I've been looking for the best free MMORPG of 2013 and I have found some interesting MMOs that I would like to share with everyone. This is just my personal opinion but there is an official list at the BestFreeMmorpg2013.com website if you want more detailed information.

Best Free to Play MMORPG

Age of Wushu - still fairly new (official launch on April 10) but I love it. Kung Fu action combat that's a mixture of realistic movements but exagerated to fantasy levels. The game developers apparently got some real life martial artists and motion captured their moves so it looks very graceful. However, while a jump irl would maybe allow you to get a foot or more above the ground, here you can leap over buildings.

I wouldn't say its the best MMORPG of all time but for 2013, this it the top MMO release so far. Just my personal opinion.

Why I like it - player-controlled economy where all of he necessary items are crafted and sold by other players. The open-world PvP everywhere is amazing. I have not participated in guild vs guild combat since the game is still new but it looks great. I recommend Age of Wushu if you have a lot of time on your hands.

Best Pay to Play MMORPG

Rift - a great overall pay to play game with a good community. I think most MMO gamers are already familiar with this game.

Eve Online - they have had some controversy recently over cosmetic items that can be bought with money but if you ignore all of that, Eve Online is an excellent sandbox MMORPG. I would say this is a niche game that is not for everyone but it is one of the top MMOs of 2013.

~ not really much to say here because I am not really into p2p. I'm more into f2p or buy to play, sorry

Best Buy to Play

Guild Wars 2 - now this MMO really is for everyone. Even the non-gamers in my house got interested when I started playing it and wanted to try it out. It looks great and it's not hard to get into so casual as well as hardcore gamers can try it out. I particularly like the feeling I got that I was in a real virtual world where things were really happening even when I wasn't there. I love my personal story.

The Secret World - I have been meaning to give this a try.

Upcoming MMOs You Probably Haven't Heard of:

I know there has been a lot of hype and publicity for the big budget upcoming MMORPGs so I won't discuss Neverwinter, The Elder Scrolls Online, ArcheAge, Wildstar, etc. Instead, here are some interesting indie titles that are under development.

Project Gorgon - an indie MMO by industry veterans. It's currently in pre-alpha but playable (open to all players). It has a very adventure/ old school game feel to it. Link: projectgorgon.com

Star Citizen - a space sim in a persistent world that recently raised $6m. It's an ambitious sandbox MMO that has a lot of potential. Link: robertsspaceindustries.com

Thanks for reading!

Here is a pretty sweet list of the MMORPG games we can expect to play in 2013. Of course, it's still too soon to know a lot of details or to get news about next year's new releases but I always like to know what I can look forward to and what the MMO gaming industry is working on.

Some games that I listed have no links because they don't have official websites. I have a website dedicated to upcoming MMORPGs at bestfreemmorpg2013.com if you are interested in that kind of thing. Please let me know if there are any games I missed.

Titan - possibly? Titan is the codename or working title of the MMO that Blizzard is developing. Not many details are known about this but rumors abound.

BLESS - by Neowiz Games (Korea), BLESS is the working title of their upcoming MMORPG that has apprently been in development since 2009. It's hard to get info about this game but maybe our Korean members here can shed some light on it?

Dungeon Hero - by Eyasoft, another Korean game company. This looks like a fast-paced hack and slash dungeon crawler. The graphics are very stylized and cartoony.

EverQuest Next - yes, the next EQ game is already being made right now. This is reportedly set in a parralel dimension world of Norrath. Not sure why we need 3 different EQ games (the original Everquest, EQII and EQ Next in the future) but I certainly wish the devs well. It looks like a quality game that would be nice for those who have not yet played "classic" EQ.

Lineage Eternal: Twilight Resistance - this seems to be a sequel to the massively popular Lineage MMORPG. I never played original Lineage and there is not much info about this game yet but it is rumored to be due for release in 2013.

Pathfinder Online - this is a game that many MMO fans have been watching very closely. The devs have said that it will definitely be a hybrid sandbox/theme park-style MMO which has many gamers excited because of the sandbox features. I'm keeping my fingers crossed it will be good. Link: https://goblinworks.com/

Survarium - an upcoming MMOFPS. Link: http://survarium.com/en/ Not much info on their website so I don't have much to say about it right now.

The Repopulation - another interesting game that is going to be sandbox. Check out their website at www.therepopulation.com (they have an alpha tester application form) and if you are a fan of sandbox MMOs you might start drooling at the thought of all those features.  I know I'm excited.

Wildstar  - the press releases make this game sound good. Website at http://www.wildstar-online.com/uk/ where you can already sign up for beta testing. They have a good trailer with what looks like a "bunny" race. Despite the cartoony look of the game it is supposedly very hardcore. Hmmm.

The Elder Scrolls Online - last but not the least, The Elder Scrolls Online MMORPG has just been announced. This is gonna be great. Imagine, Skyrim but with MMO features! That's gonna be so sweet. I know a lot of people have been talking about this in forums and online communities.

Warhammer 40,000: Dark Millennium MMO - this was going to be a big 2013 MMO release but sadly THQ has changed its plans so it will now be a single-player game. On the other hand, this could be good news if Dark Millennium is better as a solo playing experience.

That's it, that's the whole list. Not too many titles listed but its still early for a lot of announcements to be made about 2013.

A few months ago I finally took the plunge and started playing World of Warcraft. What triggered this action was the fact the WoW is now free to play for the first 20 levels. Sweet deal!

I mean, okay, they already had a free trial period before that so essentially people could play it for free. The problem with limited trials is that I am a busy person. There might be days when I could play a game for 6 hours straight but there are also weeks when I don't even play for more than 30 minutes a day. So the nice thing about playing WoW until level 20 is that I can take my time and level as slowly as I want.

I have been happily playing as a Blood Elf for over a month now.

Then yesterday I found out that Rift now has the same thing in the form of Rift Lite - players can now play for free until level 20. Now obviously I think this is a good thing... except I simply don't have time to regularly play two different MMORPG games.

What to do? Rift vs WoW!

Decisions like this are so hard yet deliciously fun.

~ from MMO Worlds

In other news, I have also been playing this great browser RPG game Echo Bazaar. PM me or comment on this blog if you play it, too because I am looking for more friends. Specifically, I need a friend to organize a theft for me. Here is my profile page.

I got a set of 3 free collectible cards from reckoning.com. This was part of their promotion for Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning which will be out Feb 2012.

Don't you love free stuff? Sorry for the poor picture quality. If you are curious, it's exactly the same as the one shown in this video (made by another person, but I got the same 3 cards) - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gP0JMITiBgQ

MOBA  - Are they MMO games?

In other news, I have been trying out some MOBA games and while I was doing some research I cam across some interesting opinions, namely that the Multiplayer Online Battle Arena (MOBA) genre is an entirely different type of game separate from MMO gaming even though many websites list it along with MMO titles.

The first thing I noticed is that there are several different terms you can use.

DotA Clone vs MOBA

In my opinion, the best term to use is either MOBA or DotA clone. If you use these terms players know what you mean especially if the gameplay is very much like DotA. The benefit of using these two terms is simple: people who are looking for exactly that type of game can find it. It's very precise.

However, the term "DotA clone" is disliked by editors and other such people because "clone" makes it sound like it's not original. I had to justify my use of the term for them to understand that this is not a pejorative or a slur in the way it was used. Likewise, my editors don't like "Diablo clone" because non-gamers don't understand this type of "clone"-naming convention. I pointed out several online lists of Best Diablo Clones to show that it's an acceptable usage.

The way I see it, if you use a vague, general term like "action real-time strategy" then it does sound neutral but then people don't know what you mean. This is appropriate for cross-genre games that combine TPS, DotA-style maps, PvP, strategy, etc. but if the game is a DotA clone, I prefer to call it that (or MOBA). MOBA is better than DotA clone because it sounds nicer.

Then we had to discuss whether or not it should even be included in the website MMO Worlds which is about MMO games.

Are MOBA games even MMO games?

Yes, I think they are. It's a newly popular MMO gaming genre. It's like massively multiplayer online real-time strategy (MMORTS) games but without the focus on resource production and building.

The only reason this question cropped up is because many MMO players are more used to the very complex gameplay of MMORPG so when they try out a MOBA they find it very different because of the simplicity. I mean in battle arena games, people just log in, gear up and fight without all of the complicated storylines, time-consuming griding and questing that MMORPGs require.

Conclusion

To sum it up, in the naming game, MOBA wins out over DotA clone and action rts. In addition, MOBAs are okay to be included in MMO lists since they are quite popular nowadays and they are massively multiplayer online games.

I'm not gonna lie, I like free to play better than pay to play. I realize this is a minority opinion here but according to the latest 2011 MMO Games Market Report, in the US 47% of all MMO spending is on free to play games so I don't think I'm alone in liking f2p a lot.

So which games are going to be released in 2012? Looks like upcoming free MMORPGs of 2012 are:

Marvel Universe Online
Neverwinter
Planetside 2
Sevencore
Torchlight
Transformers Universe
Wizardry Online

One interesting thing I noticed is that all of them except for Sevencore are based on existing franchises. Is this because everyone realized with the launch of WoW so long ago that the best way to get a lot of players from the start is to make an MMORPG out of a successful franchise? I'm sure there will still be new and interesting worlds created from scratch in the future but it looks like at the moment a lot of developers are looking to existing IPs to make new MMO games.

I also noticed that game devs are finally catching on tot he fact that scifi is as popular as fantasy, so hooray for that. I've no problem with fantasy worlds but we do need variety so I am happy to see that we will be able to use guns and tanks in 2012, not just your basic medieval weaponry.

I don't know which of these upcoming 2012 free MMORPGs I am going to play but I will definitely keep an eye on all of them.

So it's getting pretty close to 2012 and as I thinking over what  great year 2011 has been, I thought to myself "which games have the most buzz?" What are the most highly anticipated upcoming MMORPGs?

Top Upcoming 2012 MMORPG Games

Star Wars: The Old Republic

This game is really on top of the list. While the other games are well-known to MMO fans, SWTOR is one that even non-MMO gamers are excited about. I have seen SWTOR threads even in non-gaming forums. That's how much people are looking forward to this game.

Guild Wars 2

Although masses of people are interested in SWTOR the most, for many older MMO players, GW 2 seems to be the most intensely watched upcoming MMORPG. I personally am more excited over this than SWTOR, partly because I do prefer fantasy settings but also because it will probably be cheaper since it will entail just one payment and no monthly subscription.

The Secret World

I am not sure if everyone in MMORPG.com has heard of this but it looks like it is going to be great. I think there is less buzz over this than SWTOR or GW2 but it is definitely a game that many MMO fans are looking forward to playing, myself included. Official website is at http://www.thesecretworld.com/

World of Darkness

The WoD MMO will be out 2012 at the earliest the last I read some news about it so it does qualify for this list. Not too much news about it since presumably the release is farther off than the other games listed here but this is one game that I think old school RPG players will find interesting. It might be for adults only as there may be adult content like gore and nudity.

On an earlier blog post here, one guy called me "kid" which I personally think is pretty funny because in my book only 60-year-old people can go around indiscriminately calling people "kid."

Probably these people assume that most MMORPG players are teenagers. That's not true though.

"It is easy to dismiss video games as pointless activities that only teenagers indulge in. The truth is that the average age of MMORPG players is around 26. In fact, only 25% of MMORPG players are teenagers. About 50% of MMORPG players work full-time. About 36% of players are married, and 22% have children. So the MMORPG demographic is fairly diverse, including high-school students, college students, early professionals, middle-aged home-makers, as well as retirees. In other words, MMORPGs do not only appeal to a youth subculture." from http://www.nickyee.com/daedalus/gateway_demographics.html

So yeah, I'm not a 12-year old, you know?

MMO Worlds - Free MMORPG and MMO Games

Last blog post I talked a little bit about my new teaser video of a new free MMORPG,  Faxion Online which is now in open beta. Click on that link to watch the vid if you haven't yet, it's only 30 seconds long.

There's more than one upcoming MMO in 2011, however, and lately I have been taking a look at a new game that is not your traditional type of MMORPG.

I'm talking about the new PvP-oriented game MicroVolts. It’s not your usual generic fantasy hack-and-slash with shiny magic spells. It’s a Massively Multiplayer Online Third Person Shooter (MMOTPS). You can read more about it in my earlier post.

Both Faxion Online and MicroVolts seem to be going for the PvP crowd and it's going to be interesting to see if they succeed. That's a tough crowd to please!

On the other hand, some of the people who worked on Shadowbane are also working on Faxion Online. I'm thinking that the fans of Shadowbane who have been looking for a new PvP game since it closed down are probably thrilled to see the dev team make another combat-oriented MMORPG.

What is the best free MMORPG of 2011? It's too soon to tell but its not too soon to launch a new blog for free MMORPG and MMO games.

MMO Worlds is a new gaming portal for the best free MMORPGs of 2011. It's still fairly new but there is already a lot of content.

Currently there is a post about the best free MMORPG no download games. These are the ones you can play on your browser.

The blog has some nice features like voting (1-10  or thumbs up and thumbs down) for blog posts and games. Of course, comments are always welcome and anyone can join in the discussion without havng to sign up for anything.

The posting for each free MMORPG contains a game overview, features, screenshots, video and links. No reviews yet since that does take time and we do not want to rush it.

This New Top Free MMORPG 2011 – Faxion Online Open Beta post with a video is a good example of how we prefer to make videos. Short! We like teasers and trailers, not 15 minute video reviews. Faxion is a great game, btw so check out the vid today.