After a long and stressful day at work, sometimes you just don’t want to come home to a long and stressful evening of MMO hack and slash, tense strategic warfare, or constant looking over your shoulder for sniper fire. We have compiled this list of peaceful relaxing MMO games to help you unwind at the end of the day.
Several would-be candidates for this list are unfortunately no longer with us, like Wander - that game where you roamed around exploring the world as a massive tree. Pretty chill, right? Or Sony’s well-loved great de-stresser, Free Realms.
Some people like to run a hot bath, others might settle into bed with a good book, but at MMOGames.com we prefer to plug in and log on to get our chill time. If you’re looking for the MMO gaming equivalent of a meditation retreat, then hopefully one of the games below will catch your (mind’s) eye. So take a long, slow, deep breath, and read on…
Meadow
Meadow is Might and Delight’s MMO release for fans of the Shelter game series. WIth graphics that aren’t quite voxel but certainly aren’t realistic, this MMO provides players with the opportunity to explore huge fantastical landscapes as their favourite wildlife critters. Characters default to starting as a badger cub, but new animals are unlockable in a variety of ways (and owning any Shelter games give you extra animals to choose from too).
Meadow is indeed an MMO game, but it leans more heavily on ‘MMO’ than it does on ‘game’. You can’t level up or craft, and there is no loot. There aren’t any quests or dungeons, and there isn’t even any combat. There is the lightest sprinkling of objective in the form of seeking out ‘essence’ from plants and monoliths (allowing you to unlock extra skins and character forms). That might sound boring, but I implore you to give Meadow a try before you judge, because it is in this laid-back gentle touch of direction that the contemplative and meditative zen-like essence of Meadow really comes into its own.
It’s the video game version of a hike into the mountains, or a frolic in the meadows. And you literally can do both of those things, from the comfort of your favourite gaming chair which, even if you aren’t working on your physical fitness in the same way, still allow you to reap the mental rewards of whiling away some time in the natural world.
Stein.world
This tongue-in-cheek game with 16-bit graphics is the most relaxing chilled out hangover you will ever have.
The premise is simple: you wake up after a hard night of drinking, and you’ve lost your favourite and treasured beer mug (aka stein). What awaits you is an epic search featuring quests, dungeons and deadly monsters in the hunt for clues to where your family-heirloom beer mug has ended up.
We appreciate that deadly monsters, dungeons and combat aren’t normally described as peaceful and relaxing, but when it’s in colourful 16-bit graphics with such an amusing storyline, it’s the MMO game version of binge-watching that easy-going show on Netflix that you turn to time and time again.
Sure, your character might be feeling hungover and stressed, but as a player this game is all smiles. And while Stein.world started as a small experiment and hobby, it has actually turned into a fully-fledged MMORPG with the depth of crafting and professions, and this will soon expand further allowing players to own their own farms and houses.
Stein.world is free-to-play and browser based, meaning that you can even take it with you on an Android or iOS device for that portable dose of chill.
Craftopia
Image credit: MassivelyOP
Japanese developer Pocket Pair’s Craftopia is an attempt to allow MMO gamers to have their cake AND eat it. It is a self-described effort to cherry pick all the best bits from other MMO games, and it seems like they just might be about to pull it off. (That’s right, about to, unfortunately the game is currently in closed Alpha)
A player will be able to perform Minecraft style landscape manipulation and building, with mining and tree chopping, but with a much more modern cartoon graphical style. The game is intended to be a “utopia for all of us” as it combines elements of sandbox, open world, and survival games, along with farming, combat, dungeons and magic.
Craftopia is due for release any day now, and we eagerly anticipate finding out whether the game will be a success, or whether they have bitten off more than they can chew.
We are particularly excited for the factory/farming automation aspects of the game. The video trailer shows some The Incredible Machine style scenes of automated farming, and there is something strangely relaxing about putting your feet up and watching an enormous conveyor belt for cartoon cows.
Keep an eye on this one. We reckon it will provide the opportunity for some supreme relaxation when it is released.
Mabinogi
Last but by no means least, an MMO game like no other, Mabinogi, with its cel-shaded graphics. Sure, it has combat, quests and dungeons, but there are so many non-combat features for players looking to chill out.
There aren’t many MMOs that are as sociable as Mabinogi either - the laid back atmosphere has helped to develop a super helpful community and generally friendly player base. Nobody has time to be dealing with griefers when they are trying to relax!
There are loads of life skills in which to rank, from sheep shearing to herbalism, carpentry to… hoeing. And Mabinogi gives players the opportunity to create and customise their very own homesteads. We’d recommend playing this with friends or making new pals in game in order to spend time socialising and hanging out at each other’s homesteads. And you can even get married or get a part-time job, although personally I don’t think I’d find adding another boss and wife to my life relaxing - each to their own though!
Hopefully one of those suggestions tickled your pickle. If none of them seemed to offer that ‘sinking into the sofa’ feeling at the end of a long day, then maybe roaming around in the beautiful landscape of Guild Wars 2 or Elder Scrolls Online will be just the ticket. Just whatever you do, please don’t try to take your gaming laptop in the bath with you. We cannot be held responsible for any damages caused by your desire for relaxation and peace.
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