Why should one consider playing this game ?

Two reasons.

1. It's Free

2. It's not a korean grinder.

the dual class system is the only innovative thing of the game, and i love it. If i wasn't p(L)aying wow, i'd probably stick to this game, it's great for a f2p, but can't actually compete with a game like wow (i speak after beta testing it A LOT and having tried the open beta)

Originally posted by Patryz

the dual class system is the only innovative thing of the game, and i love it. If i wasn't p(L)aying wow, i'd probably stick to this game, it's great for a f2p, but can't actually compete with a game like wow (i speak after beta testing it A LOT and having tried the open beta)

Dual Class system was used by other games already:

e.g. Silkroad Online - Europe Expansion which offers full functionality of both classes all the time, not the "restrictive switch" like in RoM.

What others said about not an Asian "grinder" may or may not be true, but it's an Asian game, as you can see from the overal flair of the game (or some text not being translated).

Or just take a look at the developer's site

www.runewaker.com/

It's using a similar engine like HERO Online or Requiem, plus some crafting that requires to harvest materials.

You have skills depending on your (currently active) class that are based on cooldowns.

Potions have cooldown timers as well.

Auction house and mail system are in.

Global chat can be used by anyone w/o some sort of fee or "license".

I haven't tested the PvP system as of now.

Pretty standard game with quests somewhat above average.

It's a blast  to play..I am running into a ton of old UO budies, the game dosen't feel like a F2p game..all in all just awesome.

It puts in the best of WoW and GW.  I like it.

Very  similar to wow  but so far ( lv 8 warrior on a PVE server)  very FUN for some indefinable reason. Try it.

This is still in beta with a lot of rough edges - so if this bothers you, wait for a (more) finished version.

btw. as far as I know, you get to keep your characters at the end of beta.

Originally posted by mahrguz

Very  similar to wow  but so far ( lv 8 warrior on a PVE server)  very FUN for some indefinable reason. Try it.

This is still in beta with a lot of rough edges - so if this bothers you, wait for a (more) finished version.

btw. as far as I know, you get to keep your characters at the end of beta.

yes, they've said there will not be a character wipe at the end of beta .  I like the housing too

it's free.
it is like wow but free.
dual classing makes you uber and makes planning your builds kind of interesting.
the quests are of a decent industry standard quality.
it's casual (you might not like that but i do).
the crafting is cool.
and like it has been said it comes together in a way that is hard to describe to anyone who hasn't played it. it brings out an obsessive compulsion to play it every day. i'm hooked.

I kept wondering why all these FTP companies didn't just make a reskinned clone of WoW and one of them seems to have finally got it right. WoW is immensely popular as a game but graphical taste is very personal so that guarantees  theres a massive total market to be shared between *multiple* reskinned WoWs in lots of different art styles. Age of Conan and Warhammer should have done the same thing imo.

The particular things RoM has got right from my personal point of view:

1.I like the immersion value of looking through my character's eyes so I like  WASD and first person view most of the time. Obviously you need to zoom out a bit when fighting to make up for no peripheral vision but most of the asian games i've tried didn't have the WASD/first person view thing implemented in a way that suited me.  Seemingly small thing but I can't get into an RPG long-term without that.

2. Different art style. If you like WoW but don't like the art style then you might like RoM. It's all a matter of personal tatse but personally I've always had a problem with the cartoony-ness of the player character models but that's just a matter of personal taste. I like the WoW world better so far but I haven't seen that much of the RoM world yet.

3. Character customization. Games seem to either over do or under do this. RoM is about right for me. There's a good variety of faces and hairstyles so you can make your character personal to you. Also some of the male faces actually look like men which you don't always get in the asian games--they often all look a bit too pretty for my taste. The hairstyles are unfortunately nearly all ultra metrosexual but there's a few that are just about bearable so that's ok. The character clothing is *extremely* cool and there's so much of it everyone looks different without even trying.

4. Quests/storyline. All these kind of games are grind, one way or another. The trick is to somehow disguise it. One way is to have good quests and an overall game lore that gives the world depth. Killing 20 mobs or having a quest that says kill 20 mobs are the same. Having a game faction that is investigating strange phenomena and one of their NPC's saying we need kobold blood to investigate such and such makes killing those mobs less boring. I don't really understand why it does but it does. Maybe it's something to do with the immersion factor again. RoM has lots of grind quests as well but so far they've had enough good "story" quests to make up for it. Very important imo.

RoM also has loads of things I dislike -- minimaps, quest markers, linear progression, too easy etc, but those things are common to all the bigger RPG games now and i can understand why it's got that way -- if you want mass market appeal then the game needs to lead players by the hand a bit. persoanlly  I'd prefer MMORPGs to be more immersive, more realistic and a *lot* harder but it makes financial sense for game companies to go down the WoW route imo. RoM so far seems to me to be the first FTP that's got it right.

It free, the server I've been on has been stable all week, the quests are okay (not life changing but generally decent), and the crowd has been generally pleasant and helpful.

Not something I can plan to play for years to come but a fun enough diversion until some other big name comes along (then tanks.)

You need to find your own reasons to play, but I play it as well  Scout 11/Priest 4 right now.  It is fun and they have a ton of quests that get you levelled and busy.  So far I have really enjoyed it.  They've taken alot of good ideas from different games and incorporated them into RoM.  The initial download is long, but worth the while.