I have never tried this game in the past because of the horrible launch they had but the game ideas are wonderful. If the game was playable it would be the game I want a MMORPG to be. My question is have the improved on any of the issue since launch and it looks like now will be the time to try the game.

Any Irth online players still around to say whether they have fixed the bugs and performance issues?

Is it really going free? I remember its hyped release then dismal fall.

I havnt even heard of this game before.  If its free, I will probably give it a try though.  Curious to hear if anyone currently playing it will chime in and give any state of affairs in the game right now.

I just got this email.

Irth Online in the coming days will be going Free to Play!

Between November 23rd, 2007 and February 29th, 2008 If you sign
in or create a new account you will have your Account no charge
and free to play through at least February 28, 2010!

Get your friends, guilds and spread the Word, Irth is Free Free
to play! More details will be posted on our web site which is new
and content is still being added so please be patient!

The Irth Download will be coming shortly as we make the
appropriate changes to the launcher to handle the new free to
play.

Come join the community and discuss it on our forums we want to
hear from you and look forward to your input and seeing you in
game!

Irth Awaits You!

www.irthonline.com
www.irthworlds.com

Yes sir. Supposedly full featured. They did say they had some ideas on how to make some money with it but they are careful not to effect the game experience. They hinted that online purchase of items will not be the way they do it.

interesting.

any reviews from anyone who actually played it ?

I have played off and on, through alpha, the betas,and parts of live.

It has many fun features, huge world to adventure in, and if people put thier minds to it and enough play then there is a ton of room for player content, civ wars, etc.

But also have to keep in mind that while I think it has potential,always has had potential, it still has various bugs in it and it is going free for a reason.

It won't end up being like a multi million dollar game, if that is what you are counting on you will be dissapointed.

But again, if there are enough willing to play it then there is great potential for this to be an extremely rich content driven game, but it takes players to do that and at 13.95 a month and the bugs that were there, that just never happened in the past.

We will see what free does.

I played during beta. It's possible that things may have changed but here is a summary of where the game was a year or so ago:

Low quality 3D graphics.

Very poor animations.

Poor performance (as in low frame rates especially in towns).

Lots of bugs (as in features that don't work properly as opposed to CTD's).

Small player population spread over a huge map.

If you're still reading I'll continue with the good news:

Character development is skill-based.

Harvesting and crafting are very deep with tons of skills and materials.

The world is HUGE and begs for exploration.

The small team of devs is very responsive to player input. You can often chat with them.

The players tend to be mature people with an interest in the development of sandbox games.

PvP was designed to be logical and integrated, not a later add-on or an excuse to grief people.

Fully featured .... mounts, pets, housing, etc

If you are just looking for a fun, undemanding free game that looks great, runs smoothly, and spoon-feeds you content, then Irth is NOT going to make you happy.

If you have been dreaming of a deep sandbox game where a player can decide for himself which of the many available activities qualifies as "content", then grab Irth while it's free.

Downloading now, I'll get back to everyone in a few hours. Seemed kinda like this game was/is Runescape with higher level graphics.

Edit: Downloaded, and installed, patching is taking an eternity and a day, probably will be done at like noon, Saturday.