by James Taylor

Created on: June 10, 2009   Last Updated: June 28, 2009

There are many upon many different MMORPG's out there in the market today. I'll start off by saying that if you truly want a good MMORPG, you are going to have to pay for it. In my experience, I've come to realize that there is a reason why some are P2P (pay to play), meaning paying a monthly fee and some are free. The free MMORPG's may keep you entertained for a few weeks but, it will be nothing too long. Also, after playing and trying and testing tons of different free MMORPG's out there, I've noticed that most of them are the same.

Yes, I realize that most people sitting on their computers reading this are gasping and saying "How could he even say that" but it's true and you know it. If you look at them they all consist of cash shops, which are shops with items available to buy for real money. The cash shops are necessary for the company to make money, as the core game is free, but, they essentially ruin the game.

With cash shops you get wealthier people being able to increase their levels faster and getting all the top tier weapons and armors through the cash shops, leaving the casual gamers not wanting to spend money, left behind, especially in PvP, which brings me to another point. PvP (player vs. player). This is when players compete with each other instead of competing with the games AI and environment. This provides a new challenge to the game and sort of gives a reason for all your training and armor and weapons.

Most free MMORPG's lack good PvP, some classes of characters being over powered and others being far under powered. This creates an imbalance (obviously) in the game and makes it unfair and essentially un-fun for the players stuck playing the under powered classes. This imbalance also pretty much negates the point in having PvP at all, which again, will make the game that much more boring. Another point that makes them the same is the lack of real quests. All quests consist of "go kill 15 of these monsters and come back to me when you are done" or they sometimes spice it up a bit and add a "collect me 20 of these flowers and come back to me".

Now, I'm not telling you to forsake all free MMORPG's altogether but, from my experience I would not recommend staying with them for too long. Sure the free ones are good if you are just getting into the genre. Actually, I'd say that if you want to start getting into MMORPG's, I'd start with a free one, but, eventually if you like the genre enough, I would recommend you to move on to a P2P one. These games would consists of games like World of Warcraft, Lineage, and my personal favorite, Warhammer Online. These games are far superior to the free ones. Of course this is expected or else there would be no point in paying for it. These games have overall more content, are more balanced, and provide varied quests.

The PvP is also more developed and the game is just an overall better experience. That all being said, you should look at different lists of MMORPG's, try out different ones until you know what you like and dislike before moving on to a P2P one or maybe you like the free ones and want to spend money on the cash shop, who knows. So yes my overall advice to MMORPG's is: Try different ones, look around, find what aspects you enjoy, and what you don't enjoy, then, when you feel comfortable enough playing them and have your opinions, start looking for a better one.

Learn more about this author, James Taylor.
Click here to send this author comments or questions.