My nephew [now 7, started when he was 4!] has been playing DDO with me for years!  His little brother has now begun to play...and I'm afraid I may lose my longterm gaming buddy to him! :)  They love solving the puzzles, jumping in the water, and just generally running amok in Eberron.  The younger boy has ADHD, but has managed to stay with us to finish some of the shorter dungeons - I'm sure playing with us is better than just watching SpongeBob.

Good article!

It's my fault.  I play all games solo even if a group is required.  I die a lot.  The only games that I have ever grouped in were AC [about a month before I quit it] and DDO [which I play duo with my 7 yr old nephew].

I had only played the trial before.  When I logged in, I had 2 "unlock" tokens to use to unlock characters.  Unfortunately, the character that I had played the most was a villian mastermind, and could NOT be unlocked without a purchase.  My hero type guy was available, though he was only a basic archetype, anyway.  My f2p nephews and I may log in, but without the ability to play my "main", I doubt it will be very often [and I don't plan on buying any thing, so I will only build resentment towards the game!  I know that you can't make a profit on "free", but I expect to be able to continue to use what I have in the past.  It may not be logical, but it is often true!]

Good article! :)  I really don't care about being seen dying [it usually happens in an instance, anyway], but the first two are spot on!  If a single-player game had a persistant world that allowed grouping during the very rare occasions that I wish to do so - that would be the perfect game.

Never pl;ayed.  Got into final beta, say how "cartoony" the characters looked, deleted and never looked back.  I don't care how the gameplay is, if I can't stand to watch my character, I 'm not playing!

I do wonder how thw limit of 8 hours crafting will work:

1. 8 hr is functionally only 6.4 [at 80%]

2. Will items that take longer than 8 hr to craft be disabled or just take multiple days to craft?  If it is the first, F2P fails because no one F2P can craft vehicles [though it will create a market for subs to sell lower level vehicles  and/or demand from the Cash Shop, though I think that has been over-estimated in G1's opinion]

There has also been stated on the G1 site that there will be changes to the harvesting system in terms of drop rates and some recipes.  How that will affect F2P crafters is also a question mark.

As a DM, I like this idea!   If I ever write a book based on my players' exploits, i guess that would be payment.

CoX should've won hands down 5-1.  The ONLY win for CO is the F2P.

Try Fallen Earth - definitely not a fantasy game!  Sub is a bit steep in the current market, but it is going f2p soon.

I can't count the number of times this week that I had to drive from Chris Pass or Coppermine/Mowbry back to Embry for the vip vault - I'd LOVE fat travel!  I'd still hit the scavenge areas and drive around [gotta park the bike & horse somewhere].  In fact, it now occurs to me that perhaps this is actually a way to sell more mount space to the soon-to-be f2p crowd - leave 1 in Embry to gather with, the others at the end of your questing areas.

Edit: I'd love FAST travel even more than FAT travel - doh!

Error on the Homepage:

Rift is listed under "Free MMOs to play now"  when it is NOT f2p. 

If it is listed for having a free download/trial, perhaps you should create a separate listing for that [with almost every game that is 6 months old or older in the list!]

Uh, you missed April Fools' Day by a week!

Well, I am willing to see what you have to say about Guilds in games.  Personally, I've only joined two in my [so far] 20 years of playing MUDs/MMOs - one whose name I forget on AC [I quit playing after 5 yrs there]  and the second is the one I created for myself & my nephew on DDO so that we can use Guild augments.  I generally don't like guilds as I am a casual player, though I've heard good things about the Old Timer's Guild in a few games [DDO, LOTRO, Ryzom to name the 3 that I have seen them in].

Perhaps Mr Wood would consider allowing different guilds to write for MMORPG.com on a rotating basis?  Each could give their views on their community vs the total community in a variety of games...

Perhaps the author should've polled the community first before doing this article?

Originally posted by olepi

I love crafting in MMO's. My favorites are:

Ryzom -- by far the bvest. You can be killed just by harvesting, and there are no recipes.

Vanguard -- good mini-game and skill progression

PoTBS -- not impressed. No skill involved, no exploration and gathering.

Perpetuum -- like Eve, it is good.

 

Having only played Fallen Earth from the list you gave, you really blwe this one!  I agree with the poster above:  Ryzom has the best crafting I have seen yet!  While it is very difficult to be able to harvest mats that are good enough to craft items that are appropriate to your fighting skills, as primarily a harvester and crafter second [fighting skills were 100 points lower!] I could get enough materials to trade/sell for mats of the quality and level that I wanted.  Horizons crafting was ok, but having crafting classes instead of fully open skills like Ryzom, puts it at number 2 at best, more likely number 3 behind Fallen Earth.

You can convert characters to the f2p mode.

The way it is set up is that "Gold members" [or whatever subscribers are called] can make characters just like now - nothing changes.  F2p players can only make certain types of characters [Archetypes] which are all the same and get the same skills on level up.  There are a few minor choices allowed [choice among 3-4 travel poweres for example] and, of coarse, more options that you can buy ala carte.

Already extant characters can be converted to archetype characters, but I don't think that they can be converted back even with a subscription.

Having only played a month as a subscriber, I still saw many differences between the archetypes and my vision for my characters.  That said, my nephew had a good time playing a fire-based nuker archetype.

I don't hate WoW, just the cartoony look of the characters.

I play many MMos on and off:  DDO, LOTRO, Fallen Earth, Ryzom, Champions, CoV...

None of the above!

DDO really improved - they have been putting out new modules, new gear, events - sooo much quicker since going F2P.  Hands down the winner!

As mentioned above AC has been doing this for years.  Ryzom also did a great job with this for the first year or so.

Thanks for the review! 

  My nephews [and I] love LEGOs, but based on the "camera makes me ill" and the lack of a hybrid payment option, I know I will pass on this one.