hey! i love your blog! quick question, i'm interested in getting into an mmo, but not sure which one to try -- i'm torn between, wow. ffxiv, and bdo. which would you recommend? :) thanks!
Hello and thank you!! That is a tough one! This may end up being a long post information so I am going to just cut right here --
Black DesertI have only played a tiny bit of bdo before it was released in NA. I personally didn’t like it very soon after playing due to the amount of time you need to grind and the amount of rng you need for everything. Someone is one of my Discords gave an honest review about the game that you can see here. I am also not a fan of games where you can advance yourself through the cash shop. The combat sort of reminds me of a fighting game with combos; so if you’re into that then you might like it (another thing i personally didn’t care much for)! Just because it’s not something I like, doesn’t mean you wouldn’t like it! The graphics are beautiful, the character customization is great (aside from being gender locked), there seems to be a lot of things the game offers sandbox wise (crafting, gathering, housing, ect [all stuff that I never tried so I can’t say anything about]). A lot of people like it regardless but would I personally recommend it? Not really as I do not like to grind excessively long for things, rely too much on rng, and I don’t like games that you can advance through the cash shop. If you don’t mind those things then try it out anyways! They offer a 7 day free trial! The game is also b2p with a cash shop if that is more your style!
FFXIVI have played my fair share of ffxiv and got to experience a lot of what the game offers. I personally love the game. The environment is beautiful, the graphics are great, its very social, the story is wonderful with lots of dialog and voiced cut scenes, the classes are nice, ect. The character creation is okay. There is not much variation and the only sliders you get are height, tail, and/or muscles. You are probably gonna see people who look similar to yours or other people’s character. Either way, the glamours (outfits) you can make can make you feel a little more unique! The combat is kinda slow compared to other games; and by slow I mean you have to wait ~about~ 2 second intervals between skills so it gives you a fair amount of time in between skills. One main problem I have is that there is a lag time/ping issue still (I have not tried a vpn but I live a couple of hours away from the NA data center). What I am mainly talking about is, you may think you have moved out of the telegraph and are safe (you SEE your character move out and your character is physically out of the telegraph on your screen) but you still will get hit because you didn’t move the moment you saw the telegraph on the floor. They offer a lot of crafting classes with some gathering classes to keep you busy. You can just play one character and use that character to play all the classes and crafters/gatherers (you just switch weapons once you’ve unlocked them!) I think it is a very new-to-mmorpg friendly game. There is a lot of story to do for new players, lots of pve things (I don’t like their pvp), and even roleplay if you’re into that. One main issue I currently have with ffxiv, is that there is not a lot to do once you get end game. Sure you can farm mounts/lvl alt classes/roleplay, but besides farming savage and extreme raids (if you’re into that), it feels kinda lacking? They just haven’t added enough stuff yet and luckily 4.2 will add some more stuff to do! I would recommend ffxiv!! They also offer a free trial just by signing up and logging on. They changed it to be free up to lvl 20 so you don’t feel rushed! :)
WoWI have played WoW longer than I have any other game. I really enjoy it! Their lore is absolutely amazing, the pve is wonderful, the pvp is the best out of any mmorpg I have played (most balanced, most fair, most fun imo), lots and lots of things to do to keep you busy, ect. Yes, the graphics at the lower lvls is still very outdated and their character creation is really crap, but they have continued to update the graphics per expansion (and it looks very pretty!). A few problems I have is that the races are class locked (though you would probably only see Blood Elf on Horde if it wasn’t lol), character creation is bad, and sides make servers very unbalanced (I prefer to be able to play with everyone on my server & they are making some changes to world pvp in Battle for Azeroth to kinda help with this). Other than that, the game offers a lot to do. You can solo farm past expansion mounts, craft, gather, farm transmog (outfits), arena, battlegrounds, raid, dungeons, roleplay on a rp server, collect pets and do pet battles, ect! The game, in my opinion, isn’t as social as ffxiv is but you can still find a guild to join and make friends! The servers are shared so you can play with anyone on any server (even different regions of the game)! All you have to do is add them to your party. The combat is extremely smooth and not clunky or slow at all. It’s a really great game and there is a reason why such an old game is still the top played for mmorpgs. I would recommend WoW as well!! They also offer a play for free up to lvl 20! I would not judge the game too hard in the beginning at the lower lvls. Everything gets better, including graphics!
tl;dr - I would recommend ffxiv and wow out of the three!
6/365 Brienz by @roseplayer. This was such a wonderful town. The houses are decorated with a sort of retro vibe and the landscaping was just wonderful <3
