly when they added housing. Running. May play again.
DinoStorm - Really excellent little MMO. Very slick and well-made. Original and unusual setting. Always busy when I was playing. Put quite a few hours into this and blogged about it some but haven't played this year. Running. Definitely will play again.
Dofus - Peculiar French MMO (that may be tautologous). Very highly rated by some but not by me. Bored me rigid. Running.
Dragon Empires - The MMO I was most excited about that never happened. Still got my password for the website.
Dragon Nest - I spent a good few hours in this popular and visually delightful action MMO. Never got very far but always had fun while I was playing. Running. Might play again.
Dragon's Prophet - An abominable experience in early beta but considerably improved later on. Too bland for my tastes, both visually and mechanically. No surprise to find this is from the people who made Runes of Magic. Running.
Drakensang - A German browser MMO that I disliked. That's as much as I remember.
Dungeons and Dragons Online - Hated it in beta. Really, really hated it. A claustrophobic mess. Heard it had improved so tried it again when it went F2P. It had improved - a lot. Played for a few weeks but it does get very repetitive and not in a good way. Running.
Dusktreaders - Got a password for this but no memory of what it is/was.
Earth And Beyond - Don't think I ever actually played this short-lived MMO although I do have a password. Vaguely feel I might have done but if so it obviously made little impression.
Eden Eternal - Cute, bouncy, Eastern MMO for which I have an inexplicable soft spot. Used to be one of my late-night wind-down favorites. Not played for a long time but might well play again one day. Up and running.
Earth Eternal - Had big hopes for this cartoon animal version of Everquest and played it extensively in beta and less so after launch. It turned out to be worthy but somewhat dull. It had a short life before it closed down, whereupon it was bought in a bankruptcy auction by a company planning to release it in Japan. As far as I know they never did.
Endless Ages - An early favorite from the days when you took what MMOs you could get and thought yourself lucky. This was a open-world PvP MMO/FPS hybrid, making it one of a field of two with Planetside at the time, I guess. It had a crazed and quirky setting, demented races and some cracking jet-pack physics. It even had housing. I played it in beta, a lot.
Entropia Universe - Ultra-weird MMO famous for RMT trades involving tens of thousands of dollars. Played briefly in beta. It was barely-playable rubbish then. Must have something going for it, though because it's still around.
Eternal Lands - Very poor. Neither know nor care if it's still running.
EverJane - In post-successful KickStarter development. Played the tech demo, which was...interesting.
Everquest - Best. MMO. Ever. That is all. Countless thousands of hours played. Not only still running but running on seventeen servers and always busy whenever I log in, which isn't nearly as often as I should.
Everquest 2 - Another mainstay. First played in beta, most recently played the day before yesterday. Fit and healthy or so we trust.
Everquest Next Landmark - In Alpha and looking good.
Face of Mankind - Did ever play this? Not entirely sure. If I did it was only for an hour or two.
Fallen Earth - Really great, original, unusual MMO. Bought this at launch and played heavily for about 8-10 weeks, getting into the 20s. Been back several times since it went F2P. Another of those many MMOs that well deserves time I just don't have to give. Still running. Will play again.
Ferentus - Unfinished Eastern MMO that never came out of beta. For some curious reason both Mrs Bhagpuss and I really liked it. Would have played it had it ever launched.
Final Fantasy XI - Stylistically charming, typically quirky MMO from Square, wrecked by an insane UI. I eventually forced myself to learn to use it but it was never comfortable. Also famously solo-unfriendly with everyone long since parked at the end-game. I made it to something like level 17 I think. Still running and getting updates regularly.
FFXIV - Diabolical in beta and the same at launch. Barely playable and yet you could always tell there was something in there. Considering how unrewarding it was I put in quite a few hours. Despite heavy retro-fitting post-launch it never got traction until its second coming as..
FFXIV:ARR - There or thereabouts the game FFXIV should always have been, I had a lot of fun in this during beta and in the free month that came with purchase of the game at lunch. Has been one of the real success stories of recent MMOs but the gear/faction grind and storyline-locked progress model meant I chose not to subscribe.
Firefall - Very promising SF-set MMO/FPS that has suffered badly from directionless development. Played a good few sessions last year and always enjoyed it. Reminded me very much of Endless Ages. Never going to be the kind of MMO I would get heavily invested in but I remain very interested to see how it progresses. In development but open to play and I will.
Flyff - The original flying MMO, in which I never flew. Didn't get that far. A bit lke Earth Eternal in that it felt worthy but just a bit dull. Still going.
Free Realms - SOE's famous first foray into F2P. A huge fuss was made about this and it was all a bit of an anticlimax when it came. Looks gorgeous and was one of those MMOs that I always thoroughly enjoyed when I was playing it but never thought about when I wasn't. Closing down in March.
Gatheryn - Another of the alleged "steampunk" games that has no discernible steam or punk in it. Well, it didn't when I played it briefly in beta, when it was a small series of rather dull mini-games. It never made it out of beta. Can't say I'm surprised.
Gods and Heroes - Could never get this to run. Don't think I missed much. It's gone now.
Granado Espada - Otherwise known as Sword of the New World. An odd MMO where you control several characters at once. Didn't get on with it at all. Still running.
Guild Wars - This was promoted as a PvP title before launch so we were a little late buying it. When the reviews that came back were very positive and all about the PvE we got on board a few weeks after launch and really enjoyed it. I completed the original campaign and stopped after about six weeks. Mrs Bhagpuss lasted a few weeks longer. I had a couple more runs later on and I own all the expansions although I have only really played Eye of the North. Almost finished it, too! Game is still running but only in maintenance mode, the success of GW2 having killed off further development on the elder title.
Guild Wars 2 - My main game for the last year and a half. Two accounts, nine max level characters, thousands of hours played, over 5000 screenshots taken, many blog posts written... It's nowhere near perfect but it probably makes it into my top five MMOs ever played. And in fact, I'm off to play it right now!
Posts
Well, you have got me beat and you're only in part 1. But I do tend to focus on a single game... or maybe two... for long stretches.
ReplyDeleteAnd I have to ask what the threshold required to make the list? How much did you play the least played game? I see a couple there where you don't appear to even remember playing.
I could, technically, both Guild Wars and Guild Wars 2 on my list, should I make one. I bought both of them. I even bought an expansion for Guild Wars. But I don't think I played either enough to really feel like they would make a list of *my* MMORPGs.
But perhaps that would be a different breed of list. The "I logged on and made a character" list would be much longer.
"But perhaps that would be a different breed of list. The "I logged on and made a character" list would be much longer."
DeleteLOL indeed! but I don't even remember their names after a couple of years =D
It started when I was looking at a list of old passwords and I realized some of them were for games I didn't even recognize (indeed I'm making an assumption that some of them were even games...). That got me wondering just which MMOs I might have played and forgotten so I went through all my notebooks and scanned the MMORPG.com game list and wrote down everything I either had a password for or remembered playing.
ReplyDeleteSo it's supposed to be an exhaustive list of anything I either logged into or would have logged into if it had ever had a server up and running. At one time it was my goal to at least log in to every MMO that would allow me to download or sign up without asking for money up front. That seemed feasible once upon a time but that time was a while ago and I never even came close.
The ones I literally don't remember playing are all ones that I have passwords written down for. I must have gone as far as as applying for a beta or registering on a website for those but I probably never played them. Some of them, like Dragon Empires, never existed except as proposals or press releases.
That only counts for a few, though. There's a larger but still smallish number that I played once and strongly disliked, like Dofus or Atlantica. I wouldn't claim to have "played" those in any meaningful sense but I did at least log in.
Then there's a much larger bunch that I played for a number of sessions, sometimes intensely but for a short period, like Ryzom, which I played solidly for a week or so, probably 40+ hours and then never played again, but mostly ones I played on and off in a number of short sessions over a few weeks or months before more or less forgetting about them.
And of course there's the significantly smaller number that I've played "properly", largely exclusively and for at least a few weeks in a row, if not months or years. I might do a "Top Ten" or even Top Twenty of my favorite MMOs some day, ones I could reasonably say I have played long enough to judge. Not any time soon though - this has been exhausting enough and I'm only half-way through.
Well, at least you are half-way through then. When you stopped at "G" I was wondering if this was going to be a 3 or 4 part series.
ReplyDeleteFor some reason there seem to be a disproportionate number of MMOs in the first third of the alphabet. And I was going to do the whole thing in one go but I was already running out of steam by the end of the Fs! Might leave it a few days before I get to the other half.
Delete