There are 3 cooperative (MMO and semi-MMO) games I'm currently interested in and I'd like to get the word out and see what yours opinion on those are and if you already play those or would want to. All of them are available through Steam and in case of ARK and 7D2D are considered Alpha (early access).
Before I get into them, just a heads-up, this gonna be a bit of a longer post as I'm quite passionate about them (especially the first one):
Elite:Dangerous (E:D) - 1st person "sandbox" MMO - one-time cost of $60 (though on steam there was just a promo where it was reduced, though that ended, but
Overview:
First person (only, for now) action-MMO in a space ship (only, for now, but to be expanded where you can do things on-foot) and in space (only, for now, landing on planets to come in the future). Doesn't have really RPG elements as such in it, but from what I've heard that'll be changed in the future (especially once you can do things on-foot). Also the game can be played in 3 different modes: solo (all other ships are AI, though your actions and those of other players influence the local and overall economy and governance), online (standard MMO part) or private (you and your friends vs AI, so you don't have to deal with other players, good for training such as for new players, to check out new game mechanics together or to practice PvP strategies). Graphics and sounds are superb, combined with the high amount of realism makes this game more than a game, more like a sci-fi sim and gives you a superb experience.
In detail:
The game has gone gold end of last year (December 2014 on PC, a Mac version is out now too) and has since received steady updates. It's actually "a re-make" (but so much more) of a series of games (the first one being Elite from 1984... which I used to play and enjoyed) and basically is a first-person (so far) sci-fi oriented MMO (well, it's classified as a MMORPG but I don't see much of a RPG element in it... yet, supposedly that'll change) that plays in our galaxy - yes, the whole galaxy, with all star systems (stars and their planets) as they exist in real life incorporated into the game, with the remaining ones being procedurally generated. You fly a space ship and unlike most other MMOs, it's action based, so you actually "fly" it, which is not super difficult if you imagine being put into the pilot seat of a real (future oriented, thus, with powerful engines) space craft, so there's 24/7 collision detection.
Your space craft though does have "shields" (usually, there are some exceptions and you even don't have to have them equipped, if you so please) that can take quite a bit of a "bump", though flying into even a static object (such as an asteroid or a space station) full speed will most likely blow up your ship - with the penalty being that you'll have to have the funds to buy a new one or have insurance on it then the re-buy costs are reduced and you have the option to not buy equipment, to reduce that cost if necessary. If you though had cargo worth a lot on that ship, then, well, that'll usually be lost, in some circumstances though you might be able to "loot" (some of) it (there are no ship wrecks yet, cargo are in containers that float in space and expire AKA vanish in a relatively short timespan).
The graphics, sound and overall experience (immersion) is just superb, it has quite a high amount of realism (follows newtonian laws, though by default flight assist is on and you don't have to worry about reverse-thrusting) and as such it's a thrill to fly any ship. Ship (also equipment, cargo) mass is relevant and flying a fighter or a transporter gives you a totally different experience.
For trading cargo or for getting ship equipment (which varies depending on the station / system's governance, economy focus and wealth),
you have to dock... inside space stations! There are three or so different layouts of space stations, but (so far) you enter /exit them all the same way, by flying through a rectangular hole - which can be quite a challenge with large(r) ships, or for inexperienced pilots even with small ships. Again, you don't blow up just by colliding with the station or anything else, as long as you pay attention to your ship's speed, which requires patience (or a lot of skill - I'm mostly approaching and leaving stations full speed and even spamming AB lol), and as such the game is mostly not for children. Also, to dock you have to request permission first, so certain procedure(s) need to be followed to not blow up all the time.
You can do what you can do in most other MMOs (to earn money, to buy equipment) - combat (of course, and there is quite a lot of variety, including a basic fleet system - not as sophisticated as EVE's yet), mining, trading... and exploration, which is quite different than any other MMO really, due to the huge amount of star systems, their star types (modeled after RL, so if you know a bit about astronomy or want to learn about it, then you'll enjoy this part of the game immensely) and their planets (some don't have planets).
The game has missions (usually they have a timer attached and some are quite difficult to complete) but also in-game events - I think mostly automatically generated but some are also created manually (I'm haven't researched that too much yet). The missions are actually tied to the local (station) and even system (governance) economy, so they change as the player-controlled (mostly) economy changes.
There is a lot more to the game, when it comes to complexity in terms of versatility of equipment and such, it doesn't match EVE's or in general other MMO's yet, but it's still versatile enough that you can (and should) pay attention to what you equip, because having always the highest quality equipment isn't always the best choice - not just due to their cost, but also due to their mass, which makes your ship less maneuverable and reduces the range you can travel and the fuel usage.
There is so much more to it, so if you have any questions feel free to ask and I'll do my best to answer. I have the unlimited expansion pack, so any expansions coming out in the future (and usually are sold as DLCs) I will receive automatically and can check them out for anyone who might want to know more about them.
ARK and 7 Days To Die (7D2D) - first-person (though ARK allows also 3rd person) survival "sandbox" games - both still in heavy development. They're fairly inexpensive though.
Overview:
They are sandbox (thus, persistent changes and open environment) survival games that can be played alone, PvP (1v1) or as a group (called "tribes" in ARK). You have to keep an eye not just on your health but also on your food and hydration levels. You harvest resources and craft tools, housing, clothing / armor and later on appliances and machines, starting from primitive ones (such as stone pick axe, hatchet, wood and stone spear, camp fire, bow and arrows, plant fiber / cotton clothes) to then more advanced (such as metal based tools and weapons, leather and then later on metal based armor, wood and later metal based housing. What starts out as a struggle for survival expands then to exploring the environment and creating comfort and long-term security.
In-depth:
There are 2 main differences between the two games - for once, 7D2D has zombies in it (though they can be deactivated, if you run your own server) and in ARK there are Dinosaurs (which you can tame!); secondly, 7D2D is based on a voxel game engine, which allows for a "destructible" environment (AKA Minecraft).
Both game are not exactly MMOs because for once the servers (or you can play SP) are run not by developing companies (anyone can host one), plus the maximum number of active (concurrent) players are limited to around 100 per server.
I started out with 7D2D, though the game is seeing quite a lot of change "under the hood", which results that you have to (or at least should) start over almost every time an update comes out, plus it's still quite buggy and that can be a very frustrating experience.
In ARK you have the ability to tame the AI (dinosaurs) in the game (most of them anyway) and to top that, most of these you can put a saddle on and ride (even underwater creatures - for now dolphins and sharks)! Some of them give you even stat boosts. On 7D2D's plus side though, with the world being fully destructible and you can dig your own caves and build underground (or in my way, crazy me, underwater :P) bases. ARK has caverns, but do to its nature of not being able to modify the terrain, you can't change them but you can still build housing in them. Also, 7D2D has right now two map modes - a custom created one and a random-generated one. ARK has only one in-game map, though community-created maps are showing up now on Steam Workshop, the map is quite large though, so there's plenty of explore and plenty of space. All in all I find ARK (for the time being) overall more enjoyable and interesting, and that's why I'll talk more about ARK.
The ability in ARK to tame creatures also opens further possibilities, such as using them to transport things - either for exploring / harvesting / resource gathering, or to move to a new area, but also for combat, as you can give them commands: neutral (attack what / whoever attacks you), aggressive (attack anything and everything within fairly close proximity) or neutral (don't attack at all), the last one being important while force-taming (the only form of taming land creatures for now) because otherwise your "bodyguards" will kill the creature you're trying to just knock out or tranq. I don't know what the limit of pets in total you can have (there might not be a limit) or the number of how many of those are actively following you (I guess there is some limit there), but I had for a while around 20 of them in my "gang" while roaming around and killing things.
The creatures can be classified as: tiny (common fishes and unless piranhas, they don't attack), small (dilos and dodos, bats and spiders), medium (basically human size), large up to elephant / rhino size, to gigantic AKA t-rex, bronto and "boss" creatures (right now only a mega-spider, a dragon is in the making AFAIK); they are either herbivores or carnivores; plus by their temperament (passive, neutral or agressive), but there are even further refinements such as docile, patient, territorial, short-tempered, skittish, reactive and even curious (the last one is a new one, basically they'll follow you around but not attack by themselves - but if you attract more of them, their group hunter mentality will take over and they'll gang up on you).
This is all I can think of right now, if you're interested or if you'd like to join my ARK server, let me know please, it's a lot of fun! The game is also quite cheap, so it's not a huge financial investment and definitely worth it, the graphics is great (based on the famous Unreal Engine 4) and, once you get the hang of things (shouldn't take long), a great experience!
