Originally posted by Aladyleyna

Well... I was going to suggest Atlantica Online but since you didn't like it...

I would suggest Granado Espada as well. It's unique in the sense that you have to control three characters at the same time, and it's a lot more challenging than controlling only one character, because you have to time your skills and make sure that everyone is still alive. In short, it takes more strategy than the average game. And the graphics are beautiful as well... probably the best in any free to play game that I've seen. And the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful as well.

I got 6 Vets on GE...am kind of sick of the grind :( Need to pay to get past Veteran within a reasonable amount of time (Forgotten area passes)

There is no way a Judge is actually going to take this seriously.

I lable a game something that "feels" like WoW (Not wow clone) if it has the following things

#1 Same interface

#2 Same combat style

#3 Same quest / advancement style

#4 Same goals at the end.

#5 Same social interraction system.

I wouldn't name a game like Phantasy star or Monster hunter or FFXI as a wow clone based on the unique interface, socializing system, advancement style, and  combat system.

Once for like 30min, was not a good experience for me.

While it would be very unrealistic to deny the fact Aion is loosing players now compared to the first month it is not unpredicatble ether.

Anyone could have told you the first 3-4 months after a game launches are the worse. Unhappy people complain, happy people just play the game and get high level,and those of us in the middle ether leave or try to enjoy it.

Aion will not by any means have as many active players in the US as WoW. The same way Lineage 2 Did not have a massive number of players in the US but in Asia was a massive success.

I expect Aion to do just fine for itself at the end of the year sitting happy with 250,000-350,000 ACTIVE  subscribers, which is no small number by any means.

Aion is going to be a successful mmorpg, and its going to be just fine (In the same category as EQ2 & FFXI)  just not by the standards of those who are putting it up against WoW.

Originally posted by commando991

well I didnt get a chance to try it at all was working all weekend.

and they dont even give a date for OB or any thing.

other game companys did cb for a weekend or a whole week then 3 days later went to OB and 30 days later release of their games.

this place does not even do that you have to wait a month or more to try their second cb phase.

which I think is horrible for a game company to do.

even if they did do OB asap I dout I am even gonna play it cause what I seen and heard about the game already and about the game company hosting it.

I'll stick with the games I'm playing now  like SUN online and archlord  and few others.

I hate waiting long periods to play a game and if the game company cant have OB right off and make the gamers wait a year just for OB to come out after they already did 2 pahes of CB.

then it is not worth my time to want to try to play it at all.

it says alot about a game when the game company takes forever to do a OB !

 

In my opinion when a company takes a long time to release a Open beta after 2 closed beta events it shows me they are actually working on their product and trying to release it with as few problems as possible.

Granted I don't think that GG actually cares to much about player feedback but more about trying to get the game running as intended.

Will it be one of the many forgotten F2P grinders out there to share in the shadow of obscurity that is games like Hero online. Phoenix Dynasty, Cabal online, 2 Moons,and many other sub par generic contraptions out there.

Or will this game actually be a relevant F2P competitor in the F2P gamer market along side of Runes of Magic, Atlantica, Perfect world International, and Mabinogi ?

Will it be in the middle with games like Mu online, Rappelz, &  Rose?

It seems like these forums only have like 20 or some people actually posting on here or anticipating this game. The official forums for the game are not much better with maybe 30 or so players on there on a regular basis. Forums are not a true indication of a community but if the WoW official forums.... or a better example, Atlantica official forums have shown us something is that active official forums usually means an active large community.

What do you guys think?

 Why?

I don't understand it. Sometimes it seems like these people had a bad day but then you see a history of their posts and most of the time they just seem to be out to attack any individual who does not share the same opinion or view on a subject that they do.

I'm all for free speech but I assure you a lot of the people who are disrespectful online would absolutely not act this way in real life in front of another person. At least I would hope not. 

It seems like you have to go to some forums like city-data.com or something in order to get some mature adults on the internet. 

I know there is supposed to be a large community of college students and adults playing these online games, Do they not frequent the forums? 

So why are so many people so disrespectful and quite frankly just rude & even childish on the internet when they do not act this way in real life? 

Originally posted by Vexe

 Maplestory. Runescape. There are a ton of other ones. You need to do your homework man. :P

Well yeah I have not played EVERY game out there on the market. That's why I asked for suggestions. 

I am a full time college student and I try to get at least to the half way point in every game before I make my choice about it. Since a lot of F2P games make it really easy to get around half way and after that the real grind starts or the spending incentives get very large its quite easy to play them for free to the half way point lol.

But yeah I can't play every single game out there, and I don't comment on them unless I actually spend at the very least 300+ hours on them. That's why My list is not very long and why I asked for others who maybe got far on some of these F2P games and actually played for free. 

- For the record I have no problem with the F2P business model as long as its done right, Requiem and imo Perfect world being done right. (Minus the insane grind lol) 

Originally posted by cdubbz

 hey man i have a pretty good F2P game for your list. The chronicles of spellborn. It will be getting an item mall later on, but for now it's completely free, and the combat is real time. look into it i bet you'd like it

Ahhh yeah I forgot about that 1 very true. I hope when they do add the CS it is a fair and balance one. Hopefully they don't do the same as with 2 moons. 

Originally posted by Leucrotta

Guild Wars, sure you can argue that you have to buy the box, but after that its the only true f2p game out there imo

No hidden costs like the other so called f2ps to be competitive

I agree 100% by dictionary definitions Free -  No cost  To -  Used for expressing motion or direction toward a person place or thing. Play -  activity for amusement.  The game is actually FREE 2 PLAY. Just not FREE 2 buy. I actually been playing GW for many years now lol. I just know if I post it SOME ONE will say "Its not Free 2 play" Some one always does. 

Originally posted by metalhead980

Honestly Im kinda new to the F2p thing. I've tried most of the games but havent found one that held my interest for more than a few hours.

I have a question since you seem to have more experience with them than myself.

Runes of magic, If I play on a pve server with no intentions of pvping will I need to buy anything to enjoy myself casually.

I was told the pvp servers basically require to use it to be competitive but I don't see that same Cash shop dependancy on the pve servers.

 

Edit: If you know nothing of RoM ignore my question and in a day or so ill post in that games forums.

 

No you won't its free 2 play as long as you are not in a PvP server and as long as you don't plan to do the highest of end game.

Think of it this way. How far could you get in world of warcraft with good blues? If you have played that basically, or in FFXI with the Barone set as a warrior. That is basically the equivalent of RoM's F2P ability. At 41 my only complaint was the ungodly ganking by heavy CS users. 

Originally posted by Lorenz0

You listed Cabal Online twice

Thanks fixed that lol 

 This is a list of free 2 play games I have played over the past 4 years. I spent many many...many hours on these forums asking people about F2P games trying to give the F2P industry a fair try. I played tons of Free 2 play games most of which were pay 2 play after the first quarter of the game. Some however kept me busy for free and actually having "Some" fun until at least the half way point. This while remaining competitive and useful to groups and in PvP. Ill name those games that I believe are actually or for the most part possible to be free 2 play at least more so than most.  If I miss any game that you believe or have experienced actual free 2 play qualities at higher levels with let me know.

Atlantica online - Free 2 play, I was level 89 when I quit. I quit because the temptation of buying sometime from the item mall to make my life easier was way to large. The game begins to get extremely time consuming after level 70. As a college student I couldn't keep going after 89 the time sink for a free 100% player was insane I had to farm 6-10 hours a week to make enough money to buy the CS items required to get past 1-3 levels. However it was still possible, If I had more time I could have done it. I have real life friends who play this game and are currently well into their 100s playing 100% free. I would say this game can be 100% free 2 play.

Perfect World International- Massive endless level grind. Is it free 2 play? Yes. The fact you can buy anything on the item mall in game and earn item mall gold with in game currency makes this one of the few true free 2 play games out there. It just again takes an insane amount of time. 

Jade Dynasty - look above same developer same marketing. 

Sword of the new world - Can be free 2 play I got 6 characters to Veteran before I quit. The grind is just insane if you don't buy AA passes which require cash shop gold. You can farm the money in game and buy them in game though so it is possible to do it just again takes insane amounts of time. Far beyond what any P2P game would. 

Requiem Bloodymare - Ok this one is really strange, the cash shop is soooo fair priced compared to other cash shop games I think its worth a mention. You can actually get the full benefits of the cash shop for $10/mo. The game is not very good and I didn't get past level 41 however I found it amazing how inexpensive it was. Marketed as a F2P game I expected a LOT more limitations playing for free than what I got. Mostly its just grind that is going to be a killer if you play free you run out of quests soon and end up grinding a ton of levels. If you pay the 10 bucks you keep up with quests at an ok pace and grinding becomes a lot less. Still if you can grind the game is actually free. 

Now you might be saying by now "All F2P mmorpg games are free if you spend the time on them" I think this is not true for all. Rohan online for example requires REQUIRES you to spend insane amounts of money to compete (Or at least it did last year when I tried it) Runes of Magic is currently not free. I got my Warrior to 41 Mage 40 and It was extremely hard to compete in a PvP server. I wouldn't call RoM a F2P game. 

If you know other F2P games that have some sort of balance or equality to them that are actually playable for long periods of time FREE post it here! 

Games I played didnt mention - don't consider them anywhere near free. 

Mabinogi

2 moons

12 sky

12 sky 2

shaiya online

Ragnarok

Cabal online

D&D online

Mu online

World of Kung fu

Metin 2

9 dragons 

chaos online 

Florensia 

 Rohan online 

 I was actually going to waist my time downloading this game. Glad I read this post first. 

I hate games where the cash shop rules at the end of the day. Very few F2P games have a strong balance of Cash shop vs Non cash shop users.  This one seems to be one sided to the extreme. 

 Is acclaim going to wipe spellborn servers once they finish making the item mall or whatever they plan on doing?

I see there is an unlimited level cap so I'm wondering whats up with all that. 

Originally posted by Tryggvi

Megaten Online has a unique combat system, although the game didn't impress me.  Spellborn has a cool system too and some of the quests are fun; herding up cows back into a pen.

Is Aeria  games the only company who runs the game?

I kind of have a problem with them ever since their complete rip off prices with Shaiya & 12 sky 2... 

 I am downloading spellborn, I had herd that game was shut down though odd. Glad its not. Atlantica I have tried and if it was not for the terrible graphics I would probably keep playing it. 

Isen't D&D online even less F2P than most though? 

 I'm looking for a F2P mmorpg that has a unique combat system. Something like Cabal or AoC where you don't just sit there clicking the same 3 skills in order to win. Something that takes timing, and a bit of skill to master. 

Id also like the game to have decent graphics (cabal online or better quality) I don't mind if the game is a grind so long as the combat is really immersive and if possible group based game play.