Comments on: need MMORPG recommendations

Question: need MMORPG recommendations

luriete — Fri, 06 May 2005 12:36:46 -0800

A friend in Illinois and I (here in California) would like to play an online RPG together. We really don't care about monsters and stuff; we want to harass and kill other players (and each other). That's just more fun. He's on a PC, I'm on a mac, we both have fast connections and decent machines ... we tried the free version of Wolfenstein, and while I enjoy killing nazis, his blowing me up with grenades got old after awhile. Any suggestions? Can we be pirates or ninjas on World of Warcraft? Or, like, cowboys? Cause those things are all really cool. I wish there were a massive pirates RPG, that would be the best. Also: it can't be super expensive because we've got, like, bills to pay and stuff.

By: thethirdman

thethirdman — Fri, 06 May 2005 12:46:34 -0800

You're in luck! This is a good, casual online game, and it rotates around pirates!

By: bDiddy

bDiddy — Fri, 06 May 2005 12:57:15 -0800

I don't really think that Puzzle Pirates sounds like it's what he's looking for. I enjoy World of Warcraft, and it has some of what you're looking for (killing other players), but you can't be pirates or ninjas or cowboys. I read rumor that Disney is planning on putting out a Pirates of the Carribbean MMORPG, but that would be a ways off. There's always Guild Wars. I think that's designed more for Player vs Player fighting, and there's no monthly fee. I've never played it, so I can't vouch for it. But, I hear some good things.

By: jackofsaxons

jackofsaxons — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:03:05 -0800

Guild Wars is a cooperative online rpg, that has a large amount of focus on PvP, after you purchase the game there is no monthly fee. I'd highly recommend it.

By: themel

themel — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:18:15 -0800

Neverwinter Nights is one of the most successful RPGs of the last few years, and there's a Mac version as well.

I'm not sure whether it's what you want - it's non-free and pretty complex, but there's a huge community of players and content creators out there, so it's a lot of long-term fun if you're willing to get into it.

By: yodelingisfun

yodelingisfun — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:28:19 -0800

Would Unreal Tournament be an incorrect answer?

By: still

still — Fri, 06 May 2005 13:46:47 -0800

It's old, but Ultima Online provides plenty of oppurtunity for player harassment and PvP. Its cheap, too.

By: luriete

luriete — Fri, 06 May 2005 16:15:29 -0800

UO sounds good but there's no mac client that I can see. They announced one was upcoming in 2002 but it never appeared.

By: jbrjake

jbrjake — Fri, 06 May 2005 17:17:04 -0800

According to BoingBoing, there's a clan on World of Warcraft that likes to pretend they're pirates and PvP so that might be what you're looking for.

By: jmd82

jmd82 — Fri, 06 May 2005 18:01:12 -0800

Only problem with NWN is I don't recall it bein PvP...Maybe I just never played modules where PvP was allowed thouh?

By: trevyn

trevyn — Fri, 06 May 2005 21:52:22 -0800

Yeah, the online RPG market for the Mac exists of about...World of Warcraft and...uh...Everquest 1?

Though, it doesn't really sound like you want an RPG if you want to kill each other and not monsters. Have you played Warcraft 3?

Guild Wars is awesome, but PC-only. If you really want something else, building a cheap PC is an option; you can probably do a decent gaming rig for well under $500, less if you have some parts like drives or power supplies lying around.

If this is what BoingBoing was talking about, then it's pretty hilarious for RP value.

By: CrunchyFrog

CrunchyFrog — Fri, 06 May 2005 22:30:14 -0800

Diablo II is a pretty keen action-RPG with the option of PvP, available for both Windows and Mac, and pretty cheap, too. ($19.99 retail) No subscription fees, either. On the down side, I'm under the impression that killing monsters is more of the focus than pkilling.

Alternately, the original Diablo is cheaper, and is less deep. And you can grab a free demo of it from Blizzard.

By: krisjohn

krisjohn — Fri, 06 May 2005 22:40:25 -0800

Given the description of your desired behaviour, please stay away from World of Warcraft.

By: furiousthought

furiousthought — Fri, 06 May 2005 22:42:00 -0800

What about Shadowbane? I have no idea if it sucks or not or if anyone plays it (it's been out a while) but I know it has a PvP emphasis, it's cross-platform, and it looks like there's a free trial.

You can play NWN PvP, and while it isn't free, there's not a monthly fee or anything.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Sat, 07 May 2005 03:37:16 -0800

I think World of Warcraft is pretty close to what you're looking for. You can't be a pirate or a ninja character, but there are potions you can drink that briefly transform you into a pirate or a ninja. You can also get pirate hats and so on.

You'd probably both want to play rogues. I use the mac version and it's one of the nicest pieces of software to cross the pike in a while. PC version is good too.

By: felix

felix — Sat, 07 May 2005 10:05:12 -0800

World of Warcraft is excellent. However, be aware that 'ninja' has a particular meaning in WoW slang: it's someone who steals treasure out from under other players, either by being extremely rude (opening a chest while someone's fighting the monster that guards it) or by violating the generally accepted social rules (when a 'good' item appears in some treasure, the people who really need it are given a chance to take it).

The other good thing about WoW is that brutal, antisocial PvP behavior is welcomed and rewarded, as long as it's against the 'other side' (WoW is set up as 'Alliance' vs. 'Horde').

By: ph00dz

ph00dz — Sat, 07 May 2005 15:10:53 -0800

Battlefield 1942 is pretty rad... and there's a pirate mod for it. No idea if the mods work on the mac, though. It's not an RPG, but it is all about non-stop killing and being killed.

By: luriete

luriete — Mon, 09 May 2005 09:34:30 -0800

I will check out WoW and B1942.

I am also a HUGE fan of the wasteland / fallout games. Now THAT would be a fantastic setting for a huge MMORPG. I'd think that something like UO or that new Korean MMORPG (what's it called?) could be modified pretty easily to work in a sort of post-apocalyptic setting. With pirates. And ninjas.