MMOs differ in a multitude of ways from their single player cousins. One could easily argue that the most prominent difference between MMOs and non-MMOs is the potential lifespan. Single player games will typically last somewhere in 15-80 hour range. On on the flip side, some people have been playing MMORPGs like Ultima Online for over 15 years. The content that keeps players hooked in MMOs is typically referred to as the endgame. This is where characters engage in PvE raids, PvP battlegrounds, crafting high end gear, or doing some other activity where the ‘real game’ begins.
The problem with the MMO endgame is that getting to the ‘real game’ can be a huge chore, resulting in players that never see it at all. Additionally, many MMOs (MMORPGs especially) promise a virtual world to live in, but don’t actually pony up until grinding hours upon hours to get there. It’s like saying real life starts when you reach CEO. To counter this mentality, MMO Bro is highlighting 8 MMO endgames that start immediately.
Now, before beginning I want set some guidelines and expectations. Some of these online games involve a hefty learning curve. Some MMOs will offer immediate endgame for particular styles of play but not others. Veterans might even consider a number of these as MMOs without endgame content altogether. I’ll be taking all of this into account and ranking the games in order. The primary ranking is how soon a brand new player can participate in each of the game’s content segments where the largest mass of players are congregated. It is possible an MMO might score well in one content segment and poorly in another.
Now, let’s get this best of ‘immediate MMO endgames’ list started.
8. Planet Calypso (and Entropia Universe)
Planet Calypso has its differences from Entropia Universe, but both are made by the same company and work in the same fashion.Their unique aspect is that currency is directly tied to real money. Thus, players can acquire real monetary value by playing and acquiring loot or even lose it through repairs, bad investments, and the like. With that said, it is extremely difficult to actually turn a profit in these games. I would argue though that the endgame for Planet Calypso is in trying to do just that.
Both Planet Calypso and Entropia boast lifelike player run economies. The value of goods will rise and fall as players adjust to ever changing market conditions. The value of hunting a particular mob or mining a particular resource will vary from from one day to the next. The value of these is not directly tied to the level or strength of the area they’re found within.
Leveling and advancing one’s character is not necessary to the endgame of making money. A new player could technically find a profitable location to exploit. What experienced characters gain is access to a greater variety of locations, which does increase the likelihood of profitable ventures. More valuable than that though is understanding the game’s economy and mechanics. I think that a new player with a high level character would fair worse than a veteran player with a low level character when it comes to making money. Since knowledge and learning is such an integral part of playing these two games, I feel that the endgame starts on one’s first login. Unfortunately that learning might entail some serious real life monetary losses in the process.
7. Runescape
Game #7 is one of three very similar titles on this list. Runescape is a sandbox MMORPG where players increase individual skills by using them. Once a skill is maxed out, a player can buy a cape to symbolize their success. People in the Runescape community comically refer to the endgame as collecting capes. It’s not really too far off the mark though.
The sandbox nature contributes to an endgame that either begins immediately or not at all, depending on perspective. The purpose of playing is simply to advance your character by doing whatever you want to do. And there is a lot of advancement to be had in Runescape, with a large number of experience points required to max everything out. But advancing your character to a max level doesn’t really open up too many new gameplay opportunities with one typical MMORPG exception: raiding. This is certainly an important piece of the endgame that PvE players will have to wait to experience. Unlike other level based titles though, one won’t need to be maxed out to participate. It will take some time though and bossing is certainly a large aspect of Runescape’s endgame, which keeps the game from a higher ranking.
6. Guild Wars 2
From a brief description overview, Guild Wars 2 seems like the perfect game for casual players or players looking to dive right into the endgame. The core elements of the Guild Wars 2’s endgame are World vs. World, Fractals, and Structured PvP. For those unaware, World vs. World is a massive group of instanced PvP battlegrounds where players of one server fight players of other servers in a 3-way match. Fractals are randomized small group PvE dungeons. Structured PvP is where teams of five players compete against another team in a sports-like arena fashion. All of these are accessible early for players thanks to the dynamic level adjustment system.
Dynamic level adjustment works a bit differently for each endgame activity though. In World vs. World, characters receive the stats of a max level character but not the traits or skills. Similarly, characters in fractals will scale their stats to max level but be less effective without traits or skills of “legitimate” max levels. Both World vs. World and Fractals will reward the player with experience though so by engaging in these activities, a player can both experience the endgame and progress their character. Structured PvP has no form of character advancement, but players are all put on even footing in terms of stats and skills. Dynamic level adjustment also works in the reverse for high level players entering low level areas. This means that technically one could even include questing as part of the endgame, but max level players rarely go back to previous zones simply for that.
With all of that said, PvE players won’t really experience endgame fractals until legitimately reaching max level. With only five members to a group, a lower level player is a decidedly weaker contributor than a max level player with all of their skills. Thus, it’s not likely many people will want to party with you. Admittedly, leveling is fairly fast with each level taking about an hour, but eighty hours is a bit long for an immediate endgame. However, PvP players of all types can jump in on the endgame quickly after install.
5. Ultima Online
Like a lot of the titles on this list, Ultima Online invites new players to an early MMO endgame through its unique progression system. Characters grow in strength by using the skills they want to train. So animal taming goes up from taming animals, sword fighting from fighting with a sword, and blacksmithing from making armor and weapons. There’s no actual levels in Ultima Online and improvement comes from performing personally enjoyable activities. Only seven skills can be taken to max level though so diversity of player builds is quite alive in Ultima Online. It’s surprising how few MMORPGs employ a skill-use based advancement system.
Unlike more recent MMORPGs, there isn’t a lot of guided progression in Ultima Online. You don’t go out and repeatedly raid the same dungeons to acquire better equipment. You don’t fight other guilds for territory control. You don’t dominate the auction house with crafted items. You just play the game how you want and get rewarded by advancement in those areas. The lack of endgame direction certainly limits the game’s mass appeal (more than its dated engine), but it’s also why the game is close to two decades old.
The downside is that like a lot of sandbox titles, PvP plays an important role in character freedom. In Ultima Online, combat will still be decided by the level of a character’s skill, so new players can feel pretty useless until reaching higher skill levels. If the endgame goal of an MMORPG is competitive PvP (even though there’s not a lot to fight over in UO) then this is the one aspect that will take some time.
Still, one might fairly argue that Ultima Online doesn’t even have an endgame to it. My counterargument would be that the endgame starts as soon as you choose that first skill to master.
4. Wurm Online
Despite the creator of Minecraft’s ties to Wurm Online, the game never really gained more than a niche following. The release of Wurm Unlimited on Steam has increased the popularity of this sandbox MMO (even though they’re technically different products), but its lack of mainstream popularity unsurprisingly mirrors Ultima Online’s. Wurm Online plays like a 3D version of Ultima mixed with some Minecraft.
In addition to a skill based leveling approach that is even more granular than Ultima Online, Wurm Online inhabitants have immense control over shaping the game’s landmass. Players may create tunnels through mining, flatten and raise the ground, grow crops, and build structures from raw materials. All of the towns in the game are player created and intense cooperation is needed to accomplish the higher end feats, whether on the PvE or the PvP server.
Wurm Online offers impatient endgamers the opportunity to play their character in a 3D world the way they want to play. There’s no prerequisite activities for whatever your endgame goal may be. Want to maximize your ambition and build a kingdom alongside friends and guildmates? There’s no reason you can’t start doing that on day one of Wurm Online. There is a bit more direction in Wurm Online than Ultima Online, and a bit more freedom of actions. However, this comes with the caveat that character skill and high end crafted equipment is even more important for PvP. New players simply won’t be an important participant early on, but every person counts!
Although Wurm Online and Ultima Online give early access to a similar style of the MMO endgame, Wurm just feels a bit better with all of the gameplay options. For that reason, I rank #4 just a smidge ahead of #5.
3. Planetside 2
Although Planetside developers didn’t create the first massively multiplayer FPS, they did popularize the concept. Nine years after Planetside’s launch, Planetside 2 took up the mantle and led the MMOFPS subgenre into the world of free to play gaming. It now sits as a great example of both how to start an endgame immediately and how an immediate endgame can sometimes not bring about the desired player experience.
Planetside 2 is a PvP only game where players align themselves with one of three factions to wage epic, Battlefield sized battles. The core gameplay objective revolves around territory control. Players must decide with their allies where best to strike and make gains. Given the twitch based nature of Planetside 2 and the relative strength of beginner weapons, players should be able to positively contribute to battles from the get go. Unfortunately, Planetside 2 has a surprisingly long learning curve and the lack of a good community support system to overcome it. New players can often feel like their contributions are meaningless or worse.
In part this is why Planetside 2 has developed somewhat of a misguided pay to win reputation. The most popular MMOFPS offers no paid items that cannot be achieved with gameplay alone. The length of time it takes to “max” a character is considerably lengthy though and paid players can essentially pay to skip large parts of this progression. This wouldn’t be much of an issue except, as discussed above, new players aren’t readily given the proper support system to succeed. Thus, it’s easy to feel as a new player that one must grind or pay to really start experiencing Planetside 2’s endgame. The truth is that new players need a mentor or strong community to help them learn the ropes. I would recommend any new player finding such a person or group before attempting to play.
2. Guild Wars
The max character level for Guild Wars is twenty. That should give you a hint of the priorities the developers of Guild Wars place on a fast endgame. By comparison, World of Warcraft and EverQuest have each raised their level caps by over twenty levels now.
Guild Wars emphasizes horizontal progression over vertical progression. Whether a player prefers PvE or PvP, a new player can be grouping with veterans within a week (or a single day of addicted play). The new player probably won’t actually be as good as the veterans, but it’s not due to the power of their skills. Progression comes in the form of learning hundreds of skills, multiclassing, and then narrowing those skills down to eight very synergistic abilities.
The lack of power creep in Guild Wars or a direct competitor (even with its titular successor’s release) means the first Guild Wars still has plenty of life for a new player. It’s an MMO players can play to overcome PvE or PvP challenges without worrying about a precursor grind to access said challenges.
1. Eve Online
Perhaps Eve Online’s most notable feature is its character progression system. Character skills are gained in real time, whether logged in or out. Thus, the length of time to max out a skillset is measured in years instead of weeks or months like other MMORPGs. Eve Online also emphasizes territory control with an open PvP system in the far reaches of space. So with no other explanation or experience, one would think Eve Online would be the furthest thing from an MMORPG with an immediate endgame. However, three key components allow new players to legitimately experience Eve Online’s PvP endgame within a matter of days (real time, not gameplay time).
First, all ships in Eve Online are useful and each ship type has its own skill set to develop. Just because a player knows how to pilot a capital ship doesn’t mean they’re an expert on frigates. And frigates are extremely useful. They’re quite agile and some of the more powerful weapons will have issues tracking them. Additionally, they are cheap so an army of frigates can take a while to down if replacements are readily available.
Secondly, skill gain is somewhat logarithmic. Earning your first 2% damage bonus make take a few hours. Earning your last 2% damage bonus may take weeks. Even then, Eve Online is rarely about individually encounters. Fleet engagements are where a new player will spend most of their time so the bonus damage or high tech fittings a veteran has can only carry him or her so far.
Lastly, unlike Planetside 2, Eve Online has great community support. The slower pace of the game certainly helps here, and corporations (i.e. guilds) will fight over new players. This in turn leads to new players receiving guidance for what is a complex MMO. That corporations recruit new players should provide even further evidence that newbies can contribute to endgame immediately. You don’t exactly see World of Warcraft guilds recruiting fresh players to go raiding do you?
Final Observation
It’s interesting to note that most of these games place an importance on PvP in the form of combat, marketplace action, or both. Both Guild Wars titles are the only options with more horizontal progression than vertical, pretty much in entire MMO genre. I think perhaps the most telling sign of an MMO with a fast endgame approach is whether or not high end guilds recruit new players. People look to recruit members that can help them in the endgame, and if newbies are getting recruited, it stands to reason that they’re going to be ready much sooner than later.
