Non Gamer looking for WoW alternatives

[sahiel]

Not sure if it ever made it across the pond but I guess I'm looking for an MMO version of a game called Elite, a 25 year old space levelling game I once played on my BBC micro (yes I am that old).

Thinking about it Elite has a lot to answer for, probably why I ended up playing WoW too

That really is EVE online I think, I too used to play Elite on my BB Master a century or two ago

[Discus]

Switching to these games would make sense if you were tired of WoW because the content was getting stale.

I think Blizzard did a great job of refreshing the new WoW content with the latest expansion pack. Being a casual player there's huge amounts left I've not yet seen.

However, for me it's reached the stage where it appears to be the same basic formula with new graphics and slightly new mechanics.

This is no way a whine about the game which has kept me enthralled for almost 5 years, it just seems to be reaching a natural conclusion for me and it's time to think about other options.

[Astronii]

League of Legends = WIN! 3v3 or 5v5, you can play against bots or players, solo queue for game, or queue with friends. Really fun and just an overall great game.

[laterna]

League of Legends = WIN! 3v3 or 5v5, you can play against bots or players, solo queue for game, or queue with friends. Really fun and just an overall great game.

Hold up. Its nice if your chat is disabled and you don't care about winning, only fun. The amount of flamng that goes in MOBA games is immense. To win you need to ouplay your opponents as a team, not individually. Personally I play at 1750MMR rating in HoN. Its about 1800 rating in arena skill more or less. Not pro level, but still high enough. The amount of flaming that goes around is un-imaginable. Sure its not the 1500-slums kind of level, but if you do a wrong play at any one time, you will be flamed for it. And the thing is, you're usually playing middle solo (the most importand lane) or dual sidelanes. If you lose middle hard, you will propably lose the game. If you don't have coordination in the sidelanes, you're screwed.

I would reckomend MOBA games if you have another 2 friends to play with. It becomes enjoyable, but you still lose matches due to the other 2 guys, not communicating, talking in russian over the chat, and doing the most horrendous picks. An WoW analogy would be for your team of 5 to start by picking DPSx5. A good setup would be 1 ganker, 1 initiator, 1 hard support, 1 carry 1 semi-carry. Most of the time you see 4x hard carry, 1x initiator, with people blaiming everyone else as to why the team is failing. I could write a whole book as to why teams fail, but you're not intrested in that

I personally would not reckomend any MOBA genre game to someone looking for a wow counterpart. Either you start in the 1500slums, and don't enjoy the game, or you play ranked games, get your ass kicked and don't understand why, or you get so addicted you spend all your time on it, and only improve after years. (I started as a total newb, and it took me 1.5 years to get to where I am now, and I still don't think I'm "good" at it. Granted I didn't start with a good player at my side, but rather, me and a friend started playing with no previous experience and no guides)

[Kelaan]

Not sure if it ever made it across the pond but I guess I'm looking for an MMO version of a game called Elite, a 25 year old space levelling game I once played on my BBC micro (yes I am that old).

EVE. (As someone else said.)

I believe EVE is the only MMO-derivative of Elite, but http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elite_(video_game) suggests that you might also like:

In dev MMO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infinity:_The_Quest_for_Earth
Older game w/ Multiplayer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)
Space combat MMO: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumpgate:_The_Reconstruction_Initiative

You could also play Stars!, but that's usually a play-by-email game if I recall right. Among all of those, EVE probably has the most comprehensive sandbox... though its player base seems to be pretty ruthless

[Eaglestrike]

We'd like something where we can play together, preferably with a large PVE component, with group runs. For me something that doesn't involve bloody Elves n Pixies n stuff would be good too.

Overall, from your description, LoTRO is probably what you're looking for, your elf bias aside. It is substantially different from WoW, but it is still a PvE-centric, small group oriented game (even moreso than WoW). The clincher details to me, if there are any, is that LoTRO has a strong following, and has been around for several years. Basically, its reasonably successful and very stable. If I were to leave WoW for another MMO, it would almost certainly be LoTRO, at this point.

Granted, I only got to level 15, but absolutely nothing about LotRO was "substantially different" from WoW.

When I think "substantially different" I think FFXI or Eve.