Looking for a new MMO...

[Kara]

So the MMO I've been playing for awhile now has recently had a major update. Some things are good, but some things have gotten far worse than they already were. The in-game economy has gone insane and the company has actually SUPPORTED this by raising the prices of some common, webmall-only essentials. This is the most expensive damn "free" game I've ever played. Add the fact that they also merged 2 other servers with my home server, and things are just a mess. It isn't the same anymore, I think they've killed it for me. A lot of my guildies feel the same way and we're thinking of moving on to other prospects.

So I'm shopping around for other MMO's that don't cost me an arm and a leg just to compete. I understand that there are benefits to buying things from the online store, but when you make webmall items essential to playing the game, we have a problem. For example, if you die in a PVP zone, you may drop an item in your inventory, including gear that you are WEARING. To avoid this, you need what is called a Prevent of Item Drop, which run anywhere from 1 day to 30 days depending on how much you are willing to spend. Since I love to PVP, I buy one of these every month. Oh and one of the maps you HAVE to grind on from about level 53-65 is an INVASION map, which means the other faction can and will sweep through and wipe out all the lower level grinders, which means this item is a necessity if you have anything on you that you don't want to lose.

So what do yall play? I know of many, I just haven't played them. I don't even care about if they are subscription based, as I generally pay a bit more than $15 a month for the "free" game I'm playing. Guild Wars 2 has been recommended to me by a couple people I work with, as has WoW (but I'd have to buy all the expansions. Also, Kung Fu Panda? Really?).

[Gumby30]

I'm playing GW2 at the moment and I LOVE it. It's like they've looked at MMOs and thought "What are the most annoying parts of MMOs and how can we fix them?"

The questing is innovative - there are no "Go here and kill 10 rats." It's "Well hi, we have this little farm here but there's a group of bandits stealing our food. We'd appreciate it if you could go and kill some bandits, or bring us back our supplies, or fill the water troughs." You complete quests in 4 or 5 ways, the game lets you choose.

Exploration is rewarding, fun and has actually succeeded in distracting me from the main questline. I haven't run a dungeon yet or tried PVP but I've heard good things about both.

For a free MMO you REALLY get a lot of value.

[Kara]

Yeah, in Shaiya (somehow I forgot to mention that's what I play), I don't even do most quests. They aren't worth it, aside from a piddly amount of xp. Quest gear is good, but the gear that drops is FAR better, so why bother with quests? Quests that DO have awesome rewards are so insanely hard they're practically impossible. In one you have to go to 1 of 4 elemental areas on a certain pvp map and kill like 10 of a few kinds of mobs. Not a biggie, but then you have to kill the boss, which spawns once every 12 hours and takes at least 4 ubers to kill or small raid of semi-ubers. And uber guilds camp those bosses for the drops. And you have to do that for each of the 4 areas. And just getting to THAT part of the quest is only half of it.

[Kanalah]

I play WoW >.> It's free until level 20 now. I think they change it so you don't have to buy all the expansions to play, it just gives you a lower level cap. I think that's what the patch notes said anyways.

But I'm having fun with my Kung Fu Cow. (should rename her Moogoogaipan)

[Kara]

Moogoogaipan

That is epic

[Kanalah]

I'm sorta known for having odd-named characters. My main character is a cow named Blueplate. (cause she's special ya know)

And looking at it, yep Moogoogaipan is taken. Meh.

[PepperElf]

So I'm shopping around for other MMO's that don't cost me an arm and a leg just to compete.

Here's an old school game i love: ancient anguish

The caveat: when I say "old school" I mean it. It's a MUD.

You can donate to the operating costs if you want, but it will NOT affect your game play. So, unlike other games, you can't pay your way to the top.
http://anguish.org/information/donate.php

well there is ONE game-affecting aspect. IF "Healer" is online you can send her a tell and she'll heal you up fully, but I think she's in game maybe once every 24 hours tops, so it's not worth banking on. As a donator, I have never actually had her show up except when I was doing something else.

Although dsoul to make my own emotes was fun. Normally if you emoted "gives you 31415926535 gold coins" the game would say that "so and so tries to fool you that she gives you...." etc. but with dsoul it overrides it and I've had fun emotion that I gave someone "pi" gold.

Still, none of that makes my rogue kill things or level faster.

[Elspeth]

Lord the Rings is free to play. Star Wars The Old Republic goes free in November (though I think you can play to a certain level now)

there is also Aion

[tofu]

only thing i can think of is dungeons and dragons online; haven't played much of it myself (dedicated to warcraft personally) but my friend raves about it ^.^ i did tinker with a character and the graphics are nifty, plus there's the whole dnd system if you're into that kind of thing. i understand that its free to play, but if you want extras like fancy races, more character slots and prestige classes you have to pay.

[Chanlin]

I am an on again off again player of DDO.

You can play it completely free if you dont mind a bunch of grind, or pay a little bit to get access to various quest packs, or subscribe to get full access.

The game has a bit of a learning curve. However, its biggest selling point is the dev crew takes player feedback very seriously. Many of the recent updates and changes were all player suggestions that the dev team decided were really good ideas.

LotRO is made by the same company and has a similar development approach.

DDO is not your traditional MMO either, hence why I say there is a bit of a learning curve. If you do decide to play DDO I highly suggest reading wikis on it.

[RayvenQ]

If you like the idea of Internet Spaceships, I'd suggest EVE Online, primarily for three reasons (other than it's fun)

1. The price is about the same as other MMO's for a monthly fee (around $15 at most, I forget the exact cost in dollars) but, unlike other MMO's, you can, if you put in the effort, once you get to a certain level of ability, you can pay for your subscription with ingame currency! that you obtain by running missions, mining, trading if thats your thing, after about 3-4 months of paying for your subscription, you can pretty much switch over to paying with ingame currency, resulting in your sub only costing you time, rather than real money.

2. The Rules, which, although rather simplified in my explanation, essentially boil down to 1. Don't abuse game mechanics/bugs and 2. Don't abuse newbies. Other than that, you can lie, cheat (scam people, this is allowed, if not encouraged), steal (from player corporations aka guilds), ambush, attack people to your black hearts content, There's three kinds of space, High Security, where you're usually reasonably safe, unless you're in a player owned corporation that is at war with another one (or you're in a ship thats a target for gankers/attackers), even then, theres a reactionary police force that punishes unwarranted agression (note, punishes, not prevents), Low security space, which is kind of the same thing, except you can be attacked anytime, anywhere outside of a station, and in low security, there is no police response and null sec, which is basically a lawless frontier. You can mission run, mine, trade, build stuff, or even PVP if thats what you want to do.

3. There's not leveling, not in the traditional sense, all your skills are researched over time, whether you're playing or not, so fell like taking a few days off, but not wanting your subscription to go to complete waste? no problem, just queue up some skills and have fun in real life for a few days.

It has been described as a spreadsheet simulator, and that is kinda, but not entirely true, if you get heavily into the industrial side of things, it can be, working out the most optimal stuff, same with pvp or even mission running, it can get into a numbers game, but its not all that hard to get used to if you look things up or have someone to guide you.

[AmbrosiaWriter]

I'm putting in my hat for Guild Wars 2 as well. I'm currently playing it (got a guild all set up with a bunch of friends so if you don't want to dive in on your own you are MORE THAN WELCOME to come with us!)

Fighting is actually fun and engaging, no standing still and slamming your head on the keyboard (well... unless you play Warrior or Ranger ) Dungeons are a challenge for everyone because there is no more holy trinity and they did it as well as I could expect. -Namely, you really have to pay attention because no tank and no healer means everyone needs to be using their entire tool box to keep everyone alive while killing everything else.)

Crafting is AWESOME. No more grind for mats then click "Craft all" and walk away. You get more experience for crafting from "discoveries." Basically, in this game, you pick what you want to do, go do it, get EXP and a sign from the game going "GO AHEAD. HAVE FUN!"

One of my favorite things so far though, are the secret jumping puzzles. It promotes exploration and is a perfect way to break up the killing and crafting. You can often get achievements from them too, and some nice little pieces of gear.

You have to pay for the initial game, but after that it's f2p with the only things that you can get from the cash shop being aesthetic only (costumes/pets) or things that only give you a minor boost (EXP boost, health/armor boosts, crafting boosts, a way to access your bank everywhere, more bank space) and these things don't cost an arm and a leg either anyway.

Also, the most awesome thing is that unless you're looking for something very, very specific, no wikis needed to figure out how to play.

[Rapscallion]

I play Eve as above, though pay for my gametime. One month's subscription is approximately one hour of paid employment, instead of taking me a week to generate ingame, so it makes far more sense for me.

Just started on GW2 as well.

Rapscallion

[RayvenQ]

I play Eve as above, though pay for my gametime. One month's subscription is approximately one hour of paid employment, instead of taking me a week to generate ingame, so it makes far more sense for me.


Rapscallion

It is a nice option though, especially if you do a lot of stuff like mission running, trading, salvaging and building that ends up giving you money. The first few month however, its not really much of an option.

[Andara Bledin]

I have yet to find a truly free MOG that was worth playing, although a lot of the freemium games are pretty fun, at least in the short term.

If you like really odd games that aren't quite MMORPG style, you could check out Glitch. It's an offbeat, side-view, skill and craft-based game. My current avatar is actually my character in the game.

Otherwise, I'm back in to playing WoW. Again. With yet more new characters. Nekojin and I have a pair of Pandaren monks named Pankration and Pandacea; he's going with the DPS spec, and I'll be taking the healing spec.

We resurrection scrolled each other, so we both got the benefits of both sides of the transaction, and I got the collectors version of the new expansion (I only had the first expansion until now, and have only paid for it and this one) so I could have the included mount and the battle pet (they've added basically a pokemon pet battle thing into the game), which is freaking adorable.

^-.-^