Best MMOs of 2010

The year 2010 is almost over. It has been a pretty good year for free to play MMORPG and MMO players. We got a lot of great new games, and even a few previously pay to play games were converted to free to play. Let’s take a look back at the year and highlight some of the best games.

Something I find very exciting is the growth of genres other than RPGs in the f2p MMO sector. Racing games, Shooting games, Sports games, Strategy games, we saw great new free to play games that fall into all these genres. Let’s start with racing. Need for Speed is perhaps one of the most popular video game franchises of all time. Many gamers will find it surprising that a free to play version of Need for Speed is now available online, for free. That game is called Need for Speed World and can be downloaded on EA’s new f2p portal – play4free.com Amazing right? Need for Speed World has great graphics, realistic cars, and even a persistent world city to explore. There’s a night/day system, and plenty of customization options. Most free to play games are still coming out of Asia so lets take a look at some Asian racers. FreeJack is a parkour themed MMO racing. That means players have to race across urban settings filled with streets, traffic, tunnels, railing, and so forth. Its based on a real sport, but has stylized anime graphics. Its a very appealing game, and the mechanics require some practice to master.

Moving right along, 2010 has been a good year for MMO shooters. MMOFPS games like Combat Arms, Operation 7, or Cross Fire are pretty common and we saw a bunch of new ones come out in 2010. Some of these include Mission Against Terror, K.O.S. Secret Operations, and my personal favorite of the year — Genesis A.D by ijji. Unlike most shooters, Genesis AD has a sci-fi theme, but is more realistic than S4 League. The graphics are top notch since the game uses the latest Unreal Engine. It has some cool mechanics like wall jumps, jet packs, and futuristic weapons. The interface is very similar to that of Alliance of Valiant Arms (AVA), also published by NHN on their ijji portal.

One of my favorite genres, especially as a PC gamer, has always been RTS. Its rare to find a free to play RTS games, but we’ve gotten two great ones in the past two year. Last year we had EA’s BattleForge and this year we’ve got Company of Heroes Online by THQ. Its a world war 2 themed game with fast paced gameplay, and less emphasis placed on resource management and building construction. It comes with a single player campaign so beginners can learn the basics before subjecting themselves to humiliation against other players.

There were many other MMOs in 2010, so be sure to check out all of them! If you're looking for something else, check out this huge list of MMOs which include mobile, browser, client, and more.

Conquer Online is Really Popular

Apparently the 2D MMORPG Conquer Online from TQ Digital is incredibly popular. I’ve heard of the game before and have played several other TQ Digital games including Eudemons Online and Zero Online, but never Conquer Online. Just yesterday I decided to give the game a try, as I’ve seen ads for it on a few sites and wanted to see what the big deal was. To no surprise, the game’s visuals were very much similar to both Eudemons and Zero Online. It seems like all the games from TQ Digital run off of the same exact engine game engine. The Way of the Five, The Warlords, Crazy Tao and the other MMORPGs published by TQ Digital are the exact same way. I don’t mean to say this in a bad way, as the visuals in Conquer Online aren’t bad. I say not bad, because even though the graphics aren’t Karos Online or The Pirates of the Burning Sea style “shiny”, the visuals are good enough to get the job done. To be honest, I don’t like it when games dedicate all their resources to trying have the newest and best possible graphics out there. I mean just look at games like Archlord from Webzen and RF Online. Both games launched as great looking MMORPGs, but over time their graphics lost their flare. Both games are considered fairly “ugly” by today’s standards, especially with games like Vindictus and to a lesser degree Dynasty Warriors Online pushing the boundaries of graphics.

The way I look at it – if a game is 2D, the graphics won’t really age that much over time. 2D games most certainly age better than 3D ones. I mean just look at Istaria and Planetside – both games launched as games with ground-breaking graphics, but today they’re nothing special. Personally, I think the visuals in some 2D MMORPGs like WonderKing, MapleStory and Fists of Fu to be great. New MMORPGs with 2D graphics like Angels Online from IGG and Myth Angels Online from UserJoy pull off solid 2D visuals. One huge, huge, advantage (notice how I said huge twice to emphasize the importance?) of 2D games over 3D ones is that they’re more compatible with older PCs. Not every PC in the world can play Alliance of Valiant Arms, but MOST PCs can handle Dragon Raja or Destiny Online from EnjoyMMO. A lot of my friends actually can’t play Runes of Magic, even though they want to. This makes me question whether it was a good idea for the game’s devs to make the game so good looking. This might sound a bit ridiculous, but it makes sense. Games like Final Fantasy 14 which demand absurdly powerful PCs are sort of screwing themselves over. People who want to play these game’s cant, because they don’t have amazing graphics cards – so what do these people do instead? They download and play games that their computers can handle. Games like Mission Against Terror and War of Angels which don’t demand $2,000 PCs to play. Because MOST gamers can’t always keep up with the latest technologies.

Anyway, I ranted for quite a while. What I really wanted to say is that Conquer Online isn’t a bad game. It’s not exactly my cup of tea, as the experience rate is way too fast. It’s almost Jade Dynasty or Magic World Online style throwaway because you can pretty much kill everything on the screen with your most basic attacks. I Think game developers need a better way to eliminate grind from MMORPGs without doing it with a built in bot.

New Wave of Browser MMORPGs

I’ve talked about browser MMORPGs and MMOs in the past, but it’s outright remarkable how many new browser games are launching each and every week. Even though these numbers are impressive, it’s a bit sad that every single new game launching is pretty much the same old thing we’ve seen before. DDTank – one of the newer browsed based games that launched on Aeria Games and numerous other portals, is a shameless Gunbound clone that makes no attempt to hide that fact. If you’ve ever played Gunbound, it’s downright funny how similar DDTank is to Gunbound. I guess it’s better than seeing yet another WoW Clone – as there are countless WoW clones already. I think 4Story, Runes of Magic and Allods Online are all pretty shameless, but at least these games are genuinely fun to play. DDTank isn’t bad, but Gunbound is much better imho.

Gamigo released the browser based strategy MMO Cultures Online last month, and even though it does make an effort to differentiate itself, the game still looks and feels like every other strategy game. To be fair, it’s a tad bit original as it does mix Shakes and Fidget style slow paced RPG gameplay with Ministry of War style strategy elements. Might and Magic Heroes Kingdoms launched 2 months ago, and the game seemed promising. Too bad after playing it for a few weeks, the game really didn’t offer anything original. For a game built on such an epic franchise, I expected a lot more out of it. I mean aside from a handful of unique browser based MMOs like Urban Rivals, Adventure Quest Worlds and Roblox, it’s fair to say that the genre has a definite lack of originality. I can’t be the only one this burnt out of strategy games…

I think the problem is that every game company is trying to make a quick buck – so instead of investing a lot of time and money into making a new product, they figure that making a cookie cutter strategy game like Grepolis or Travian is the way to go. In their defense, developing a totally original game like Pirate Galaxy or Nadirim could be very expensive. Just look at BigPoint – they spent over $5 million developing PoisonVille and the game has been an utter failure so far. BigPoint is making a ton of money off of Deepolis and Dark Orbit, which were both much cheaper to develop! Making a cheesy strategy game is the easy way out for most developers. Too bad most of these strategy games are failures – as games like King and Conqueror and World of LordCraft simply cannot compete with the more established games.

So hopefully the next few months will bring some much needed innovation to the browser game platform, because as is, I’m really disappointed. I think the only really impressive game that launched on the browser recently is Sacred Seasons 2, but it’s not entirely original either. It plays a lot like an regular MMORPG.

Dancing MMOs.... EVERYWHERE

Why are there so many free to play dancing MMOs? I honestly have no idea. I think the first dancing game (not MMO, just game) was Dance Dance Revolution. The first dancing MMO I played was Dance Online back when Acclaim Games published it. Ever since they went bankrupt, the game did eventually relaunch as Super Dance Online through Cubizone – a Malaysian MMO publisher. Luckily, the game itself didn’t change much. In fact, the Malaysian version was much more popular than the U.S. Version Acclaim had. For some reason, every MMO publisher decided that they needed a dancing game. Snail Games launched ShowUp (which actually launched as 5Street. It changed its name to Showup much later). Even the Korean MMO juggernaut Nexon jumped onto the bandwagon when they launched Audition Online. Now I played audition Online for a while, and I do have to admit the gameplay and visuals were faily polished. After all, Nexon has always been known for publishing some of the highest quality free to play titles out there. Their current portfolio of titles by itself is very impressive actually. They have Vindictus, MapleStory, Combat Arms, Mabinogi and Dungeon Fighter Online. Notice I left out Audition Online from that list? That’s because Nexon eventually shut audition Online down, but luckily the game didn’t shut down for good. Just as Acclaim Games closed Dance Online and it relaunched sometime later, Audition Online relaunched through RedBana – which is actually owned by T3Fun which publishes CardMon Hero and Aika Global.

Anyway, the purpose of this entry is to talk about how all of these dancing MMOs are all the same. Obviously they’re not all identical, but they’re just as similar as Combat Arms from Nexon and Sudden Attack from GameHi are similar. They’re basically the same games, except with slightly different visuals. Even Perfect World jumped on the whole dancing game bandwagon when they launched Hot Dance Party (Steps). Unfortunately, this one isn’t available in North America. It’s published through Cubizoe in Malaysia, but those in North America can still access it, as it has no IP blocks. I actually played every single one of these games, as I generally enjoy these rhythm based titles, as I think they require a lot of skill. They’re also very much competitive. In fact, you could argue that they’re just as competitive as any FPS or League of Legends style Aeon of Strife game. Unlike FPS games though, these dancing MMOs don’t differentiate themselves in gameplay. They all share the same button pushing DDR style gameplay mechanics. The only thing that really separates Super Dance Online from Hot Dance Party is its visuals. MMO Shooters like Alliance of Valiant Arms and Genesis A.D. Although similar, so have some different gameplay mechanics. Unfortunately these dancing games don’t.

The thing about dancing MMOs is that not a single one is particularly successful in North America. So I’m not sure why there are so many of them. I think Osu! Is the most popular rhythm based multiplayer game, but it’s not even a traditional dancing game. I think it’s popular because it’s actually does something different while everyone else is off copying each other.

Garena Getting into the F2P MMO Business?

It seems like Garena, the app best known for allowing gamers to compete against each other via a hamachii sort of Lan, is getting into the free to play MMO business. I remember using Garena to play Defense of the Ancients (DotA) with my friends and others back when my buddies didn’t all have CD keys to play on battle.net. Nowadays we can play free to play aion of strife games like League of Legends from Riot Games and Land of Chaos Online from Alaplaya, so we don’t exactly need to use Garena anymore. But thousands of people, mostly outside of the U.S, still use it to play various games with each other. I think most people use it when they pirate games and don’t have CD Keys – playing through Garena allows them to play multiplayer without a cd key or a valid account. Garena is quite big today but it’s slowly transforming itself into an MMO publisher. The company already publishes the MMOFPS Blackshot in both Europe and Asia (No U.S. Version of the game exists. Outspark, best known for Fiesta Online and Fists of Fu was supposed to publish it, but they never did.).

Aside from Blackshot, Garena also has Go Kart, which is the same exact game as GoGo Racer, which GamersFirst published for a short while. The game never launched in North America, as GamersFirst postponed it, along with Parabellum, delayed Go Kart indefinitely. It’s too bad actually, as the game itself wasn’t that bad. I mean aside from Racing Star: Come on Baby, it was the only silly Kart Racing MMO out there. Nexon used to have Kart Rider, but they shut that down years ago (In North America. It remains popular in South Korea). Unfortunately, like Blackshot – Go Kart isn’t available world-wide. Instead, the game is restricted to only a handful of regions. Another neat thing about Garena is that they inked a deal with S2 Games to publish Heroes of Newerth in certain regions as a Avalon Heroes / League of Legends style free to play game. In Europe and North America, the game remains buy to play – just like Guild Wars.

I think the biggest problem Garena has having is the lack of global licenses. If Garena published say Priston Tale 2 world-wide, I think the game would be quite successful. Currently the game is ONLY available in EU and South East Asia. No one in North America can play it. The cool thing about Netmarble and Aeria Games is that they have a lot of games available on the international level. Netmarble for example publishes Uncharted Waters Online, a Voyage Century / Pirates of the burning Sea style game world-wide with no IP restrictions (Except Japan / Korea). Aeria Games has several IP restriction free games too including the new Legendary Champions and Dynasty Warriors Online. Having games without IP restrictions is a big deal, as everyone can play on the same service. Having the game’s audience fragmented only makes the game feel more empty. At least that’s how I feel on the whole MMO IP ban thing. I sort of hope someone offers Argo Online or Luvinia Online world-wide as I don’t want that game to have IP restrictions. Garena offered their VPN / LAN services world-wide, so seeing them publish games is cool, but it sucks that all of their games have so many IP restrictions. I don’t think they have any game published in North America.

Camon Hero Revived as CardMon Hero

Remember Camon Hero from Uforia? It’s a card based fantasy MMORPG that was supposed to begin open beta testing in early June 2010, but never did. Months went by with no word about when the game is actually going to launch or if it will ever launch. Then – out of the blue T3Fun announced that they would be launching Camon Hero World-wide as “Cardmon Hero”. Uforia left a lot of gamers upset when they completely abandoned Camon Hero back in June 2010. I’m actually not too surprised they pulled a stunt like this, as they’re not exactly well known for their class. Their Game Masters in Mercenary Wars and Red War (two games published by Uforia) are extremely unprofessional. I think the only playable MMORPG they have on their website is NosTale. Everything else they publish is trash. I think Mercenary Wars is actually the worst MMOFPS out there – much worse than Mission Against Terror from Suba Games. Anyway, I’m getting distracted (again). I’m just glad that Camon Hero isn’t dead and it’s actually going to release. The game’s closed beta began on November 9 or so, but there’s no word on when the open beta will begin yet.

CardMon Hero is one of the few card based MMORPGs out there. I think aside from CardMon Hero – the only other client based card game is Wizard101 – but that’s more of a kids MMORPG than CardMon. Plus it’s a turn based MMORPG, Cardmon is a bit more actiony. There are a few browser based MMOs with card mechanics – such as Urban Rivals, but those are completely different than Cardmon Hero. Cardmon Hero is a game that I think will appeal to a lot of people. It has low system requirements, fairly crisp anime inspired graphics, and a ton of unique skills. What I personally really like about EverQuest 2 from Sony Online Entertainment and The Lord of the Rings Online from Turbine is their unique skill systems. Cardmon Hero has a classless system where players have access to EVERY skill in the game. However, players can only equip skills if they’re using the appropriate weapon. Certain skills can only be equipped if you’re using a 2H sword, 1H sword, Staff, Etc. Skills in CardMon hero are in the form of cards. You don’t start with very many cards, so while you’re grinding and exploring, you’re also finding new cards, which are basically new skills. I think the only other MMORPGs without set classes are Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble and Ultima Online from Electronic Arts.

I had a chance to play Cardmon Hero in its closed beta phase and I was quite impressed. The game has some 100+ skill cards and an equal amount of summon cards for a total of 200+ skills. The thing that makes the game really interesting is that each character has access to hundreds of skills. If you want to use some ranged attacks – simply equip a staff. If you want to use some melee AOE attacks simply equip a 2H sword. Your weapon type determines which skills you have access too, which is an incredible dynamic. Even though the game’s graphics aren’t nearly as pretty as Heroes of Three Kingdoms or Jade Dynasty, the game still offers a lot to do. It’s a game I’ll make sure to play in open beta.

Soul Master Dead. But It's Relaunching

GamesCampus recently announced that their new side scrolling MMORPG Soul Master would be shutting down and entering the MMO Graveyard. Even though Soul Master is a 3D side scrolling game, much like Dragon Saga, it’s still a game that has appealed to the 2D MMORPG crowd quite a bit, mostly because of its graphics and flat plane style. So even though it’s technically 3D, it plays like a 2D game. The reason GamesCampus gave for shutting the game down was because the game didn’t meet their quality standards. They said that the game will relaunch 6-8 months down the road with new graphics, more content and a better interface. Basically it’ll be completely redeveloped and then relaunched. I guess now that they’re closing the game down, they’ll be able to divert their attention to their other games including Legend of Edda, Shot Online, Drift City, Asda Story. They also publish the World War 2 MMO Heroes in the Sky.

Since Soul Master will be shutting down on the GamesCampus service, but I wonder what’s going to happen to the Gamigo version of the game, for the European market. Gamigo largely publishes European MMORPGs, but they have several games available in North America, such as King of Kings 3 and the browser MMO Cultures Online. Soul Master on Gamigo never launched into release the same way the GamesCampus version did, so whether Gamigo will hold off on releasing the game remains to be seen. It’s always upsetting to see an MMORPG game shut down, whether it’s permanent or just temporarily. Luckily for Soul Master it should be temporary. I played Soul Master for a while and really liked its unique blend of Battleforge style RTS and Dungeon Fighter Online style action oriented gameplay. What really sucks about Soul Master shutting down is that it was a really unique MMORPG. Seeing unique games shut down is terrible, especially when very generic 3D fantasy games like Hero Online from Netgame and Conquer Online from TQ Digital thrive. Though not every generic fantasy MMORPG is thriving – just look at Craft of Gods from Kalicantus and Archlord from Webzen. These once pay to play MMORPGs haven’t exactly been thriving as free to play games, the same way The Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online have prospered.

I’m getting a bit side tracked though. I think anyone who bought premium currency through the Soul Master MMO cash shop should be upset. Heck, anyone that even PLAYED Soul Master has the right to be upset. Odds are when the game is relaunched, if its relaunched, player characters will be wiped. So not only did people lose their money in the game’s cash shop, they lost their characters, which I’m sure some people have invested hundreds of hours into. If my MapleStory or Wonderking Online character was wiped, odds are I’d never play those games again. I think everyone who got “screwed” by GamesCampus is not going to play the new Soul Master game again, regardless of how good it is, as getting their characters wiped left players with a bad taste in their mouth. I sort liked the anime MMORPG graphics in Soul Master too. I’m just happy I didn’t commit to my character on there. I’ve actually been playing some Fists of Fu lately from Outspark, and I’d be furious if my character on there got deleted.

When is Altis Gates going to Release?

When is Altis Gates going to come out? IGG originally promised the game’s release nearly a year ago now. The game was supposed to be a 2D turn based MMORPG which was supposed to play a lot like Myth War 2 Online and Wonderland Online. Too bad the game never made it to release. I’m not ready to completely write the game off yet, as IGG never officially announced that the game would shut down and join the MMO Graveyard. They did announce the game would be delayed indefinitely though, so we could see Altis Gates join the huge list of delayed MMORPGs which may never get released. Come to think of it, IGG has been dropping the ball lately, as they haven’t released any unique MMORPGs or in fact any new games recently.

The only new game IGG launched lately has been Tales of Fantasy, which is a pretty bleh 3D MMORPG and Tales of Pirates 2, which is basically the same exact game as Tales of Pirates, with minor graphical tweaks. I didn’t really like Tales of Fantasy, because even though it has good graphics, the gameplay just looks and feels bland. It’s a fairly generic Chinese developed MMORPG, which brings nothing new to the table. While IGG has been releasing these substandard games, Perfect World Entertainment has been growing like crazy. They launched the mega successful Battle of the Immortals, a killer fun Diablo 2-esque action MMORPG, and Forsaken World. They also launched a major content update to their enormously popular Jade Dynasty game while announcing the “Genesis” update for Perfect World. They also announced a brand new game – Legend of Martial Arts, which will be entering closed beta testing in late November. So why is IGG dropping the ball so much lately? How come they didn’t have any major new game releases?

Well, I really don’t know. I do think IGG has several really well known and popular MMORPGs though. Games like Godswar Online, Angels Online and Voyage Century for example, are all quite popular. How long Voyage Century will remain popular though is something I can’t quite answer – as Uncharted Waters Online – the new ship based MMORPG from Netmarble is now competing with Voyage Century. Uncharted Waters Online is an incredibly popular Japanese MMORPG. And we all know how crazy some Westerners are for all things Japan. Dynasty Warriors Online from Koei has been midly successful in the West already. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Uncharted Waters Online took away some players from Voyage Century. Many of IGGs games have remained pretty stagnant too. Games like Zu Online and Aurora Blade haven’t really received any major updates in quite some time. Even their browser MMO Lords Online hasn’t gone anyway in some time. While on the topic of IGG dropping the ball, they also never released Dreamland Online, which is another game that seems to be indefinitely delayed.

Ever since I played Atlantica Online from Ndoors and Pet Forest from PlayOMG, I’ve been pretty fascinated with turn based MMORPGs. I’m looking forward to trying Altis Gates if it ever does come out.

When is Altis Gates going to Release?

When is Altis Gates going to come out? IGG originally promised the game’s release nearly a year ago now. The game was supposed to be a 2D turn based MMORPG which was supposed to play a lot like Myth War 2 Online and Wonderland Online. Too bad the game never made it to release. I’m not ready to completely write the game off yet, as IGG never officially announced that the game would shut down and join the MMO Graveyard. They did announce the game would be delayed indefinitely though, so we could see Altis Gates join the huge list of delayed MMORPGs which may never get released. Come to think of it, IGG has been dropping the ball lately.

The only new game IGG launched lately has been Tales of Fantasy, which is a pretty bleh 3D MMORPG and Tales of Pirates 2, which is basically the same exact game as Tales of Pirates, with minor graphical tweaks. I didn’t really like Tales of Fantasy, because even though it has good graphics, the gameplay just looks and feels bland. It’s a fairly generic Chinese developed MMORPG, which brings nothing new to the table. While IGG has been releasing these substandard games, Perfect World Entertainment has been growing like crazy. They launched the mega successful Battle of the Immortals, a killer fun Diablo 2-esque action MMORPG, and Forsaken World. They also launched a major content update to their enormously popular Jade Dynasty game while announcing the “Genesis” update for Perfect World. They also announced a brand new game – Legend of Martial Arts, which will be entering closed beta testing in late November. So why is IGG dropping the ball so much lately? How come they didn’t have any major new game releases?

Well, I really don’t know. I do think IGG has several really well known and popular MMORPGs though. Games like Godswar Online, Angels Online and Voyage Century for example, are all quite popular. How long Voyage Century will remain popular though is something I can’t quite answer – as Uncharted Waters Online – the new ship based MMORPG from Netmarble is now competing with Voyage Century. Uncharted Waters Online is an incredibly popular Japanese MMORPG. And we all know how crazy some Westeners are for all things Japan. Dynasty Warriors Online from Koei has been midly successful in the West already. So I wouldn’t be surprised if Uncharted Waters Online took away some players from Voyage Century. Many of IGGs games have remained pretty stagnant too. Games like Zu Online and Aurora Blade haven’t really received any major updates in quite some time. Even their browser MMO Lords Online hasn’t gone anyway in some time. While on the topic of IGG dropping the ball, they also never released Dreamland Online, which is another game that seems to be indefinitely delayed.

Ever since I played Atlantica Online from Ndoors and Pet Forest from PlayOMG, I’ve been pretty fascinated with turn based MMORPGs. I’m looking forward to trying Altis Gates if it ever does come out.

MMORPGs and Graphics

New MMORPGs like Vindictus, King of Kings 3 and Forsaken World bring a lot to the table – most notably better visuals. It shouldn’t be any surprise that graphics amongst free to play MMORPGs are improving, as technology keeps getting better. In fact, even older games such as Mabinogi and RuneScape have undergone major graphical overhauls since their original release dates. The thing is though – even though graphics keep getting better, some people are being left behind. A lot of gamers out there don’t have powerful enough PCs to handle the more visually intense games. I guess the reason why older MMORPGs like Fly For Fun, MapleStory and Rappelz are still popular is because more people can actually play them.

Don’t get me wrong – MMORPGs like Vindictus that have top notch graphics are great. Heck, I was just playing Savage 2 the other day and I love the game’s graphics. Graphics most certainly do matter in games, it’s just that games that shoot for ridiculously high quality graphics are sort of screwing themselves over. The most popular MMORPGs today aren’t the best looking. Just look at The Legend of Mir 2, Fists of Fu and Fiesta Online. These games are relatively successful, but the graphics in them are nothing to write home about.

I think the company that found the perfect balance between graphics and gameplay is Perfect World Entertainment. They publish Perfect World, Jade Dynasty, Forsaken World, Heroes of Three Kingdoms and Ether Saga Online. All of their games look great and feel great, but don’t require high end PCs. If you do have a high end PC, you can play these games on 1920×1080 resolution with anti-aliasing, shadows and all that jazz, but if you’re on a lower end PC, you can still play these games, just on a lower setting. Perfect World Entertainment is good at optimizing their games to run well on older machines.

I think ChangYou has the right idea between graphics and gameplay too. Their newest game Zentia looks fine on new PCs, but it’s also designed to run smoothly on much older, weaker computers. The same applies for their two other games – Dragon Oath and Blade Wars. Netmarble made sure their Uncharted Waters Online game runs well on older PCs too, which is good. Runes of Magic on the other hand runes decently on older computers, but the problem with it is the download is way too big. No one wants to sit and wait for a 6+ GB game to download and install. I think that’s the game’s biggest drawback. 4Story and Gates of Andaron on the other hand, aren’t nearly as big, which is why they’re able to grab players from Runes of Magic. RoM is a much better game, but the download just takes too long.

So what game do you really like that strikes a good balance between visuals and gameplay?

MMOs That are Aging Well

As new free to play MMORPGs like Vindictus, Kitsu Saga and Iris Online launch, older games like Shaiya, Last Chaos and MapleStory are starting to show their age. If you compare Shaiya or Last Chaos from Aeria Games to any of the newer titles out – you’ll quickly realize that Shaiya and Last Chaos aren’t aging too well – in terms of graphics that is. The fascinating thing however is that both Shaiya and Last Chaos are still around and being updated. The same goes for MapleStory. In fact, MapleStory is over 5 years old, yet it’s still growing incredibly fast. It’s still one of the most popular free MMORPGs ever – with over 100 million accounts world-wide. Even Rappelz and Fly For Fun from gPotato are still around and growing. It may sound surprising, but Fly For Fun is actually more popular than both Allods Online and Aika at the moment, and it’s over 5 years old. How can a 5+ year old game with lousy graphics be more popular than a game like Allods which cost over $10 million to develop is fascinating. It shows that older MMOs can age well. Another example of an older MMORPG that has aged well is RuneScape from Jagex and Tribal Wars from InnoGames. Browser games tend to age really well, mostly because visuals on browser games haven’t improved too drastically over the years – though Unity wants to change all of that now.

I think the reason some older MMORPGs are still a big success is that graphics aren’t the most important thing in the world. Users are clearly looking at things like gameplay and content when deciding which game to play, and older MMORPGs like Hero Online, Silkroad online and Grand Chase have more content than newer games, as they’ve been around for a longer time – meaning, they had more time to add content, instances and characters to their games. Obviously newer MMORPGs like Fists of Fu, Uncharted Waters Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online have numerous advantages too, but people are clearly more interested in gameplay and content than visuals. Having good visuals certainly helps, as I think so many people became fascinated with Vindictus because of its graphics. The game has solid gameplay mechanics too, but its beautiful graphics are what pulled in users while the gameplay kept them hooked. This theory applies to FPS games too. Just look at Cross Fire from Z8Games – it’s HUGELY popular, even though Cross Fire isn’t exactly a new game. In fact, Alliance of Valiant Arms has 10x better graphics, but it has a smaller playerbase.

Are there any older MMOs you still play? I personally still MapleStory and GunZ, even though they’re both old games with less than stellar graphics. I’m also more interested in gameplay elements than visuals. Because if I wanted “good graphics” I’d watch a movie. When I’m playing an MMO or an MMORPG, I want fun gameplay. Visuals help, but in the end gameplay is what matters.

9Dragons Relaunches on GamersFirst – Woot!

GamersFirst, the free to play MMO publisher best known for War Rock, Knight Online and Sword 2 recently relaunched 9Dragons. 9Dragons is a 3D martial arts themed MMORPG that the now defunct Acclaim Games used to publish. Playdom – the social games company behind Market Street, Kogaumu, and a handful of other facebook games actually bought playdom in early 2010. The purchase was clearly a mistake, as Playdom shut down the Acclaim website along with ALL of the games Acclaim used to publish (Including 9Dragons). Luckily, GamersFirst saw this as an oppurtunity to expand and bought the North American license to run 9Dragons from Indy21 (The independent Korean game developer who made 9Dragons). I’m actually not too surprised that 9Dragons was brought back to life as it was easily the most popular MMORPG that Acclaim had. I personally wasn’t a big fan of the game, as the graphics were a bit lacking and the interface felt a bit clumsy. For martial arts themed games I’d much rather play Twelve Sky 2 or even World of Kung Fu than 9Dragons. I’m not saying 9Dragons is bad, because it isn’t. The game has a fairly sizable playerbase, so there’s clearly something to the game.

I think 9Dragons is successful because it’s one of the most PvP heavy martial arts MMORPGs out. The game has 9 “clans” and two factions. The factions are at war with each other and the game also features open ended PvP where players can pretty much PK each other anywhere in the game world. Dragon Raja, Conquer Online and Legend of Edda are some of the only other MMORPGs with open world PvP. Plus, the faction battles in 9Dragons should keep things interesting. They aren’t as ridiculous as the 1000 vs 1000 faction battles of Aika Online, but the PvP in 9Dragons beats the PvP in more modern games like Runes of Magic and Heroes of Three Kingdoms. I do suspect that some of the newer PvP MMORPGs like King of Kings 3 may be superior, but only time will tell whether those games will be successful or not. 9Dragons has already proven itself to be a sustainable game over the last 3+ years. The game launched in North America and Europe back in early 2007 in case you guys didn’t know.

My only concern about 9Dragons is that it might not be able to “keep up” with new MMORPGs like The Lord of the Rings Online and EverQuest 2 which both recently became free to play games. Sony Online Entertainment also announced that they will be making Pirates of the Burning Sea free to play too. These are just the pay to play MMORPGs going free to play. There are a ton of triple-a free to play MMORPGs which launched this year including Vindictus from Nexon, Uncharted Waters Online from Netmarble and Forsaken World from Perfect World Entertainment may eventually put 9Dragons out of business. It’s difficult for older games to compete with newer ones with vastly superior graphics. Some people pretend that graphics aren’t important, but the fact is graphics do matter. People tend to like games with better graphics. It’s just the way it is.

So will 9Dragons be a success on GamersFirst or no? Will it be able to compete against newer MMORPGs? I personally think it can’t, but only time will tell.

Great MMORPGs with low end System Requirements

Have an old low-spec computer but still want to play some free MMORPGs? Well, you can. There are actually a lot of really popular MMORPGs out there that run smoothly on older computers. The graphics for these games aren’t super high end, but they’re still really fun MMORPGs that you can play on an older PC. Anyway, the list below has the top 5 best MMORPGs for low spec computers:

#5 – Grand Chase

Grand Chase is a somewhat old MMORPG from Ntreev – the same MMORPG company behind Trickster Online and Pangya. The game has 3D character models but the game is largely 2D and flat as it’s a side-scrolling MMORPG. It’s one of the highest rated free to play MMORPGs and it runs perfectly fine on most older computers

#4 – Conquer Online

Conquer Online isn’t an old game, but it does have low end 2D graphics. The game is brought to you by TQ Digital and is well worth playing because it has an enormous playerbase, intense PvP and plenty to do. It’s a game most people would look at (screenshots) and pass on because of the graphics, but don’t let the visuals fool you. Even though the graphics aren’t the best the gameplay itself is fun. The game is a bit similar to EuDemons Online, The Warlords and Zero Online – three other games from the same company

#3 – Rumble Fighter

Rumble Fighter is the original fighting MMO. It’s currently being published by OGPlanet and is definitely a fun game to try if you’re looking for a fighting game to play. Come to think of it there aren’t very many fighting games, but Rumble Fighter is definitely an interesting game. It takes quite a bit of skill to master, so don’t give up!

#2 – Lost Saga

Lost Saga is another fighting MMO from OGPlanet, but Unlike Rumble Fighter, it has crisper anime inspired graphics. The game will run on most older PCs, but don’t except to be able to run the game on anything too ancient. Pretty much any Pentium 4 or high end Pentium 3 should be able to run the game. It’s one of the better brawler MMOs. I like it more than Rumble Fighter because it has more characters.

#1- 4Story

4Story is sort of like Runes of Magic and Allods Online, except with worse graphics. In this case worse graphics is a good thing, as it means the game will run better on an older computer. Even though the visuals are worse than Runes of Magic and Allods, they aren’t that bad. In fact, it’s safe to say that 4Story has the best graphics out of all the games on this list! Definitely try 4Story!

Favorite MMORPGs

Everyone has an MMORPG or two that they really love. Most people really like their first MMORPGs, I know I do. The first MMORPG I played was the original EverQuest game from Sony Online Entertainment back in 2000. I absolutely loved that game and felt really immersed in it. It’s actually the only MMORPG that I felt Immersed in. But that’s largely because it’s the first MMORPG I played and have a bias towards it. I think most people love their first MMOs. But there are a few MMORPGs out there that I can always go back to and enjoy.

One of the MMOs I can go back to and enjoy is MapelStory from Nexon. Yeah, I know what some of you are thinking, but MapleStory is easily one of the most popular free MMORPGs for a reason. It has so much content. The reason I can always go back to it and play it is because there are so many playable classes in the game. Since the Evan update, I think the game has 15 or so starting classes. Many more if you count all of the job advancements. So every time I go back to MapleStory, I just roll up a new character and try a new class. Plus the game has transformed itself from a grind based game to a quest based MMORPG over the years. It’s not nearly as “grindy” as it used to be when it launched. Another reason I love MapelStory is that Nexon does an awesome job keeping it up to date. Just look at Combat Arms, Vindictus and Mabinogi too – they’re some of the most in depth and constantly updated MMOs out there. Keeping a game regularly updated keeps users coming back for more.

Another free to play MMO that I really enjoy that I can go back to often is Alliance of Valiant Arms from ijji. Why? Because it offers something different than other tactical MMOs – real progression. Games like Sudden Attack from GameHi and Operation 7 from Netgame are fun for a while, but they get boring after a while because they don’t have any real progression. You can rank up in those games, but ranking up doesn’t really get you anything. Same with Wolfteam and Soldier Front. There’s no point to ranking up. Alliance of Valiant Arms on the other hand has a boat load of unlockable medals, achievements and skills. It’s one of the few MMO Shooters, aside from perhaps Battlefield Heroes, that has a skill system. Plus it’s not an MMORPG, so the game doesn’t take a huge time commitment.

Another free to play MMO that I can go back to for fun is Lost Saga from OGPlanet. In my opinion, it’s the best brawler MMO. It beats both Zone 4: Fight District, Rumble Fighter and GetAmped 2 because it has more variety. The game has some 15+ playable characters, each with their own distinct set of skills and abilities. I mean how awesome is that? Plus the anime inspired graphics are really well made, giving the game a unique look.

Anyway – What’s your favorite free MMORPGs? Perhaps that a poor way of wording it. What MMOs do you regularly go back to?

Pirates of the Burning Sea is now Free to Play

Sony Online Entertainment announced that Pirates of the Burning Sea would go free to play. The announcement came in September, 2010 – just a month or two after EverQuest 2 went free to play as well. It looks like Sony is really beginning to embrace the free to play space – but what made them do it? I think their success with Free Realms really got the ball rolling. Free Realms was their first truly free to play MMORPG and within a year of launch, the game reached an audience in the millions. How successful EverQuest 2 or Pirates of the Burning Sea will be as a free to play title remains to be scene though. It’s too soon to tell right now. I suspect that once Electronic Arts launches Star Wars: The Old Republic – Sony will have to make Star Wars Galaxies free to play too – as there’s no way the 7+ year old Star Wars MMO can compete with the latest and best from Bioware. It’s just not possible.

So what pay to play MMORPG will go free to play next? Turbine really got the ball rolling with Dungeons and Dragons Online a year or so ago and raised the stakes by making The Lord of the Rings Online free to play too. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons – The Lord of The Rings Online was successful as a pay to play game. It didn’t have to go free to play to survive – the same way Archlord, RF Online, DDO and Rose Online did. These MMOs were failing so bad as pay to play MMORPGs, that they HAD to go free to play in order to survive. Unfortunately, some MMORPGs failed so fast they didn’t even have a chance to try the free to play model – most notably APB. Ragnarok Online also recently went free to play. Gravity launched an official free to play server called Valkyrie. It’s not too popular, but it’s cool to see the game as a free to play title.

So which pay to play MMORPG will go free to play next? I feel that Warhammer Online is it. Warhammer Online will go free to play before other games because Electronic Arts has already begun embracing the free to play genre with Battlefield Heroes, FIFA Online and Tiger Woods Online. They’ve already launched numerous free to play titles and they will likely convert Warhammer Online to a free to play game within a year or so. Especially if the playerbase declines further. NCSoft will hopefully do the same with Lineage 2. Why do I think so? The playerbase for Lineage 2 has been in decline in the U.S. For years. The game is also free to play in Russia and South Korea already – so going free to play in the West wouldn’t be such a huge event. I suspect Lineage 2 will go free to play within 2 years. So with so many free to play games, why pay for pay to play MMORPGs?

With so many games going free to play and so many triple A free to play games launching (Think Vindictus), 2010 has been a great year for F2P. I suspect 2011 will be even better though.

Unique Ideas for MMORPGs

It seems like there are more and more fantasy MMORPGs coming out each and every month. Legend of Edda and Iris Online should be coming out late September. Vindictus began its early access open beta on September 15 and The Lord of the Rings Online went free to play on September 10. Fantasy MMORPGs are growing like crazy. But what about sci-fi MMORPGs? Aside from perhaps Zero Online from TQ Digital, CosmicBreak from CyberStep, Clone Wars Adventures from Sonly Online Entertainment and GhostX from GameKiss there aren’t any sci-fi themed MMORPGs out there. The genre definitely needs more attention. You’d imagine a sci-fi themed game would be easier to develop, as its an untapped market and the sci-fi genre is enormous. Time traveling, space battles, diplomacy and more. There are so many awesome sci-fi concepts that developers could use to make their games interesting, but MMO developers seem to be sticking with fantasy themed games.

Another untapped genre for the free to play space is Superhero MMORPGs. Why aren’t there any of them? There are a few pay to play ones like City of Heroes and Champions Online – but there isn’t a SINGLE free to play superhero themed game. Why? Disney has been embracing free to play MMOs quite a bit with Club Penguin, World of Cars, Pixie Hallow and Pirates of the Caribbean Online – so you’d think they would make a superhero themed MMORPG, but nope. I say Disney would make a superhero themed game, because they own Marvel Enterprises, and Marvel is the huge comic company behind well known superheroes like Spiderman and Iron man. So what’s Disney waiting for? They could make a ton of money if they made a sweet superhero themed game. They could even make it a browser MMO like Pirates of the Caribbean Online.

Another genre that developers need to pay more attention to is the third person MMO shooter genre. As is, aside from Battlefield Heroes, MicroVolts, S4 League and GunZ, there aren’t any other third person MMO shooters – but there are a ton of first person shooters. In fact, there are already a boat load of upcoming MMOFPS games like Karma: Operation Barbarossa and Genesis A.D. But there aren’t any new third person MMO shooters. I’m actually a fan of MMO shooters in general, but it sucks to see such little variety in the genre. Especially since 99% of MMO shooters are counter-strike like tactical MMO shooters where people die in 1 or 2 hits.

Think any other MMO genre deserves some more attention? Leave it in the comments below. I’m curious what you all think!

Nanovor MMO Evolves Thanks to Unity

When Nanovor first launched, it wasn’t a very exciting game. Players had to download the nearly 500 mb client and battle using bug-like creatures in a mostly 2D arena. Worse still, the background was solid black. No color, no flavor, and certainly not much depth. Even at that time I was asking myself, “couldn’t this have been done on a browser?”

Well it looks like the answer was ‘yes!’ Smith and Tinker, the development studio behind Nanovor, has recently launched a brand new version of the game called Nanovor Evolution. The new version has replaced the old one, meaning there’s no going back. This has upset a small pocket of veterans, but it was a logical step in taking the game forward. Nanovor Evolution was designed using Unity, a powerful yet easy to use game development tool. Now, Nanovor only requires a tiny browser plugin rather than a huge client. Better still, the graphics and gameplay have been vastly improved. The character designs, background, and environments are now fully three dimensional. The game can now compete directly with other turn based MMORPGs and pet themed MMORPGs like Bakugan Dimensions.

Nanovor Evolution is only the latest in a series of free to play browser based MMOs and MMORPGs to utilize Unity. Cartoon Network’s FusionFall was perhaps the first major MMORPG to use Unity and it has better visuals and more high quality content than most client based MMORPGs! Games like Nanovor Evolutions have superior graphics than client based MMORPGs like Hero Online from Netgame and Dragon Oath / Zentia from ChangYou. There’s also Tiger Woods Online by Electronic Arts. That’s a major video game publisher throwing its weight behind Unity. The game has beautiful golf courses, and can be played in short bursts thanks to the auto-save feature which remembers player progression through a course. Silverlode Interactive, the studio behind the MMORTS Saga also has a Unity based browser game. It’s called Captains of DarkTide and is set at sea. Players can command a variety of ships, visit distant ports, and fire broadsides against one another.

Unity is not just a browser game tool, it can be used to create large single player games as well. But for a variety of reasons, I believe it will generally be put to use to create browser games that look and play as well as traditional client games. When more and more studios discover the versatility of the tool, they will flock to it. How long till social MMORPGs and facebook games use Unity? The developers of Nanovor Evolution already have several job listing on their site for Unity developers. Expect other companies to follow.

New MMORPGs with Amazing Graphics

September so far has been a great month for free to play MMORPGs. Why? Because so many awesome free to play MMORPGs with top notch graphics are being released. Unfortunately, there aren't many new 2D MMORPGs, but there are tons of 3D ones. The Vindictus early access open beta begins September 15 and Vindictus is easily one of the best looking free to play MMOs out there. Nexon really out did themselves this time, as the graphics in the game are vastly superior to games like The Elder Scrolls 4: Oblivion and Dragon Age: Origins which were both praised for having top notch graphics. When I first saw Vindictus I was surprised to learn that Nexon publishes it, as Nexon is best known for MapleStory, Dungeon Fighter Online, PopTag!, and Mabinogi – four anime MMORPGs which look like they’re designed for kids. Vindictus on the other hand is more like Requiem from Gravity than anything else, as it has blood graphics. The game was built on the Source Engine, which powers many of Valve’s games – including Alien Swarm. I think the only other free to play MMO that uses the source engine is K.O.S. Secret Operations from YNK interactive. But that’s an MMOFPS – while Vindictus is an MMORPG.

Aside from Vindictus the next major MMORPG release comes from Turbine as they released The Lord of the Rings Online as a free to play game on September 10. Prior to September 10, the game has been pay to play. In fact, the game has been running successfully as a pay to play MMORPG since April, 2007. Unlike Dungeons and Dragons Online, which Turbine also launched as a free to play game, The Lord of the Rings didn’t NEED to go free to play. The game was very successful as a pay to play title, and Turbine is taking a big risk by making it free to play. I hope the game is a big success though. I’m downloading it right now to play, but it’s taking forever as the game client is like 8GB in size.

Another cool release this month is MicroVolts from RockHippo productions. The game is an online Toy Shooter that looks and plays a lot like Valve’s Team Fortress 2. It’s an MMO third person shooter that looks and plays like S4 League, except with a more distinct anime look. The game is pretty original as it has a third person view while most MMO shooters including the popular Combat Arms, Soldier Fromt and Operation 7 all use first person views. Plus the game isn’t another “Modern tactical” game, where players look like Swat members. Instead, the game is cartoony and takes place in various areas inside of a house. Players are technically dolls, so they’re really small. This makes the level’s really different, as it’s easy to hide in corners. It’s one of the more interesting MMO shooters. My only complaint with the game is that there’s some serious lag issues for North American users.

Another new release for September is Maestia from Big Point. It’s a 3D fantasy MMORPG that looks really incredible. The visuals are between Karos Online and Aika Online. I was surprised to see BigPoint published Maestia, as BigPoint is better known for browser games such as Dark Orbit, Sea Fight, And Deepolis rather than client based titles. Regardless, Maestia looks awesome and it’s coming out September 15.

Aside from maybe Iris Online and Legend of Edda, that’s it. Those two games are also new, but they aren’t anything too impressive – in terms of graphics that is.