YES!
Hi, I'm Roqua
- Joined
- Feb 26, 2017
- Messages
- 2,088
As the title says.
Tier 1 (Tons of systems, free form selection, meaningful and significant choices not dependent on gear)
1) DDO. King of character development with tons of choices that are meaningful and significant. Regular 3.5 D&D ability, skill, and feat allocation, along with tons of skill trees per class, race, and in general. Also, a post 20 system of regular leveling up and a ton of new trees and a whole new system to choice from. All free form and open choice other than the normal 3.5 leveling up which is controlled by the 3.5 rules for classes for the most part.
Tier 2 (Choices matter less and have a less significant impact on how your character plays compared to other characters of the same class or to perform the same function)
1) Anarchy Online - lots of options but not of the significance level of DDO. Itemization plays as large a role of making a character perform differently as the class was intended. Free form building in all ways besides research.
2) EQ2 - On release this game had pretty much zero character development. Since then through AA it has added more and more systems. For the most part classes perform as intended with choices being not so much flavor but of less significance than would be needed to make this game a tier 1 game
3) Wildstar - Free choice of what abilities to use, limited points to upgrade abilities, and a sort of skill tree circle with free selection. This systems' impact is lessened by the roll you want your class to play as various roles use different stats and hybrid building is not effective as a true free system.
4) Rift -Tons of skill/ability trees, but very formulaic and boils down mostly to almost flavor. Also, a system to improve your character at max but not very impactful, but free form distribution.
5) UO - Skill based level up with skill caps. Can change to other skills and not locked into build.
6) Pathfinder Online - An amalgamation of the P&P system where you "equip" feats. Decent level of customization with both significant-ish and meaningful-ish choices.
(Not really an MMO but there are some servers for aat least NWN2 that could belong here such as Something Baldur's Gate and Trinity servers, as well as a Planescape Server. Probably others. Probably NWN1 servers too).
Tier 3
Games that have mostly flavor choices and all characters of the same class perform pretty much the exact same way. These games are usually significantly gear dependent for performance. ESO, FF whatever, Warcraft, Neverwinter Online, SWTOR, etc are in this catagery. The skill trees in LotrO are too closed off without enough choice involved to be seriously considered for a higher tier.
Skill based progression games usually belong here as all of the ones I know about allow you to max out everything on the same character leading to complete homogenization and the only choice being what function you want the character to perform at that specific time. Examples being Ryzom and Runescape.
Games such as all the ones not listed above are in this category.
Did I miss any that should be tier 2? Project Genome may be the only one that could be tier 1 when it comes out. But most likely will be tier 2. We can hope. There are definitely some solid tier 2 games to look forward too.
Tier 1 (Tons of systems, free form selection, meaningful and significant choices not dependent on gear)
1) DDO. King of character development with tons of choices that are meaningful and significant. Regular 3.5 D&D ability, skill, and feat allocation, along with tons of skill trees per class, race, and in general. Also, a post 20 system of regular leveling up and a ton of new trees and a whole new system to choice from. All free form and open choice other than the normal 3.5 leveling up which is controlled by the 3.5 rules for classes for the most part.
Tier 2 (Choices matter less and have a less significant impact on how your character plays compared to other characters of the same class or to perform the same function)
1) Anarchy Online - lots of options but not of the significance level of DDO. Itemization plays as large a role of making a character perform differently as the class was intended. Free form building in all ways besides research.
2) EQ2 - On release this game had pretty much zero character development. Since then through AA it has added more and more systems. For the most part classes perform as intended with choices being not so much flavor but of less significance than would be needed to make this game a tier 1 game
3) Wildstar - Free choice of what abilities to use, limited points to upgrade abilities, and a sort of skill tree circle with free selection. This systems' impact is lessened by the roll you want your class to play as various roles use different stats and hybrid building is not effective as a true free system.
4) Rift -Tons of skill/ability trees, but very formulaic and boils down mostly to almost flavor. Also, a system to improve your character at max but not very impactful, but free form distribution.
5) UO - Skill based level up with skill caps. Can change to other skills and not locked into build.
6) Pathfinder Online - An amalgamation of the P&P system where you "equip" feats. Decent level of customization with both significant-ish and meaningful-ish choices.
(Not really an MMO but there are some servers for aat least NWN2 that could belong here such as Something Baldur's Gate and Trinity servers, as well as a Planescape Server. Probably others. Probably NWN1 servers too).
Tier 3
Games that have mostly flavor choices and all characters of the same class perform pretty much the exact same way. These games are usually significantly gear dependent for performance. ESO, FF whatever, Warcraft, Neverwinter Online, SWTOR, etc are in this catagery. The skill trees in LotrO are too closed off without enough choice involved to be seriously considered for a higher tier.
Skill based progression games usually belong here as all of the ones I know about allow you to max out everything on the same character leading to complete homogenization and the only choice being what function you want the character to perform at that specific time. Examples being Ryzom and Runescape.
Games such as all the ones not listed above are in this category.
Did I miss any that should be tier 2? Project Genome may be the only one that could be tier 1 when it comes out. But most likely will be tier 2. We can hope. There are definitely some solid tier 2 games to look forward too.