Hi all – I'm 41 year old avid MMORPG player! I'm always looking for a new MMO to sink my teeth into. I've probably tried 99% of the MMOs out there, but even when I think I've tried them all – there's another suggestion. However perhaps there isn't a “perfect MMO” for me but I'm always willing to search. First I'll list my wants in an MMO and then list the main MMOs I've tried which fall into the “wants” listed and how they didn't quite fit for me. I might just be too “Jerry Seinfeld” and hard to please but guess that's why I'm here!
#Looking For The Perfect MMO (For me)
languid viper
What I'm Looking For:
Main Story Quest Line – I have 2 kids and full time job, so my playtime is later in the evening Mon-Sun – so a main story is a guiding light for me to even feel any sense of accomplishment in an MMO.
No Gender Lock – I'm not a fan of it and will literally not play based on this alone.
Class Options – I'm usually leaning towards playing a healer/dps – like a Cleric/Priest type – so if the MMO has this type of class option or the prototypical choices (Tank/Warrior/Healer) I'm pretty interested.
PVE – I need a more PVE focused MMO. I don't play PVP and it's not my thing. I don't particularly care if the side quests follow any type of “zone story” - I just prefer PVE Quests for Grinding etc.
Solo over Dungeons/Raids – I don't really have 3-4 hours in a sitting for raids and Dungeons I sometimes I find (depending on community MMO) are rather toxic or relatively against new inexperienced players and get frustrated and rage quit if you die a few times. I prefer to mostly solo, and group if necessary on shorter quicker stints.
Chatty Discord – I like a discord that answers questions in a relatively timely manner and is somewhat active.
Controller Support – This isn't a MUST HAVE, however more and more I find myself gravitating away from WASD MMOs and more to controller ones.
F2P Preferred – I prefer F2P but I'm not opposed to a sub, however I most likely won't only because $15 a month for an MMO nowadays just doesn't work for me overall.
Race/Character Customization – I generally prefer to play smaller (hobbit/halfling) races so if I can adjust my character to be smaller or a hobbit-esque race – yes please.
Skill Overkill – Some MMOs tend to WAY to many skills that are essentially the same thing – Everquest 2 suffers from this and I have 4 toolbars on my screen that are just attack after attack and it seems excessive and unnecessary. Less is more – this is where controller MMOs seem to shine for me.
The Big MMOs I've Tried And What Didn't Work For Me (Or I've Already Played Them A Bunch):
Elder Scrolls Online – I've played easily over 300-400 hours in this game and enjoyed it, however I'm somewhat over it and I never was a huge fan of the class system. I personally feel (since everyone can use the same weapons) – classes are not pure and are muddied by the traditional feel of an MMO. I liked the combat, the quests and absolutely love the main story. The slog of the post max level grind is a little painful but not horrible – I've just got burnt out on this one having “beaten the game” so to speak.
FFXIV – Similar to the above, I've played and beaten the main story of “A Realm Reborn” and while I do have the expansions for some of the newer content I find myself disliking that you can't “grind” in this game with open world mobs (I mean you can but you get almost no xp and levequests are rather boring) – you are almost forced to do dungeons with a relatively toxic player base that gets frustrated with new players they quit or try to skip cut scenes or just go 100 miles a second without any thought for anyone else. Again the grind is real in this one, but the ability to switch your class at a moments notice was always great to me.
BDO – It just feels like an MMO on rails a bit and I don't love the combat nor the classes, and the gender locked. I've tried it on PC and Console and just not for me.
Bless Unleashed – This is my hidden gem for anyone who hasn't tried but sadly the developers of this are relatively poor and the storyline of the main quest was never finished so by max level you're basically done but can't actually finish the story of the game. However this is my current MMO I am playing mostly and I'm easily almost 300+ hours into it on PC after playing it on Xbox.
Rift – No main storyline – but I dig the class system, dislike the race choices.
World of Warcraft – If memory servers no main story line and I've played this and vanilla enough – I think we all have right?
Everquest 2 – Love the game but again, no main story and it's rather dated. Skill over kill as noted above waters down the experience.
Everquest – Love the game but no main story quest (P99) and with retail they've tried to spruce it up but I just don't want to go back to the same ole same ole.
LOTRO – Put a fair amount of time into this one – the combat system just feels like I'm just repeating my skills over and over similar to EQ 2 as well.
There's a laundry list of others I have tried and I'm happy to discuss but this is where I ask for your help, let me know what ya got! Thanks for reading if you made it this far and I'll definitely chime in if you've suggested something I've tried and discuss. Glad to chat, thank you!
strange spear
Your next big try is probably GW2, it doesn't have too many skills to keep track of, lots of class variety with some customization in what you put in the hotbar, focused story quests every few levels and you don't have to grind for more power at max level, just tweak stats around and chase achievements and cosmetics
languid viper
Hey there - yes GW2 is another biggun i've tried - it fails only with the class system (to me) and the races - but it's so good otherwise-ish. Race wise there's only human for me to choose everything else is just bizarre.
i do like it though 100%
And my saying"what didn't work" isn't my saying it's bad - it's hard to please everyone
But yes GW2 is a good one - thank you
if they brought it console..forget about it
sick plover
Man... controller support?
I thinj you have it all
I can only think of Tower of Fantasy getting to consoles now
Maybe new MMOs coming up
languid viper
not a must truly but it makes life more bearable on a couch
checking out tower of fantasy..hrm
oh geez is this a Genshin/Character MMO?
sick plover
Not really
You can make your own character
But one of the mechanics of this game is that you new powers from entities that are specific characters
So once you get their power, you can also use their skin as well
Or just keep using your char skin
But well, since you played Lotro
You take look at Neverwinter and Star Ward Old Republic as well
And there's Tree of Saviour reboot with new server, pretty charming MMO
languid viper
done'em all - Neverwinter was better before the crunched levels, now it's just not good IMHO
SWTOR yeah did the jedi knight quest line to the end
Tree of Saviour I did try and was pretty decent - but felt too kiddie
If you mention an MMO i haven't tried besides Tower of Fantasy i'll be surprised at this point,lol
languid viper
But one of the mechanics of this game is that you new powers from entities that ...
oh neat!
sick plover
Dungeons Fighting? 
languid viper
what's that?
do i have to pay to customize my character in tower of fantasy?
looks like it..
sick plover
Well, no...
As soon you as you start you can customize your char after prologue
But yeah, it may have cosmetics
languid viper
oh ok - so just started but eventually i can, got it
languid viper
no worries, i'm just not there yet - thank you
sick plover
what's that?
It's like a... beat them up MMO
languid viper
Great character customization in TOF - right on the money for an anime MMO - probably blue protocol will be similar
sick plover
Yeah, I mean
People has issues with ToF 'cause of gacha
Blue Protocol won't have it
So I'm more optimistic about it as well
sick plover
Reqs?
languid viper
Recommendations
sick plover
Not really, I think just waiting for Blue PRotocol and maybe Throne and Liberty