Piracy, Magic, and War: Free MMOs

Published on August 15, 2008 By blitxxx In PC Gaming

The gaming industry has gripped the internet revolution to make titles more interactive than ever imagined. Along with revolution comes cost.

While Blizzard are offering the retail edition of World of Warcraft for $20, it will cost an additional $29.99 for the Burning Crusades expansion. Regardless of maybe not wanting the expansion, to simply play WOW will cost you an additional $15 per month. This method of monthly subscription based MMO accounting started several years ago and has yet to cease. Even in a world filled of piracy, the software developers do not lose money on massive multi-player gaming. Unfortunately some of these technologies are becoming very costly on top of our monthly internet bills....

A more friendly approach was for developers to charge for titles and allow free gameplay, as the game has already truly been purchased. Valve and Sierra are great examples of this method. Half-Life Deathmatch, Team Fortress, Opposing Forces, Counter-Strike, and Day of Defeat are still 100% free to play spanning 10 years after the initial release. This has proved to keep loyal followers for ages, as there are still 8 year Counter-Strike veterans pawning the servers. Thanks to the games never expiring nor asking for a monthly access fee, veteran gamers do not complain when the games are greatly updated to the new engines for purchase (Counter-Strike Source, etc). More recent examples of this method include Quake Wars: Enemy Territory.

More recent is the "Free to Play" titles that feature optional upgrades for purchase. This means that you can play the full featured game for free, but if you would like a quick start with ranking and items, you do have the option to purchase a starter pack. Some of the leading "Free to Play" titles are

Bounty Bay Online

Bounty Bay Online brings us to the Caribbean seas to trade as a merchant, to seek quest for treasures, to wage war against other colonies, battle over deep waters, and more. BBO is 100% Free to Play. There is however an online shop to purchase Starter Packs and various items intended for the eager players that do not wish to earn their ranks and items.

Cabal Online

Coming to the fantasy front is Cabal Online. Cabal brings 6 character classes, over 100 NPC's, 9 environments (similar to Diablo), a modern battle system (similar to Final Fantasy: Crises Core), player partying for coop play, and many quests.

Combat Arms

Bringing us to the modern warfront is Combat Arms, a fps title closely resembling the Call of Duty series.... and what is better than the Call of Duty series? A free game that is just as good. Features include ranking, weapon customization, custom charecters, and 8 enviroments ranging from deserts to jungles,

Comments (Page 1)

Mumblefratz

on Aug 15, 2008

More spam?

Annatar11

on Aug 15, 2008

Gamespot recently (well, June) also wrote an article on free-to-play MMOs, giving some examples. You can find the article here.

I was actually surprised that it listed golden oldies like Shattered Galaxy. I still launch it once in a while, if you can live with the graphics, it's pretty fun to play!

More spam?

Not really, since it's posted in Off-Topic > PC Gaming. Perfectly appropriate place for a thread detailing free games to play.

Kitkun

on Aug 15, 2008

This even sounds like an advertisement...

Annatar11

on Aug 15, 2008

Well, sort of.. I mean it is giving links to free games to play. I didn't think of it as spam though.

*shrugs* To each their own I guess

strikersgun

on Aug 15, 2008

advertisement that works while waiting for the demigod beta cabal looks like a good time waster since im sick of WoW private servers and the bugginess why havnt i heard of it before

Annatar11

on Aug 15, 2008

Strikersgun, kindly vacate the premises of my head

I thought the same thing

Cabal doesn't look bad actually, I'll probably give it a shot this weekend.

Mumblefratz

on Aug 15, 2008

Actually this guy posted three posts in short order that are either selling something or promoting a "free" external site.

There's the Anti-Malware Toolkit where he's clearly trying to sell something.

Then there's Batman Game Details Revealed where he's promoting some soon to be released game by a company I've never heard of and then this post.

All of these were posted within a span of 4 minutes and he's never previously posted anything else.

The first post I encountered was the Anti-Malware Toolkit which seemed to me to be a blatent sales pitch. I could see how the other two posts could seem to be a little more innocuous taken in isolation but to me the three all togethter spell a spammer and I recommend that his account be deleted.

Annatar11

on Aug 15, 2008

Yeah, I just noticed the other posts actually. I guess under those conditions it can be counted as spam, but then again it's not really malicious either.

Fishbreath

on Aug 15, 2008

I looked at the Gamespot article Annatar linked to.

...I'm going to have to have a look at this Air Rivals thing.

Mumblefratz

on Aug 15, 2008

Yeah, I just noticed the other posts actually. I guess under those conditions it can be counted as spam, but then again it's not really malicious either.

Perhaps not. In any case all I'm really pointing out is my opinion. Generally there's a set of forum rules that usually prohibit selling things or even promoting other sites but I can't seem to find any such thing here.

It's just that I've seen things like this in the past and in general Kryo came along and deleted them in fairly short order. Admittedly in those cases it was far more apparent that it was a bot spamming stuff indiscriminately and these posts seem better thought out and more appropriately placed so it seems that an actual human is probably responsible.

Anyway if Kryo thinks they're spam then I'm sure he'll delete them and if he doesn't, he won't.

Loomismeister

on Aug 15, 2008

Thanks to the games never expiring nor asking for a monthly access fee, veteran gamers do not complain when the games are greatly updated to the new engines for purchase (Counter-Strike Source, etc).

What veteran gamers of CS are you talking about? When went to source a large majority of veteran gamers quit because it was an awful step in the wrong direction...

Thawn716

on Aug 16, 2008

Um what I don't get is why he groups online shooters and MMORPG's in the same box. It's expected (generally from my experience) that an online shooter is for free, MMORPG's well I generally don't care for them. Had some fun playing wow until my trial ran out and then there was no way I was paying for it (no offense to those who like the game it just isn't for me).

Aractain

on Aug 16, 2008

Are chineese people farming the internet for information and then trying to sell us it on froums? Why didn't this thread start with the title "Cheap mmos! BUY BUY! You discount yes! go to www ChinaOwnsTheInternet com!"

KingBingo

on Aug 16, 2008

As sales pitches go, its well written and non-offensive.

Kitkun

on Aug 16, 2008

As sales pitches go, its well written and non-offensive.

Well... yeah.

And Combat Arms ain't half bad.

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