Is there any free to play games out there that don't restrict that hell out of you that are actually good? DDO was fun but after getting to the point where you have to pay to continue it was kind of rediculous, and EQ2 isn't bad by any means but it feels like it gives you the bottom of the barrel if you're a f2p user. I just want something that's fun, similar to something like EQ or as polished as something like WoW.

So... from that I would guess that you are more specifically looking for a game that was p2p and went p2p? Lineage 2 claims to be truly free, from what I've heard the grind is a lot less intense and the only things that are in the cash shops are exp enhancers and the like. My guess is that AIon will be done in a similar method, so I would check those two out.

Hm.... a game like Grand Chase or Elsword may also work for you, if you are looking for something on the actiony side of things, you can get every job/character without needing to pay a dime.

Other than that... I'm having a bit of a tough time thinking of a f2p that doesn't restrict the player, either by making it difficult to upgrade armors/weapons via cash, or by making it difficult to gain money in the earlier levels without spending a slight amount.... If I think of anymore I will let you know.

I wish you luck in your endeavors.

If you cannot and will not ever spend a dime, League of Legends gives the most generous stuff for free that I'm aware of.  Champions Online will let you do nearly all of the content for free, though it will stick you with a gimpy freeform build if you don't subscribe.  (Then again, if you don't get to try freeform builds, you might not realize that the archetypes are gimpy.)  Uncharted Waters Online was originally a subscription game (in Japan), and the business model for the English version is basically to give away the whole subscription game for free, and then add an item mall on top.  You'd eventually want to pay someone a bunch of ducats (in-game currency) to use special shipbuilding permits to upgrade your ship, but that would be months down the road.

Those are all very different games from each other, of course, so whether you like the game style is perhaps more important than the details of the business model.  But if you're looking for a "free to play" game that won't say, "Now that you've reached level 20, you must pay to continue", they all qualify.  And they're also pretty good games.  If you don't mind paying a bit of money now and then, you'll have a lot more options.

At the time it was released Aion was half-baked, too much grindy and with poor raid rewards, now that it's going F2P the game has evolved and most of those faults are solved or being in the process of solving them with the release of the 3.0 expansion, i'm going to try it again, maybe you want to give it a try too.

I can stand some restrictions but not the kind that DDO and EQ2 have where you can have fun until you hit a wall where you have to pay to enter. Something with the model of Vindictus wouldn't be bad, only reason Im not currently playing Vindictus is that I got out of the loop for the game before it whent to full release and trying to catch up with the playerbase is kinda a chore.

I liked Lineage 2, gave it a shot when it went f2p but felt lost when I got out in to the real world. It was massive.. but empty.

And I was in the Aion beta, played well in to the second expansion but had to stop playing. Im looking forward to the release of it's f2p model for the rest of the world in spring.

Everquest becomes (sorta) F2P on March 16... there will be three sub types, free, silver($5/mo), and premium ($15/mo). Hope to see you there, brother!

I would agree with the poster about League of Legends. Great conetent, constantly updated, and pretty fun. Although I have been wanting to try Aion, and AoC since they both went F2P, but I just don't have enough energy to put into 2 new games with the ones I have already :(

Also I believe Vanguard will be going f2p soon?  Keep an eye out for that.

I'm playing Aion now, thanks for all of the suggestions I've been looking forward to both Vanguard and Everquest to go f2p because EQ2 just runs so awkwardly and feels kinda haunted. You hear people chatting constantly in the channels but never see anyone half the time.

If you have time go check out Aion you don't have to wait for it to go f2p cause they've introduced a new unlimited free trial and reactivated all old accounts so everyone can come back for the rally event before it goes f2p.

My initial reaction is there are no good FTP games, but then I remembered that's like, a thing now.

All the same, FTP makes decent games worse, because they have to pad out the content and make the game agonizing so you'll buy shortcuts.

Give Lord of the Rings Online a try. You can get to the first expansion in the free to play. You also earn store points just by completing some game content.

I wasnt in the beta for this game, but it comes out this month on the 12th. has alot of classes and races that are all free www.rodeonline.com not sure of the item mall set up.

Originally posted by dauntSilver

Everquest becomes (sorta) F2P on March 16... there will be three sub types, free, silver($5/mo), and premium ($15/mo). Hope to see you there, brother!

 Silver will require only 1 payment of $5.00, not a monthly fee.  Gold will be the only model that has a monhtly fee

Fallen earth

Originally posted by Flaming_MMO

Originally posted by dauntSilver

Everquest becomes (sorta) F2P on March 16... there will be three sub types, free, silver($5/mo), and premium ($15/mo). Hope to see you there, brother!

 Silver will require only 1 payment of $5.00, not a monthly fee.  Gold will be the only model that has a monhtly fee

lol thanks for clearing that up.. I kinda glanced at the news. Hope to see you in EQ, brother. :]

How about buy Guild Wars 1 once and play for free forever?

Allods online, champions online, Bounty hounds, Aion. there quite a few more but i think those are my fav.

For me there is no F2P or P2P game worth playing and hasn't been for years.I'm hoping that GW2 will be good enough to keep me going until Archeage comes out and is good but I wouldn't bet more than £1.76 on this hope coming off :(

Originally posted by Theonenoni

How about buy Guild Wars 1 once and play for free forever?

This. You can get one for £10 or less and if you get Factions you can be quite surprised at the end game content the problem is ArenaNet didn't make it very obvious.