Free MMO?

[TheNiceGuy]

Iwas just looking at PotBS and liked it, but no banana for a monthly fee.
Any free monthly MMOs out there?

 

[toughwimp11]

Flyff and MapleStory

 

[livingsacrifice]

Guild Wars? But you still need to pay for the game disc. I didn't really like it though.

 

[Beev]

I think Silk Road might be.

 

[TheNiceGuy]

Don't mind paying for a disk at all, but not for a monthly fee.

 

[pontifex]

there's a reason these games don't charge - they suck ass.
hell, even most of the ones that do charge still suck ass.

 

[JTsyo]

Originally posted by: TheNiceGuy
Don't mind paying for a disk at all, but not for a monthly fee.

I'll see if I have a GW trial key. If so you can try it out.

 

[Beev]

Originally posted by: pontifex
there's a reason these games don't charge - they suck ass.
hell, even most of the ones that do charge still suck ass.

:thumbsup: Pretty much. If you want to play an MMO then pay for one. You'll be getting a far better deal. Almost all of them have free 14 day trials. Try them all out:

EQ2
CoH/CoV
WoW
Eve

I don't know if Vanguard, LotRO, or Tabula Rasa have free trials yet.

 

[ZzZGuy]

Runescape, free with no CD, but if you want better stuff and access to more area/quests then you have to pay. Be warned it could take up to a month of play to realize how much it sucks.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Runescape, free with no CD, but if you want better stuff and access to more area/quests then you have to pay. Be warned it could take up to a month of play to realize how much it sucks.

I wasted an afternoon re-making the bronze axe (for tree-cutting) that I accidentally sold - I mined the ore, smelted it, then smithed an axe. Then I realized the game sucked.

 

[NikolaeVarius]

For any game. Choose 2 of the following choices

Free
Good
Online

I do think Space Cowboy Online started up again, and that was pretty fun for a while.

 

[Canai]

Guild Wars is good, also check out the Mythos beta.

 

[njdevilsfan87]

Originally posted by: ZzZGuy
Runescape, free with no CD, but if you want better stuff and access to more area/quests then you have to pay. Be warned it could take up to a month of play to realize how much it sucks.

PVP was pretty good in that game before they re-did the entire game a few years ago (I'm thinking back like 6-7 years ago) and killed it. The only game I can really suggest since it's the only game I really got into once (but do not play anymore) is Guild Wars. Every other MMO I have ever tried through free trial recently has just bored the hell out of me.

 

[QueBert]

Maple Story is sorta fun, I love that it's 2d and doesn't try to be cutting edge. I can't comment on how it holds up fun wise as I've only played it a few days now. But so far I dig it more than WOW, but I'm old school and the old school 16bit feel does it for me. I find the pay MMO's boring so I figured since Maple Story was free I'd give it a shot.

I'm sure I'll be bored off my ass with it in a month, but free is free...

 

[novasatori]

2moons and lastchaos

2moons is pretty good, but they got a cash shop now, I quit before they added it

it is the best free mmo I've played

 

[manowar821]

Haha, wow, you've all fallen for it. "if you want a good game, you have to pay a fee"

That's what Sony has successfully engraved into your head, but it's complete BS. Thanks a lot, Evercrap.

I play SilkRoad Online from time to time, and it's pretty damn fun. Guild Wars is good, too, but it's not so much of an MMO as it is "multiplayer dungeons with a 3D lobby as each main town". Other games like WoWo can be free, too. You buy the game, and then play on a free server. They're all over the place. You can do this for a few of the "monthly payment MMO's" too, people just don't realize that you're not legally or otherwise bound to playing on THEIR servers. You're only legally bound to pay if you DO CHOOSE to play on their servers. Don't fall for the bullshit.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: manowar821
I play SilkRoad Online from time to time, and it's pretty damn fun. Guild Wars is good, too, but it's not so much of an MMO as it is "multiplayer dungeons with a 3D lobby as each main town". Other games like WoWo can be free, too. You buy the game, and then play on a free server. They're all over the place. You can do this for a few of the "monthly payment MMO's" too, people just don't realize that you're not legally or otherwise bound to playing on THEIR servers. You're only legally bound to pay if you DO CHOOSE to play on their servers. Don't fall for the bullshit.

Those servers aren't legal. It might also be against the WoW EULA to change the configuration files like that (as you have to change realmlist.lua if I remember correctly).

I've tried some of the free MMOs and they just weren't up to WoW's standard. Sorry, but I'd rather pay monthly for a game I enjoy rather than settle for the "free game standard." Also, Mano, the free WoW servers are (un)complete garbage. I've actually run one myself for fun before and they are nothing like the real experience. They're practically there for cheap-ass tweenies and losers that want to get T6 without having to actually do anything.

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: manowar821
I play SilkRoad Online from time to time, and it's pretty damn fun. Guild Wars is good, too, but it's not so much of an MMO as it is "multiplayer dungeons with a 3D lobby as each main town". Other games like WoWo can be free, too. You buy the game, and then play on a free server. They're all over the place. You can do this for a few of the "monthly payment MMO's" too, people just don't realize that you're not legally or otherwise bound to playing on THEIR servers. You're only legally bound to pay if you DO CHOOSE to play on their servers. Don't fall for the bullshit.

Those servers aren't legal. It might also be against the WoW EULA to change the configuration files like that (as you have to change realmlist.lua if I remember correctly).

I've tried some of the free MMOs and they just weren't up to WoW's standard. Sorry, but I'd rather pay monthly for a game I enjoy rather than settle for the "free game standard." Also, Mano, the free WoW servers are (un)complete garbage. I've actually run one myself for fun before and they are nothing like the real experience. They're practically there for cheap-ass tweenies and losers that want to get T6 without having to actually do anything.

While the servers aren't necessarily "legal" and they are completely against the EULA,
I disagree about the private servers being garbage.


Yes it's true that mangos, udb, and scriptdev2 both need a LOT of work, however, their current status is actually pretty good.

If you just want to play casually and mess around with a couple of friends, PVE play, questing, etc, then it's not bad. Most classes are pretty complete and most quests work well.

If you are a veteran hardcore raider, and you want to continue raiding and being super competitive, or being super competitive in PVP, then you will be very disappointed.

I'm not one to say it's not buggy, because that would be a lie. I'm also not going to disagree with "incomplete." But, for casual play, private servers running on the current revision of Mangos with the most recent UDB and scripdev2 are very playable.

I get about 3 or 4 hours per week of gaming in. When I do play, it's almost always with my GF's 6 year old. I don't play enough to subscribe and if I do, I'd need 2 subscriptions so we could both play at the same time. I can't justify spending $25 per month for 2 subscriptions for a couple of hours per week of play time. Also, to make the game more playable for him, I like to have GM access to give him some gear that typically you can't get at the uber low levels. This way he dies less often. "Easy mode" is good if you are 6.

 

[VeZ]

If you get addicted to an MMO and you spend vast amount of time on it..try to remember..10 years down the road it doesnt matter if you have that epic axe of greyskull, so dont get to insane about it

 

[manowar821]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Originally posted by: manowar821
I play SilkRoad Online from time to time, and it's pretty damn fun. Guild Wars is good, too, but it's not so much of an MMO as it is "multiplayer dungeons with a 3D lobby as each main town". Other games like WoWo can be free, too. You buy the game, and then play on a free server. They're all over the place. You can do this for a few of the "monthly payment MMO's" too, people just don't realize that you're not legally or otherwise bound to playing on THEIR servers. You're only legally bound to pay if you DO CHOOSE to play on their servers. Don't fall for the bullshit.

Those servers aren't legal. It might also be against the WoW EULA to change the configuration files like that (as you have to change realmlist.lua if I remember correctly).

I've tried some of the free MMOs and they just weren't up to WoW's standard. Sorry, but I'd rather pay monthly for a game I enjoy rather than settle for the "free game standard." Also, Mano, the free WoW servers are (un)complete garbage. I've actually run one myself for fun before and they are nothing like the real experience. They're practically there for cheap-ass tweenies and losers that want to get T6 without having to actually do anything.

Fair enough on your opinion of free servers, but I disagree that it's illegal. The EULA is hogwash, they can write whatever they like in there, but it doesn't make it law. It wouldn't hold up in court.

 

[Fingolfin269]

I heard Anarchy Online was free now. It was one I wish didn't kill itself at release due to mass amounts of bugs. I did enjoy what I was able to play though.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: manowar821
Fair enough on your opinion of free servers, but I disagree that it's illegal. The EULA is hogwash, they can write whatever they like in there, but it doesn't make it law. It wouldn't hold up in court.

I'm quite sure that these were written off leaked code from Blizzard, which does compromise the legality quite a bit .

 

[BurnItDwn]

Originally posted by: Aikouka

Pretty much all development based on leaked code was shut down by blizzard over the last 3 years.

Most of the free servers these days are running the following combination of pieces.
MANGOS is the MMO (not leaked code, open source, subject to it's own licensing)
UDB is a copy of the database. Essentially, the same database that Thottbot and Alakazam and the like use.
ScriptDev2 is the event scripting system. These events are pretty much written to be a clone of wow's events/scripts/ai, however, they are not "leaked code" but rather new code with only the client seeing things the same as WoW.
All three application groups work independent of each other. You can use Mangos to create your own MMO if you want. Of course it is against the Mangos EULA to run a public server.

Now that I've said that ...
I believe each individual part of the free wow servers are legal on their own.
If you put all three of them together ... that may not be so legal.

 

[Aikouka]

Originally posted by: BurnItDwn
Pretty much all development based on leaked code was shut down by blizzard over the last 3 years.

Most of the free servers these days are running the following combination of pieces.
MANGOS is the MMO (not leaked code, open source, subject to it's own licensing)
UDB is a copy of the database. Essentially, the same database that Thottbot and Alakazam and the like use.
ScriptDev2 is the event scripting system. These events are pretty much written to be a clone of wow's events/scripts/ai, however, they are not "leaked code" but rather new code with only the client seeing things the same as WoW.
All three application groups work independent of each other. You can use Mangos to create your own MMO if you want. Of course it is against the Mangos EULA to run a public server.

Thanks for explaining that. I think I actually ran my last private server using MANGOS as it sounds familiar. I remember going to RFK and there being Blackrock Warlocks in it . I think this was the first version of the Burning Crusade compatible database, because I made it to poke around at the new areas (since I wasn't in the beta ).

It's weird because I think Blizzard would be annoyed by this because they may just throw out the client like it's free, but it's really not. The idea of the client being available is so a person with a WoW account can put it anywhere and play. People that pay monthly fund the servers that they play on as well as upgrades (patches) that affect both servers and the client software. So essentially, the subscribers pay for the upgrades and the poor tweenies get the benefits with no payment necessary during their time (as in that excludes people that came in late and obviously weren't paying during previous patch releases).

The only thing I think they would like is that the servers are kind of like free advertisement for their game as some people may want a better experience. One time when my friend was over... he was showing me this private server he plays on (because his account got banned for power leveling ) and my god... it was a lagfest :Q. I'd rather pay than sit there getting hit by someone for 2-5 minutes before it finally shows up.

 

[jwcooper]

Ultima Online on the UOGamers: Hybrid server. It's a combination of the best of the rule sets from when UO was in its prime (like the wild west of MMOS), and it's free. It's also got that vintage isometric top-down view that is quite popular still...

The link is: http://www.uogamers.com/

They've even implemented a ton of new features (like texas holdem tournaments, and arenas...).

I do suggest playing on the official servers though, as it's always good to support the devs, and people that make the games.