So, what is the gamut of free MMOs now? I dearly miss Maple Story, but that game has gone into a kiddy free for all. So what’s out there that’s well done, fun to play, and if possible, a bit mature?
The original Guild Wars can be had for as little as 10 bucks. Not totally free but there is no monthly fee.
This list might help.
Good. Free. MMO.
Pick two.
I heard a rumour that Huxley (lol vaporware) is going to be free-to-play and supported by microtransactions. It isn’t out, but a beta is around the corner or something. Might be decent, but I wouldn’t count on it.
Well, see MapleStory wasn’t terrible, and PristonTale was pretty good as I remembered it. So while I don’t need an amazingly good MMO, I just need something to kill time afterwork/on random times.
After the initial activation fee EVE Online can be payed for, 100%, with in-game currency.
Massively just had an article up with their top-five free-to-play MMOs.
I do not recommend Guild Wars. It combines the worst aspect of MMOs (the shallow gameplay) with the worst aspect of single-player RPGs (the lack of interaction with other players).
To me, Guild Wars’ heavy use of instancing defeats the purpose of playing an MMO or MUD.
Anarchy Online. A lot more complex than Guild Wars or World of Warcraft, but it’s a really neat sci-fi take on the usual knights and dragons MMOs. It’s been around for many years and you can get a free account. If you want to play the expansions you’ll have to subscribe. Apparently they recently did (or about to release?) a huge overhaul on the graphics, which was my biggest gripe when I played it five years ago.
I never played GW–with the instancing, would you say it ends up something more like Diablo II?
With towns and fully-realized avatars as opposed to a lobby with icons.
try Runes of Magic if you want something similar to World of Warcraft/Everquest 1.
Infernally slow to download, but it is free, so there! I am playing it a bit to see how it goes as I got suddenly unemployed and am thinking of free games to cut back on my outgo a bit.
You can solo fairly well and are automatically allowed a secondary class at level 15, so my scout has priest as a secondary to self heal while soloing. If you really want to upgrade your in game house, you can buy diamonds that let you buy stuff from the game designers, though there is a 30 day lag until you can use them in game in the auction house. You make gold fairly quick and easy, and can buy diamonds in the auction house if you feel the need and avoid the 30 day wait. You get a house, and a bank to save crap in. You can do every tradeskill to a certain level [i think 60 but I wont swear to it] but then after that you have to specialize. I have been making gold by gathering herbs woods and stones and selling them in the auction house on top of the stuff i get questing and random farming.
If yo want to try, I play Govinda server[US] as Sonnenschein or Aruvqan
I haven’t played Diablo II, but I assume so. In Guild Wars, the only times you encounter other players are in towns, in team matches and if you make a party (of up to four players).
When I used to play MUDs, my best memory was of the time that a high-level player on my side got lost in a pitch-black “dungeon” in enemy territory, so I, a low-level player who knew that area like the back of my hand, went and rescued him. Something like that cannot happen in an instanced MMO.
They list FreeRealms as their number one pick. I play that one, and while it is cute and fun, etc., it’s also pretty limited. There are 4 job categories and a whole slew of quests that are for paid members only, as well as needing to pay to get a pet (what’s the point of having pet trainer as an available job, if you have to pay cash for a pet?)
It’s brand spankin’ new, too, so it’s got some buggy parts, and I believe level 20 is as high as you can go in any job.
While I am enjoying it right now, I can see myself running out of content before too much longer. They are planning to add more, but I’m not sure when that’s planned.
I just spent about 10 minutes farting around on there - not too bad, at first glance. We’ll see, though…
Joe