I keep seeing these things everywhere. Not the text-based ones but the cgi ones. I'm not interested in dedicating all of my time to one of these, but I wouldn't mind downloading one as a time-killer break thing.

So the question is, are any of these actually good or all basically the same thing? (IE Dungeons & Dragons grind jobs.)

Edit: Ugh, maybe I should've brought this up in the Favorite RPG Game topic instead...

I downloaded one once, can't remember what it was called. It got boring after the first hour or so. And it was poorly translated into English from either Korean or Vietnamese. Can't remember which.

Most are made in Korea although a few come over from Japan. Mabinogi at some point to see if the social features are anywhere near what they claim they are. Plus, I'm interested to see if the cell-shading does anything for the look of the game. I think that may also be the one I was checking out earlier where they have a bunch of classes and you can switch between them and even mix and match skills from classes you don't currently have assigned.

I once tried one that's based on Pirates of the Caribbean. It's technically free although if you by a subscription, you can level up faster and get more missions or something like that. It was pretty much like all the other grinding games except that in addition you could sail between islands on a pirate ship and go guns blazing against merchant ships you'd encounter on the way. It also had Jack sparrow which is never hurts.

I made a guy called Davy Squidbeard ^^

As far as free MMOs go, I think the best option is Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online.

Someone
The game is set in Japan and is essentially between Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei 2. In the game, Tokyo was destroyed in 202X and the survivors began construction of a massive tower, Shinjuku Babel. In this post-apocalyptic world, demonic forces run rampant and it is the player's job to defeat them.

Players are given the option to be in one of three groups: Law, who try to preserve the system and bring it back together; Chaos, who try to break the system; or Neutral, freelance mercenary types.

The game looks pretty good and is really fun if you have a few friends with you. :]

I just downloaded that one the other night, Shinu. I'm impressed how faithful the art is to the series. Interface seems a little clunky for this day but I'm still trying it out.

I... I like Mabinogi, but it really is a grindfest sometimes...

Played Maplestory for a while but then I got bored.

I play S4 League [s4.en.alaplaya.eu] myself. It's pretty much like a weird combo of Soccer, Football, and 3rd person shooters. One team against the other with a ball to get into the other side's goal... and you shoot the crap out of whoever has the ball.

If you manage to find yourself a decent League forum, if gets pretty fun to gather a team and turn the game into an actual sport.

I played Maple Story a few years ago. It's so boring, they made a DS game out of it... :B (It could have been really cool with more customizability and actual things to do.)

I can't imagine leveling on any of these free MMOs being any more fun than doing so on the pay ones, so I'd probably never get into these.

Grinding is pretty boring whether you pay for it or not, so I'd just as soon not.

I haven't found any good free one's yet. I've heard guild wars is alright if you don't mind the initial fee, also, some MMORPGs are only playable in the US so its worth checking before trying to download. Just wish I could find one with great character customisation, even the ones with fees are rubbish for that.

What character customization do you mean? If you mean appearence customization I know one which is fantastic for that but it's a paid one so I wont list it here since it's off topic. If you mean skills, or abilities along those lines nothing springs to mind.

Anyways a free MMO well I know of a humor driven one which is mostly text with basic pictures, I find it's a rather fun game to try though even if player interaction isn't too great. www.kingdomofloathing.com

Very limited options in terms of character a bit like the old school games, turn based and no downloads necessary as it plays in the browser.

In Maple Story there were only about four major ways to make yourself distinct, and that was all. So you get a lot of same-looking people running around with dumb usernames, and you can't stand grinding to level 30 just to get a single set of advanced equipment that might differentiate your appearance (but only among lower-level players, as all the higher players will have your armor and still be too poor to afford anything else). lol.

Just wish I could find one with great character customisation, even the ones with fees are rubbish for that.

There are a few which have more customizable appearances. Particularly those that have crafting systems for clothing or armor are going to offer some level of customization that allows you to better differentiate yourself from others visually. Because of the nature o these games, though, you will often find that armors are pretty similar from class to class as you level up, resulting in a lot of very similar characters.

If you're referring to skills, however, while I haven't tried it out for myself, yet, Dream of Mirror Online supposedly uses a class system more like Final Fantasy where you can switch between the various classes in the game and set up your character to use skills from any class regardless of your current class. It seems that might offer a bit more customization in your character setup.

Just wish I could find one with great character customisation, even the ones with fees are rubbish for that.

I heartily disagree; City of Heroes has been overlooked since the emergence of WoW, and has one of the most detailed character customizations out there. You could spend a solid day or two going through all the customization choices they offer. Every time I walk around in that game, I haven't seen a single person who looks the same as another--everyone is different & unique, right down to their super-powers.

lastcall

Just wish I could find one with great character customisation, even the ones with fees are rubbish for that.

I heartily disagree; City of Heroes has been overlooked since the emergence of WoW, and has one of the most detailed character customizations out there. You could spend a solid day or two going through all the customization choices they offer. Every time I walk around in that game, I haven't seen a single person who looks the same as another--everyone is different & unique, right down to their super-powers.

I agree, City of Heroes and it's follow-up City of Villains is a good game with an amazing amount of customization.

But, as you mentioned, WoW emerged and City of Heroes effectively became a ghost game. It is nothing compared to it's former glory.

For free MMO's, I used to play RagnarokOnline. It has a fan made "hack" version called AnthemRO, which basically runs the same but there are a few minor differences, such as days when exp is multiplied and such, and it's free, unlike the main RO game.

Other than that, there aren't too many free MMO's with the staying power of the fee MMO's.

Downpour_guy
I agree, City of Heroes and it's follow-up City of Villains is a good game with an amazing amount of customization.

But, as you mentioned, WoW emerged and City of Heroes effectively became a ghost game. It is nothing compared to it's former glory.

I haven't played City of Heroes, but this upcoming game is supposedly the follow-up of it and is being made by the same people if you guys are interested -
http://www.champions-online.com/
I don't know if it'll be as good or not though.

Sorry to keep going off-topic.

That looks slick.

Thanks for informing me.

Hopefully, it will just be a build upon what they had in City of Heroes. Looks like it has the same diversity. I hope the concept has changed from City of Heroes.

Well so much for not mentioning it here because it was off-topic.

Downpour_guy
But, as you mentioned, WoW emerged and City of Heroes effectively became a ghost game. It is nothing compared to it's former glory.

Not quite true, in fact this weekend the freedom server was full! You couldn't even log into it. There are less players true, but because of that they all congegrate on the Freedom and I think... Virtue? servers, apprently the other one is an unofficial rp server anyways so you really don't notice if you play on them, it just seems like a normal MMO population.

Actually if anything it feels like there is more people on this server when I'm on then the WoW server I play on.

I still play the base game of Anarchy Online (on and off). Yeah, the game is old, the skill system is insane (you never get enough points for everything and you can potentially ruin your build if you're not careful), and the tradeskill system is still broken in a lot of places. Still, I love exploring the place. Those storms in the desert areas of the game can get really crazy. I still miss those dangerous fish and I wish they would do something to make the swimming skill and those hydrovehicles useful...

Still can't believe that I spent $20 on paidpoints just to get those nifty hoverbikes/boards. Then again, I've found the bikes valuable for getting to mission areas that would be dangerous for me to get to on foot. And it's nice that every character I have or create will also benefit from the 2000pp I have now.

SarahN
http://www.champions-online.com/

I don't know if I'm anxious for that game or not. It seems way too similar to CoH; like a polished copy. I wish they would have broken away from that genre and thought up something completely different.

Ok. Since you guys were talking about the city of heroes/villains...

I never got any clarification on it whenever I asked but could someone who made a villain in the CoV version travel to the CoH and cause havoc there and vice versa?

SarahN
http://www.champions-online.com/

Seems like these guys are also making a Star Trek online game. I know couple of people who will be dreaming wet dreams when I tell them (if the don't know this already).

Edit: Teehee. How ridiculously silly but I noticed this is my 911 post.^^

Product Placement
I never got any clarification on it whenever I asked but could someone who made a villain in the CoV version travel to the CoH and cause havoc there and vice versa?

Not yet, but I think they're working on that. ...They do have a PvP area where villains & heroes can kill each other & gain points for each side if missions are completed in that area. They also have some sort of PvP Arena, but I've never tried it.

I think you can also raid each others' Supergroup bases during scheduled times, but I have never witnessed one.

What I like about CoH/CoV is that the dev team really listens to its fans and tries to do everything in their power to implement their ideas. ...Which is something I can't say for WoW.

isukun
Dream of Mirror Online

I'm pretty sure that's the game I downloaded only to find it was region locked to only allow usa players *sigh*

SarahN
http://www.champions-online.com/

Oooo, pretty cel shading. Looks fun.

lastcall
I think you can also raid each others' Supergroup bases during scheduled times, but I have never witnessed one.

What I like about CoH/CoV is that the dev team really listens to its fans and tries to do everything in their power to implement their ideas. ...Which is something I can't say for WoW.

I think the base raiding bit was disabled for now due to some bug with the system. They'll put it back in when they can fix it...

Devs that don't listen to their players... Reminds me a lot of SoE and it's handling of Starwars Galaxies. It's kinda sad though. Company gets so bloated with money that they spend more time swimming in their money filled swimming pool than they do listening to their customers...

ShinuZero
As far as free MMOs go, I think the best option is Shin Megami Tensei: Imagine Online.

Someone
The game is set in Japan and is essentially between Shin Megami Tensei and Shin Megami Tensei 2. In the game, Tokyo was destroyed in 202X and the survivors began construction of a massive tower, Shinjuku Babel. In this post-apocalyptic world, demonic forces run rampant and it is the player's job to defeat them.

Players are given the option to be in one of three groups: Law, who try to preserve the system and bring it back together; Chaos, who try to break the system; or Neutral, freelance mercenary types.

The game looks pretty good and is really fun if you have a few friends with you. :]

Thanks a lot. I got so absorbed by that game that I spent half the day playing it. And I usually get bored of MMORPGs really quickly.

I've been playing Angel's Online, it's pretty cool. Um, and I have played Illutia too. Gaia online is ok, but get's boring fast I find. Whirlds is ok too.
for MPORPG games the first two I listed are the best I've found.
Dragon quest and Adventure quest aren't too bad, but again get boring fast,
Oh, there is one called The Kingdom of Loathing if you are into parody stick figures! Very funny, and fun!

Once beta tested a free MMO named 9 Dragons. Fair graphics and pretty decent concept.

RowanWatersprite
I've been playing Angel's Online, it's pretty cool. Um, and I have played Illutia too. Gaia online is ok, but get's boring fast I find. Whirlds is ok too.
for MPORPG games the first two I listed are the best I've found.
Dragon quest and Adventure quest aren't too bad, but again get boring fast,
Oh, there is one called The Kingdom of Loathing if you are into parody stick figures! Very funny, and fun!

My god! Someone else who plays kingdom of loathing! Hooray I'm not the only one here. That reminds me, my Accordion Theif still needs to help the Deep Fat Friars with their demon troubles.

Well best do that now, away!

For the five or six lingering fans of Digimon:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digimon_RPG [en.wikipedia.org]

There was supposed to be an English translation, but it looks like that's not happening so the best way to play the game is in Chinese. I've never played it myself, but being one of those people who still think back on Digimon with fond memories I'd love to give it a try someday.