Guild Wars 1 is probably one of the most active pre-WoW MMOs and has what is likely the most unique class/skill building system there is.
A level cap so low its basically an afterthought, skill points that only exist for specialization purposes, going out into the world to physically learn your spells, a multiclassing system that basically allows for two simultaneous full classes instead of a main/sub like most do, and, as of the 3rd expansion, an entire separate set of characters to build alongside you main to allow yourself to become nearly self-sufficient.
And the ability to still go back and play most of it completely untouched with no sub fee of course.
Heh, I still have to go back and actually finish the final expansion on that thing. I loved what they did in base GW1 for the skills, although the bloat was getting almost too much to manage by the end.
I can understand how they ended up there, needing to make each expansion exciting and fun. But the PvE title skills they kept adding that were obviously OP but way more grind to make viable were too much time investment for the payoff, so I just peaced out.
Also playing PUGs in that game was formative in my understanding that most of the populace are truly too retarded to survive. All that practice did make my monk skills almost superhuman though.
I think the fact that most of the game is soloable, if not all, wipes away most of the normal MMO problems with grind and bloat. You have all the time in the world, thanks to no sub, and you are entirely beholden to your own desires. No "outdated" content because the levels are stuck at 20 forever and no need to git gud to go fast to keep up with impatient retards.
Just do what you want and if you don't care about being slightly more powerful you don't have to, as long as its fun.
But I do agree that some of the titles were ridiculous, probably as a result of the move towards the final expansions big hall thing regarding them (that directly leads into GW2 benefits).
However, players themselves did Legendary Defender of Ascalon entirely for fun and that was worst than any other grind by far and would take most of a year where you couldn't do anything else in the game. Its been nerfed now to be "only" a few months, but it only exists because players did it and that gave the devs the idea that players wanted that I think.
Guild Wars 1 is probably one of the most active pre-WoW MMOs and has what is likely the most unique class/skill building system there is.
A level cap so low its basically an afterthought, skill points that only exist for specialization purposes, going out into the world to physically learn your spells, a multiclassing system that basically allows for two simultaneous full classes instead of a main/sub like most do, and, as of the 3rd expansion, an entire separate set of characters to build alongside you main to allow yourself to become nearly self-sufficient.
And the ability to still go back and play most of it completely untouched with no sub fee of course.
Heh, I still have to go back and actually finish the final expansion on that thing. I loved what they did in base GW1 for the skills, although the bloat was getting almost too much to manage by the end.
I can understand how they ended up there, needing to make each expansion exciting and fun. But the PvE title skills they kept adding that were obviously OP but way more grind to make viable were too much time investment for the payoff, so I just peaced out.
Also playing PUGs in that game was formative in my understanding that most of the populace are truly too retarded to survive. All that practice did make my monk skills almost superhuman though.
I think the fact that most of the game is soloable, if not all, wipes away most of the normal MMO problems with grind and bloat. You have all the time in the world, thanks to no sub, and you are entirely beholden to your own desires. No "outdated" content because the levels are stuck at 20 forever and no need to git gud to go fast to keep up with impatient retards.
Just do what you want and if you don't care about being slightly more powerful you don't have to, as long as its fun.
But I do agree that some of the titles were ridiculous, probably as a result of the move towards the final expansions big hall thing regarding them (that directly leads into GW2 benefits).
However, players themselves did Legendary Defender of Ascalon entirely for fun and that was worst than any other grind by far and would take most of a year where you couldn't do anything else in the game. Its been nerfed now to be "only" a few months, but it only exists because players did it and that gave the devs the idea that players wanted that I think.