![other fun games like neopets other fun games like neopets](https://www.solu.co/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Fantage.jpg)
Second Life may not have been able to live up to the ideals that people had for it, but it still deserves some credit. Media built up expectations well beyond what the virtual world could meet, and when the bubble inevitably burst Second Life became a punchline. That makes it easier to convince new players to take the leap, ensures that current players don’t feel exploited, and ensures that lapsed players don’t have a financial barrier ahead of them if they want to check back in.įor a time, Second Life was being hyped as the next big thing, not just in gaming but in online communication as a whole. While most big-budget MMOs still launch with a subscription model mirroring World of Warcraft’s and going free-to-play within the year, GW2 launched with a box price and a non-invasive cash shop en-lieu of a subscription fee. As approachable as it is mechanically, its equally approachable economically. Guild Wars 2 provides some exceptionally flexible skills and classes, and although it could be argued that it failed to break the holy trinity of MMORPG partying (Tank-DPS-Support) as it initially promised, it’s certainly come close. It was the first MMO that didn’t make me dread questing with random players, and that made me feel truly comfortable with and eager to engage in PVP combat. Guild Wars 2 may have been a blip on the radar for some, but it’s played a large part in altering my own personal gaming habits. Runescape is also notable for the party hat based economy that its players forged, a longstanding curiosity of the gaming world not unlike the Team Fortress 2 earbuds currently prized for their scarcity on Steam. Consequently it also became one of the largest, and helped to prove to developers that free-to-play could be sustainable. This wasn’t an issue when Runescape launched, simply because it was one of the very first free-to-play MMOs.
![other fun games like neopets other fun games like neopets](https://www.techshout.com/img/glnp-01.jpg)
Runescapeįree-to-play or pay-to-win? That question currently plagues the current free-to-play MMO market, where choice seems endless but quality remains considerably rarer. Star Wars Galaxies closed shortly before the launch of Star Wars: The Old Republic, and depending on who you ask that wasn’t necessarily a fair trade. It was one big Star Wars-themed sandbox, where your goals and motivations were your own and the actual mechanics existed merely as a foundation-a suggestion-of how players should spend their time. Star Wars Galaxies, on the other hand, was less like a play and more like an improv class. You can compare many MMOs to stage plays: Everyone has their role, and things generally progress along a predefined script. In that sense the Neopets-playing child was hardened on these principles before they ever set foot in Azeroth, and probably had a distinct advantage as a result. Neopets was also a primer in the cruel world of rare drops, grinding for gold, and the never-ending crawl for the coolest, newest kit available. Most of us probably remember hiding in the corner of the school library with one eye on the nearest teacher in case they got close enough to notice that you were trying to buy a rare paintbrush for your Gelert and not in fact working on that Call of the Wild book report. More than that, it’s a game that even your non-gamer friends probably played and could share with you.
![other fun games like neopets other fun games like neopets](http://images.neopets.com/games/pages/icons/ctp/c-159.png)
Neopets might seem worlds away from the other entries in this list (and perhaps not the best note to start on) but it brought the experience of social online gaming home for many kids well before a credit card for a monthly subscription to anything else was within reach. Now, with the monolithic World of Warcraft approaching its 10th anniversary, it seems like the perfect time to take a look back at some of the MMOs that have changed the face of social gaming. That’s the beauty of the MMO (massive multiplayer online game)-it puts thousands of like-minded players within virtual arms reach. I love to lose myself in games as much as anyone but gaming can (and should) be an intensely social hobby, and some of the most enjoyable experiences I’ve ever had with games have involved more people than I could comfortably fit in a room. As far as gamer stereotypes go there are few that bother me more than the image of someone curled up alone in their room, eyes glued to a screen, utterly silent and completely isolated from the world.