8 Free-to-Play MMORPGs Worth Checking Out

ffronw

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Oct 24, 2013
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8 Free-to-Play MMORPGs Worth Checking Out

Check out these eight MMOs that you can play without spending a penny.

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TheSpyIsASpyWDZ

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Dec 15, 2012
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Ooh, this topic reminds me of something. I myself play World of Warcraft on a private server running WotLK, and it's a server that's free to play on. I've paid over $600 on retail, so I was just curious if anyone here considers private servers piracy or not piracy. Just curious if anyone has any opinions on that.
 

Objectable

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Oct 31, 2013
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Star Trek online is one of the best MMO's out there. Thanks for putting it on teh list, dude.
 

Darks63

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Mar 8, 2010
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I have to say I overall give SWToR a big meh out of 10. The pvp is too arcady and the same map pops too often. The PVE is ok until higher levels where it becomes really tedious and annoying.

I also didn't find the stories to be all that compelling either.
 

008Zulu_v1legacy

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Sep 6, 2009
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I know Star Trek Online is free to play, the free to play model is actually very good (compared to Star Wars), but I bought the Lifetime Subscriber for STO. Best $200 (it was on sale) I ever spent.
 

schtingah

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Jun 1, 2011
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I love SW:ToR, I really do. It's an awesome MMO. That's only if you're actually paying money to play however, as it has what is probably the worst F2P model out there, so I can't quite say I agree with it being on this list.
 

jklinders

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Sep 21, 2010
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I think I lucked out in SWtOR. I'm what they call preferred status player which means by default I have some of the better features unlocked (paying money for even one thing in the shop gives you this). Before the player driven market went completely insane I was able to get a few account unlocks that got me the rest of the good stuff minus the end game operations for free. Not possible now with the credit cap being what it is and inflation in the economy killing the ability to get anything.

I rarely team up with other players unless finding a group is easy so it works for me. Pretty decent free game with a lot of content. I really have no complaints.

It sucks balls to be a f2p player though. At least give them access to trading ffs.
 

Broderick

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May 25, 2010
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TheSpyIsASpyWDZ said:
Ooh, this topic reminds me of something. I myself play World of Warcraft on a private server running WotLK, and it's a server that's free to play on. I've paid over $600 on retail, so I was just curious if anyone here considers private servers piracy or not piracy. Just curious if anyone has any opinions on that.
I would probably consider it piracy. You are playing a subscription game for free, on an illegally run server. I generally don't give a toss who plays what, but piracy is always something I am a bit iffy on. I get the purpose of most private servers; relive the old days of the various WoW expansions when they were released. At the same time though, you are using a paid service for free, from a third party's client. WoW even has specific parts in the terms of service telling people not to do this, lest their account be terminated and possibly be fined.

So from a legal standpoint, it could be argued that it could be considered piracy. Frankly, I haven't paid for a WoW sub in forever thanks to the Credd/plex system they have in place now, so most people dont even have the "I'm poor" excuse now. Not to say you were going to use that of course, I just hear that a lot when people try to argue in favor of pirating WoW.
 

Hawki

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Is Path of Exile even really an MMO? I mean, there's hubs of players, but I'd sooner classify it as an ARPG with online elements rather than an MMO first and foremost. Well, meh. Didn't play it for long. Or Rift for that matter.

On the flip side, nice to see LOTRO mentioned.
 

09philj

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Spiral Knights is pretty good. It's a cutesy dungeon crawler with a nice difficulty curve and a fair amount of loot for players who don't pay.
 

ffronw

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Oct 24, 2013
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Hawki said:
Is Path of Exile even really an MMO? I mean, there's hubs of players, but I'd sooner classify it as an ARPG with online elements rather than an MMO first and foremost. Well, meh. Didn't play it for long. Or Rift for that matter.

On the flip side, nice to see LOTRO mentioned.
Path of Exile is as much an MMO as the first Guild Wars was. Very similar setup with towns as social hubs and an instanced world.

I've been in and out of LotRO since beta. I had to include it here.
 

J Tyran

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Dec 15, 2011
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STO is pretty good now, the F2P system is sneaky the way it counts on a combination of nostalgia and peer pressure but the nickle and dimming has lead to it being profitable enough to actually get some content compared to earlier on where the End game was pretty much just Borg. Now you can focus on the enemies you enjoy fighting or want to earn the gear for and there is quite a varied group of enemies with six main "end game" groups.

The whole "Iconians did it" gets a bit old story wise, just about every plot thread that got dropped or never continued in all the decades of Star Trek gets attributed to the Iconians but one or two of the "Episodes" are entertaining in their own right.
 

VanQ

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Oct 23, 2009
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I'm surprised that TERA isn't on the list. It has easily the best real action combat in any MMO out there. Not to mention it's exceptionally pretty.
 

Fdzzaigl

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schtingah said:
I love SW:ToR, I really do. It's an awesome MMO. That's only if you're actually paying money to play however, as it has what is probably the worst F2P model out there, so I can't quite say I agree with it being on this list.
Definitely not the worst F2P model out there if you've ever seen the Asian games that require you to shell out thousands of dollars to even be somewhat competitive :p

That said, new players should probably treat SW:TOR as a "free trial only" game. As they're far too harsh on F2P players to keep playing that way. Sadly it's also driven by their community, with a lot of people in it who spit on F2P players.

First list in a while that I can agree with. Didn't enjoy Skyforge but all those games are definitely worth checking out.
 

Remus

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Nov 24, 2012
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Neverwinter is very reminiscent of ESO, except it's more grindy and quests largely come from hubs, oh and it's more dependent on the cash shop to get anything of value. On the other hand, it's nothing at all like ESO.... well ok, the combat is similar but that is all.
 

Rad Party God

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Feb 23, 2010
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Rift has been a nice surprise for me, even though it limits you a lot of stuff if you don't pay a dime, all content remains accesible, leveling up isn't gimped like in SWTOR and the previous restrictions goes away when you pay as little as $5, if you buy the latest expansion, you basically don't need to unlock a thing, you get almost everything.

I wish more games use this model, buy an expansion from a F2P game and even if you really don't need it to enjoy said content, you get a lot of nice stuff when you buy it and you support the devs. It's a win-win situation in my eyes.
 

Clankenbeard

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Mar 29, 2009
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Hawki said:
On the flip side, nice to see LOTRO mentioned.
I like that Warner Brothers and (more specifically) Turbine got a little love here as a good Free-to-Play (FTP) MMO. To my recollection Turbine piloted the whole FTP concept with Dungeons & Dragons Online -- an MMO that I still go back to now and then despite it being like a decade old. The player base was dwindling and the FTP system righted the ship to keep them solvent to this day. The combat system in DDo still shines in comparison to many others.
 

Corven

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Sep 10, 2008
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Also i just got an email this morning that said guild wars 2 base game was going free to play for those interested.
 

2xDouble

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Mar 15, 2010
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As of today, you can add Guild Wars 2 to the list. Seriously, try this game.

https://www.guildwars2.com/en/news/play-for-free-today/