Wyzcrak

My in-laws today play a game called A Tale in the Desert (http://www.atitd.com/). They've played it for a while, and they don't like where the game is going, and they want to find another game. I'm hoping someone can offer a game which meets their very specific needs.

They don't like that the game they're playing now has, over time (it's a young game), begun catering to the hardcore gamers, requiring that "unreasonable" amounts of time be invested to "level" to get the abilities they need to do the things they really want to do.

Perhaps this is a problem in every persistent, level-based game. I don't know. I don't play them. Perhaps there is a game somewhere that doesn't require so much time to be able to get to more of the game's "experience".

What do you guys recommend to folks who have the following requirements in a game?

• no PVP (that they see, anyway)
• persistent
• real-time
• growing/building (not killing/fighting), but with levels
• leveling time frames conducive to working adults with a family
• puzzles/problem solving is good
• paying for it (monthly, whatever) is fine

Hopefully I'm not forgetting anything. Hopefully we can find them something just right.

Thanks for any help.

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Vulcan

I would highly recommend LoTRO for them. http://lotro.turbine.com

It's currently in beta but should be released in the late winter to spring. They will probably be drawn mostly by the tolkein books affiliation. This is not a movie game.

It's heavily based on story driven content. It's pretty linear advancement wise. It is true to the books.

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Panz

I personally would suggest Guild Wars

http://www.guildwars.com/

Its almost impossible to find a good MMO that isnt highly level dependant. Thats kind of the point of MMOs, hence the massive multiplayer nature.

What I liked about Guild Wars is that you can play with a guild or solo using henchmen. Most MMOs will only let you go so far solo and then you must have a large party in which to continue.

Guild Wars, although difficult in the harder zones "can" be done with solo or with a smaller party of two or more with henchmen filling in the needed gaps.

There are many many many many quests in this game and a great storyline which gives it incredible replayability and there are numerous character classes in which to choose from. There is an expansion which offers two additional character classes and I hear that there is yet one more expansion soon to be released but these are not needed in order to play the game, it just limits you to certain continents in the world and there are a great deal of people that also do not have the expansion.

Without the expansion you are able to game with people that do have the expansion, your party is just more limited as to which regions you can go to.

For these reasons I would suggest this game if they do not want to dedicate a vast amount of time to the game in order to keep up with other players. They can play at their own pace and rely on henchmen when needed if they are unable to find players are their level when they are able to play and it have great replayability.

My two cents

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B. Clawhammer

I'd also recommend Guild Wars. Though there is fighting, it's against AI and not people. There is a PvP component to the game, but it's optional; you don't have to go into the PvP arenas etc. There is no growing/building component that I'm aware of in the game, and I there is a bit of puzzling but not much. It's pretty straight forward, but the game has a pretty good story line, and the graphics are beautiful. Online play is still free too I believe.

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Panz

Yes, Guild Wars is free to play online. When you create your character you choose PvE or PvP, PvE characters cannot enter arena for PvP and PvP characters cannot enter PvE worlds due to the fact that all PvP characters all start at max level with max skills.

And yes, the graphics are the best I have seen thus far, not cartoonish at all and the scenery is gorgeous.

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Vulcan

GW is not a persistent world FYI.

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Spyder

Actually, you can take PVE characters into PVP arenas once you hit certain parts of the game.

Indeed, the only persistant sections of the game are the cities. The zones are all generated locally on your machine once you leave.

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WhiskeySix

the other thing about GW is that the max level you can get to is 20.. and it doesn't take long at all to reach that point.... so you don't have to invest manyears of time to get your character the "best".

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Panz

Thats what I love about the game. You can reach level 20 easy enough yet can still change up skills and attribute points which almost creates a whole new leveel 20 character. I also like how larg the world is, a true explorer can make this game last a long time if they choose to do all quests and missions.

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Ferris Bueller

guys, keep in mind that one of the stipulations was no fighting/killing.

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nulloperations

Neocron 2 is a good MMO. It's built around a PvP structure between two rival post-apocalyptic cities, but individual players don't have to become involved in the war. It's level based, where new levels let you compleletly customize your characters as you want in different skills, including many creation skills (allowing you to stay out of combat if you want). Most leveling/experience gaining is preformed in a "here's a job, go do it" style of role, including many non-combatant roles that won't take you out of the city.

Character types including close and long range specialists, drone pilots, vehicle pilots/gunners (ground and air), psionics (combatant and defensive/healer roles), engineers (build weapons, vehicle, drones, etc), bio engineers (build cyberware, chemicals, etc), deckers (hack cyberspace in a full 3d realm), and a few more roles.

PvP is controlled by an automatically implanted peice of cyberware called a LE, law enforcement chip. Untill a certain level (I forget which) you can remove and replace the chip as much as you want, but once you get to a certain level, if you remove the chip, it's removed permeantly.

The game takes awhile to peak to max level, but most of the action can take place within one of the major cities. If you're a contruction person, you'll spend most of your time negotiating with hunters to get you various gear anyway.

The game has FPS elements in it, with higher skill levels allowing you to become more accurate quicker (you're still accurate at lower levels, but it takes time for you to "line up your shot" so to speak). It's a fun game, I just stopped playing because while fun, I had lost a job. I just havn't bothered picking the game back up.

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Vulcan

Wyz does this mean no combat in the game?

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CingularDuality

You could play EVE Online for a long time in a good corp without experiencing combat...

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SmokingTarpan

You'll be hard-pressed to find an MMO that involves zero fighting whatsoever; the staple of leveling in an MMO is by fighting (at least fighting monsters). Even games that I've seen touted as having "alternative ways to level" without fighting, such as having a purely crafting-based character, always include fighting at some point (either you can't raise your skill past a certain amount until you hit a preset level, or you need rare items that only come from monsters and that others can't give away once they pick up).

A game that's in development that comes close is Society, but it's not necessarily an MMORPG (rather it's an MMORTS). Basically it's a country-building persistent world, with some really awesome features. Sadly, I doubt it'll ever get developed to the playable point; it seems to be a backburner project.

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freekyE

Does it have to be an MMO? Have they tried Civilization 4? Excellent game with minimal violence if you want to play it that way. and you can play online against others if you wish.

Really the only thing ive even heard of that resembles the specifics you describe might be a Harvest Moon online game (not in production that I know of) .....hell, you might have them try that game, my wife loves it though I find it repetitive.

Edit: I just did some looking and found that there IS a harvest moon online in production........my wife is gonna be happy.