I’ve decided that 2025 is the year of the MMO for me and have already played a few games that are new to me in addition to always being interested in Myst Online. So even though no one has asked for it, here is a list of every MMO I’ve played in my life with a quick comment or two on each. Eventually I’ll do longer writeups on some of these. I guess it’s April Fool’s Day too so I’m unintentionally doing the Ron Gilbert thing of not doing anything silly today on here.
Asheron’s Call 2 – I believe this is my first MMO. My dad and brother were already playing Everquest but for whatever reason this was the one that interested me. It was divisive at the time but since I didn’t have any experience with Asheron’s Call 1, which this is a big departure from, I thought it was great. Unfortunately it didn’t last too long but I’m glad there’s been an effort in recent years by the fan community to bring it back.
RuneScape – My other possibly first MMO, at this point I can’t really remember if this or AC2 came first. I had played this one extremely early on in its life, back when 2D sprites were used for all the characters and managed to pull a few friends into playing it since it was free. It’s so weird seeing how much nicer it looks now even though, yeah, of course they would upgrade the visuals over 20 years.
Shattered Galaxy – This was a weird one. I had discovered the free beta for this during an IGF awards listing, very early on in the life of the IGF. It’s basically a RTS but everyone controls a single unit? I guess kinda like Command & Conquer: Sole Survivor but uhhhhh better. I had fun with it though even though I never completely got it and my brother ended up getting the retail release, but I didn’t play that one.
Star Wars Galaxies – Also a weird one! I went through the arc of thinking it was a disappointment at first, and then realizing how brilliant it was by not allowing everyone to be a jedi and focus on building playing towns and other neat world interaction by the players. I’m sure other games have done this since then but I haven’t seen it. I eventually fell off around the time they released the first expansion.
World of Warcraft – Everyone has played this game. Nothing new to say about it. I had a great time with it and it’s probably my most played game ever and had the unfortunate and unintentional effect of inspiring MMOs after it to copy it in an attempt to replicate its success.
The Secret World – Underrated MMO that I wish I had put more time into. I thought the adventure game puzzles in it were a really neat idea. FUNCOM at the time were The Longest Journey devs to me so this made a lot of sense. I should see if there’s any fan servers for it.
Myst Online – I’ve written and posted about Myst Online many times, even writing about how the community is still active and the game continues to receive updates. It’s free and wonderful, go play it.
Guild Wars – The selling point for this one was of course that there were no monthly fees. Don’t really remember a lot other than I thought it was fun.
The Elder Scrolls Online – Meh. I plan to give it another shot someday but it felt like it had missed what people enjoy about those games. But what do I know, it’s still going strong.
Guild Wars 2 – Same as the first game. Had a lot of fun playing it but couldn’t tell you a single thing about it.
Eve Online – Just did the trial for this one. I respect the game but I’ll never be able to get into it.
Warhammer Online – Played my brother’s account a bit for this one and thinking it was pretty neat. IIRC the appeal of this was that it was basically a spiritual sequel to Dark Age of Camelot, with a focus on pvp. It still wasn’t the hit it needed to be and shut down after a few years.
Defiance – The gimmick for this was that there was a tv show happening at the same time and they were supposed to intersect at some points. I never watched it but I probably should since I’m a Farscape fan, even though I’m guessing it’s a pretty mid show if no one is talking about it today. The show got 3 seasons though! I remember the game itself being perfectly ok but not too memorable. I think it was on a Steam sale and I knew it had no monthly fee so I picked it up. I didn’t know it had only shut down a few years ago and probably should have revisited it.
WAKFU – Steam says I’ve played WAKFU in 2015 for a few hours. I have no memory of this.
Asheron’s Call 1 – Played this one for the first time this year and I’m having a great time. There’s plenty of fan servers too. I even wrote a guide if you want to play the game.
Book of Travels – A very underrated game. I’m sad that it hasn’t done as well as expected so it won’t be receiving too many updates in the future, but I think it’s still very much worth checking out. It’s a very relaxed MMO focused on story and light on combat, featuring what I think is great world building. Kinda controls like a point-and-click adventure too.
Sky: Children of Light – By the creators of Journey and really feels like if you took the mechanics of that game and expanded it to a MMO. It’s free to play and I enjoy playing it with my kids occasionally.
Here’s some other games that kinda don’t count as MMORPGs but also kinda sorta do?
Path of Exile – Played it during the beta and had enough fun with Diablo: The MMO but it never really stuck with me.
Age of Empires Online – Weird game! This was launched at the same time as their Microsoft Flight Simulator reboot that was retooled to be more casual too, so everyone was grumpy that Microsoft was bringing everything back as a casual game. I remember it not really coming together mechanically? I guess the fan community has kept this one alive on fan server.
Marvel Heroes – Basically just Diablo with Marvel characters. I thought it was a big hit but I think there was some drama behind it being shut down too?
Kind Words – Was incredibly skeptical of this one when it came out but it was pleasant enough. Shockingly didn’t come across any trolling in it despite it being a huge hit.
Kind Words 2 – What you would expect a sequel to be. More and bigger. I like it more since there’s plenty of side activities you can do and I basically just avoid the letter writing at this point since I’m not really in the mood to try to help people with their problems online. I’m not qualified for it! But the side stuff where people recommend video games, music, and what not are fun. It seems like it’s done alright but definitely not as well as the first game. I’m assuming it’s from the game just costing more, from it having a lot more stuff.
Sea of Thieves – Really enjoyed this one until a friend and I hit a bug that completely made it impossible for us to do more quests and Microsoft put it no effort to fix it. I might reinstall it to see if it’s magically fixed but that sure killed the motivation to play it.
Some that I have in my Steam backlog are:
WEBFISHING – Everyone has played this by now. Seems great. I’ll play it sometime with friends when I need to chill.
Meadow – By the devs of Book of Travels. Seems like it’s part of their Shelter series.
Fallout 76 – Don’t know how I’ll feel about it given my feelings about ESO and how Bethesda writes Fallout but sure, I’ll give it a shot.
Some modern ones I really want to check out are:
ATLYSS – This one is kinda known as the furry mmorpg. I heard great things about it!
Animyst – Don’t know a whole lot about it other than it looks weird and it’s free. It has been around since 2018.
Project: Gorgon – Looks like it’s doing the modern day version of Everquest thing. Seems nice enough