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[BloatedGuppy]

GW2 is sandboxy, for the most part not instanced and very action-heavy. It also innovates almost every area of traditional MMO design just enough to be recognizable

I wouldn't call GW2 "sandboxy" in the slightest, but it's a lot more of a traditional MMO than GW1, which used a model not unlike Diablo 3. GW1 and GW2 are very different games.

As for the OP, I'll add my voice to "GW2 will be unplayable at launch...how, exactly?". I guess three perfectly playable beta weekends and a perfectly playable stress test a couple of days ago = unplayable at launch now.

 

[Filiecs]

I'd recommend The Secret World, its story is incredible and (depending on your pace) will take you anywhere from 2 weeks - a month to finish. It also has a pretty decent endgame and monthly content updates. I see a great future for it.
As long as you tolerate a few bugs and enjoy a good story, TSW is a very good game.

 

[deth2munkies]

The only MMO that I've been impressed with recently is GW2. I'm probably going to play TOR single player style once it goes F2P, but GW2 looks genuinely interesting. It seems like Bloodline Champions style combat.

The Secret World was unimpressive despite my character getting a blowjob 5 minutes in, and I enjoy my traditional staples too much to drop into one of the random Spiral Knights/non-traditional MMOs.

 

[Norrdicus]

I wouldn't call GW2 "sandboxy" in the slightest

"In the slightest"? How come?

 

[EvilMaggot]

Lord of the Rings Online
World of Warcraft(spend many years in the game.. its alright if you are new to it.. but.. oh the old glory days.. i dont play it anymore)
The Secret World(about to try the free thingy this weeekend)
EVE Online(spend a decent amount on it... keep returning to it for some reason... MMO in Space with ships and shit!)
Guild Wars 2(so far from what ive tired in Beta... solid MMO that doesnt require monthly fee)
Star Wars: The Old Republic... if you like kotor 1 & 2 buy 3 months subscribtion for it and complete all the characters stories and you've pretty much played KOTOR 3

 

[BloatedGuppy]

"In the slightest"? How come?

It doesn't have any hallmarks of a sandbox game. EVE is a sandbox game. UO had elements of a sandbox. GW2 is a theme park game, much like WoW or EQ. The dynamic events may make it a less rigid and more interesting theme park, but it's still a theme park.

The level scaling does add in a bit of free roaming, but the free roaming only runs backwards, not forwards, so you are still marched through the content in the order the developers designed it for you to see it in.

Don't get me wrong, this is not an insult. GW2 is a fantastic, content-rich game with a lot of really nice tweaks to what had become an increasingly stagnant formula, it's just not a true sandbox game. You go around calling it a sandbox and EVE fans are going to get all perked up and then get angry when they realize the truth.

 

[Loneski]

Well as said before Guild Wars 2 looks very promising and is actually enjoyable (played in the beta) and Rift is extremely fun and is f2p for the first 20 levels I believe. Also The Old Republic will be going to free to play which never hurts to give that a try.

 

[Lunar Templar]

From what I?ve seen of Vindictus it looks like a hub based MMO . is there an open world to run around and explore ? or is it all instanced with a couple of other people?
Also is the F2P model they use fair? I remember hearing some complaints

first, the world: still hub based, linear dungeon crawler, but the 'season 2' up date looks to make those instances more like Monster Hunter in nature, other wise, no open world as of YET. team size for normal instances cap at 4, most raid instances cap at 8, save the 'unknown zone' raid instances, THOSE cap at 24

the cash shop: probably the 'temporary armor' sets, all level versions of level 56 gear, i gotta free 30 day set for kinda forgetting about my character on east, OP as hell in the low levels, not really viable past the gears actual level though (IE: the level 60 gear), how ever, i haven't seen many using, maybe 2 or 3 a day, at best? other wise the cash shop is pretty tame, mostly storage, potions, graces and beauty items are the only things worth looking at

 

[Fleetfiend]

Guild Wars 1? I'm sticking with that one, yep.

I've also found Dark Blood Online to be really fun so far. It's a dungeon MMO, and the English translation is a bit poor, but other than that it's really enjoyable.

Also League of Legends. I don't play it, but it's pretty popular, so it must be good.

All of these are also free-to-play.

 

[jollybarracuda]

How about Dungeons and Dragon's Online? Free to play, got some fairly satisfying combat. It's very, very instance based, however. But it is fun, and exploring the dungeons is awesome.

Also, Forsaken World can be pretty good fun, though i heard its predecessor Perfect World was better.

Hmm, i'd recommend Vindictus as well, it's got great, great combat but is almost entirely instance based, like DDO.

From these suggestions I might have to give Spiral Knights a try. I've been looking at it for a bit from Steam and it always just seemed alright. Maybe i'll give it a go.

 

[moostar]

"City of Heroes" , its a old game from 2004 , but, haves gotten some graphical updates not to long ago, its a super hero based mmo where the character creation is nearly unlimited, its set in modern day, and the combat has this sort of fast pased fell to it. i would also say to check out "Battlefield Heroes, but, i feel that game could be too cash shop oriented

 

[Cyfu]

Dude, Tibia.
Don't judge it before you've tried. I promise you, It's magnificent.

 

[sanquin]

Runescape.

Why? it's the most successful MMO to date

No, it isn't. The number of accounts is NOT the same as the number of active subscribers. Sure, the number of accounts exceeds 100 million, but active accounts probably lies more around the 2~3 million.

 

[Char12]

Runescape.

Why? it's the most successful MMO to date

No, it isn't. The number of accounts is NOT the same as the number of active subscribers. Sure, the number of accounts exceeds 100 million, but active accounts probably lies more around the 2~3 million.

So true, I made like 10 accounts years ago, and I havn't logged in any for about 6 years

 

[Childe]

Already been said but The Secret World... got me into an mmo in ways i havn't been since WoW.....Good graphics, flexibility can customization... they have new and fun ways of doing stuff as well...if your going f2p then try DDO its not bad

Star wars the old republic is f2p now or will be soon so you can try that as well...if you havn't played an mmo before then you might like this...if you have then you will probably be disappointed. But then again you might not be no harm in checking it out

 

[Mr.Governor]

TERA Online? The fact that nobody has mentioned it means there's something wrong with it,isn't it?

 

[Skylare]

Dude, Tibia.
Don't judge it before you've tried. I promise you, It's magnificent.

awesome game +1

 

[rawrmonsta]

Id say if you can wait for mists to drop Id say play WoW. Its by far the most polished MMO around, That Ive seen anyway.

As for something not on your list The old republic is a very nice mmo, Granted it is a lot like WoW in game play but it brings enough new to the table to be interesting and the story alone is worth leveling a toon (Mass effect/Dragon age type storytelling)

EvE online is something completely different a lot of my friends are into. Ive yet to try it myself though.

 

[this account is gay]

Fallen Earth. The post-apoc setting is a nice change from the usual fantasy variants and it has 1st/3rd person shooter combat. Quite a different feel to it - not as polished as some, but beautifully atmoshpheric and open.

Star Trek Online. Best recommended if you're a fan of the Trek franchise. Ground combat is okay, but the real selling point for STO is the space combat, which is fantastic.

Both of these are F2P now.

Space combat is amazing? I tried that game, I mashed my face on the keyboard during the space combat section of the tutorial, and I won. Seriously. I was rolling my face on the keyboard.