Pay to Play Games that Need to be Free to Play

There are a bunch of pay to play games that should no longer be pay to play. Older MMORPGs like Dark Ages and Nexus: The Kingdom of the Winds come to mind. Both of these MMORPGs are incredibly old (7+ years old) and are 2D games. With games like Dungeons and Dragons Online and The Lord of the Rings Online going free to play, there’s no reason for these games not to follow suit. Even EverQuest II From Sony Online Entertainment re-launched as a free to play game! So with these awesome 3D MMORPGs becoming free to play, what the heck are incredibly old games like Nexus and Dark Ages doing? Heck Shattered Galaxy and Poxnora should be free to play to. Neither of these games are exactly thriving. The playerbase for these games are all in steady-decline.

If Dark Age of Camelot, Dofus or Warhammer Online went free to play – I’d be playing them right now. They’re all incredible games, just not worth the subscription fee. I mean, why Pay for these three mediocre pay to play games when I could be playing WoW or a triple-a free to play MMORPG like Runes of Magic, Fiesta Online or Vindictus. There are a ton of free to play alternatives for pay to play games, so it’s very difficult for pay to play games that aren’t WoW to compete. I remember logging into the MMO free trial for Pirates of the Burning Sea and I was shocked to see the game completely empty. I know the title launched with a bang, but the playerbase has declined significantly since the game launched.

So why should these older MMORPGs go free to play? Simple. It could revive them. Dungeons and Dragons was ready to shut down as a pay to play game, but as soon as it became free to play, the game became a HUGE success. I mean, HUGE. It’s definitely one of the more successful free to play game soul. Other pay to play MMORPGs like Archlord and RF Online from Webzen did not have the same success. I think that’s because they weren’t as “high quality” as Dungeons and Dragons Online. I’d love to see Warhammer Online or Age of Conan go free to play as these games are really high quality and could be very successful. I actually really want to play Nexus: The Kingdom of the winds again, but I don’t want to pay for it. It’s one of the first 2D MMORPGs I’ve ever played and I really liked it for some odd reason.

Any pay to play MMORPGs you would play if it were free to play?