Gaming Free MMORPG Round Up

There's a common perception that free online MMOs are garbage. Taking on the development of game that might not net you enough cash to buy a tuna sandwich is something few companies are keen on doing. We find out if there's any that are worth investing time in.

http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/pc/2009/09/20/free-mmorpg-round-up/1

And no, we're not going to start blazing Evony ads all over the site...

 

Re: Evony ads, read this, it's a great laugh. http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/archives/001286.html

Edit: Just saw the similar article linked from the article.

 

You missed a good one. Dungeons and Dragons Online is kind of free now too.

 

Graphically wise, Cabal is a very good free MMORPG. Apparently its quite good too as it unhooked my brother from his Last Chaos addiction.

 

what about archlord?

 

All the free MMORPGs I've played mostly consist of cookie-cutter grind-o-thon quests designed to fill what is otherwise a very thinly spread amount of content. Not surprisingly, varied content requires time and effort which most free MMORPG developers don't have in abundance. Fair enough.

What is unforgivable however is some commercial MMORPGs use the same trick, low level grind to bolster their content. Again, tight schedules and limited budgets contribute to this, but considering the financial aspect of these projects, you pay to play through tedious repetitive nonsense, potentially to be very disappointed with the high-level content.

For that reason, WoW never did it for me and a few months in I gave it the heave-ho. My major MMORPG fix is usually sated by the sorely underrated Guild Wars. Why WoW has such mass market appeal is nothing I think I'll ever understand. Clearly I'm not as massive a geek as I thought!

 

hehe

Thanks for the look into Evony, the ads were starting to annoy me enough that I was considering seeing what the fuss was about. Thankfully I didn't!
Last Chaos seems rather better to me and might be worth a twirl when I get a bit of spare time once I am back at uni.

 

Id recommend having a look at Tribal Wars if you fancy a good free MMO. Its entirely pvp based and can be pleasingly ruthless.

You need to be online for around 30 mins a day, once past 200k points and with a tribe thats competing on a 'world' (think: server) level thats more likely to be 60 - 90 mins per day.

Its possible to play the game in a skillful way, and as such possible to avoid being farmed by the more established players as you get going.

 

Isn't gunbound still free?

 

hm, and recently i discovered runes of magic, which, while being another wow clone, isn't really half bad, quite tolerable actually. Of course, it has some issues like:
- a bit confusing crafting system
- game looks the same as wow but performs on the same hardware considerably worse

haven't discovered much else due to only having played it until lvl 14. However, you should take a look at it and give your opinion, along with Perfect world international(haven't tried it myself, but kind of interested) and cabal.

 

I am playing runes of magic too and i like it very much. It's clearly aimed at party fighting. Should be on that list too
I think the crafting system is a bit confusing at first but once you get the hang of it, that become one of the major fun in the game

 

No Mention of the now freeplay version of D&D:Online?

 

Also, silkroad its kinda awesome while still being free.

 

You forgot to include Anarchy Online
While not fully free (you have to pay for the expansions) Is still a damned amazing free game.

 

My girlfriend poked me into trying this game;

http://flyff.gpotato.com/

Let me save you the bother - it's feces. On the other hand it reminded me of world of warcraft so I suppose the production values are higher than the browser based ones. If you like clicking on a monster and watching your character do your combat for you I suppose it is exciting.

 

I'm currently enjoying Requiem: Bloodymare, which while it has a dimwitted name has quite good performance, good questing, and so far coherent storylines. It also goes to 1920x1200.

 

I second Cabal. Fun, with gorgeous visuals (for a MMORPG) but tends to be a tad repetitious, especially when you realise that the quest keeps asking you to kill the same old **** over and over again.

Or pits you against a supremely strong enemy you probably can only take on 5 levels later.

 

I never click on adverts in websites, but the Evony ads made it impossible for me to resist. You have to admire the ballsiness of the advertiser for just saying f*ck it, and pasting tits all over the place. Especially as the game has nothing sexual about it at all. Just goes to show, sex sells.

I agree with Cupboard the ads are getting annoying now, as they do seem to be everywhere.

 

*poke* entropia Universe *poke*

EU just got upgrade to the Cry2 engine too now so it looks VERY nice! also it is a free MMO with a real-cash economy

 

I have been playing Evony on and off for the last few months and I have to say it gets very repetitive and boring, I just deleted my account lol.

Really the only free MMO I will play is Silk Road (when you can actually log on) and Shaiya. Drift City is also great fun, revolves around street racing. Yeah it's not an MMORPG but great fun.