# Free MMORPG's



## tecnowraith (Feb 12, 2009)

Are there any free MMORPG players here and if so which ones do you play? Are any as popular and visually stunning as WOW or others?


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## Thanee (Feb 12, 2009)

tecnowraith said:


> Are any as popular and visually stunning as WOW...




You are kidding, right?

There is no game, anywhere, that is as popular as WOW. By a HUGE margin.

WOW = over 10 million accounts

Basically all other MMOs = happy, if they get more than 200,000 accounts. 



> ...or others?




Others, maybe, but WOW is a class of its own.


That said... Runes of Magic seems to be quite nice. Havn't tried it myself, though. 

Bye
Thanee


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## Merkuri (Feb 13, 2009)

I played Mabinogi for a short period of time.  You don't pay for the installation and there's no monthly fee, but if you want to get extra stuff you have to pay for it.  It's possible to play for free and never pay a cent, but I found that after a while it becomes a huge grind.  

It can take a looong time to level if you put your initial skill points places other than fighting skills, so even though the game advertises that you can be a "normal" person living a normal life you're kinda forced to be a fighter if you want to keep making visible progress at anything (even non-fighting skills).

It was also very annoying that they seemed to be doing nothing about spammers and bots.  There was no way to report them that I saw.  You often ran into groups of naked people (presumably bots) camping spawn spots, and in the starting town there was always two (sometimes three or four) people just standing there repeatedly hawking websites where you can buy Mabinogi gold.

WoW was MUCH better than Mabinogi, but that's because you get what you pay for, really.


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## Woas (Feb 13, 2009)

I think a couple retail level MMOs that have gone sour are still free. Off the top of my head Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxy I believe are two that are free. Oh and the older Shadowbane. Guild Wars requires you to buy the game upfront but is then free to play thereafter. 

Most other 'free' MMOs are crazy Korean based grind-fest games that are free to play, but if you want to really play them and leave the newbie sections or not have to play for 5 years before you can get your first piece of significant gear you have to buy through 'item malls' and spend real money for gear or upgrade to a premium account. However you might want to check out Dungeon Runner or Dark and Light which are both free-to-play and look somewhat promising.


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## Jasperak (Feb 14, 2009)

Woas said:


> I think a couple retail level MMOs that have gone sour are still free. Off the top of my head Anarchy Online and Star Wars Galaxy I believe are two that are free. Oh and the older Shadowbane. *Guild Wars* requires you to buy the game upfront but is then free to play thereafter.




Did someone say Guild Wars?


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## DonTadow (Feb 14, 2009)

Bar none, Runes of Magic is one of the best MMOs to come around in a while. And its completely free.  I've been playing it none stop for two months and I"m not (or at least wasn't) into MMOs. But the ease of play of this came, combined with the innovative duel class system works great.  Plus, unlike most free MMOs, the graphics are great.  I'd say better than WOWs.  

The quests vary and there are a few really intersting mini games they have as well. Crafting is actually fun (as is gathering).  They have pve and pvp servers, though i hear the pvp system is still working out kinks. PVE does allow for optional duels, but its pretty blah. 

If I were you i'd download it and try it out. Make sure you get the one from the eurpoean servers.  The us servers are gaining popularity, but the Euro servers have tons of people on.


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## tecnowraith (Feb 14, 2009)

I have notice that most of these "free" MMO's like Runes of Magic do not have playable races in them which I like in my MMORPG's.


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## DonTadow (Feb 15, 2009)

tecnowraith said:


> I have notice that most of these "free" MMO's like Runes of Magic do not have playable races in them which I like in my MMORPG's.



Runes of Magic is in btea, the final release will have either 3 or 4 races and 2 additional classes. Players can test out the starting zone of one of the races now by warping to Rienhart.  Form what thye have been saying on the forum, additional races will come wit updates, probably accessible through diamonds (thier way of making money on the game)


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## Lizard (Feb 24, 2009)

When it comes to MMORPGs, the phrase "Anything free is worth what you pay for it" is terribly, horribly, true.


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## Thanee (Feb 24, 2009)

DonTadow said:


> Bar none, Runes of Magic is one of the best MMOs to come around in a while.




That does sound pretty promising. Maybe I should give it a try, too.
Already got the beta client (was on a computer magazine DVD). 

Runes of Magic is also from a professional developer, that has made one or two MMOs before. Not sure about the other free ones, but previous experience in the field is always a good thing.

Bye
Thanee


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## Mercutio01 (Feb 27, 2009)

Requiem: Bloodymare isn't horrible.

Neither is DungeonRunners, although the gap between the subscribers and non-subscribers is pretty large.  They're both worth the download and test-run at least.


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## Kichwas (Mar 7, 2009)

Everytime I try one of these things there's just something -wrong- about the feel of them.

Often it comes down to something as simple as the default posing of the toons, and how animated that is. For example, the breathing WoW toons do, while overdone if you analyze it, really draws you in - any animation student knows that cartoons are overdone because when they copy actual human motion, it feels stiff to viewers.

I've also gone nuts over keybinds - like when I tried Perfect World. Forced to using WASD, and no ability to rebind the keys, I just couldn't sit down and enjoy it.

A good number of the free MMOs are attempts to take commercial MMOs from non-western sources and bridge the culture gap. That sort of bridging tends to be less than fully successful. While WoW has a market in Asia, it is not all that much of a major game even in the once of Blizzard's market; South Korea - the gap doesn't bridge all that well in the other direction either.


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## Desert Hare (Mar 7, 2009)

Talisman Online

I wasted a lot of time on that game last year. It's free and it's fun.


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