Since Marvel Heroes is no more, I’ve been casting about for another MMORPG to play. I’m leery of a lot of MMORPGs, just because I have female friends who have played them, and have heard the horror stories about vent, chat and other forms of communication.
I really enjoyed Marvel Heroes because it didn’t have vent and you could close the chat window. Apart from people trying to get me to join their groups, which I sometimes did, I could play unmolested or bothered for hours.
My friend Garpu, who has blogged here before, recommended Secret World Legends, so I decided to check it out. I’ve been having some adjustment issues.
Marvel Heroes, like Diablo, was point and click. Your character followed your mouse, and you used keys only for attacks and to access the store, inventory, and other features.
Secret World Legends uses the mouse to control the camera, and you move using the W, A, S, and D keys. The learning curve is a little high, and I need to adjust the sensitivity of my mouse so I quit winding up looking at the sky or at the ground. Seriously, guys, I’ve been playing Diablo, Diablo II, other Blizzard games and Marvel Heroes for more than 15 years now. My reflexes are trained to that mode of play, but I’m slowly adapting.
The next thing I like about Secret World Legends is the world and mythology. I’ve mentioned before that I grew up in a house where ghosts were real and my dad handed me books like Chariots of the Gods, The Lost Continent of Mu, and the works of Edgar Cayce. The world this game is set in is catnip to me. You play one of three factions, trying to protect the world from otherworldly threats: The Illuminati, the Templars or the Dragon. You follow clues to solve problems, you kill zombies, and try to find answers. The mysteries and puzzles tend to reference real world conspiracies and beliefs.
Happily, in character creation, there is a fairly wide spread of skin colors, eye colors, hair colors and styles. Sadly, you cannot choose to make your female characters heavier if you want. Taller, yes. Heavier, no.
At least in the earlier stages of the game, it sort of leads you along by the hand which I needed. The combat’s pretty easy to master, once you get used to the camera thing. The story is interesting, and keeps me going when I get frustrated by some of the puzzles.
I’m not yet married to it, so if anyone would like to recommend their favorite MMORPGs, I’m all ears. Tell me what you like about them, and what works for you about them.
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Geek Girls Rule!!! 
If you really enjoy the diablo-clone/ARPG type games, have you checked out Path of Exile?
https://www.pathofexile.com/game
It’s ‘free to play’, which in this case basically means that you never get charged to play at all, in any way, but you probably want to throw some money their way for stash tabs to store stuff. I occasionally buy some cosmetic stuff as a way of throwing the company some money, but it’s not at all required.
Much like Marvel Heroes, it is both easy and has no appreciable impact on your game to just turn off the assorted chat channels, and the only times you will even see other players is when you are in one of the hubs, unless you choose to team with someone.
I haven seen some icky character names on rare occasions, so that may be a mark against it.
Note: The economy is weird, with no gold per se, but rather a whole bunch of currency items, which can take a bit of getting used to. Likewise, the passive tree can be pretty daunting to start with, but there is no shortage of build advice and suggestions on Youtube and the official forums. I found the build guides put out by LiftingNerdBro, Mathilification and Engineering Eternity on YT especially helpful, not only listing what sort of skills/equipment and passives to take, but often explaining why they did things one way or t’other.
Guild Wars 2! Guild Wars 2! Guild Wars 2! Beautiful visuals, interesting (and frequently updated story), multiple gameplay options (PVE, PVP, WVW + dungeons, fractals, raids). No subscription fee. Well known for having the friendliest community– take a look at the GW2 Reddit, it’s something they boast about frequently. There’s IG chat that you can easily close if you need to, but most servers also run a TS3 channel for group activities like guild runs or WVW. There are mounts and guild halls and you can easily change traits and builds and I could literally go on and on about this game forever.