MMORPG.com's Adam Tingle sets his sights on yet another instalment of MMORPG.com's Survivor Guy. His assignment this time: To explore the world of F2P MMOs, spending time with them and assessing their early playability. Today, Adam looks at Tales of Pirates and Dragonica Online.

It is a familiar situation I am sure. After days, weeks, months, even years, interest in a MMORPG will wane. Why the sudden change of heart? Maybe it just isn’t as interesting as it once was, maybe the mutual attraction has disappeared, and perhaps you both are indeed different people now? Whatever case it may be, after a period of time and at the end of a gaming relationship you will find yourself solemnly staring into this websites very own “Game List” looking for that next muse, love and great pair of gaming mechanics.

Read Adam's Free To Play Guide.

MMORPG.COM needs more articles like this! This is very relevant to my interests as I have the same problem as you.

As sad as it is, my first MMO was runescape back before they changed it to stop all the real-world-trading stuff which got rid of the wilderness etc, and I was completely addicted. Nothing was more fun than pking in the wild on my pures. Since that game got ruined i've attempted to move on and unfortunately have not found a game that's made me feel the same way and I stopped playing runescape 4 or 5 years ago :(

I will definately be following up on next weeks column, good luck with your F2P finding adventures!

What ever happened to the top 5?  Those were my favorite articles.

Ugh, bad games to write an article about.  There are so many better F2P games you could've chosen from!

First at all there is not the need to show off the brightest examples of F2P-MMOs but to end the myth that an MMO can be played by all its players for no money at all as a free lunch.

What do people think?

There is a big spender in the background that pays anything in a miracle?

Instead offer more insight into the methods of gathering money, the self responsibility of the players and how it works that many players have benefits that some pay for their game and in the end what is the best or the most fair method to get an F2P game making money so it stays online!

The purpose of a game is to have fun and be entertained. You speak of F2P holding communist-like mentality, but I know for a fact you wouldn't be claiming such crap if you actually handled the household and the bills yourself.

A person who owns a house has to pay many bills. Focusing alone on just our entertainment value, you would have me spend $1000 - $2000 on a decent to good computer, just to spend $50 - $70 a month for an Internet Connection. Then paying around $200 - $300 a year for electricity on just the use of the computer and monitor while gaming...On top of that I should pay $50 for a game, just so after paying for the license to install and run the game I am told I must subscribe and pay a fee monthly,,

Now enters a psychological battle where if I play I find my own way to convince myself to believe that I should "marry" a game and enter a relationship where if I play any other video game, be it console or PC I risk losing my place in the MMORPG of my choice from my friends already commiting 8 - 12 hours a day on an endless grinding just so after 6 months they can max out their characters and say "We are ready to play the game" and find the content for max characters is dependent on group combat and any timesink to syphon more money from you.

Sorry, but that hurts the gaming industry by turning away people into these "marriages" and causing people to not look, consider or think about playing other games. It hurts the gamer by considering to fall into the same real world trap too. One does not choose the world they live in the real world. Once you make the choice to stay in one game, you deal with the same real world elements...Take it or leave it, boring or great, you fall into being into it all....

Its like getting a Lesser-Real World in an Online Game and letting everything else slide by. Its amazing also how different an MMORPG is when played in Private Servers. I remember playing Lineage 2 for years and dealing with that grinding fest.....then afterwards I found a free private server and in three months I had better weapons and equipment, more friends and I explored a lot more and had better PvP experiences than in all the time I had played in Official Servers.

Also, I remember running an 8000 player registered server with 2000 people who would play simultaneously. The way we maintained the server was a donation system that required around $300 a month and I got around $600 - $700 each month on average. Think its fair for me to collect 120,000/monthly as a collection from all subscribed? An MMORPG when dealing with POWER, Server upgrades and connection costs can be maintained at .0033% - .005% of the total profits out there....

Think its also fair to slow down everything and cause everyone to burn their years away? In one year I went through six private MMORPG servers and saw more and did more than players who normally pay subscription fees in their games for years.

I've been trying out Battle of the Immortals and its been ok so far. Pretty standard game that I would expect for free.

Good Free To Play Games:

Aika (crazy huge pvp battles for the win!)

Allods (old school mmo goodness with lots of polish and a unique end game)

Runes of Magic (a damn good wow clone with dual classes)

Dragonica Online (my kids love this game, GREAT fun)

Atlantica Online (turn based combat goodness)

Battle of Immortals (blast to play for the first 60 levels, after that repetiveness sinks in but still a good one to try)

Mabinogi (insanely deep game wrapped up in a way to cute anime package)

DDO (great dungeon crawling experience)

I have issues with most of the above games for various reasons and many of those cash shop related. I still dump most of my money to Eve but the above games all stand out above the rest and can provide hours of fun. Lots of free to play games break away from your typical mmo grind. The battle system in Atlantica is one example or the sandbox style of play in Mabinogi.

Originally posted by Shinami

The purpose of a game is to have fun and be entertained. You speak of F2P holding communist-like mentality, but I know for a fact you wouldn't be claiming such crap if you actually handled the household and the bills yourself.

 

A person who owns a house has to pay many bills. Focusing alone on just our entertainment value, you would have me spend $1000 - $2000 on a decent to good computer, just to spend $50 - $70 a month for an Internet Connection. Then paying around $200 - $300 a year for electricity on just the use of the computer and monitor while gaming...On top of that I should pay $50 for a game, just so after paying for the license to install and run the game I am told I must subscribe and pay a fee monthly,,

 

Now enters a psychological battle where if I play I find my own way to convince myself to believe that I should "marry" a game and enter a relationship where if I play any other video game, be it console or PC I risk losing my place in the MMORPG of my choice from my friends already commiting 8 - 12 hours a day on an endless grinding just so after 6 months they can max out their characters and say "We are ready to play the game" and find the content for max characters is dependent on group combat and any timesink to syphon more money from you.

 

Sorry, but that hurts the gaming industry by turning away people into these "marriages" and causing people to not look, consider or think about playing other games. It hurts the gamer by considering to fall into the same real world trap too. One does not choose the world they live in the real world. Once you make the choice to stay in one game, you deal with the same real world elements...Take it or leave it, boring or great, you fall into being into it all....

 

Its like getting a Lesser-Real World in an Online Game and letting everything else slide by. Its amazing also how different an MMORPG is when played in Private Servers. I remember playing Lineage 2 for years and dealing with that grinding fest.....then afterwards I found a free private server and in three months I had better weapons and equipment, more friends and I explored a lot more and had better PvP experiences than in all the time I had played in Official Servers.

 

Also, I remember running an 8000 player registered server with 2000 people who would play simultaneously. The way we maintained the server was a donation system that required around $300 a month and I got around $600 - $700 each month on average. Think its fair for me to collect 120,000/monthly as a collection from all subscribed? An MMORPG when dealing with POWER, Server upgrades and connection costs can be maintained at .0033% - .005% of the total profits out there....

 

Think its also fair to slow down everything and cause everyone to burn their years away? In one year I went through six private MMORPG servers and saw more and did more than players who normally pay subscription fees in their games for years.

 

Wow, not only are you stubborn and biased, you're completely delusional.  If you actually had a real career (not an hourly job), you would find that paying for a good P2P mmo is very cheap.  Do you seriously think $15 a month is expensive?....  So would you rather play normal games and buy a $50 game every month or two??  It sucks you deal with these 'psychological' battles just because you don't understand a quality P2P mmo; clearly you have bigger issues beneath the waters...  

Your entire 'marriage to a game' thesis clearly demonstrates your confusion over true mmos.  You say this is a bad thing yet you played Runescape for a few years?......lmao.   An mmo is designed to be a game that takes a limitless amount of your time.  When you buy an mmo, and pay for it monthly, you are supposed to come to terms with the fact that the game is supposed to be unbeatable.  There isn't supposed to be an end to an mmo.  That's one of the main reasons people play the game, aside from it being massively multiplayer.  

 Your entire post isn't filled with viable problems of current day mmos, but instead filled with your problems with p2p mmos.  Lol, you think you experienced a lot with a bunch of different mmos on private servers? Rofl.  Don't try and make comparisons until you have either knowledge, or experience from both sides.  It's quite obvious you haven't experienced end-game content with a good p2p mmo, and that's your loss kiddo....  

I play a lot of F2P, since I can't afford a sub. I get most of my enjoyment from beta testing them though, having been a QA Tester professionally in the past. By the time they go live I'm pretty much over them but I see a few games that rank well with me.

I have to admit, I'm gaining some interest in Browser Gaming which is a new facet of both the F2P and P2P markets. If you want to see what browsers are capable of, try EA's PGA Tour. I've been playing versions of that game since before some of you kids were born and to see such quality in a browser game is staggering, well it is te me anyway.

Another worth a peek at is Iron Realms "Earth Eternal".  Iron Realms makes MUD's usually and does them very well. If you don't know what a MUD is, it is the RPG part of MMO's that is missing in the gaming world. Anyway, Earth Eternal tries to bring some of the MUD style flexibility via a F2P MMO running in a browser and done it well.

So, if your a hard core end gamer who only cares about being uber and is willing to pay for it, more power to you. Me, I'll go with the flow and follow the wave of the future and enjoy my testing fetish along with my games that have some content rather than a rush to a non-existing end game of endless repetition.

Adam, your article is fine, just be sure to look at how expansive F2P really is and the unexpected places you might find a real gem.

I've decided I'm all for F2P games, because they will get the kind of player out of the games that I like to play and in to their own games. I think we'll both be happier in the end.

I find it screamingly funny though that the "F2P" model says it's free, and this author talks about "sticking it to the man 'cause you don't even need a bank account", when in fact the person with the most real money will be the best equipped in the F2P game. These games are not free to play and are the most susceptible to buying your way to status.

I would be interested to know how much the average person actually spends per month in a "free to play" game, buying potions and gear and whatever else they want. It wouldn't surprise me that the $14.95 U.S. monthly fee that many MMOGs charge is actually less.

;)

This article was both informing and enjoyable to read.... i agree that more articles like this need to be created

First half was boring to read sry, I just scrolled down till you actually start playing the games. Stay sceptical, you need to be if you want to find the few good F2P games out there jn the mess.

It's "separating the wheat from the chaff" not the "weak" - the weak ARE the chaff  [in PVP, anyway! ] :)

I also wonder why you chose to look at those f2p games.  Is it that DDO [and soon LOTRO] have been written about so much already?

Good reading and useful article! Keep the search going.

Not convinced by any of the games selected and still the search for a good F2P game goes on, cannot find any...

However, if you have an iPhone, the best FREE (in-app purchases post lvl13) is Pocket Legends 3D MMO by Spacetime Studios. Highly recommended, I put my reputation on it ; )

I think this is going to be a good series.  It's timely and needed in this era of so many F2P and hybrid F2P games making their appearance on the market and I'm looking forward to the rest of the series.  With that said though, I'm going to hijack this thread for a moment with a critique of the OP's writing...

Adam, I enjoy your survivor-type series and your style of writing, but c'mon buddy, proofread your stuff before you publish it!  There are so many spelling errors, grammatical errors, and typos in this article that I had a hard time following some sections.  Mistakes like using there instead of their or they're may be commonplace and overlooked in forum comments but a feature article writer is expected to know the difference.  Mistakes like an a instead of an before MMORPG, not using the possessive apostraphe in websites very own and then using it in countless hours with various MMORPG’s where it doesn't belong, omitting a and the in numerous places, sentences run together without a period, comma, or even an and, un-spoilt instead of unspoiled, and virtual weak from the virtual chaff instead of virtual wheat from the virtual chaff, all should be caught and corrected with a proofread.  I could go on with the plethora of mistakes in this article but I think I've made my point... A feature article writer should not publish his or her work without proofreading it first.  Plain and simple.

Nice article, and mostly good comments afterwards.  I like how the two games really did seem completely randomly chosen.  I might have to start up a blog on here, spend a week or few with a game and write about it until I go through all the F2P games....although I cringe at the thought of some of them.

Originally posted by Smokeysong

I've decided I'm all for F2P games, because they will get the kind of player out of the games that I like to play and in to their own games. I think we'll both be happier in the end.

I find it screamingly funny though that the "F2P" model says it's free, and this author talks about "sticking it to the man 'cause you don't even need a bank account", when in fact the person with the most real money will be the best equipped in the F2P game. These games are not free to play and are the most susceptible to buying your way to status.

I would be interested to know how much the average person actually spends per month in a "free to play" game, buying potions and gear and whatever else they want. It wouldn't surprise me that the $14.95 U.S. monthly fee that many MMOGs charge is actually less.

;)

There it is! The completely ambiguous insult hurled at f2p players. This one isn't even that good, though, because you just say, "the kind of player," whatever that means. I can't understand why the p2p loyalists resort to insulting the f2p community. I understand (sort of) why they would insult the producers of f2p games. But insulting the community is as tiring as politicians throwing around the word "racist" so they can avoid intelligent discussion.

As for your assertion that "the kind of player" will get out... sorry. I play both so I assume that I am "the kind of player" and I may be in your p2p game right now.

And, since you are interested in how much I have actually spent per month:

PWO - 2 months, $0

Atlantica Online - 2 months, $0

RoM - 1 month, $0

DDO - 8 months, $50

Total - 13 months, $50

$ per month - $3.85

I don't know about games being, "susceptible to buying your way to status." If what you meant was that players would be susceptible to paying outrageous money to buy their way to status you might be right. Then again, there are lots of people, like me, who play for very little cost. Probably even more who play for free. The above mentioned titles are solid games that offer a lot of free fun for those who don't give a rat's about status.

A note on DDO - I have no idea when I will spend any more money on this game. I'm sure that I will, but $50 has gotten me through a lot of content and I don't think I will want to spend any more for probably at least another 5 months. Since I only play once per week I know that I am really getting my money's worth. If DDO had not been f2p I probably wouldn't be playing it but I probably would be paying 2 subs instead of the 1 I currently hold, so DDO and Turbine have actually saved me a considerable amount of money.

I'm really starting to wonder if you p2p fanatics are just one of those "the kind of player."

The start of another interesting set of articles from The Survivor Guy.

It would be great to find a F2P game that has got some depth and is more than a clone (although a few P2P games are equally guilty of this). If the game is decent enough then I'm happy to support it through the item shop. Now where's that decent game?

I found Aika a bit rubbish. RoM was more fun.

Dragonica is the Maple Story clone right? MS is different and an entertaining time waster until the grind sets in.

There are also a couple of open source aka free MMOs. Would be great to see a Survivor series examining those too.