I have been using mmorpg.com since 2006. Not much of a thread and forum user, but I have played almost every single game on the list here (seriously). Since the dawn of my experience at mmorpg.com I have played pay 2 play and free 2 play games. After experiencing my first free 2 play, I have made it my mission to find a free 2 play with the qualities of a pay 2 play. It was not till Perfect World released that their was a bit of hope in that department. After months of leveing I return once again searching for the next best thing and then BOOM! Out of no where came a game like no another free 2 play. A games so pay 2 play like, i was just waiting for a subscription fee, Runes of Magic. I could not believe my eyes, finally what I had been looking for in a game with the quality of a pay 2 play, sort of like WoW where as I could jump, strafe and craft, but looked anime-ish. I was very happy with my new found friend, but over time the darker side of me that I had developed from playing 2moons so long ago came back out. I realized that my final game of choice had to be more Darker and adult for me to truly enjoy it. AND THEN COMES DARKFALL! I could not believe my eyes a game with open pvp, blood, fully lootable player corspes, and no safe zone. You could even kill NPC and burn down towns. There was just one problem, it kept getting pushed back, so I had to do something for my boredom. I remembered a game I always wanted to try, but didnt because of some negative review some guy had gave it from Open Beta, but something told me to just try it anyway, so I did. I will never, ever, ever read old reviews about a game again! OMG, this game is awesome, I feel so stupid I never tried it and feel sorry for the people who wont because of a few negative comments from the negative mmo community. I am not going to tell you to play, just say, "I feel sorry for you". This is a great game, the controls are just like a pay 2 play, it uses w,a,s,d, plus you can jump and the skills look great, also when you kill a mob it gets blood all over you and it has some sort of ragdoll. I love this game!!!!

P.S. If your from North America, I know for sure this game is lag free, I dont lag at all!

Beware the grind at level 40~45, and 63+.  Those are the only drowners of this game in my opinion.  I think in the state its in right now, it is enjoyable but incomplete.  I cannot honestly recommend playing it for another 6-12 months or you may end up burning yourself out.  This game unlike other games in general has a major update every 2 months and they are a week behind main version.  The rate the localizations(US/Russia) are translated and implemented is simply amazing.  The only company that beats this localization rate is Blizzard.

 Try Atlantica online tbh, the game is quite good, and if your into your Final Fantasy type games its amazing.

Also its F2P.

gave up on darkfall already? 

Played it for a few months and Requiem: Bloodymare is a very good F2P game, maybe one of the best as far as f2p games go.

If your having fun, then that's enough because that is what matters.

I actually thought Runes of Magic was superrior to Requiem in almost every way except for style which is a personal taste. I play Pay 2 play mmorpgs because I know that the majority of the end game people in F2P games actually pay money in the item malls. So I see no point in playing a lesser quality mediocre product so called "Free" That ill end up paying to compete in the end, versus a solid good product that is pay from the start. With that being said, Runes of magic really did impress me. For the most part the cash shop seems to be very balanced. Sure there is obviously going to be some unhappy people with some of the choices that RoM team is making, a lot of people are not happy about the AH system where you can buy items with dimonds in game. Still, I managed to get to level 40 in that game without ever finding myself even considering the cash shop. That sais something right there. When the cap is level 50 soon to be 60, and you can reach level 40 and not notice the cash shop or even be curious about it because there is so much to do and doing it is so fun in a game thats how a Free 2 play game should be. No end game super grind like Requiem does it where you almost need to use the cash shop to survive it after 63, No item mall only NPC's or PvP advantages like Sword of the new world does it, Runes of Magic I think finally got it right. Could it be becasue they are not a Korean company? Maybe. I don't play F2P games much maybe just when my main mmo is in downtime. But if i did I would probably play RoM because of the company is not trying to force you to use the item mall at some point in your progression most of the item mall stuff is in game already. Still, once a F2P game reaches the quality and production values of FFXI or LoTRO when you can run into cinematics as you randomly adventure the world  then ill consider playing them as my main games, Show me a F2P game that has quality story tellling like this

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdR52RjaxVo&feature=related

Once we got F2P games of this quality and value that are good enough for your to get lost in its wonderful adventure aspect or story telling then ill reach for the F2P games.

Originally posted by Calintz333

I actually thought Runes of Magic was superrior to Requiem in almost every way except for style which is a personal taste. I play Pay 2 play mmorpgs because I know that the majority of the end game people in F2P games actually pay money in the item malls. So I see no point in playing a lesser quality mediocre product so called "Free" That ill end up paying to compete in the end, versus a solid good product that is pay from the start. With that being said, Runes of magic really did impress me. For the most part the cash shop seems to be very balanced. Sure there is obviously going to be some unhappy people with some of the choices that RoM team is making, a lot of people are not happy about the AH system where you can buy items with dimonds in game. Still, I managed to get to level 40 in that game without ever finding myself even considering the cash shop. That sais something right there. When the cap is level 50 soon to be 60, and you can reach level 40 and not notice the cash shop or even be curious about it because there is so much to do and doing it is so fun in a game thats how a Free 2 play game should be. No end game super grind like Requiem does it where you almost need to use the cash shop to survive it after 63, No item mall only NPC's or PvP advantages like Sword of the new world does it, Runes of Magic I think finally got it right. Could it be becasue they are not a Korean company? Maybe. I don't play F2P games much maybe just when my main mmo is in downtime. But if i did I would probably play RoM because of the company is not trying to force you to use the item mall at some point in your progression most of the item mall stuff is in game already. Still, once a F2P game reaches the quality and production values of FFXI or LoTRO when you can run into cinematics as you randomly adventure the world  then ill consider playing them as my main games, Show me a F2P game that has quality story tellling like this

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zdR52RjaxVo&feature=related

 

Once we got F2P games of this quality and value that are good enough for your to get lost in its wonderful adventure aspect or story telling then ill reach for the F2P games.

 

 

The visuals in ROM are pretty weak and considering the lag and serious memory leaks, that doesn't say much. Also, the game may not be Korean but the developer (Runewaker) is still Asian based. All they did was take Perfect World and Warcraft and make everything more tedious in order to offer something to do besides grinding. When playing ROM I found myself gathering more than questing. I couldn't tell if I was playing ROM or Harvest Moon. The combat is also boring. You can't move while launching attacks. Everything is me hit you hit Warcraft boredom. Zzzzzzz. Quality story telling? There's a story? At level 42 all I seen were individual quests that had little relation to each other.

In all, ROM finds ways to make you use real money. By restricting your storage space to ridiculous levels and with the gathering you need to do, it makes it no more of a rinse and repeat cycle than what you experience in other MMO's. In my opinion, Requiem has more potential to expand than RoM. The only things the game is missing are more quests and a more comprehensive crafting system.