Weird Free to Play MMOs / MMORPGs

With all the free to play MMORPGs and MMO Games out there, it’s

no surprise that some of them are just plain… weird. Here’s a short list
I compiled of five weird free to play games. They are in no particular
order.

Racing
Star: Come On Baby

Get this. A baby themed racing MMO.
Weird, right? What makes this game even more bizzare is that the babies
in it race at some 100+ km/h in their strollers. Whatever the game’s
developers were smoking when they made this game.. I want some of it!

Nanovor

Apparently there are cybernetic creatures
inside of our computers. Sounds a lot like Digimon, doesn’t it? This
game isn’t bad at all, but it’s designed for kids mostly. I’d skip this
one and play Digimon Battle
instead.

Secondhand Lands

Secondhand Lands centers around a weird
battle between Sheeps and Wolves, led by Little Bo Peep and Little Red
Riding Hood. Weird? Confusing? Yes. To make things even more bizzare
the game’s world is filled with random fairy tale characters like
Mother Goose and Humpty Dumpty.

Dungeon Party

This one was designed to be bizzare from
the get-go. Choose from one of three characters and find the hidden
treasure and take it out of the dungeon alive! Other players will try
to stop you while traps and enemies will also get in the way.

Crazy Tao

This is the exact same game as Eudemons and Conquer
Online except with cartoony graphics. It’s only on this list
because it’s weird that the company behind Eudemons and Conquer Online
would release the same game with different graphics.

Why Aren’t Turn Based MMORPGs More Popular?

As a big fan of console RPGs, I’m a bit surprised that there are
only a handful of turn based free to play MMORPGs out there. You’d
imagine with the immense popularity of turn based single player RPGs
like the Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest series there would be boatloads
of free to play MMORPGs jumping on the turn based bandwagon, but that
isn’t the case.

There are a bunch of low quality turn based MMORPGs available, but
the only really high quality one I can think of is Ndoor’s Atlantica Online.
All of the other turn based MMORPGs Mythwar 2 Online, Altis Gates and Fairyland Online
just feel really cheap. Plus all of these 2D turn based MMORPGs all feel
like knock offs of each other. If you’ve played Zodiac Online
or Wonderland Online,
you’ll quickly notice that these games are incredibly similar. In
fact, they’re almost identical. So why aren’t there more good turn
based MMOs out there?

It can’t be because of a lack of demand. Atlantica Online is easily
one of the most popular and successful free to play MMORPGs out there
and it’s turn based. So there’s clearly demand for high quality turn
based MMOs out there. As an avid fan of RPGs like Final Fantasy,
Suikoden and Dragon Quest I’m always looking for new turn based MMORPGs
to try out, as franky, i’m a bit tired of all the WoW clones
(Allods
Online, Runes of Magic, Neo Online,
etc).

Where are all the Sci-fi MMORPGs?

As a big fan of Scifi I’m a bit disappointed that there are so few free to play scifi MMORPGs out there. With well over 120+ fantasy MMORPGs, you’d think that one or two game developers would decide to put out a sci-fi game, but nope. That never seems to happen. MMORPG Devs seem to think fantasy is the way to go. As of now (March 13, 2010), the only free to play scifi themed MMORPGs are Megaten, RF Online, Zero Online, Project of Planets, GhostX, Anarchy Online and 2029 Online. Unfortunately every single one of these games are at least 2+ years old. There hasn’t been any new scifi themed MMORPGs in ages. Luckily, Black Prophecy may change that. For those of ya that haven’t heard of Black Prophecy, it’s a 3D Sci-fi MMORPG that aims to compete with Eve Online.

You’d think with the enormous popularity of Star Wars and Star Trek, there would be more similarly themed MMORPGs out there, but that isn’t the case. I guess you could argue that there are a few pay to play scifi themed MMORPGs, but I’m not a fan of paying for the MMORPGs I play =). Besides, I hear Star Trek Online is a total flop anyway. And that’s sad to hear. Atari and Cryptic could have done so much more with Star Trek Online.

One of the main reasons why I’m shocked to see so few scifi MMORPGs is that with so many fantasy games out there, you’d imagine game developers would try something new. I mean, what’s the point in competing with 100+ GOOD fantasy MMORPGs, when you could release a scifi game and only compete with 10 or so mediocre MMORPGs. I guess we Scifi fans have to wait until Black Prophecy to have our day.

A Pokemon MMORPG Would Rock

Just think about it. How awesome would a free to play Pokemon MMORPG be?  Hundreds of thousands of players could connect to one large game world where they could catch, train and battle Pokemon. Come to think of it, it wouldn’t be that difficult to make. GameFreak, the developer behind the Pokemon games, could easily port Pokemon DIamond and Pearl to the PC and add a persistent world. I know both Diamond and Pearl had wi-fi multiplayer components, but an actual persistent world MMO would be so much more awesome. With hundreds of MMORPGs out there, the world needs a Pokemon MMO.

With millions of Pokemon fans out there, it wouldn’t be too farfetched to assume that a decently made Pokemon MMORPG would be an instant hit. Nintendo needs to get on the ball and get into the free to place space before it’s too late. Wemade’s Digimon Battle, a free to play Digimon MMORPG, is scheduled to launch late March. I don’t know about you guys but Digimon always felt like a second-rate Pokemon to me, so seeing that succeed while a potential blockbuster like Pokemon would suck. With games like Dungeons and Dragons Online, Runes of Magic, MapleStory and Grand Fantasia making money hand over fist, there’s really no reason for Nintendo NOT to release a pokemon MMORPG.

Are PvP MMORPGs The Future?

MMORPG publishers seem to think so. Aeria Games recently announced Kingdom Heroes which promises “Large scale kingdom warfare” while gPotato’s PvP heavy MMORPG Aika is scheduled to begin its Open Beta on March 16. Even more recently, Gamigo announced that they would be publishing King of Kings 3, a Taiwanese MMORPG that boasts PvP battles that can accommodate up to 10,000 players in a single battlefield. The one thing all of these games along with many other upcoming titles have in common is that they all have a strong emphasis on PvP combat. For some reason, it seems like every major MMORPG publishers is jumping on the Realm vs Realm PvP band wagon.

What do you guys think? Do you guys actually want more PvP in your MMORPGs? Personally, I don’t think making an MMORPG with PvP the sole focus is good idea. After all, the most successful games don’t focus entirely on PvP. I think a game needs the right balance of PvP and PvE to suceed, but game publishers seem to think gamers want more PvP MMORPGs.

Anyway, leave your comments below.

We Need More MMO Racing Games

Even though there are hundreds of free to play MMORPG and MMO games on the market, there really aren’t enough MMO racing games out there. In fact, the only MMO racing games I can think of off the top of my head are Project Torque, Project Powder, Tales Runner, Drift City and Upshift Strikeracer. These games are all decent at best and what really bugs me is that there aren’t any real popular MMO Racing games. Nexon used to publish an awesome kart racing MMO called Kart Rider, but since it’s open beta 3+ years ago, there hasn’t been any word on whether the game will ever be released or not. I don’t know about you guys, but I think Kart Rider was awesome. It was sort of a free to play Mario Kart style MMO.

Another reason why we need more racing MMOs is that so many of them have shut down. Games like Kart n’ Crazy and GoGo Racer have all closed their doors. I can’t imagine why these games aren’t popular, because racing games have always been enormously successful on consoles. I guess these MMOs are failing because of poor marketing, because Kart N’ Crazy was mad fun. If it were still around today, I would play it. I guess people like playing WoW Clones instead of fun racing MMOs, because new WoW clones like Allods Online and NEO Online are absurdly popular. What on Earth do people see in these games? I mean, they’re alright, but nothing ‘new’.