Dead Free MMORPGs

Recently two more free to play MMOs announced that they would be shutting down. Earth Eternal and The Chronicles of Spellborn. Earth Eternal was a browser based game by Sparkplay Media that played a bit like Runes of Magic and Allods Online. The game’s charm was that it offered a WoW alternative, but on the browser. The game was definitely a technological marvel, as it was one of the browser based games, aside from maybe FusionFall, which had great graphics. The game lasted less than a year, which is quite sad. The Chronicles of Spellborn on the other hand, was a failure from the get-go. The game was originally published as a pay to play game by its developer, but it went bankrupt within 3 months of the game’s release. Since then, Acclaim Games picked up the service as ran it as a free to play game for about a year. Acclaim Games never attempted to monetize the game, so it was guaranteed to fail. The game’s skill system was interesting and somewhat resembled Mytheon from UTV True Games. Both games never managed to attract a very high playerbase. No matter, it’s always sad to see an MMORPG shut down.

Aside from these two MMORPGs, several other MMORPGs were shut down in the last month. Project Torque from Aeria Games and Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins from Uforia both announced that they would shut down in August 2010. Project Torque will be re-launched as Heat Online by another company, so that’s good, but Three Kingdoms: The Battle Begins will be gone for good. No worries though, as gamers can check out Heroes of Three Kingdoms, Kingdom Heroes or any one of the other Three Kingdoms inspired MMORPGs.

Even with the announcements of these games closing down, free to play enthusiasts should remain excited about the genre. It seems like for every free to play MMORPG to shut down, there are 5 more to take its place. By the time these games shut down, MicroVolts, Legendary Champions, King of Kings 3, Legends of Edda and many other upcoming MMORPGs will take their place. So even though games are shutting down, more new games are being announced and launching. Just like everything else, bad games will shut down and new ones will replace them. In the long run, the free to play space will be bigger and have better games. Why am I so confident? Because big Western firms are starting to embrace the genre. I played Company of Heroes Online the other day from THQ Relic and was very impressed with it. I was also super impressed with Need for Speed World Online from Electronic

So Yeah. Older less popular games will shut down, but these dead MMORPGs will be replaced with newer, better games.

Florensia is Awesome

I downloaded and installed Florensia from Alaplaya yesterday and have been playing it nonstop. The game’s graphics are great and the game is set during the Victorian era. I mean, the game is set in a pretty generic fantasy environment, but the Victorian era architecture and character models make the game look at least a bit different than other fantasy MMORPGs. The game only has a handful of classes, but where the game really shines is its unique sea-based gameplay. The game has both a land and sea component to it. On land, Florensia plays a lot like Shaiya and every other fantasy MMORPG, but when players enter the game’s seas, they start at level 1. It doesn’t matter what level they are on land, the game’s sea based component is basically another game in and of itself. So players can experience an entirely new game on Sea. This is really original, because most MMORPGs never let you experience sea based gameplay.

Newer games like Tales of Pirates 2 from IGG and Kingdom Heroes from Aeria Games have sea based components as well, but all of these games copied Florensia. Florensia was the first game that really had an expansive sea based aspect. Another thing worth saying is that the sea based aspect of Florensia is actually really in depth. It’s basically a whole second game rather than just a feature. Players literally have a separate set of skills, experience and items for the sea component. Both the sea and land aspects of Florensia are top notch. The experience rate is a bit slow, but once you get used to its okay. In one day of casual playing, I reached level 14 or so. I know it’s not high, but the experience rate is low.

The only thing I’d like to see added to Florensia is more classes. As is the game only has like 5 playable classes, which is terrible. I dunno about you guys, but when I play an MMORPG, I prefer it to have a lot of classes – so if I ever get bored of my character, I can just try another class. I remember I played Dark Age of Camelot for years because it had like 30+ playable classes.

If you’ve never played Florensia before it’s worth trying. The guys behind the game do a great job keeping it up to date. It seems like every few months they add a boat load more areas to the game, so there’s no way anyone can really “finish” it. Like Requiem from Gravity, the game has plenty of quests too, so you’ll never have to outright grind. Instead you just quest your way to experience, which is always more fun than outright grinding.

Most Underutilized MMO Genre

So what is the least popular MMORPG genre? I’m not talking about type of game, but rather a game’s setting. Obviously the most popular setting is a fantasy themed one, as there are countless free to play and pay to play fantasy MMORPGs. The most popular one is obvious, but what about all the unpopular ones?

There are only a handful of sci-fi MMORPGs out there and even less steampunk MMORPGs. There are even fewer MMOs set during modern times. Well, there are a boat load of MMOFPS games like War Rock and Operation 7, but I don’t count those, as they’re all the same. I don’t think there are ANY actual MMORPGs set during modern times. Everything is fantasy themed. There are a fair amount of Sci-fi themed MMORPGs from RF Online to the more popule Eve Online. Plus there are a bunch of obscure ones like Face of Mankind and Galaxy Online. On the other hand, there are VERY few steampunk themed MMORPGs. The only two I can actually think of is Neo Steam and Allods Online. Both are pseudo steampunk as well, as they play largely like fantasy themed games.

Sword of the New World by GamersFirst has a unique theme. The game is set during the baroque era, so the game’s architecture and art style is really interesting. Just looking at character models and clothing is fun too, as its genuinely different than other games. Obviously a game’s setting isn’t THAT important, but it’s worth mentioning that 99% of games are fantasy themed. I guess Korean and Chinese MMORPG developers prefer to develop fantasy themed games. I Can understand Chinese developers, as many of their games are based on the romance of the three kingdoms novel, but Koreans should be doing more hyper awesome futuristic stuff.

Just my thoughts though. Any other underutilized genre out there that I didn’t mention? If so, let me know in the comments.

Action MMORPGs Are The Best

Out of all the free to play MMORPGs out there, my favorite kind of game is an action oriented MMORPG. It’s not that I dislike traditional fantasy MMORPGs like Dragon Oath or Esteria Mythos, but rather I enjoy playing action MMORPGs more. I guess it’s because simply left clicking my opponent and waiting for the battle to end can get boring. I like it when a game keeps me on my toes and has be fully engaged. A few of my favorite action MMORPGs are Dragonica Online, GhostX and Dungeon Fighter Online. Dragonica online is actually one of the few MMORPGs I still play regularly. It's a side scrolling MMORPG well worth checking out.

That new Diablo 2 type game – Battle of the Immortals is also quite fun. I actually find it quite fascinating that there are so many World of Warcraft clones, but so few Diablo clones. Diablo 2, in my opinion, is easily one of the best video games ever. I’ve spent countless hours on that game and have ‘went back’ to it more times than I’d care to admit. As is though, there really aren’t too many Diablo 2 clones. The best one I can think of off the top of my head is Battle of the Immortals, so if you’re looking for something like Diablo, definitely give that game a try.

Another reason why action MMORPGs are fun is that they’re more interactive. I never get ‘bored’ or ’sleepy’, as i’m constantly pushing buttons. Action games also tend to be more skill oriented, which I find interesting. Point and click style MMOs like Secret of the Solstice are fun, but there’s no real skill involved. Just having to move around and attack manually adds a layer of skill to the game.

So, what are YOUR favorite action MMORPGs? Do you like the genre? or do you like point and click more? Post your comments below!

Where are all the Sci-fi MMORPGs?

As a big fan of Scifi I’m a bit disappointed that there are so few free to play scifi MMORPGs out there. With well over 120+ fantasy MMORPGs, you’d think that one or two game developers would decide to put out a sci-fi game, but nope. That never seems to happen. MMORPG Devs seem to think fantasy is the way to go. As of now (March 13, 2010), the only free to play scifi themed MMORPGs are Megaten, RF Online, Zero Online, Project of Planets, GhostX, Anarchy Online and 2029 Online. Unfortunately every single one of these games are at least 2+ years old. There hasn’t been any new scifi themed MMORPGs in ages. Luckily, Black Prophecy may change that. For those of ya that haven’t heard of Black Prophecy, it’s a 3D Sci-fi MMORPG that aims to compete with Eve Online.

You’d think with the enormous popularity of Star Wars and Star Trek, there would be more similarly themed MMORPGs out there, but that isn’t the case. I guess you could argue that there are a few pay to play scifi themed MMORPGs, but I’m not a fan of paying for the MMORPGs I play =). Besides, I hear Star Trek Online is a total flop anyway. And that’s sad to hear. Atari and Cryptic could have done so much more with Star Trek Online.

One of the main reasons why I’m shocked to see so few scifi MMORPGs is that with so many fantasy games out there, you’d imagine game developers would try something new. I mean, what’s the point in competing with 100+ GOOD fantasy MMORPGs, when you could release a scifi game and only compete with 10 or so mediocre MMORPGs. I guess we Scifi fans have to wait until Black Prophecy to have our day.