Introducing the MMO Ten Level Test! Comments by Oli Welsh

Awesome idea, and I think it's a valid way of comparing the games - generally if you don't see something in the first 10 levels, it's not worth seeing - any big selling points are there early on to get you hooked!

Guild Wars might be harshly judged if the person accidentally makes a PvP char. "First, I choose my class and look... Level 20! That fast. Test over."

Why not Archlord? You level up might fast on that! It'd be the underdog too, what with it being shit and populated with gibbering idiots who overuse the Z key. Or should I say "Overuze the Z keyzez. Rez me pleazzzzzzzzzzzzeeeee!!!! I'mz onlyz allowedz outz ofz thez centrez ifz Iz don'tz bitez peoplez"

So it is your firm belief that WoW is the best MMO out there? Sheesh - WoW has become a religion of some sorts.

City of Heroes ftw.

1. Thou shalt not talk negatively of World of Warcraft.
2. Thou shalt compare all others unfavourable to World of Warcraft
3. Thou shalt not enjoy any aspect of any other MMO more than World of Warcraft, even if it is better
4. Thou shalt defend World of Warcraft if anyone tries to break the 1st rule, even though it requires no defence
5. Thou shalt not whine about the PvP, even if it is a bit tacked on
6. Thou shalt pay for the large expansion. Subscription pays for servers & cakes, not expansions. i mean, who's heard of so caleed "Eve Online"?
7. Thou must play all the time.
8. If anyone says an MMO is more enjoyable, thou shalt smite them in the name of Azeroth.
9. Comparison articles should always end up with World of Warcraft as the victor, regardless of how a lot of other games are now far better
10. Ignore all the above and enjoy whatever you play.

There's nothing second division about Guild Wars!

Yeah, I was going to make that point about GW player numbers compared to Lineage/FF.

Although we don't know "active" player figures, GW has - in total - sold over 5 million units.

Granted that's over four different SKUs BUT keep in mind that Eye of the North required ONE other scenario/campaign to play, so it's not a straight split over the four SKUs (due to EotN needing another GW product to play.)

I would read that as - unless there are some mad people buying multiple copies - GW has been played by about 1.5 - 2 million people. Obviously that doesn't mean they're all playing NOW but to sell even a million copies of a PC game - online or not - is good going.

Obviously this is fudged maths from me and we don't actually know how many people are playing but it's no worse than WoW's "11 million+" figures...

@DF : Archlord is a F2P game. That changes the goal posts a bit, if you were to pit it against a pay-monthly.

Great concept, EG. I'd like to see some f2p examples pitted against each other for a future feature, though.

@DF : Archlord is a F2P game. That changes the goal posts a bit, if you were to pit it against a pay-monthly.

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Guild Wars is "free to play" too. Moreso technically than many F2P games, as once you've bought the initial game for about £10 you have access to ALL the game's content and don't have to pay for "premium" items...

Sorry, but GW is not a free to play game - the makers just get their income in a different manner. It's also a real anomaly, unless you know of any others that took that route? Also, the boxes weren't always at the price they are now. Are you ignoring the expansions? Clearly that tenner outlay gets you the core game, but you don't have access to everything the game has to offer, because there's plenty more content added by the other sets.

Erm. I don't pay a monthly subscription to play GW, ergo it's "free to play."

However, many "Free to Play" games charge for in-game content and items.

Sure they may be free to download and free to play TO A DEGREE but at the end of the day, the "premium" content is only available if you pay for it.

I'd wager people will spend more money on an "FTP" game than they would on the 30-odd quid I've spent on GW.

Typo! "Drgaons Online"

Also, if you include Guild Wars you might wanna include Diablo II as well if you ask me.

"I'd wager people will spend more money on an "FTP" game than they would on the 30-odd quid I've spent on GW. "

I know that one to be accurate, as I've seen that happen on numerous occasions.

"Erm. I don't pay a monthly subscription to play GW, ergo it's "free to play." "

In that respect. It's still necessary to pay to have access to the game, though. That's an amount that the makers will know is coming from EVERY player - so, they can use that figure for their forward planning, budgeting and support of the game.

It's still necessary to pay to have access to the game, though.

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True, but the point I'm making is that beyond the initial outlay, there's no fee unless you choose to buy an expansion, whereas in a "normal" FTP game, you don't pay up-front but will find yourself spending money to access what is essentially "core" content (regardless of how they dress it up as "premimum" content...)

guild wars should be excluded from this as its not an mmo

Benno: "guild wars should be excluded from this as its not an mmo"

Now that's just silly talk. GW features instanced areas and non-instanced (like towns), you form groups with people to help with quests. It has a communication system, and emotes like MMOs (MMOs NOT at all being my specialist subject, but I'll try to stick with this)
It's clearly a massively multiplayer game, for the numbers that congregate in particular, around the starter locations. There is levelling, customisation and combat. Team play is encouraged, and there is PvP/GvG battling. It features a loot and shopping system. You clearly play the part of your avatar in a grand story.

Moreover, how ISN'T Guild Wars an MMO, then?

"The reasoning behind this choice is that, if we threw a wolf like World of Warcraft or Lord of the Rings Online into that pack, the outcome might be somewhat predictable"

First ten levels of WoW are shit.

Although I wouldn't go as far to call them shit, I found my first 10 levels of WoW to be weaker than the other MMOs I've played. Still fun, but not as good as level 11 onwards, when my Night Elf hit the mainland.

There were no such thing as a 'level' back when Galaxies originally launched. Then they went and screwed it up - twice!

Warhammer isnt on there either. No one's mentioned that, but WoW got mentioned in the second comment.

Guild wars isn't an MMO the same way Call of Duty 4 isn't an MMO

FFXI should win this test hands down, its the best MMO out there. I'm not sure this test will be fair to it however. When it beats L2 the writer will at level 18 unlock the sub job, which basically means leveling another job from 1-20, FFXI has many different jobs, the only difference being you are not stuck with that job, you can change it in your mog house whenever you want to, start as a Warrior, and change to a Monk or even a White Mage.

Its starting line up though is very basic, Warrior, Monk, Thief, Red Mage, White Mage, Black Mage, its not until level 30 that you get to unlock all the other possible jobs, Ninja, Samurai, Blue Mage, Summoner, Bacon Mage etc. which are unlocked via quests and then you start them jobs at level 1.

Final Fantasy online really really isn't the best MMO out there :)

Its starting line up though is very basic

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More importantly, does everybody have pointy hair and look a bit effeminate?

FFXI may very well lose because of few important details:

A) It gets better as you play, unlike other MMO's that start as good but don't get much better in the end. With 1-2 JA's/5 spells, and if the test guy starts as a BLM, he might find it hard/boring at first.

B) He may miss the tutorial, although it is quite clear what you have to do there aren't any gold exclamation marks above NPC's heads. If he can follow it, though, I see FFXI doing well in this one. Hopefully he knows how to use an exp ring >_>;.

with the upcoming eve patch you can do the "2 million SP test" as well which is where they think the initial Noob rush stops

anything going on with this?

What ever happened to this section... got stuck?

Let us know, please, if you're still working on it.

C

I'd love to see a LOTR vs WAR one.

I don't expect my beloved WAR to win, but the sheer contrast of 'fantasy is serious business' vs. 'waaaaagh!' would be very amusing :)

You should include NWN2. It's not strictly an RPG but it's intended to be a continuing experience, and there are plenty of Persistant Worlds if you want that experience. The game has improved so much since release and really deserves some attention for it.

any news? im worried now

I and my buddies are really looking forward to the next installment.

Damn, when will be DDO vs Guild Wars? :) I'm looking forward into it. I left GW behind long ago, and DDO is in my opinion the best and most unique MMO out there (I check many, constantly).

But it's not popular enough to win this, I guess. It can really bias many reviews - but I'm not afraid, as Module 9 will be a huge change for DDO. I think DDOs golden age is coming - looks like this even now.

I asked the autor if this project is dead or just delayed. He replied me that he was just too busy last month and that i should look forward to seeing the next part this month.
And so i will ;) Go DDO!

Go Go GW!

Some of us are still waiting for more of these MMO tests and subscribed to RSS feed only for those. Well, maybe someday...