I agree with the "you get what you pay for" way of thinking. Seriously, if you don't pay for a product, you can't expect too much support.  My free things that I see may offer support on a limited scale (slower response times, email only, etc) and I think that is the right thing to do.

Free loaders get on my nerves, though. I remember when I was a waitress (I'm no longer one for this, among several other reasons) and the customer got their food for free because of a reason not related to me, like the kitchen being backed up or they just didn't like the food. Even though I provided great service, got the manager to give them free appetizers or deserts for their trouble or got their check for free, they left no tip. That took out of MY pockets after I did all that work for them.  If it was not for them, I could have had PAYING customers that payed their tip and for their food an not have their bills and free items count against my end of the day tabs.

That's how I feel about this issue.  The company is already shelling out money for the bandwidth, content, and so forth for this non paying customer. Now, man-hours are being used to issue CS. Getting unstuck could only take a few moments, but what about larger issues that could really suck a CS reps time. For that one free player, several paying players could have been helped.

Ok, I'm going to stop ranting now.

I've found a few text based and browser based mystery games that aren't that bad. If someone were to create a mystery MMO, they could use those as inspriation.

Modus Operandi - Modus Operandi is a modern day role-playing game that combines mystery, adventure, and romance with the excitement of an ongoing story based on Morada, a fictional island in the Caribbean!  I c&p'ed that blurb from the game's front page. This text-based game is run by Simutronics, of DragonRealms, GemStone and Hero's Journey fame.

Sleuth - Sleuth is an open-ended detective game where you solve mysteries by searching for clues, questioning suspects and interviewing witnesses. (got this description from google.)

If you like mysteries, Sleuth is pretty good game. It is ugly, but that's just my opinion. Modus Operandi, seems to be OK. I'm not sure how many players it has online at any given time, but I know the numbers are not as high as the 300-500 players that DragonRealms and Gemstone have during peek hours. People pay about 15 bucks to play there, so I guess its an OK game.

Anyway, I could see a graphical Mystery MMO. I'm baseing most of this off of Sleuth, which I like.

You'll have your classes: the good cop, the detective, the ex-con turned private investagator, etc.

Then there's skills: fingerprint analysis, fiber id, intimidation, lock picking etc

Quests (cases): Search and Rescue, where you beat up bad guys for whatever reason; Regular Detective work, where you go around town finding clues and pointing fingers; Side jobs where you build up rapport with people so you can get better leads from them, etc

Well, I'm putting too much thought into this. But I can see this happening. I can't see it being a big budget game, but a small niche one.

Awesome, thanks for the quick responce. I 'll check out that site, too.

But, yea, pure crafter with magery seems like it'll definately work.  A bit later I'll roll the tamer/warroir that I've been wanting.

Ok, so I am trying the game again. I just had some questions:

So, what's up with the clients? I hear some say the 2d is better, while others say the 3d? I tried the 2d, but how in the heck do you make macros? Maybe I'm just tired and over looked something. I'm using the newest client and I guess its OK.

Can I be a full crafter? I don't mind switching characters for my hack and slashing needs.  I want a character that can furnish her own house. I would like my crafter to be able to carp, tinker and tailor. I guess she'll be gathering for those professions,too. Can I do this successfully. Right now, money isn't an issue since I ran into some great help on my first day online.

What about fighting skills? I trained some swordsmanship because my pack llama kept getting killedby cyclops or whatever that big monster is that hovers by the New Haven Mines.

Lastly, is there any RP on Atlantic shard? I picked it because it had the most players on it when I created. When I roll my mage I'm hoping for some dark fantasy RP - or any if I can get to it.

Thanks!

I was wondering this, too. I have a hp mini lap top. I  can actually run WoW on it, which is cool. I've also had success playing Wizard 101. Hubby says that playing wow is a good way to burn the motherboard, so I just went back to text-based games.  If I can play OU on it, I'll definately give the game another try.

As with most of these types of games, I usually just stay away from the newbie town. Once I'm out of the first town, I don't really notice the goldsellers.

Has anyone tried Face of Mankind?  I was understanding that's a RP game. I've been looking forward to its return but its been in close betaor something forever now.

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.

Well, Puzzle Pirates already has this type of setup.  The Blue  Oceans (servers) are paid and the Green are Dubloon oceans. You buy dubloons with real money and use them for various things in the game.  PP has been pretty successful with this model, too.  I played on both oceans.  I got a veteren's discount on a year and bought it all at once and played with sub, but I lost my job near the end and I couldn't renew, so I just played on the dub ocean every now and then.  Because of my play style and how they structure the things you buy (Things expire after X logins vs X consecutive days, for example), I was able to play at about the same  level on each ocean.

So, to sum it up. If done well, I would definately play agame with both an item mall and sub.

At frist I was thinking Pox Nora or Dreamloards, but I'm not totally sure if they are exactly what you are looking for.  Both involve strategy and I know PoxNora does have the trading/collect of M:tG.  As for dreamlords, I can't remember too much about this game, though.  But, a quick skim of their homepage told me that it  "is a unique mix of Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOG) and Real Time Strategy (RTS)"

 Well, that's odd.  I remember there was a registry tweak that helpped me play Megoni (or however its spelled). Bascially, that game did the same exact thing. 

Oh well,I guess I'll post to their boards and see if I can find a solution.

Hi!

I can play any most games smoothly.  This is my boyfriend's computer, so I'm not totally sure on the specs but, I think its a 2.7 GHz CPU, 3GB ram and I'm not sure about the video card. But I can run Runes of Magic, EVE, WoW and EQ and EQ2 fine. I had to tweek the settings for performance rather than quality, but other than that everything was smooth.

So, it surprises me that this game hiccups so much.  My connection is great so I have no idea.

Anyone with the same problem? 

 You may want to try www.mudconnect.com or www.topmudsites.com  The are basically, the same has this site, but with reviews and top listings for MUDs, MUSHes, etc.

I play at Lusternia.com with is has a awesome backstory, tons of events and stuff. I also play casually.

 www.taikodom.com

This is a portuguese game but the are translating to english.  Think free to play/pay for perks EVE and you have this game. So far, it seems OK. I have just been playing the tutorials.  Compared to EVE its a bit cartoony, but I like it so far. 

There's 4 classes: Hotshot (Figher),  Juggernaut (Bomber), Scout (Explorer) and Merchant (Trader).   All I have fooled around with is the Merchant class.  You can mine for raw materials to sell for profit or hand over with a PO (recipe) who wil craft it for you.  From the features page, they list lots of missions, a huge universe to explore and a much more.

As for the pay to play part: You can buy hoplon's with RL cash. They can be traded ingame for a flat 1 hoplon=50 in game coin or for Affiliation that gives you access to more places, more storage and hangar space, higher insurance and a bunch more stuff. Afflication can last 30, 60 or 90 days. I don't really like that you can't buy hoplons or become an affiliate with ingame currency, though.

If anything its worth a try at least. I've played for about an hour and it seems like it has promise.  In the beginning  voice actor is talking in Portuguese, but the words are in English. Other than that, I haven't read anything too bad about it on the English boards.

Originally posted by hidden1

Originally posted by Realedazed

 Hey Eisdrache, have you ever tried Second Life.  I know there you can find/create/buy almost any type of avatar and there's a bunch of RPers there, too.  I'm not sure of its capabilities, but theres a bunch of Never WInter Nights (NWN) servers floating around.

 

Also have you checked out INSILICO in second life?  As RP-cyberpunk soloution for something a bit different in MMO's.

 

http://insilico.ning.com/

Not bad. I may have to reinstall Second Life and try that.

 Hey Eisdrache, have you ever tried Second Life.  I know there you can find/create/buy almost any type of avatar and there's a bunch of RPers there, too.  Also,  I'm not sure of its capabilities, but theres a bunch of Never WInter Nights (NWN) servers floating around. and those are full of RP.

edited because I left out some of a sentence/

 I got some free time due to the structure pack up thing that's going on.  So, I might as well try the game again.  I downloaded it before, but unfortuately overtime was offered at my job and money trumped gaming.  

Anyway, I remember Sunrunner being a good RP server, but RP isn't a big thing.  However, I do like crafting. So any suggestions for a good server where a crafter can do pretty decently?

Oh, and I'm not sure which crafting class I'd like to take yet.  I remember cooking was cook, but I don'tthink it was pretty profitable.

Thanks!

 Well, technically you don't have to spend money to play.  There is (or will be) a diamond exchange, so you can buy diamonds with in game gold. I was reading that they took it out because they took a huge hit because of credit card fraud. But, as soon as they work out the kinks, they are going to be bringing it back.  

Gold is terribly easy to get, right now.  But, as soon as the exchange opens up, there is going to be a huge demand for diamonds. So, of course the price in gold will go insanely high. But that is how it usually is. 

So, basically you can play for free, techincally. I say techincally, because you are not paying for the diamonds, but someone has to.

 I like the game so far. I only played WoW for a little while, but so I can't really compare.  The  only thing I can say that I dislike about the game is: not enough storage space.  I'm 15/15 and a pack rat. So my backpack, bank and free storage chest are full almost all the time.

 But, that's how they are going to make their money from me.  I guess paying 4.99/month (at least) for diamonds  isn't bad. A few for bank/storage space, fluff like furniture and good stuff like exp potions and recall runes and i'm all set at 1/3 the cost of WoW. Plus, if I'm broke a month ( which I usually am) I don't have to pay and since its free, they won't cut me off for non-payment like WoW would.

Other stuff, I can live with. I'm looking forward to seeing how well this game does when it's out of beta.

 I understant completely. I've tried a bunch, but I'm very, very picky about everything.  My boyfriend hates MMOs, though. So, he's slowly getting me off of the computer and on to his 360.  I've rediscovered Obilivion. I started a long time ago and never really got into it. But, now I'm hooked.

I'm not giving up hope on the MMOs though. I'm just waiting to see whats going to become of the next wave of games coming out soon.