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.

2D Browser Based MMORPGs

There are a ton of browser games out there from 3D titles like FusionFall and Pirate Galaxy to text based strategy MMOs like Urban Rivals and Astro Empires. Unfortunately, there aren’t that many actual 2D MMORPGs with persistent worlds. I believe zOMG! From the same guys that made Gaia Online is one of the only ones. ZOMG! Is actually a surprisingly good game. This is coming from a guy who doesn’t like social games like IMVU or Gaia Online. So aside from perhaps zOMG! There aren’t that many 2D browser based MMORPGs – ones that have persistent worlds. There’s no shortage of games like Evony, The Seventh Dragon, Caesary of Grepolis though. For some reasons companies keep churning out these garbage strategy games. I say garbage, only because most them are just clones of each other. Seriously. Tribal Wars and Travian were the first two browser based strategy MMORPGs – everything else just copied them. Shamelessly too.

How awesome would it be if say MapleStory were browser based? It’s definitely possible. Heck that game COULD run on Flash, as the graphics aren’t too advanced. I’m sure many client based 2D MMORPGs could run perfectly fine on the web browser, especially since the Unity Web Player is incredibly powerful. Unity Web Player powers great looking browser games like FusionFall and Captains of Darktide. So it could definitely power simpler 2D MMORPGs. That is, if the Unity Web Player even supports 2D development. But if all of these epic looking 3D browser games are launching, we should start seeing some good looking 2D games as well.

Neverland Online from HiThere is one example of a persistent world browser based MMORPG that works well. The game is quite fun and has a strong emphasis on pets. It actually plays a lot like Zodiac Online from EnjoyMMO and Monster Forest from AsiaSoft. Graphically, the game looks just as good as many client based 2D MMORPGs. The problem is there are so few games like Neverland Online (graphically). Most browser based games nowadays are either 3D (through the Unity Web Player) or text based with still images. 3D games aren’t bad either, but I’d definitely like to see more companies embracing 2D graphics, as I find them easier on the eyes.

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?

Are Facebook Games Free MMOs?

As Facebook gets bigger and bigger (it’s currently the second biggest website on the internet) more and more games will launch on it. Some of the most popular Facebook games these days are Farmville, Mafia Wars and Petville. For the most part these games aren’t MMOs, but they do have cooperative elements, so it wouldn’t be unfair to classify them as free to play MMOs. After all, they are all free and they are online. I actually started playing these “social games” on Facebook pretty recently, and I’m not quite sure what to think of them. It’s not exactly fair to compare them to full blown MMORPGs like Heroes of Might and Magic Online from TQ Digital and Digimon Battle from WeMade, but there are fair comparisons out there.

YoVille for example is a social Facebook that plays a lot like Gaia Online or even OurWorld. Both Gaia Online and OurWorld would be considered traditional free to play browser MMOs, so there is room for comparison amongst these games. As is, Facebook games are absurdly popular. Farmville for example has some 30 million active users on Facebook. That’s on par with mega popular MMORPGs like LaTale from OGPlanet and MapleStory from Nexon. Though it doesn’t quite surpass RuneScape from Jagex yet. Still, 30 million active users. Wow. That’s quite a number. The thing about Facebook Games is that they only started popping up a year or so ago, so within a years time they exploded in popularity and became mainstream!

As I said earlier, I really don’t know what to think of these games. I tried playing both Treasure Isle and YoVille yesterday and neither kept my attention for long. Treasure Isle did keep me entertained a bit longer, but meh. To be fair, I did like Farmville, but that’s only because I’m a fan of the Harvest Moon games. I remember playing the N64 Harvest Moon game for at least 50 hours! The game boy advanced one – Friends of Mineral Town was also a good one. Aside from Treasure Isle and Yoville though, I also gave Social City a try, which was basically a Sim City style city building game. It was a bit too basic for my liking, but the concept behind it was pretty neat. I did get bored of it in an hour though.

I guess Facebook MMOs just aren’t my thing, at least the ones available today. Maybe they’ll get better in the future. Who knows. For now though, I think I’ll stick with my client based MMORPGs. On that note, I just finished re-downloading Lunia from ijji. Since I first played the game a year or so ago, the game has went through a bunch of major updates, so it should rock now. Anyway guys! Later!