Top 10 MMOs 2013 .

You’ll have to excuse me for my terribly ugly banner. Anyways… This year was a terrible year for MMOs. I decided to put my Photoshop skills into play for how bad of a year it was. This list is a compilation of the MMOs that were released and/or went free-to-play.

I wanted to stick to 2013’s MMOs for a 2013 list as long as the game was released to the general public this year. The consideration of my own opinion and others were taken into account and so I’ve derived at this list as my finalization. Bear with me; I may try to be funny.

Age of Wushu might not deserve a spot like 10, but the player base was taken into consideration and so was the gameplay. The gameplay for Age of Wushu is quick but slow at the same time.

Players are given a lot of reaction time and thinking time between attacks. In Age of Wushu, players are to decide how to counter or act in a PvP environment. From my experience and from what I’ve seen, there isn’t a very in-depth story or PvE oriented gameplay.

It’s mainly focused on the thought of a PvP game. However, I do have to give props to both the graphics and the fancy acrobatics that players can use in the game. I love little features such as these; on another note, I believe these fancy flips and tricks also lay a good foundation as an essential game feature in combat and for travel.

Dragon’s Prophet holds a low position because I didn’t really experience anything new. There were mounts, pets, swimming, fighting, but what was new that could be provided to a community?

The gameplay was bland, but quick and interactive. The combat style held a lot of the essential features that keep a player active and interested, but there just wasn’t anything new to it. Call me a hater, but even if Dragon’s Prophet came out this year, there wasn’t much of a new aspect to it.

It has a certain unique feel because of the environmental setting and quick gameplay, so it’s great for players looking for that style of game; which is why it deserves the number 9 spot in my book. I might be taking it for granted, who knows, but I found it bland, unfinished and outdone by other games.

Grand Theft Auto V was one of the most anticipated games. The game is pretty good and they did a great job on keeping the unique aspect of the game. There is plenty of story and interaction between characters, but enough of that; we’re here to talk about the online mode.

Due to the general experience of the game, by throwing in a multiplayer system that works like an MMO was probably one of the worst things to do. The communication between players in a friendly manner is almost non-existent. Not only that, many players will hunt other players for the sheer joy of being able to do it.

What makes that a great MMO? Well, if players looking for a place to have an all-out free-for-all duel with everyone they’ll meet, GTA V’s online play is probably for them. This is probably the best place a player can find an environment where there is murder at every corner.

Neverwinter was a game I decided to stick to and try out for a little longer because it has aspects I enjoyed and it was interesting to me. Neverwinter provides players with some new features rarely seen in many MMOs released over the years.

Their skill system is unique along with a special skill system for every class. They also have gathering skills specific to certain races. There were some great things about Neverwinter, but I thought it was missing something. It has some new features, it has some new aspects of skills, but what it was lacking was the use of those features. Maybe I didn’t stick long enough to find out what came at higher levels.

The skill system and dungeon venturing was nice but not if there was no new experiences to be had. Neverwinter feels repetitive and bland. There is also a limited amount of skills a player can carry at a time and that is something I highly dislike. Overall, I enjoyed it to an extent and did not dislike it, rather, I simply found it bland and repetitive with no real use of the possible potential of the game.

Firefall scores a little higher than the ones I’ve mentioned, one of the main reasons is for the simple fact that it is something new. There aren’t many mmo-style RPG third person shooters out in the MMO market, wow that was a mouthful.

Firefall did the MMO-style great but it lacks the variety of skills that players can choose from. There are new guns players can buy and new armor-suits and ‘classes’, but most of the guns are the typical guns that could be seen in any up-to-date shooter. Players could obtain a rifle that had better stats than their old rifle but the looks would slightly differ and it would simply have slightly better aim and clip size.

That’s not exactly exciting… I enjoyed Firefall since there were large amounts of monsters and events that would happen in their open world. These are the appeals of Firefall. The fall of the fire is the fact that nearly every item obtained, skill earned, or suit upgraded just doesn’t feel like a much of a difference from the previous.

Path of Exile, the game which reviewers and players often named ‘the game Diablo 3 should have been.’ Path of Exile is a very dark, gore-filled, and sinister action-type game.

Players scurry through large maps to take on terrifying bosses and large hordes of enemies. There is an extremely large variety of weapons players can use and a highly extensive passive skill tree. The main problem was the content. There are various areas; if I recall correctly, 3 acts worth of areas. These areas were quite large with a moderate-high amount of content. My main issue is the fact that for the full feel of the game, players must play through these same areas various times.

Each time, the players and enemies will become stronger and items obtained will be much stronger as well. I’m not a fan of multiple play-through system. My personal opinion is that’s basically the reuse of content and also very boring to a certain extent. I prefer to see new environments and enemies. Path of Exile as a whole is a great game but the repeated content and lack of variety in enemies is what really kills its potential.

However, that is my personal opinion and a lot of players enjoy the game as a whole, as to which playing through multiple times is enjoyable for them.

Final Fantasy XIV is mostly popular because of its popular name. Once again, I’m a critic so I’ll be honest and say that Final Fantasy doesn’t provide anything new to the genre. It simply does a few things better than other games.

The fact that there are many references to the other Final Fantasies is what keeps its appeal for a lot of the players. It is also a great looking game in terms of graphics; everyone enjoys a great looking MMO. The problem is in the skill system with the cooldowns and also with the fact that it’s like any other pseudo-point-n-click. Like I said, there’s not very much new here, just a mask with a different perspective of combat.

I ranked this higher than most on the account that there are a high amount of players currently logging in and out of FFXIV and there’s nothing to debate against that. The matter of the fact is that it only did a few things better than other MMOs currently on the market.

Tera went free about mid-year into 2013 and players flocked onto the servers. Players that were subscribed at the time also received some minimal benefits during the transition.

Tera’s combat system is very interactive and straight-forward.There are mechanics in Tera that are better than other games and I personally enjoyed my time playing the game. Players can be very up close and personal with bosses and each player has specific roles.

The combat allows every individual to stay focused and interested as long as they enjoy the game. There are many characters with different passives and individual skills that play very differently. As long as a player’s computer can handle Tera and the players enjoy the general gameplay mechanics I think this is a game worth trying or sticking to.

Rift is another game that goes alongside Tera in the sense that they both went free to play this year. Rift has a similar gameplay style to that of FFXIV and it is also comparable to WoW.

Rift has some unique aspects of its own. One of which is the extensive class selection for players. There is an incredible amount of classes players can choose from. Players can also obtain/purchase a privilege that will allow them to quickly switch to different roles if they want to fill a different role for their party. This allows nearly every player to play differently from the players that they meet around them.

There are rift map events that happen in the open world allowing players to quickly party up with other nearby players to work together in shutting down a rift event. To add to these features, there is also a system to join a queue with other players to automatically party and venture with a group of people to take on groups of enemies.

DOTA 2 is statically and considerably in first place. DOTA 2 is as well known as League of Legends and comes second to League of Legends in statistics.

The game has been in the testing phases for a very long time but was officially released this year. There are a large amount of heroes with an extensive amount of different skills. By now, I believe that any gamer knows that DOTA 2 is a MOBA game.

DOTA 2 is well known because of its predecessor and received great recognition when it came onto the market. Players have to think and act quickly to succeed in DOTA 2. This can become a very intense and stressful environment, especially when the players are in a tournament.

Personal Note

Alright guys, that’s about it. This year was lacking of many MMOs to call ‘Top’ and these were the ones I chose. These were my thoughts with consideration in statistics and also took consideration on votes from friends and forums. I hope my opinions and yours matched up at least to some degree. What are your Top 10 MMOs for 2013? Let us know in the comments below!