f13.net forums - Are there any "free" MMOs worth the bandwidth?

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July 20, 2025, 09:59:35 AM

we're back, baby

Sorry if this is a duplicate thread, I did look around.

Got some time to waste but I've burnt through most of the sub based MMOs I'm even vaguely interested in at the moment. Maybe one of the gazillion free games could tide me over a while? Never even looked at the genre before so I was hoping f13 could recommend some of the best. Would prefer something quirky or different over a straight WoW rip off if that's not asking the impossible.

Thanks.

Ever played Anarchy Online? It's seven years old and grindy, but worth having in your MMOG "I played this" file. The intro video always makes me want to go back (exe is not dangerous, it's a video wrapped in its own player). It's free to play, but you have to deftly avoid their paid subscription ploys.

Lol, any free to play game, except anarchy should give you some lols for a while. It really depends on how much you like mmo's, me personally hate mmo's so even playing one for free isn't a good idea. If you got tired of paying for a game you got burnt out on, than I don't think your taste in mmo's are that picky so random korean mmo will fill your "i'm bored slot". I heard runes of magic is a bit interesting.

Fusion Fall (cartoon network mashup) or whatever flavor of the week is here.

The only two free mmos that had any sticking power with me was Domo. Runes of Magic is good to, would be playing that if I wasn't on a CoH kick atm. I'd

Quote from: PalmTrees on March 28, 2009, 05:50:39 PM

The only two free mmos that had any sticking power with me was Domo. Runes of Magic is good to, would be playing that if I wasn't on a CoH kick atm. I'd

Why didn't I put him in my dead pool? Dammit!

Quote from: DLRiley on March 28, 2009, 03:41:55 PM

Pointless poison post as usual. Slaps down my suggestion without giving any reason. "Hates MMOGs", yet giving advice in a MMOG forum to someone who wants to play one.

Edit: another free suggestion is SubSpace. It was one of the first commercial massively multiplayer internet games - a space shooter with complex tactical gameplay, done with polished-up 2D Asteroids graphics and momentum. The company dropped it, the community picked it up and reverse engineered it, rebuilt it under the name Continuum.

http://www.getcontinuum.com/
http://www.subspacedownloads.com/

Easy to pick up, takes a long time to master. The comments on Digg are good. The original dev team was hired by SOE and ended up working on EQ.

Huh. Looks like Bolo. How does it play? I'm too tired to check it out atm but may try it tomorrow.

Quote from: Darniaq on March 28, 2009, 06:58:57 PM

How does it play? I'm too tired to check it out atm but may try it tomorrow.

There's a huge a variety of play styles using the same game engine. Depends on the rules of the map. They are all confusing at first and you get owned until you learn tactics, and then you start to get very good.

The basic alpha/chaos maps revolve around individuals earning points for killing people. Lots of big egos. Then there's various flavours of squad-based CTF and base-defence (video shows friendly yellow-names team defending corridors of their base from invading blue-names - the bombs that pass through some ships are friendly fire). Then there are sports games like hockey.

I used to be nuts about the Powerball zone, which is an intense high-combat team sport - that hockey video looks very tame to me ... if it was Powerball there would be bullets and bombs interrupting all that passing and shooting. Slayerik who also posts on f13.net is also a veteran Powerball player.

--
EDIT: dug up some old SubSpace/Powerball tips I wrote years ago.

Quote

To spectate Powerball (see some veteran players):

1) Install game
2) Create a profile
3) Choose a high resolution (it's only a 2D game and high res means you see more)
4) Join the server "SSCX PowerBall"
5) Once in the game, hit ESC. Then hit S. Then hit F5. (This takes you to spectator mode, centred on the ball so you stay with the action).
6) Just watch the people play. Notes: it's a soccer game played by armed 2D spaceships in zero gravity. There is a 7 sec shot/pass clock (basketball style). IMPORTANT: To understand the action in relation to the full playfield, hold down the ALT key which brings up the full map.
7) If you actually want to participate (you will die, these people have been playing since 1995 and there is a steep learning curve) ... hit F1 to read the help file. Hitting F1 again cycles through the help pages, of which there are about 20 but the first 3 are the most important.

Quote

General advice.

Newbies are supposed to start in the Alpha zone. That is classic Subspace. But it's mostly empty so after tooling around in Alpha to learn movement/powerups, moving to Chaos/League zone is probably the next best thing (you'll get pwned at first though).

F1 key cycles through help screens (the first few are the important ones, the others are more than you need to know as a noob). Controls are easier if you think about thrust in a zero-gravity environment: you will keep going in the direction you pressed, until you thrust some other way or bounce off an object.

In Chaos/League your first task is to gather "greens" (the little spinning giftwrapped things). They are powerups and give your ship the abilities needed to fight back. But the more greens you pick up, the more points other players score for killing you. And vice versa.

If I was you, I would hit F11 to go into spectator mode and watch how people fight. Use Page Up/Page Down to cycle through names at the top-left of the screen and hit Ctrl to watch that player. You can't watch the ones with a green "S" beside their name, because they are also in spectator mode. Pressing arrow keys while in spectator mode allows you to free-look around the whole map.

Holding down the Alt key shows the whole map, and helps you find your bearings.

My favourite zone for spectating is Powerball. It is the same combat, with a ball and goals, two teams, and a shot clock when you carry the ball (you have to pass or shoot, or the ball goes off in a random direction, which makes for really great teamwork). Unfortunately it's always empty during Aussie evenings because the powerball community is mostly Euro and US.

Can always get a game in Chaos or Alpha (rulesets made by the original devs). I don't understand the alternate player-made rulesets like Trench Wars or Death Star battle. They have weird shit like one-shot kills that doesn't feel right to me, but they're very popular.

Thanks for the suggestions. FusionFall looks quirky and fun. Also I'll check out Subspace and have signed up for a few browser games. Should be enough to keep me happy and unproductive for a while.

Fusion fall.

Exteel.

Runes of magic.

Dungeon runners.

Sword of the new world.

Savage 2. (I know, not an MMO)

Dofus.

I had fun in guild wars. Free to play but you still gotta buy the game.

Quote from: Mrbloodworth on March 29, 2009, 09:07:59 AM

Exteel.

Are people still playing Exteel? When I tried it out for a while last year or so, I had a ton of problems even finding people to play against. I don't know if it was just bad timing or something else, but the couple friends I was with got tired of the comp stomp maps and deathmatching each other all the time, so we eventually drifted off.

Dungeon Runners is fun if you want a diablo-esque loot run and can stand not being able to equip the best items. It's a nifty any-skills on a character system, so you're not pigenholed.

Dofus was fun for a while but I just couldn't get into it.

Most of the free games I've seen still revolve around ye-old slaughter monsters for xp and loot design, so I don't know what you're looking for when you say 'quirky.' Tale's game sounds fun I might give that a look.

Quote from: Tale on March 28, 2009, 06:41:59 PM

Quote from: DLRiley on March 28, 2009, 03:41:55 PM

Pointless poison post as usual. Slaps down my suggestion without giving any reason. "Hates MMOGs", yet giving advice in a MMOG forum to someone who wants to play one.

I've played most mmo's if not their clones so...thats why I post here. I personally hate 99.99% of them, but that doesn't mean I can't tell when a game is worth the lol's. Anarchy can put a man to sleep at its best, at its worse your tossing your PC out the window. Oh and Sword of the New World is an interesting one, if you don't mind the god forsaken grind.

Puzzle Pirates, Grenado Espada: Sword of the New World

Neither is really an MMO. YPP is a puzzle game and GE is more like massive multiplayer grindy diablo. They're both fun though and work well as free/cash shop games for me because I can't imagine playing either exclusively for very long.

I've been playing Atlantica Online since last fall and still find it engaging. Not the best game ever, but the Final Fantasy combat really works for the pace I can handle.

Quote from: koro on March 29, 2009, 10:13:33 AM

Quote from: Mrbloodworth on March 29, 2009, 09:07:59 AM

Exteel.

Its good in bursts.

Perfect World International isn't bad. Has a ton of cosmetic character customization which is a bit of a surprise as most KMMOs suffer from the 'all look same' syndrome.

http://www.perfectworld.com/ad

I'm enjoying it more than Runes of Magic.

Yeah, Perfect World was pretty good too. The quest grind got to me after a bit and combined with higher level players saying the cash shop heal items became essential (not sure how true that is) I lost interest.