The only MMO I've played that wasn't linear if you didn't want it to be, was Ultima Online. There is far more to do than just playing the -game- as in, killing things, selling things, or doing quests. You can pretty much roleplay as anything outside the bounds of the game stats... Which you can do in an MMO but can do really well in UO. You also have lots and lots of seemingly stupid skills that you can learn. As well as at least 5-10 secret ones... Like glass blowing.
Every other MMO I've played has forced the player to be some race and class and then doesn't really let them do anything else.
UO lets you learn anything.. and just limits the amount you can learn... 700 points to distribute however you want to any skill... (up to 100 for any single skill) And you have to 'learn' by doing... so you start out with maybe 30 in some skill you picked at the begining.. and you have to gain the points by using the skill.. And you can unlearn skill... so you could make a Fighter.. then decide to take the same character and completely ignore fighting and learn all the object making skills.... it is up to you entirely...
I never got bored of that game... and it took me almost 3 years before I even started dealing with the skills... Before that I had various characters centered around things like... Stripping.. and I had a whore... and an actor (I put on plays at the theater with other people for tips) and I even had a professional human shield... I worked on skills that made me harder to kill... and wore good armor (since at this point you wouldn't lose it when you died) then I charged people to use me as a shield.. great for archers and spellcasters... since the monster would attack me, and I would concentrate on healing myself while they killed it... I made some good money doing that...
Every other MMO I've played has forced the player to be some race and class and then doesn't really let them do anything else.
UO lets you learn anything.. and just limits the amount you can learn... 700 points to distribute however you want to any skill... (up to 100 for any single skill) And you have to 'learn' by doing... so you start out with maybe 30 in some skill you picked at the begining.. and you have to gain the points by using the skill.. And you can unlearn skill... so you could make a Fighter.. then decide to take the same character and completely ignore fighting and learn all the object making skills.... it is up to you entirely...
I never got bored of that game... and it took me almost 3 years before I even started dealing with the skills... Before that I had various characters centered around things like... Stripping.. and I had a whore... and an actor (I put on plays at the theater with other people for tips) and I even had a professional human shield... I worked on skills that made me harder to kill... and wore good armor (since at this point you wouldn't lose it when you died) then I charged people to use me as a shield.. great for archers and spellcasters... since the monster would attack me, and I would concentrate on healing myself while they killed it... I made some good money doing that...