Variation owuld make a good game. Only problem is, they all lack it. You'll find in EVERY MMORPG that the missions or quests are the same thing over and over again and the only think that make them fun is the interaction with other people in the game.

Even the "really exciting" high-level Player vs. Player battles i nWorld of Warcraft seem lackluster after a while.

I mean, you end up playing them for longer than you would a normal game, but there's only so much a game can do to entertain.

Very ture.
I know people who have played games like ever quest for years and I always wanted to see what it was all about. Also I have played so many single player games (Morrowind, Neverwinter, BG 1&2) and was starting to run out.

I also am trying to find a reason to stay away from world builders like in Neverwinter. I think it I got into that I simply would not stop and I am not sure that is something I want to get into at this time.

Dark age of camelot.

The game is incredible and vast. You could play the game for years and not even come close to completing everything in it. Especially if you get any of the three expansion sets. The quests are nothing all that spectacular at first but they get better as you lvl up. To be honest though, barely anyone does the quests at all. It really all about the character development, customization, and competition. I particularly loved the RP rooms which require that you speak in character at all times.

But be warned, if you have a social life this game will take it away from you. My family got into massive arguments over who got to play the game and when.

I second DAoC.

Depending on how much painful Player versus Environment you want to do, you've got a few choices of servers. There's the strictly PvE server, Gaheris, the standard PvE "Classic" servers (which are devoid of the time intensive high-level expansion), and the PvE-heavy-due-to-Trials-of-Atlantis-which-is-the-aforementioned-time-intensive-high-level-expansion-and-is-pretty-much-required-for-the-end-game regular servers. There's also the PvP server, Mordred, but that's dying a painful death.

The end game is player versus player, but it's all optional -- you fight in the designated Frontier regions for control of towers, keeps, and relics, but your "homeland" is safe from enemy invasion.

Many of the complaints about the game interface/levelling process are getting looked into (with the exception of some class balance issues), but the interface proper is still a little archaic in design.

If you're a pure PvE person, there are probably better games, but if you sometimes just feel like going out and killing people, DAoC is the way to go. I still enjoy it :)

Oops, wasn't logged in.

The only real online RPGs are Play-By-Post/Play-By-Email/Play-By-Chat RPGs where the computer merely serves as a means of communication. I take it that's not the kind of thing you're looking for, but rather a computer game that's multi-player with a fantasy-ish setting?

Guildwars plays kinda like a fantasy MMORPG, but without the monthly fee - that makes it a winner in my book.

Beautiful graphics, flexible skill system, and an interesting storyline combine to make it a lot of fun.

Boring....don't forget boring. Im kind of tired of having to fight level 2 monsters at level 10 and getting nothing for my troubles. I can't walk 5 feet without something like a scorpion jumping from the ground and attacking. i try to ignore them but they pile up fast. One thing I liked about EQ is that weak monsters usually left you alone.

Guildwars has to potential to be good, but most of the players on it are simply not worth dealing with.

Most people would recommend World of Warcraft, I would imagine, but it's not as in-depth as you might like (you can hit the level cap in a month or two).

Personally, I would recommend Lineage II.

Oof, Lineage.

I thought the DAoC level grind was painful, but that one is scary :D

The grind is pretty grueling, I'll admit, but still within tolerable limits (the game is designed for the long haul, considering).

Nethack.

It's hack-n-slash, not really multi-player, and you've probably tried it before. But it's got huge replayability and challenge. And enough of a semblance of multi-player to matter if you know others on your server.

I've bounced around different MMOs for years. Aside from looking back at EQ1 with rose-tinted gnomish spectacles I would have to say that i like FF:XI the best.

With any MMO (unless it's horribly un-popular or money means nothing in it) you will need to accept that RMT (Real Money Trade) will have a negative impact on your game play experience these days. FF:XI is infested with bots and what not (chinese gil sellers) but I find that it doesn't ruin my enjoyment if I don't go at the games with a "I must have the best everything" mind set.

GuildWars: for me was too much like Diablo to enjoy for a long period of time.

DAoC: I thought was fun in RvR or battlefields but I found the PvE content to be too boring to stand much of (admitedly I played DaOC during beta then around the time the first expansion came out so it might be different now).

EQ2: I really loved EQ2 when it came out. Then they changed everything. I'm talking about MASSIVE overhauls to key game systems. It really killed me the changes that they made. Not that they were bad changes or anything but just that I don't want to invest time in a game where everything I've done can be made moot so easily by the fickle fancy of the liveteam changing the game every month. (to be clear I didn't have a class nerfed to heck, I was in the opposite boat, but I don't think that making such huge changes bodes well for the game's future). Also the end-game didn't hold any interest for me at all.

SWG: Played it when it came out for a few months and where as I could handle the buggyness the game didn't really "grip" me. I'm told that now it's a really fun social game but they've made some really dumb decisions with how the galactic civil war thing works? I'm pretty ignorant about this game.

EQ1: I loved it but it's too old. There's a lot of neat content that I think I'd really love still but I just think back to the old days pre-kunark (the 1st expansion) and how much fun I had and it feels like a different game. Part of it is that EQ no longer has any sense of "exploration" for me and part of it is that the EQ-end game is made in such a way that you can't experience it if you aren't willing to devote 40+ hours/week to it (no joke). That's too much of a RL time commitment for me to make.

CoH: definately too repetative and while the game company did fix a large number of the gripes I made when I quit I just don't think it'd be enough. Not enough content to the game. Nothing to do but grind levels and do a few story lines.

FF:XI: Played it for a year or two then quit, swore to never play again, et cetera. Then I get an e-mail in my inbox saying I can get my deleted character back and try a free month, so I do and I've been playing again for a few months. When I'd quit I had been livid that RMT had ruined the economy and my fun (I couldn't afford Ninja which I enjoyed a lot and all the awesome gear was out of my reach for Monk, my higher level job). That combined with how many jerks you find or young children (the japanese players tend to not be very accepting of non-japanese players, in general). I guess I have a more relaxed viewpoint about gear and what not now so I can enjoy the game without worrying about not having that Item of Awesome +1 and I also make a decent income fishing / crafting these days :).

Basically the only thing there is to MMOs is that they waste time. I have fun playing them and I can assure you that playing an MMO in my free time is a heck of a lot cheaper than going out to bars and getting drunk on the weekends. I can chat with people and I also play in the same room as my wife IRL.

If you get into MMOs I'd suggest you try to play with a group of RL friends. Have a set time each week that you all will play together and maybe play around on an alt or craft when you don't play with them. I used to play EQ1 with a group of RL friends and it was a blast :). Also, what game you choose is largely a matter of personal taste. I really like FFXI and a lot of people can't stand it (just like a lot of people like the games that I can't stand) so you really just need to play around on them and find what you like.

Good luck.

forgot one :P

WoW: I only did a 10 day free trial but the game was too-easy. Now that I'm working 40 hours a week I wish I could log into FFXI for 2 hours and do something useful. My RL friends largely play WoW and they like it because they can log in for an hour or two and make meaningful progress. In FFXI you can't really do a lot in two hours if you can even put together a party in a reasonable amount of time leaving an hour and a half to exp isn't a whole lot at once. WoW didn't grip me though. I think the cartoony graphics combined with the ease of solo play put me off (I didn't see a point in grouping because my soloing always netted me superior exp).

That being said, Pandor is clearly using a Pandaren Brewmaster as his avatar. Subconscious?