I got MMOs in different area codes

[Kim]

I've been playing a lot of MMOs lately so I guess I'm gonna ramble about them all here.

FFXIV: Definitely the best MMO I've played of late. Apart from me just plain being a Final Fantasy fan, I like how the game handles combat in terms of avoiding AoEs and stuff. I play a Bard and it's been a real blast for me. I also like the crafting system, my main complaint against it being that it's so reliant on materials from other classes that it can be either expensive or tedious to get all the materials together. I also love the writing. It's genuinely charming and the overall plot is pretty decent and hasn't really crawled up its own ass yet.

PSO2: My second favorite MMO. It's super grindy and they do that gacha machine stuff basically for a lot of costume stuff, which I find gross, but the fact that it's pretty much just Japanese players right now means I don't have to put up with the community, and the ally system lets me play by myself! I play as a Ranger and the third person shooter style really works.

Vindictus: I started playing this fairly recently on Krylo's recommendation. It's got some laughable grossness with some of the stuff made for women characters, but it's got a pretty solid action game feel and has more mission variety and more quests than PSO2. Writing I don't really care either way on but I'm still reading the quest descriptions so I guess that says something. Main problem right now is just that it's getting hard to solo some stuff, which either means I've been investing in skill growth poorly or I'm just bad at the game. Either way.

TERA: I started playing this last night. I'm playing an Elin cuz it suits my own littleness, tho I'm aware that most of the folks who play them are creeps. This game is really pretty and the combat's pretty fun too. I also like that I can just run around and gather stuff without needing to start mining as a profession or whatever. My main criticism thus far is the community. I think I'm gonna have to turn off general chat because so far this game's community seems the worst I've actually had to deal with in any MMO ever. Lots of really gross dudes and it makes me feel really unsafe and really uncomfortable.

The Secret World: I haven't played this in a while, but it's a pretty fun game. The skill/leveling system is cool. Main criticism is it feels SUPER gear dependent, and if you fall behind on gear you'll get fuckin wrecked really fast. Then again, I could just be bad or have bad skill choice. I dunno about the community cuz I never interact with anyone in it.