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.

Lost Saga MMO Has Awesome Graphics

Lost Saga, a fighting MMO from OGPlanet, has some really awesome anime inspired graphics. The graphics are actually a mix of Western and Eastern animations, as they blend graphics from games like Cloud Nine from Netgame and Team Fortress 2 from Valve. I’m surprised other new MMORPGs don’t opt for “easy on the eyes” style cartoony graphics, as in my opinion games with brightly colored anime graphics are the best. At least in terms of graphics. I loved the visuals in Battlefield Heroes, Bright Shadow and even Luna Online. One of the main benefits of cartoony graphics is low system requirements. Brand spankin’ new MMORPGs like Martial Heroes and Vindictus look great, but not everyone can play them due to the high system requirements. I figure games like Mabinogi and Secret of the Solstice are popular because they’re easily accessible. Shiny new graphics aren’t always the best, as they require most expensive graphics cards to run.

I think newer games need to start looking closely at games like Lost Saga for inspiration. Lost Saga seems to be the most popular fighting MMO out there and even found its way into the World Cyber Games tournaments. The game is more popular than Mini Fighter Online from Netmarble and Rumble Fighter from OGPlanet. The other reason why Lost Saga is rockin is because of its incredible amount of variety. The game has like 20+ playable characters which can all be leveled up individually. Players can switch between them mid game as well, so if you ever get bored of playing one “class” you can simply switch! Some new games like Heroes in the Sky also have excellent variety, but other newer titles seem to forget that gamers WANT variety. Variety and choice in my opinion is what makes Lost Saga so fun. Gameplay of course is important too.

Seriously though. I appreciate pretty 3D graphics as much as the next guy, but I sometimes think that better graphics do more harm than good. The most popular free MMORPGs today are the simplest ones. Games like RuneScape and Dungeon Fighter Online for example have simple graphics that most computers can run without lag. 3D MMORPGs on the other hand tend to be less accessible all around, at least the newer ones. So MMO Developers. I urge you guys to take a page from Lost Saga’s book and focus on making your games more fun and varied rather than “pretty”.

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!

A 2D Racing MMO Would be Amazing

There are already a handful of free to play racing MMOs available to play from the realistic Project Torque to the more insane battle racing game UpShift StrikeRacer, but there aren’t any real 2D racing MMOs. A 2D side scrolling racing MMO with pitfalls, obstacles and such would be awesome. After all, games like LaTale and WonderKing have proved that 2D games can be incredibly popular if done right. This racing game would need great sleek 2D graphics. I imagine it would be cheaper to develop a 2D game than a 3D one anyway, but I could be wrong.

The 2D MMO scene has been getting better and better, as there are new 2D MMOs coming out regularly, with the newest one being Destiny Online. You also have oldies like Endless Online and DarkEden, which are okay. My two favorite MMORPGs are for sure Conquer Online and Grand Chase though. Both games are distinctly different, but fun. Conquer Online is by TQ Digital and focuses on intense PvP combat while Grand Chase by Ntreev, focuses more on player cooperation through dungeons. I’m actually a fan of both types of games. I also really like Lunia by ijji. That game is amazing. It’s a bit linear but as a fan of RPGs in general, that doesn’t bother me at all.

Anyway, I’m getting a bit off topic =]. There are so many sports MMOs, Racing MMOs, MMOFPS games and more, so why shouldn’t there be a 2D racing MMO? It would be cheap to develop and I can already imagine how fun it would be in my head. Putting a game from my head into reality though would be difficult though. I guess for now I’ll have to be content with the games out there. I’m going back to playing one of my favorite free MMORPGs – Luminary: Rise of the Goonzu. If you guys haven’t played it, do yourselves a favor and give the game a chance it’s quite epic and has an entirely player controlled economy.

The Only 3D MMORPGs I like Are Anime Themed

For some reason the only 3D graphics I like in MMORPGs are either cute themed or anime inspired. I guess I have a thing for bright cheerful games. I still like 2D graphics the best, but after that I prefer anime inspired graphics. Games like Bright Shadow and Cloud Nine have gorgeous graphics. I really like the ’sleek’ and beautifully rendered anime graphics in these games. More so than the actual gameplay, which is pretty sad. I also feel the same way about Fiesta Online, the most popular MMORPG that Outspark publishes. The cel-shaded anime graphics are really high quality and visually appealing.

Aside from regular anime MMORPGs, I also really like cute MMORPGs for some reason. Cute MMORPGs are usually super bright and chibi, which in my book is instant win. Ether Saga Online and Luna Online are examples of great cute MMORPGs. I actually play both of these games regularly. Even though I like these kinds of games though, I still prefer GOOD 2D graphics over anything in the 3D department. What’s interesting though, is that I don’t even watch anime or read manga, but I still like anime style graphics in my MMOs. How weird is that?

At the moment I’m downloading a new anime inspired MMORPG – Emil Chronicle Online. It’s not exactly new, but it’s new to me, as I’ve never played it before. If you guys want to catch me in game, my name will be xAnimaaa! From what I've read about the game, it's supposed to be a lot like Ragnarok Online. The game is, after all, also published by Gravity. Gravity publishes both Ragnarok Online and Requiem: Memento Mori

zOMG! And 2D Browser MMROPGs

Browser MMORPGs as a whole aren’t too popular. The only really popular one is Runescape, but that’s not exactly 2D, it’s more 3D. One fun browser MMO I ran into the other day is zOMG! And it’s published by the same dudes behind Gaia Online. The game is also set in the same Gaia universe, but unlike the social MMORPG Gaia Online, zOMG! Has a stronger emphasis on actual MMORPG style gameplay – kill enemies and level up. Unfortunately, most browser based games nowadays are generic strategy MMORPGs like Empire Craft and Lords Online where you build up an empire and battle it out. Not that these games aren’t fun, but I’m just not a fan of them.

Come to think of it, aside from zOMG! There are very few 2D browser based MMORPGs. I mean there are games like MechQuest and AdventureQuest, but these are more single player games than anything else, as there’s minimal interaction between players. The only other real 2D browser MMORPG I can think of is Adventure Quest Worlds, which is actually an awesome game. I don’t count games like Tanoth and Gladiatus, as those games use still images rather than actual graphics. Those games aside, zOMG! And Adventure Quest Worlds are the only real 2D browser MMORPGs.

I suspect this will change in the coming years, as browser based games are getting big. Not just the strategy ones either. Big download sizes in client based games like Runes of Magic and Dungeons and Ether Saga Online are turning a lot of users away from those games. And who can blame them? I don’t want to wait 20 hours to download Runes of Magic. That game is like 6GB big and that’s like 5% of my entire hard drive. Browser games make more sense as they don’t usually require any downloads. 2D MMORPGs are good too, because they tend to be small installs.

Anyone else mad that there are so few 2D browser MMORPGs? I know I am :(.

Mini Fighter Online is Great

Anyone here ever play a fighting MMO called Mini Fighter Online? If you haven’t, you definitely should. It’s a really interesting fighting game that knocks the socks off of Rumble Fighter and GetAmped 2. Heck, the only other fighting MMO that stands a chance in comparison is Lost Saga, which is neat because of its variety.

Mini Fighter Online plays a lot like Street Fighter, but instead has chibi anime inspired characters. The cool thing about Mini Fighter is that aside from its PvP MMO elements where you square off against other players via Street Fighter style combat, you can also explore the persistent world MMORPG aspect of the game. So it’s an MMORPG and an MMO at once. I don’t think very many games do that. What I’m trying to say is that you can play straight up Street Fighter style gameplay against others across various games modes or you can leave the PvP area and fight enemies outside of town, like you would in any fantasy MMORPG.

The game is published by Netmarble, the Korean MMORPG giant. They actually just launched their global portal recently and plan to bring over Koongya Adventure, Oz Chronicle, Wego, Ys Online and Prius Online over to the North American audience. I’m actually looking forward to all of these games, as Mini Fighter Online is that awesome. I like it more because its unique than anything else. The mechanics are good, but the uniqueness makes it awesome.

Woot! Digimon Battle is Awesome

I finally got around to downloading Digimon Battle and I have to say I really like it. I think I like it more because I’m sucker for Digimon and turn based games, than the game’s actual merits, but I think its worth checking. The only real issue most people will have with the game is its graphics. It is a 2D MMORPG, but the 2D graphics aren’t modern or ’sleek’ the way they are in newer MMOs like LaTale or Battle of Destiny. If you can look past the graphics though, Digimon Battle is a pretty solid pet raising game. Even though you start off with a single Digimon, you can easily catch more at anytime. The way the game is designed is that players can catch pretty much any Digimon they bump into. One thing that sucks is that the Korean version of the game is much, much further ahead in terms of development. Digimon Battle has been available in South Korea for over 8 years now and came to North America sometime in March 2010. So the game only has 50 or so Digimon in the entire game, vs the some 500+ Digimon in existence.

The company behind Digimon Battle, Wemade, also developers a few other MMORPGs. Interestingly, they are almost all 2D (Yay for 2D!). The other games WeMade develops are Avalon Heroes, Mir 2, and The Legend of Mir 3. If you’re a fan of either Digimon or Pokemon, Digimon Battle is certainly worth the download. Combat is also simple enough that younger gamers can learn the ropes rather easily. Everything is turn based and things start off really easy. In fact, the game never gets too challenging, but the real thrill behind it is trying to build the perfect ‘team’. The perfect lineup of Digimon. Players can field up to three Digimon at once, so there’s room for a lot of variety.

I’ll likely be playing the game for a while, provided that WeMade adds more content to the game. I’ve only been playing for a few days and I’ve already almost maxed out. I’m starting to think that they should have developed the game a bit more before releasing it. Anyone else here play Digimon Battle? If so, leave your username in the comments!

Good Graphics are Over Rated. It's all about Gameplay

I’ve been an MMORPG gamer since the days of Ultima Online in 1999. For me, a good game has nothing to do with graphics, but rather gameplay and gameplay alone. Since I grew up with older largely 2D games, pretty graphics don’t really mean that much to me. I’ve also been a big fan of RPGs since I first played Chrono Trigger when I was younger, so I have an affinity towards turn based MMORPGs. Unfortunately for me though, the only turn based MMORPGs these days that are 2D tend to have lame gameplay. IGG has two big turn based fantasy MMORPGs – Myth War 2 Online and Wonderland Online. Neither are terrible, but neither are exceptional either. In fact, the only good looking 2D turn based MMORPG is Altis Gates, and that isn’t even out yet.

A few weeks ago I downloaded a game called Tales of Fantasy from IGG. It’s their newest game has boasts some impressive graphics. I downloaded it and logged in and play for a few hours. Aside from the pretty animations and environments, I was far from impressed. In fact, I couldn’t even play it for more than a few hours as combat felt stale and moving around from point A to Point B just took too long. I’m not saying all 3D games are over rated, I’m just saying good graphics are over rated. The most important aspect of a game is its gameplay mechanics. If a game isn’t fun, it doesn’t matter how awesome or realistic the graphics are. One of the few 3D MMORPGs I really like is Atlantica Online, but I like that game because of its solid gameplay mechanics, not its visuals. The company behind Atlantica was actually purchased by one of my favorite MMO developers last week – Nexon. For those that don’t know, Nexon publishes MapleStory, Mabinogi, Combat Arms and Dungeon Fighter Online. The last one, Dungeon Fighter Online, being my favorite MMORPG of all time. That’s a story for another day though.

What do you think? 3D vs 2D? Are graphics in MMORPGs important or no? Let me know in the comments below!