MMORPG.com reviewer Sean Bulger takes a look at Frogster's recently released free 2 play MMORPG, Runes of Magic.

Free-to-play games have a certain stigma attached to them by most people, at least in the West. They tend to have less content, fairly simplistic gameplay, and are often little more than mindless-grind fests. I've played a number of these types of games in the past, and every time I do, I question why I haven't learned my lesson yet. Runes of Magic has shown me why: because there's always the exception to the rule, and hopefully one that will be a trend-setter. It is far from being a perfect game, but many gamers out there may find that Runes of Magic has enough to it to hold their interest.

Read the Runes of Magic Review

A decent review.  Seems balanced enough.

One little note to the editors who review this stuff prior to publication - "exceptions" is not a synonym of "expectations."

("When it comes to quests in free to play games, my exceptions are pretty low.")

Hmm, If you do go to this website and play this game a few things you should know. Either you better like dumb quests or like to grind out levels. Good luck trying to get a party together for any early quests as most players have moved on and there are not enough new people coming into the game. Also do not buy anything from this company!

How do I know these things? I just left there last week after getting 2 characters to lvl 25+ and one to lvl 18.

One of the main issues is there are not enough new people coming into the game and most players have moved onto 35+ lvl so when facing any boss( a certain death solo) you will not be able to complete the quest.In fact, all of the bosses are beat by forming a party. Before leaving I spent 3 says trying to get a party together for Forsaken abby runs(think time sink).Nobody was around to get it done. You have to make 30 abby runs to get the elite skills for lvl 25 or spend alot of in-game gold(which you do not really have due to repairs on equipment) for the crystals needed to get the elite skills and you have to do it for each class(remember that cool dual class system).

When you hit lvl 20, you get to a new area called Aslan and the quests seem to slow down here and by lvl 25 they become almost none existant. Kinda hard to lvl 2 classes without quests and hence the grindage begins. By lvl 25 I was forced into deleting characters because I could not find people to do quests with or even enough of them to lvl one character. By lvl 28(think 6 lvls of grinding) I was forced to conclude they did not want people to stay.

Grinding and lack of quests aside, there was also another factor that made me leave and that was Frogster. They lied about their features and would not issue a refund or even a credit. Instead they ran off to change their webpage to make it appear as though they did not mislead people into a belief a certain feature would be there. That feature was supposed to be a shared treasure chest that all your characters could use. Items could be placed into the treasure chest and then used by each of your characters.The treasure chest was located within the house every character you create shares.

So knowing this feature was supposed to be implimented into the game, I purchased a permanent mount($22.00) and was going to place it into the chest for all my characters to use.This feature never came to be and growing frustrated with this fact, I sent feedback to them about it.They replied that they never intended to implement this feature and even went so far as to admit they made a mistake and then ran off to change the page to avoid any possible legal problems. I asked for a refund or at least a credit for the mount, to which they replied they would do NEITHER of those.

Once Frogster has your money, they no longer care about you.

So there you have it, my entire gaming experience with Runes of magic,still think this game ranks as a 7.7 good? Not even close in my book.

Btw, I have a pdf copy of the webpage I spoke of,  from before they changed it should anyone think I am making this up. If I could just figure out how to post it....

Axe

Sorry to hear that Axe. I was about to put 50$ into the game 2 months ago, when it hit me just the morning i was going to pay; this game doesn't deserve it.

They're currently milking the game pretty bad, 50%-off dias, Ruby crap-shop, a patch every 4 weeks, ... etc. I think they're getting what they can, and bailing. Who knows!

I suspect that was what they had in mind from the beginning(grab cash and run). Seeing as I asked for a credit and they were not even willing to do that. That speaks volumes of what they had in mind. What harn comes from a credit? You still have my cash!

Glad to hear you did not give them any of your money.They certainly don't deserve it and they would never have gotten mine had I known they were outright liars. Guess I learned a valueable lesson though.:(

Axe

Originally posted by Martie

Only need to go to the ROM forums to see what the playerbase think of the game at present and its lacklustre content.    The only players that find the game even remotley fine are the small playerbase flooding the game with diamonds that cost millions of gold.  The game is driven by diamons trade bought formt eh cash shop.  Read the general disscusioon th theri actual forums to see the amount of players that are dismayed at the game.

I started playing the 1st week it was out and nobody knew exactly how bad it was then.:( That is why I posted here.To make sure people were fully informed of this game and its business practices.

Cannot believe it was given a review from here of 7.7! Unbelievable!

Axe

I think that the reviewer's usage of the word "subscribers" tends to be rather disingenuous as the word -- at least within the MMO community -- often connotes a paid subscription. A more accurate term would have been "registered accounts," which is precisely what Frogster was describing when they announced those numbers in this article, which is even titled "One Million Registered Users!"

Aside from that, I basically agree with the reviewer's perception of RoM; it's decent for a subscription-free game, although it  contains very few innovations and continues to spoon-feed us more of the banal mediocrity that we, as MMO-players, have become accustomed to in recent years.

Originally posted by Cypt1

I think that the reviewer's usage of the word "subscribers" tends to be rather disingenuous as the word -- at least within the MMO community -- often connotes a paid subscription. A more accurate term would have been "registered accounts," which is precisely what Frogster was describing when they announced those numbers in this article, which is even titled "One Million Registered Users!"

Whoops, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't intend on being disingenuous with that statment. Rather, I'm just so use to talking about account statistics at "subscribers"  that I didn't even notice that I used the word in that context. That is very correct, though: they do not have a million people giving them money on a monthly basis, but rather just have a million people who've signed up at some point or another. Quite a different scenario.

Axe i dont't know what have you done, but i have a 50/50 and i did little grind, there were plenty of quests, if you did all aslan you should have gone to sascillia stepes or dragonfang to lvl your second class. In fact after i was 50/50 they added some more quests to ystra and ravenfell, so now it should be even easier.

As for the review, the person that did it could not understand the basic concept of this game, you can get any equip, but an equip here it's not like a wow equip, here you have to put stats on it or it's worthless, and guesss how you put stats and upgrade the equipments -> Cash shop :(

As for the crafting, im lvl 40 armor smith, it's completely worthless. Other missing aspect here is the huge class imbalance as well as some skills completely wrong, -> a scout can lasso an enemy for ever with a macro for example :S

Overall it's a fun game to lvl, there are about 8-10 quests completely fun to do, the others not xD, when you reach max lvl then it starts the boredom. Instances are not that bad, but after some runs, its always the same thing.

Originally posted by Arrakiv

Originally posted by Cypt1

I think that the reviewer's usage of the word "subscribers" tends to be rather disingenuous as the word -- at least within the MMO community -- often connotes a paid subscription. A more accurate term would have been "registered accounts," which is precisely what Frogster was describing when they announced those numbers in this article, which is even titled "One Million Registered Users!"

 

Whoops, thanks for pointing that out. I didn't intend on being disingenuous with that statment. Rather, I'm just so use to talking about account statistics at "subscribers"  that I didn't even notice that I used the word in that context. That is very correct, though: they do not have a million people giving them money on a monthly basis, but rather just have a million people who've signed up at some point or another. Quite a different scenario.

Review updated to say registered users =)

Originally posted by Darthreborn

Axe i dont't know what have you done, but i have a 50/50 and i did little grind, there were plenty of quests, if you did all aslan you should have gone to sascillia stepes or dragonfang to lvl your second class. In fact after i was 50/50 they added some more quests to ystra and ravenfell, so now it should be even easier.

 

As for the review, the person that did it could not understand the basic concept of this game, you can get any equip, but an equip here it's not like a wow equip, here you have to put stats on it or it's worthless, and guesss how you put stats and upgrade the equipments -> Cash shop :(

 

As for the crafting, im lvl 40 armor smith, it's completely worthless. Other missing aspect here is the huge class imbalance as well as some skills completely wrong, -> a scout can lasso an enemy for ever with a macro for example :S

Overall it's a fun game to lvl, there are about 8-10 quests completely fun to do, the others not xD, when you reach max lvl then it starts the boredom. Instances are not that bad, but after some runs, its always the same thing.

 Then you obviously either got in before the membership started trickling down to nothing or you joined a guild and became a "guildie" to get your quests done for you..err, I mean to have help in the quests. Either way you can have tons of quests but if they require a party to complete and nobody is around to join your party. then the quest might as well not exist.
 

When I quit at lvl 28 I had only 3 quests to do.2 of them were epics(requiring parties to complete and one of them was a boss,requiring a party. I was too low in lvl to do NOM and Ystra quests, most I could not even get because I was not high enough lvl. I suppose sitting around for days on end trying to get parties for Fa runs(time sink) together did not help either.

Is it my fault not enough new players were coming in to fill the parties up? I was not aware that I had the power to change that and it seems you are implying I did something wrong.

I suppose it is my fault that Frogster would not issue me a credit also.I notice you did not even broach this subject. I wonder why that is??? Perhaps it is just easier to point a finger at the poster rather than at your beloved game,fanboy.

My position and feelings stand true to the experience I recieved. Therefore, there is NOTHING you can say to change it.The truth is the truth and you can either accept what is or live in denial all you like.I am not the only person who sees this game for what it is.

Axe

Yes i'm in a guild, one of the bigger ones, though i did most of my quest with the help of other people through zone chat, i played near the open beta release date, that's why there was a lot of people i guess, i think you still are not aware that you have a teleport for sascillia another zone that starts with quests from lvl 1 + ideal for your second class development, not to mention daily quests.

As of calling me a fanboy, have you read my post, i just pointed out tons of bugs and fails, i just think through my experience quests are not a problem, there are plenty. I didn't comment the credits thing cause i've never spent a dolar in rom, though i absolutely agree that theres only one interest in frogster, and thats in making money as quickly as possible, before people leave.

Originally posted by Axewielderx

then you obviously either got in before the membership started trickling down to nothing or you joined a guild and became a "guildie" to get your quests done for you..err, I mean to have help in the quests. Either way you can have tons of quests but if they require a party to complete and nobody is around to join your party. then the quest might as well not exist.

Problem is, your results may vary. I'm playing the game right now, and on the US PVP server, we're suffering no loss of low level population.  Fun to be had in every zone right now.  As for you slams about grouping to kill bosses or joining a guild to get some help, er...yes, your point?  Why shouldn' t you have to exercise some social skills to complete the better content?  Truth is, I've killed most of my bosses in PUG groups, just takes a bit of effort and I lack social skills in a big way.

When I quit at lvl 28 I had only 3 quests to do.2 of them were epics(requiring parties to complete and one of them was a boss,requiring a party. I was too low in lvl to do NOM and Ystra quests, most I could not even get because I was not high enough lvl. I suppose sitting around for days on end trying to get parties for Fa runs(time sink) together did not help either.

See, here's where you are just talking BS.  I've got my character at level 34/33 and my log sitll has 20 quests in it.  I suspect one thing you overlooked was daily quests.  That's 10 per day that you can do that will give a ton of experience, and you have to do them.  As for FA runs, people seem to organize them all the time on my server, but I chose the easier route and paid somone 5K to run me through it.  (normal rate is more like 25k)   Got all but one quest done in just one run.  As for the materials you need from FA for you lvl 25 skills, not worth running 30 times, I just paid in gold an bought the damn things. (making gold in game is very easy, esp if you chose to gather materials and sell them)

Is it my fault not enough new players were coming in to fill the parties up? I was not aware that I had the power to change that and it seems you are implying I did something wrong.

Must have been the server you were on.  No problems where I play.  So your error was playing on the wrong server I guess.

I suppose it is my fault that Frogster would not issue me a credit also.I notice you did not even broach this subject. I wonder why that is??? Perhaps it is just easier to point a finger at the poster rather than at your beloved game,fanboy.

More exaggeration from you on this. The actual cost of a mount is 400 diamonds.  You buy 500 diamonds for 22.00 (less if you buy them on a sale weekend) so your mount cost you what, 18 bucks?  Why you ever expected to share mounts between characters is beyond me.  Yeah, so what, it was on the web site in error for a bit, no big deal. Suck it up.  I bought mounts for two characters when they were on sale for 199 diamonds each, so not a problem. (though my thunderchicken is a bit silly looking to ride)

My position and feelings stand true to the experience I recieved. Therefore, there is NOTHING you can say to change it.The truth is the truth and you can either accept what is or live in denial all you like.I am not the only person who sees this game for what it is.

The truth is obviously in the eye of the beholder and certainly isn't universal. Your experience as a bad one, mine has been pretty good so far.  It it the greatest game ever? No, but its fun for now, (the pvp is quite fun actually) and that's all I ask from in a game.

Axe

To the person that lost money over the housing thing, that really sucks and I'm sorry that happened to you.  I haven't played since beta, but I thought horses were bound to the character that bought it? I think I may be really wrong, though.

Also, the game just came out of beta and I didn't expect alot of the things to be the same. For example, there were normal mounts and a bunch of people bough permanant ones.  A short while later War Mounts (or whatever they are called) came up and most of the normal mount buyers were mad. 

My point is, I can kinda see why Frogster didn't grant your request.  I think its terrible from a customer service point of view, but from a business point of view I wouldn't granted it either.  If they gave you a refund or credit, they would have had to grant  the same request for everyone else who just missed the newest mounts or who acted on a beta feature that was changed or removed, etc. *But*, if you did it after the game offically went live, you may have a better case since the game wasn't in beta any more.  But, I don't know.

But back on topic, from what I've played I do like the game. Its a good time waster.  I was trying to get in to those diamond contests that were held during beta, but I just didn't have time to write an add-on (or learn how to, that is) and I  *just* missed the deadline for the interior design contest. I really wanted a second level to my home, too! 

I really wish the crafting system was better. Right now its boring as ever, but for some reason I still tried to level my gathering skills.

It's amazing how many of the complaints about this game also apply (to me) to LOTRO.

Of course, to help combat the grinding, they tweaked the XP tables to make it quicker. (Rather than adding more quests to the dead areas)

You still get a house, you still get mounts, you still get tons of equipment drops... You'll be comparable to someone who has spent money. You just won't likely look as stylish, is all. Plus, you won't have the bag space, but you should be able to get along fine without it, too.

Great review but going to have to disagree with you on this point. Being a level 50 in a rather huge guild on Osha, the statement in bold is simply wrong. You will not be comparable to someone who spends cash. Yes you can get equipment without cash. Yes you can upgrade this basic equipment without cash. But there is no way this equipment will compare in stats to someone who spends cash. You can't upgrade to tier8 gear without money or many months of dedicated time and gold per peice of equipment. You cannot upgrade past +4 or even get to +4 without cash. You can get to +4 but you have a better chance of winning your state lottery persay. Simply put, this game at 50, pvp and pve wise, is nothing without money. Most guilds won't even ask you to group with them in instances post 50 unless your paying cash. I know plenty of guilds that only recruit people who pay money because of the fact they balance instances towards people who pay and have incredible gear. There is nothing wrong with this, just thought you should point this out in your review.

Originally posted by Kyleran

Originally posted by Axewielderx

then you obviously either got in before the membership started trickling down to nothing or you joined a guild and became a "guildie" to get your quests done for you..err, I mean to have help in the quests. Either way you can have tons of quests but if they require a party to complete and nobody is around to join your party. then the quest might as well not exist.

Problem is, your results may vary. I'm playing the game right now, and on the US PVP server, we're suffering no loss of low level population.  Fun to be had in every zone right now.  As for you slams about grouping to kill bosses or joining a guild to get some help, er...yes, your point?  Why shouldn' t you have to exercise some social skills to complete the better content?  Truth is, I've killed most of my bosses in PUG groups, just takes a bit of effort and I lack social skills in a big way.

When I quit at lvl 28 I had only 3 quests to do.2 of them were epics(requiring parties to complete and one of them was a boss,requiring a party. I was too low in lvl to do NOM and Ystra quests, most I could not even get because I was not high enough lvl. I suppose sitting around for days on end trying to get parties for Fa runs(time sink) together did not help either.

See, here's where you are just talking BS.  I've got my character at level 34/33 and my log sitll has 20 quests in it.  I suspect one thing you overlooked was daily quests.  That's 10 per day that you can do that will give a ton of experience, and you have to do them.  As for FA runs, people seem to organize them all the time on my server, but I chose the easier route and paid somone 5K to run me through it.  (normal rate is more like 25k)   Got all but one quest done in just one run.  As for the materials you need from FA for you lvl 25 skills, not worth running 30 times, I just paid in gold an bought the damn things. (making gold in game is very easy, esp if you chose to gather materials and sell them)

Is it my fault not enough new players were coming in to fill the parties up? I was not aware that I had the power to change that and it seems you are implying I did something wrong.

Must have been the server you were on.  No problems where I play.  So your error was playing on the wrong server I guess.

I suppose it is my fault that Frogster would not issue me a credit also.I notice you did not even broach this subject. I wonder why that is??? Perhaps it is just easier to point a finger at the poster rather than at your beloved game,fanboy.

More exaggeration from you on this. The actual cost of a mount is 400 diamonds.  You buy 500 diamonds for 22.00 (less if you buy them on a sale weekend) so your mount cost you what, 18 bucks?  Why you ever expected to share mounts between characters is beyond me.  Yeah, so what, it was on the web site in error for a bit, no big deal. Suck it up.  I bought mounts for two characters when they were on sale for 199 diamonds each, so not a problem. (though my thunderchicken is a bit silly looking to ride)

My position and feelings stand true to the experience I recieved. Therefore, there is NOTHING you can say to change it.The truth is the truth and you can either accept what is or live in denial all you like.I am not the only person who sees this game for what it is.

The truth is obviously in the eye of the beholder and certainly isn't universal. Your experience as a bad one, mine has been pretty good so far.  It it the greatest game ever? No, but its fun for now, (the pvp is quite fun actually) and that's all I ask from in a game.

Axe

 

Yes, i leveled 3 characters and knew nothing about dailies(sarcasm) LOL! Did you really think this actually occurred? I mean really? OMG! You must really think the worst of everyone even someone who posts clearly and consisely you assume is stupid enough to not know the basics.
 

I did not know about the bind of purchase factor of purchased items because frankly I had never purchased anything from any online game company and obviously won't make that mistake again.

Yep, tried the steppes but if you start on the steppes at high lvl,you really get almost nothing for the quests and kills.

Not sure giving a credit for a bound item so I can apply toward another bound item effects anyone else other than me.

But,hey apprently,everyone here knows more about my experiences than me and is pretty much telling me to shut up as I do not know what happened to me. So it all musta been someone else's mightmare I was living and I will not discuss it any further.

Laterz!

Axe

Originally posted by Axewielderx

Yes, i leveled 3 characters and knew nothing about dailies(sarcasm) LOL! Did you really think this actually occurred? I mean really? OMG! You must really think the worst of everyone even someone who posts clearly and consisely you assume is stupid enough to not know the basics.
 

I did not know about the bind of purchase factor of purchased items because frankly I had never purchased anything from any online game company and obviously won't make that mistake again.

Yep, tried the steppes but if you start on the steppes at high lvl,you really get almost nothing for the quests and kills.

Not sure giving a credit for a bound item so I can apply toward another bound item effects anyone else other than me.

But,hey apprently,everyone here knows more about my experiences than me and is pretty much telling me to shut up as I do not know what happened to me. So it all musta been someone else's mightmare I was living and I will not discuss it any further.

Laterz!

Axe

 

Leveling three characters in any game you hate would be a nightmare.

I'm sorry you're too stupid to stop playing a game when you realize it's not for you, and force yourself to continue until you become bitter against the game itself, it's developers, and it's playerbase.

Unfortunately for the rest of the world, we can't do anything but sit here and watch you behave like an idiot. Carry on :/

I got my toon to lvl 45/40 using a Knight / Mage before I layed it down with the rest of the F2P mmos I had lost intrest in. The grind isn't terrible for the most part. The biggest issues I have with the game is the unbalanced classes, the complete inability to tier or add keepable stats to equipment without going to the cash shop and the horrible horrible lag.

Plus I know everyone wants varity in their equipment. But this game just went off the deep end with what armor or weapons gets what stats. ANything could drop with any stat. Heavy armor with pointless intel and wisdom stats. Cloth armor with stamina and strength stats. If it was crappy then dismantle it or sell it to an npc. But sometime you would get rare drops that had 2 rune slots and the like three pointless stats that you had to find some way to get rid of that would take hours and hours or grinding for crap drops to get gold to go to the upgrade NPC and gamble to see if got the fusion stones you needed. Which could cost you from anywhere to 50K-200K easy. Just to much grind for something you will ditch in 10-15 lvls.

But all in all I liked it for what it was and the folks in the guild I was with were top notch. Might even pick it up again some day. They just need to work on some issues first

You never mentioned pvp in this game.

You never even used the word "pvp".

Is pvp in this game?