Aion Needs a Free Trial

Every single major pay to play MMORPG from World of Warcraft
to the more obscure Nexus: Kingdom of the Winds has an MMORPG free trial.
Gamers today can practically play ANY MMORPG for free, including the
pay to play ones, even if its just for a short while. Heck, I tried out
both Pirates
of the Burning Sea and Poxnora the other day. I
didn’t really like either, but after trying those games I wanted to
give NCSoft’s newest title Aion a try, but to my surprise they don’t
offer a free trial. NCSoft offers a free trial for their other games
including Guild Wars and City of Heroes,
but they don’t offer a free trial for Aion. That’s absolutely nuts.
There’s no way I’m going to fork over $30+ to purchase Aion without at
least trying the game first.

I’ve actually paid for numerous MMORPGs in the past. I’ve held a
subscription for Ultima Online and
Dark Age of
Camelot for years. Same with World of Warcraft. I got into both of
these MMORPGs through free trials. World of Warcraft, Ultima Online and
Dark Age of Camelot all offer 14 day free trials which let gamers get a
good feel for the game. I honestly think NCSoft is losing out on some
serious cash as well as players by not offering a free trial. I’ve seen
so many awesome HD trailers for Aion, but I’ll never give the game a
chance because it doesn’t have a free trial.

Seriously though, what on earth is NCSoft thinking? Even obscure pay
to play MMORPGs like Alganon, Age of Conan: Hyborian
Adventures and Star Wars
Galaxies offer free trials. NCSoft needs to wake up and step it up.
Come to think of it, Star Trek Online doesn’t have a free trial either.
How dumb is that? That’s another game I wanted to try, but I can’t.
There’s no way i’ll buy a game without trying it so, Atari is also
screwing themselves over.

Lag in MMORPGs

Even with my 25 MB/s Verizon Fios internet connection, I’ve found
that I lag in a select few MMORPGs and MMO Games. After some investigating, I’ve
learned that I only experience lag when I play games that are hosted
outside of the United States. Games like S4 League and Land of Chaos
Online from Alaplaya for example
are hosted in Europe. These games are AVAILABLE in the United States and
in other parts of the world, but the game servers themselves are
hosted in Europe. This means that players outside of Europe will
experience some lag. Not all games hosted in Europe or outside of North
America lag for me though. Games like Priston Tale 2 and Emil Chronicle
Online for example are both hosted outside of North America, but I
don’t have any lag with them. Priston Tale 2 is by
GamerKraft in Europe and Emil Chronicle Online is hosted in Singapore by
Gravity
(Yes, they’re the same company who develops Ragnarok Online).

So Why do some games lag and others don’t? Well i’ve concluded that I
never lag in games hosted within North America. So I’ve concluded that
games hosted outside of the U.S. And have bad servers are most likely
to lag. I actually don’t mind lag too much in MMORPGs, but lag in MMOFPS
games like S4 League and Soldier Front are the
worst. Lagging in an FPS is a really quick way to get yourself killed. I
was playing Battle of Destiny
the other day from Cubizone and I really didn’t mind the game’s slight
lag. I mean, I noticed it, as the game is hosted in Malaysia, but lag
doesn’t really adversely effect the game too much if its barely
noticeable and it happens in a non-pvp heavy MMORPG. I remember I used
to play Perfect World on the
Cubizone servers before the international version came out as I hated
the lag. Luckily the international version is hosted by the developer – Perfect
World Entertainment, meaning new updates are implemented right
away.

Anyway guys. If you see yourself lagging in a game, check to see
where the servers are located before you start getting angry at your
computer or your ISP!

We need more Sports MMOs

Come to think of it, with all the fantasy MMORPGs,
MMOFPS
and Strategy
MMORPGs on the market, there really aren’t that many sports MMOs.
I mean, there are some with the popular ones being FreeStyle
Street Basketball and MLB Dugout Heroes.
Plus there are a bunch of random fighting MMOs which can be classified
as sports – games like Lost Saga and Rumble
Fighter for example. My problem with the genre is that there
aren’t enough unique sports MMOs. I mean, as of this writing there
aren’t any swimming MMOs, American Football MMOs or Hockey MMOs (though
Hockey
Dash is in development from OG Planet). In fact there are
countless sports out there that have no MMOs!

It sucks that there are TWO golf MMOs, Shot Online and Pangya (Which
is from Ntreev),
but not a single client based American Football MMO. American Football is MUCH bigger than
Golf – so why on earth are there two golfing MMOs and no football
ones? No idea. Heck these golfing games have been around for years now.
MLB Dugout Heroes, the baseball themed MMO by GamesCampus released
late 2009. I can’t believe it took so long for a baseball themed game
to release. Baseball is only one of the most popular sports in the
world. I’m not sure which is more popular though – Baseball of Football.
I just know they’re both big industries.

Know what sport would make an awesome MMO? Wrestling! Even boxing
would be interesting. The current fighting games aren’t at all
realistic, so I’m discounting them. None of them even focus on boxing /
wrestling anyway. I think a boxing MMO could do really well though.
Provided it was well developed. Another interesting sports MMO would be
a track and field game. I know gPotato has Tales
Runner, but that’s more of a racing MMO than anything else. A track
and field game would have multiple ‘events’ in it aside from just
track racing.

Anyone else interested in new sports MMOs or is it just me?

Kingdom Heroes MMORPG

Kingdom Heroes is a
new 3D MMORPG by Aeria
Games with a fantasy theme. It is set during the period of the
Three Kingdoms, which for some reason, is an extremely popular theme
amongst Chinese MMORPGs.
Games like Heroes of
Three Kingdoms, Three Kingdoms: The
Battle Begins and Warriors
of the Three Kingdoms for example are all set during the exact same
time period. The names can get confusing, I know. The game is
currently in closed beta, but for some reason I was able to log in to
the game without a beta key, so maybe you don’t even need one?

After a few days or playing, or maybe I should say not playing, I’m
level 50. I say ‘not playing’, because Kingdom Heroes is one of those
games you can leave on and the game will sort of play for you. No, it’s
not exactly like Godswar Online or Battle of the
Immortals, but the game has this soldier system, where soldiers
(your pets) can be set to attack nearby enemies automatically. The way
to gain experience easily is to set your soldiers to attack nearby
enemies (weak ones, so your soldiers never die) and then go do something
else while leaving the game running. I found leaving the game on over
night to be the most effective way to level up.

You could say this ruins the game, but I find it to be interesting
as no one really plays Kingdom Heroes for it’s PvE elements. Kingdom
Heroes is a PvP MMORPG,
meaning the PvP is really the game’s main attraction. So the whole
easy AFK leveling system sort of works well. Though it makes me
question the reason behind it. Why put up the charade? Why not let
players start at max level automatically so they can jump right into the
PvP rather than leaving their PCs on leveling their characters for a
week. I can tell though, even though I’m still playing Kingdom Heroes, I
expect to quit it within a week. The whole auto leveling will make the
game boring in the end. After all, I’m spending more time NOT playing
Kingdom Heroes than actually playing it.

I guess I should stick with the best fantasy
MMORPGs instead of playing random ones. The reason I’m even playing
Kingdom Heroes is that I recently quit Allods Online from gPotato
and got bored of playing Trickster Online
from Ntreev.
So I have a lot of free time.

Upcoming MMORPGs That Look Good

There are a few upcoming MMORPGs that look good.
I’m not talking about games like Maestia and Vindictus
that are still upwards of a year away from release. I’m talking about
free MMORPGs that are currently in closed beta and should release within
the next few months. One of these games is Camon Hero from Uforia.
The game mixes fantasy MMORPG and trading card game elements to create a
unique strategy experience. Plus, the game’s brightly colored anime
inspired graphics look great. Another neat little aspect of the game is
that its supposed to be an action MMORPG
like GhostX
– meaning it’s not another boring point and click game.

Maestia Screenshot

Two other upcoming MMORPGs that look good are Blade Wars and Kingdom
Heroes. Both are pretty generic in terms of setting, as they’re
both fantasy MMORPGs. Blade Wars is 2D though while Kingdom Heroes is
3D. Blade Wars actually looks a lot like Dragon Oath, but that
isn’t surprising, as both games are published by the same developer –
ChangYou. Kingdom Heroes on the other hands looks awesome because of its
heavy emphasis on PvP. I like to think of Kingdom Heroes as a
competitor to Aika Online. I generally enjoy PvP MMORPGs,
so Kingdom Heroes is a game I plan to check out as soon as it releases
into open beta.

I’m also looking forward to Need for
Speed World from Electronic Arts. I can’t say I’ve been a big fan of
Electronic Arts regarding their console games, but they’ve been doing a
splendid job releasing high quality free to play MMOs. Their first
free to play title was Battlefield Heroes
which was top notch. Then they released Battleforge and Lord of Ultima
– both great games. I’d love to see more free to play titles from EA.
They’ve already proven to me that they can make great games.

Battlefield Heroes
Screenshot

Are there any other really interesting new MMORPGs on the horizon that are close
to being released that I missed? If so, let me know in the comments.

Obscure MMOs Worth Playing

There are so many MMOs out there, it’s hard to pick one to play. I’m
a big fan of MMOFPS games, but I also like to try other things as
well, so I decided to throw up a short list of free to play non-MMOFPS
games that are worth checking out. This list will largely focus on
obscure MMOs that most people have never heard of or played. It’s
amazing how many awesome games are that aren’t MMOFPSs
and many people don’t play.

Anyway. The first game on my list is Lost Saga by OGPlanet.
The game to me feels like a successor the popular Rumble Fighter,
as the game just offers so much more than Rumble Fighter. It has 20+
playable characters, enormous variety and simple yet fun gameplay. Plus
players can mix and match equipment from all characters to create a
truly unique fighter. The game is definitely under rated and deserves a
much higher playerbase. As is, it’s definitely my favorite free to play MMO
fighting game, with Mini Fighter Online
a distant second.

Next up is Ace Online from
SubaGames. Ace Online online is a fast paced MMO where players control
futuristic fighter jets called ‘Gears’. Think of it as Star Fox, but an
MMO. Sounds awesome, right? It is. I’ve been a fan of Star Fox, so I
fell in love with Ace Online right away. The game has some awesome
faction vs faction battles with have hundreds of players fighting it out
at once while look absolutely incredible. If you’re a fan of Star Fox
games, Ace Online is well worth checking out.

Two other games I wanted to mention are Carom3D and Valkyrie
Sky. Carom3D is a billiards MMO and Valkyrie Sky is a horizontal
shooter with MMO elements. I’ve never played billiards in real life, but
I’m a big fan of Carom3D, as it’s an unusually fun game. It’s simple
to learn, but extremely competitive. Valkyrie Sky is fun because it
feels like a classical arcade game, but with cooperative gameplay. It’s
also pretty difficult, so just completing a stage late in the game
feels very rewarding.

Before I wrap up, I want to mention two more awesome MMOs which
deserve more attention. The first is FreeStyle
Street basketball by GameKiss and the second
is League of Legends
from Riot Games. FreeStyle: Street Basketball is enormously popular in
Korea, but the game has such a low playerbase in North America. It
deserves so much more. I personally don’t even follow basketball or care
much for it, but FreeStyle is so simple and fun. It’s without a doubt
my favorite sports MMO.
Seriously, do yourself a favor and try it. League of Legends on the
other hand, is a bit more popular, but it still deserves to be more
popular. It’s an incredible free to play ‘DotA’ like game with 50+
unique heroes and silk smooth gameplay. It’s easily one of my favorite
MMOs of all times.

Anyway guys, that’s it for my short list of awesome MMOs worth
checking out. Let me know what you think in the comments.

There are a lot of Dancing MMOs

Anyone wondering why there are so many free to play dancing MMOs out
there? You know, games like Dance Online and Audition
Online. It seems like there are a decent amount of these games. I
think its a bit silly because all of these games play essentially the
same. Seriously, if you’ve played Dance Online you might as well have
played audition. They’re basically the same game with a different
interface. Both titles borrow heavily from the enormously popular
Dance-Dance-Revolution game as well as Stepmania for the PC.

One of the only interesting dancing games in my opinion is 5Street from
Snail Games. Snail Games also publishes Age of Armor and Heroes of Gaia
and that’s it. It’s funny though both of those other games aren’t
really that unique but 5Street is. Basically 5Street offers the same
exact dancing gameplay that Audition and Dance Online do, except with a
great social experience built it. 5Street is also a virtual world, so
players can walk around, explore, talk and socialize. In fact, the game
promotes this by offering so many different emoticons, player housing
and much more. I’m not saying 5Street is a great game either, as the
game has some terrible translations, but in my opinion its the best
dancing MMO.

Aside from these games there are a few other rhythm based games.
Osu! Is the only other I can think of. It’s fun and free to play which
makes it win in my book. I don’t think there are any other social MMORPGs
with dancing other than 5Street though, which is a shame as the social
components in 5Street are pretty fun. I guess it’s no surprise that all
of these games are extremely similar, as free to play developers love
copying each other. After all, look how many WoW clones
there are out there. Free to play ones like Runes of Magic and Allods
Online are actually pretty popular as well. So if copying works,
why bother trying to make anything new?

If I missed any Dancing MMOs, do let me know if the comments below,
but I think I got them all.

MMORPG Questing Needs to Get Better

Questing
in MMORPG Games both pay to play and free to play need a lot of
work. I think quests in MMORPGs
should be a lot more than just ‘Go kill X enemies and come back to me
for a reward’. Questing should be more immervise. Players should feel
that completing a quest actually does something, but that unfortunately
isn’t the case. Even epic pay to play MMORPGs like Warhammer
Online and Lineage 2 fail to
create this sense of immersion. Free to play games are the same way.
From Age of Armor to Xiah
Rebirth, questing usually involves killing a series of enemies
without any real sense of purpose.

This isn’t always a big deal and a lot of games actually handle
questing really well. MapleStory for example
has a lot of fun silly quests that involve platforming. Platforming
quests in MapleStory usually involve jumping from one rope to another
or from one platform to another without falling off. It may sound easy,
but it can be ridiculously difficult. MapleStory doesn’t try to create
an atmosphere of epic seriousness, so these types of quests fit
perfectly fine in the game world. On a side note, MapleStory is one of
the longest
running free MMORPGs out there, so respect it!

Another interesting observation I’ve made is that questing in MMO
games (non RPGs) is practically non existent. Think about it. Have you
ever completed a quest in an MMOFPS or MMO Dancing game? Think about
it. MMO Shooters like S4 League, Mercenary
Wars and Soldier Front don’t
have any questing what-so-ever. Other MMOs like Project Torque
and Project Powder are
the same exact way. I think MMORPG
publishers and developers really need to think a bit harder about
questing and create something that’s a bit more enjoyable and unique.

Will Ragnarok Online 2 Ever Release?

Ragnarok Online was
one of the first free to play MMORPGs that I’ve ever played.
It’s also a game that I feel really attached to, as I ran my own private
server for the game. Come to think of it, I played Ragnarok Online
quite a bit. I’m very happy that Gravity, the game’s developer, decided
to launch their own free server for the game. Prior to the launch of
Valkyrie, the game’s free server, I was playing the game for free on
other private servers. I actually felt bad about doing this, as I wanted
to support Gravity for making such an awesome game. Now that they have
their own free server, I can support them by playing on it. Back when
Ragnarok Online first came out, many years ago, there really weren’t
any free to play games. The only I could think of that were available
back then were MapleStory and RuneScape.
Those two games really got the ball rolling – as each of those games
today boasts over 60 million registered users worldwide. That’s pretty
impressive.

Ever since I first learned about Ragnarok Online 2 in 2005 or so, I
was really excited. I always loved Ragnarok, so a full 3D version of
the game looked awesome. Unfortunately though, Ragnarok Online 2 still
hasn’t been released in North America. I don’t even know if its
available in Korea. The game was announced over 5 years ago and still
hasn’t come out. This makes me think that its going to join the losers
club with Priston Tale 2, Huxley: The
Dystopia and Dance Groove Online
as a game that’s never going to come out. This is definitely
unfortunate, as based on the trailers available, Ragnarok Online 2
looked awesome. I was personally excited about the game because the
first game was amazing. Arguably one of the best free MMORPGs ever.

Even though Ragnarok Online 2 looked amazing back in 2005, I don’t
think the game looks as amazing today. The game’s sleek 3D graphics
look old today compared to graphical wonders like Allods Online
and RayCity.
I think Gravity should just release the game already. If they wait any
longer, the graphics will be so obsolete, no one would play it .
Anyone else waiting for Ragnarok Online 2 to release, or am I the only
one?

Browser MMOs Are Accessible

Sometimes when I’m trying to kill time I like to play a few browser MMORPGs. I
like browser based MMOs because not only are they fun, but they’re
easily accessible. Whether I’m on the road, at home, at a friend’s
house or at school I could easily sit down and play a browser MMO.
Games like Travian, Heroes of Gaia
and Heroes of Kung
Fu can easily be enjoyed in small doses. By small doses, I mean 5
minutes at a time. Client based 3D MMORPGs on
the other hand require a much larger time commitment. Don’t get me
wrong, I love client based games, but browser MMOs are much more
accessible, as they don’t need to be downloaded. Another thing
noteworthy is that client based games usually have to be played hours at
a time while browser MMOs can be played in small doses. In fact, most
browser games, especially strategy
MMORPGs are designed to be played for only 10-20 minutes a day.

Games like The Seventh
Dragon, Tribal Wars and War of Legends
are designed for limited play each day. Whether you sink 10 hours a day
into these games or 30 minutes a day, it makes no real difference.
There’s only so much to do each day. This is definitely an interesting
 break from client based MMOs,
as in games like Jade Dynasty and World of Kung Fu,
things comes down to whoever sinks more time into the game. In order to
‘keep up’ with other players, you need to spend start committing hours
and hours of time into these games. As a gamer, I don’t mind doing
this, but when I get busy in real life with things like work and
school, I can always kick back and take a break from client based games
and play browser MMOs.

One last thing on the topic of accessibility. Browser based MMOs
tend to have minimal system requirements. Pretty much ANY PC can run
practically every browser game, except for maybe the few 3D ones like Quake
Live and Earth Eternal.
Newer 3D MMORPGs tend to demand more powerful computers with dedicated
graphics cards.