I have been playing mmo's since I was 12 yrs old, I am now 22. The first game I had played of the genre was Asheron's Call and I was instantly hooked. Now since then I have played countless P2P and F2P games, wow, lotro, ao, eq2, rakion, swords of the new world, aoc, eve, silkroad, maple story, guild wars, just to name a few. Last week I was turned onto Runes of Magic and am really pleased considering the fact that it is free.

I had played WoW for 2 yrs on and off, it was kind of a love/hate relationship. I would enjoy myself for brief periods of time and then be like "screw this, i'm paying money to grind endlessly for gear and lvl". Runes of Magic is VERY MUCH like WoW in the sense that the quests aren't really all that involving, it's generally "kill 10 of this, deliver this package to this guy, now kill 20 of these". The gathering is also very similar and even the graphics are pretty much the same quality, not saying that WoW's are anything special, but I've never seen such good graphics in a free mmo.

The community is very friendly and generally seems pretty mature. I haven't really seen much gold spamming, a few private messages here and there. PVP seems pretty underdeveloped but they have pvp servers, which I currently play on. Coming from loving Asheron's Call's pvp, this game offers a huge similarity that you don't see often enough, PLAYER LOOTING! And it's not that you can loot anyone, people develop reputation which determines advantages/disadvantages to the rep, one of which being player looting.

I'm not saying this is by any means a groundbreaking game, but it's free and entertaining. The only catch is that there IS a cash shop, but most items or similar items can be purchased with tokens that you acquire in the game, so there isn't some superpowered players that are throwing a ton of real money into the game.

Honestly, I have NEVER enjoyed games with cash shops but I think I'm going to use this cash shop simply because I am so pleased that this game is available for free. I want this company to do well. And I am not spamming ads for this game(figured i'd throw that out before the posts come in).

-Avedias

/bump to promote!

if this post makes you try this game, let me know what you think of it!

Yah I might try it then. I'm downloading EQ2 right now, but I've been thinking about trying RoM.

Im patching at the moment i cant wait to try it out!

Graphics as good as WOW...? Seriously, that impresses you? Go check out CABAL Online if you want a free MMO with amazing graphics. Gameplay is really innovative too. You can set your character to automatically use skills, which makes grinding slightly less of a drag, as you will kill stuff much quicker. There's only 6 classes in game, but they're pretty amazing. The typical "Archer" type character is something called a Force Archer, who uses a magic bow (called an Astral Bow) and shoots magical skill arrows. Just check it out, is all I'm saying, not advertising or anything. Definitely like it more than RoM.

Yeah, I have to agree. I've been playing RoM for a little over a week now and I have to say that I'm most impressed. The game is not just a WoW clone though as people like to claim. It looks somewhat similar and the Quest system is about the same but the similarity ends there. I love the dual class system! It's the first one I've seen in any MMO, P2P or F2P that I like and actually makes sense. Also the fact that you can flip/flop your classes at will is almost like having 2 characters in 1. Most cool!. I'm really having a good time with this one and would recommend that anyone who hasn't tried it yet to check it out. It wont be for everyone but it's well worth your time to try it out for yourself. Most of you won't be disappointed.

Bren

I love your description OP.

I'm Downloading it as I type.  I'll be back to tell you what I think .

Yes RoM is a good game and  im never bored  i can craft and grind at my own pace which i love to do alot solo

I have been playing RoM for about a month now and I too really found it fun to play. FVery similar to WoW and a few other games all mixed together with the best bits of each of them. Too anyone looking for a F2P MMO this is one to realyl check out. Personally I like the dual class system. I currently have a priest/mage and a Warrior/Rogue and both I am finding alot of fun.

So looking for something fun and abit different then I would give RoM a go.

http://www.runesofmagic.com/en/index.html

Cheers

Tan

Originally posted by OrionSX

Graphics as good as WOW...? Seriously, that impresses you? Go check out CABAL Online if you want a free MMO with amazing graphics. Gameplay is really innovative too. You can set your character to automatically use skills, which makes grinding slightly less of a drag, as you will kill stuff much quicker. There's only 6 classes in game, but they're pretty amazing. The typical "Archer" type character is something called a Force Archer, who uses a magic bow (called an Astral Bow) and shoots magical skill arrows. Just check it out, is all I'm saying, not advertising or anything. Definitely like it more than RoM.

  I think I have tried Cabal Online, but I'm not positive. If it's the game I'm thinking of, i didn't like how choppy the controls felt. Maybe I'm thinking of something else though, I'll take a look. As far as graphics go, I was just very impressed given this is a free game and I've been told that the benchmarks that RoM uses are higher than the benchmarks in WoW which I guess means they are actually a little better than WoWs? I'm just kind of being a parrot though, haha.

I played Runes of Magic for about a month.  It's very fun until you start getting high enough to do the instances.  The elite monsters are insanely imbalanced (either respawn extremely fast or 1-2 hit kill a tank)  I haven't played in awhile so maybe this has been changed.  This game reminds me of a cross between WoW and FFXI.

/agree

RoM is a great game with a great community.

The more you play it, the less like WoW it becomes.

That's a great thing imo.

I love your sig. The day SOE goes away from the PC  mmo world I will crack open a six pack with my buds.

Originally posted by Gravarg

I played Runes of Magic for about a month.  It's very fun until you start getting high enough to do the instances.  The elite monsters are insanely imbalanced (either respawn extremely fast or 1-2 hit kill a tank)  I haven't played in awhile so maybe this has been changed.  This game reminds me of a cross between WoW and FFXI.

Your statement is a little misleading as you are doing boss instances in RoM from like level 6. If you try to solo or even duo them at the level of the quest your gonna be toast but with a 4-6 person party they are usually quite fun. For the bosses that require more you can put together up to a 36 player Raid party if needed. The good thing about RoM at this point is there is never a shortage of players that need the same bosses you do so finding a group is usually quite easy. This may change however as the game matures but only time will tell at this point.

Actually I was thinking more of a cross between WoW, FFXI and GW... With a little EQ and Lineage thrown in for good measure. It basically takes all of the good qualities of all of these games and throws out the garbage features which is a good thing... A very good thing indeed! I can see myself playing RoM for a very long time to come at this point. The only real grind I've found in the game up to this point is the crafting system but hopefully they will tweak it a little more before the game goes into "retail". Crafting is very slow and monotonous but it's an optional feature so you can skip it if you don't want to bother with it. So far it's the only negative side of this game which in my mind is a huge plus.

Bren

Whats the endgame in RoM is it just raiding like most bloody MMORPG's these days?

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Originally posted by Brenelael
Yeah, I have to agree. I've been playing RoM for a little over a week now and I have to say that I'm most impressed. The game is not just a WoW clone though as people like to claim. It looks somewhat similar and the Quest system is about the same but the similarity ends there. I love the dual class system! It's the first one I've seen in any MMO, P2P or F2P that I like and actually makes sense. Also the fact that you can flip/flop your classes at will is almost like having 2 characters in 1. Most cool!. I'm really having a good time with this one and would recommend that anyone who hasn't tried it yet to check it out. It wont be for everyone but it's well worth your time to try it out for yourself. Most of you won't be disappointed.
 
Bren

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FFXI has the same dual class system check it out yourself played FFXI for about a year same idea that is in runes of magic. Except I don't think in runes of magic you have to go to a mog house and switch your class.

Hmmmm....

Anyone tried Perfect World? It's free as well and the graphics looks nice. No idea how the gameplay is though.

/Ely

Well I agree with the OP.

The game really looks great and it offers quite a lot of content, especially when you consider that the game is free2play. But in your post you say you don't like games that involve a cash-shop, but you do have played maplestory, in maplestory you can really buy some major advantages. For an example you can buy double experience scrolls which gives you ... double experience. And most other items you can buy in the maplestory cash-shop do offer you a great advantage (pets, tele-scrolls,...).

     I thought RoM was OK for a free game but I just couldnt play it for very long......There was just something about leveling that second class I didnt like......ALso I didnt like a couple of hte cities in that they were overly huge for no apparent reason and it was taking too much time to go from one spot to another within the city (even with the teleporters).......I did like some of the smaller villages though......Overall the game just felt like a "been there done that" experience and that nothing really felt new about it.......

it's really just a cheap copy of WoW. I Kid you not the only difference is dual class which is really annoying and time consuming

Oh yes I know all the tricks on this forum...

Purposely leave "Runes of Magic" out of the thread title to get more play in the General forum, hoping it will stay here longer.

I am sorry but when I hit a piece of ore with a pickaxe or chop wood I expect to hear a sound, not silence.

This kills the immersion for me.

Originally posted by phatpetey

Well I agree with the OP.

The game really looks great and it offers quite a lot of content, especially when you consider that the game is free2play. But in your post you say you don't like games that involve a cash-shop, but you do have played maplestory, in maplestory you can really buy some major advantages. For an example you can buy double experience scrolls which gives you ... double experience. And most other items you can buy in the maplestory cash-shop do offer you a great advantage (pets, tele-scrolls,...).

I listed that under games i've played. i have not enjoyed every game i've tried. i thought ffxi sucked, maple story sucks, rakion is barely ok, guild wars gets boring fast and the list goes on. the only game that really leaves a positive imprint in my mind is asherons call, haha.

Originally posted by donjn

I am sorry but when I hit a piece of ore with a pickaxe or chop wood I expect to hear a sound, not silence.

This kills the immersion for me.

completely understandable. maybe that'll be fixed when it's officially released.

someone find me a bot so i dont have level another crap grindfest and i'm down lol, no not really o_O