This is a brief summary of my opinion of the pros and cons of each fantasy MMORPG I’ve played or re-played in the last few months.  Keep in mind that I haven’t played every character class or experienced any end-game content in any of these games.  Also, I am somewhat biased toward melee classes, solo adventuring and PvE (player vs. environment) gameplay.

World of Warcraft (played: ~11 days, max level: 47)

Pros

• Everybody in the world plays it
• Staggering amount of content
• Lots of different races and classes and starter areas
• PvP battlegrounds are fun and risk-free
• Good gathering and crafting system
• Runs on low-end systems (eg. netbooks)

Cons

• Plain, cartoonish graphics
• A lot of content requires a group or guild
• Difficult to solo more than 1 mob at a time
• Inventory management is a pain
• Death is a pain
• Potentially lots of downtime between kills
• NPC vendors aren't identified
• Traveling long distances takes forever
• Everybody cheats with add-ons and macros and so forth :o

Notes

I haven’t played BC or WotLK, just the original.  WoW sets the standard, for better or worse.

Warhammer Online (played: ~3 days, max level: 21)

Pros

• Good, clean, scalable UI
• Eclectic mix of classes
• NPC vendors, quest-givers and quest regions are easy to find
• Nice inventory organization options
• Almost no death penalty
• Public quests!
• Easy to get into PvP and RvR
• Quest goals are summarized so you don’t have to read all the text :)

Cons

• Impossible to avoid RvR
• Limited graphics engine settings
• Slower level advancement
• Can be downtime between kills
• Uncertain future of the game

Notes

WAR definitely caters to group RvR gameplay.

Age of Conan (played: ~3 days, max level: 47)

Pros

• Excellent melee combat gameplay
• Realistic graphics, models and animations
• Mounted combat
• Super fast leveling
• Solo instances
• You can create a 1-person guild :)

Cons

• Needs higher-end computer
• Really slow patcher startup time
• Same starting area for all classes and races
• World traveling can be a pain
• Nobody playing PvP scenarios or Massive PvP
• Runs low on content after level 45
• Uncertain future of the game

Notes

If you like playing a melee character (as I do), AoC is the game for you.  Otherwise, this probably isn’t the game for you.

Lord of the Rings Online (played: ~2 days, max level: 28)

Pros

• Come on, it’s Middle Earth!
• Gorgeous landscapes and scenery
• Lots of quests to choose from
• Good crafting system
• Solo instances
• Housing

Cons

• Robotic, mechanical model animations
• Not very many race/class choices
• Melee combat feels weird
• Tiny inventory tiles are hard to see

Notes

This is a surprisingly immersive game.  I found that playing a Rune-Keeper (aka. mage) was much more satisfying than playing a Champion (melee), which is unusual for me.

EverQuest II (played: ~3 hours, max level: 7)

Pros

• Huge selection of customizable classes and races
• Kind of cool to find mystery items lying on the ground

Cons

• Completely unfamiliar (to me) lore and terminology
• Drab, watercolor-esque (and occasionally glitchy) graphics
• Default mouse button actions are backwards :)

Notes

I have a hard time getting into EQ2, but I don’t know why.

Dungeons and Dragons Online (played: ~20 hours, max level: 2 rank 11)

Pros

• Free2Play
• Runs on low-end systems (eg. netbooks)
• Combat is easy
• Solo instances

Cons

• Really slow level advancement (but that’s how D&D is)
• No corpse loot; it's all in barrels and chests 
• Tiny inventory tiles are hard to see (same as LotRO)
• Have to pay for some classes (Monk, etc.)
• Have to pay to create a guild
• No /played command??

Notes

The game really “feels” like D&D, with a dungeon master voiceover, tricks, traps and even a 20-sided die roll on the screen.

Runes of Magic (played: ~4 hours, max level: 11)

Pros

• Free2Play
• Lots of things to do
• Can choose a secondary class
• Housing available right from the beginning

Cons

• Primitive graphics, similar to WoW, but still doesn’t run on low-end systems
• Grindy quests (probably on purpose, to force people to buy stuff)
• Inventory space runs out quickly before needing to “rent” more
• Mounts are only “rented”
• Sometimes the quest text is in Spanish :)

Notes

If you’ve never played an MMORPG before, this might be one place to start, although DDO feels more polished.

Allods Online (played: 5 minutes, max level: 0)

I’ve heard good things about this Free2Play game, but I cannot evaluate it because THERE IS NO INVERT MOUSE Y-AXIS OPTION!  No, I’m not kidding.

Summary

My recent favorites were Age of Conan and Lord of the Rings Online, although I unsubscribed from both before the second month.  Currently I just pop into DDO now and then.