I remember when I first began playing MMORPGs It took me forever to type simple sentences as I was only 12 years old at the time. The game I began my MMORPG career with was Ultima Online, and like every other MMORPG the game had a community, and if I wanted to find some people to hunt with or trade with, I'd have to talk to them. The only real way to get better at something, it to keep doing it; and playing MMORPGs forces you to interact with people online.

Aside from teaching you to type faster, MMORPGs can also help you read better to. Because I started playing MMORPGs at such a young age, having to interact with other players has helped my vocabulary grow. Having to constantly read and understand quest dialogue, MMORPGs actually force players to read. Having to constantly read quest dialogue and user chat, players will indirectly improve their own vocabulary and reading level.

Playing MMORPGs is a great way for kids to learn while having fun! Come to think of it, I learned how to read almost entirely through playing games like "Legend of Zelda" and "Final Fantasy", as those games forced me to read in order to progress in the game. Obviously I learned the basics of reading at school, but school can't force you to master something that you have no interest in; I mean come on, how many kids are excited to go to school and practice reading? Games like Fly For Fun and MapleStory are extremely family friendly so even younger players will learn while having fun. My typing skills improve every single day, as I'm constantly interacting with people online. I just took a typing test, and I type 70 words per minute with 98% accuracy, and I've never taken any typing ****s.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/mmorpgs-can-improve-your-typing-and-reading-skills

When you look at MMORPGs they all feel so similar. I already wrote an article about how all MMORPGs are the same, and I'd like to be a bit more positive this time around and write about MMOs. Unlike MMORPGs, MMOs all feel unique, as they are all incredibly different. For all of you that don't know the difference between MMORPG and MMO, it's simple; MMORPGs are role play games, while MMOs are everything else where you don't have to run around killing monsters to level up. If you still aren't sure what the difference is, games like GunZ: The Duel, Shot Online, Richman Online are MMOs while games like MapleStory, 12Sky and Fly for Fun are MMORPGs.

MMOs are more unique than MMORPGs simply because they cover so many different genres. While MMORPGs are very similar games like Shot Online, a golf MMO, and GunZ: The Duel, a fast paced shooter, are completely different. I recently played Combat Arms, a first person shooter MMO by Nexon, and absolutely loved the game. Unlike other MMO Shooters, Combat Arms felt very polished and balanced. Although Combat Arms is a first person shooter like a lot of other MMOs, the game felt distinctly different.

Even though MMOs do overlap themes often, they are rarely as similar as MMORPGs are. Games like WolfTeam and Combat Arms are both first person shooters, but they're not similar at all, as in WolfTeam, the game allows players to transform themselves into a werewolf that specializes in close combat fighting, which adds an entirely new layer of game play. Most MMORPGs don't have these sort of major differences, but rather have only extremely subtle differences. There are simply so many different MMOs out there that all play extremely different from each other.

If you're tired of playing MMORPGs but like the RPG / Leveling up elements of those games, I strongly recommend you try out some MMO games. Odds are you've never played a basketball MMO before, so why not try it out? Free**** Street Basketball is actually a great game. It's fast paced, balanced game play and 100% free. I recently played an MMO called "Richman Online" and the game was pretty impressive, as the game combined board game ****game play with the RPG elements, making the game incredibly unique. I believe that MMORPGs can be just as unique as MMOs, but developers today simply aren't willing to take risks and develop a new type of MMORPG.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/mmos-are-a-breath-of-fresh-air

I'm tired of getting excited about an MMORPG and after playing it for a couple hours realizing that it's the same thing as every other free MMORPG out there. It's as if every single game runs off the same system, but each game has its own character models, ****s and setting. Other than those three things, almost every game plays the same way. I'd love to see developers try and innovate rather than using the same rehashed themes and systems. Why not try changing the way uses gain skills or the way players can gain attributes rather than leveling up?

One major complaint I have is that almost every MMORPG has the same slate of character ****s. The least developers can do is invent a few ****s rather than using the same rehashed variations of Warrior, Mage, Priest, Thief and Archer. I'm sorry, renaming the ****s doesn't count as creating a new **** You can go ahead and call a warrior a fighter, barbarian, berserker, swordsman, knight, or mercenary, but it's still a warrior. It can't be that difficult to create different ****s. Even combining two or more ****s to make a hybrid would be unique. Take a "pirate" ****for example. They can be a hybrid swordsman and a marksman with swords/pistols. Most MMORPGs also never utilize the necromancer ****or any ****that relies on summoning pets, which would be a welcomed addition to the usual slate of ****s.

Another feature I've seen overused is the standard quest system. How many times have you been presented with a quest that says "Go outside town and kill 10 scorpions " or a quest that sounds a bit like this, "Take this note and give it to Joe who is standing 15 feet away from me". I mean come on! I'm not saying the developers should scrap the kill quests, but I'd love to see some variation! MapleStory actually did a remarkable job with its quest system. The game introduced platforming quests to the MMORPG genre. Players actually had to master jumping through a map while avoiding obstacles in their goal to reach the end of the map. Sure this wasn't exactly a revolutionary concept, but it's definitely a welcomed change from the usual quests you'll run into in an MMORPG, and it's actually fun. No matter how you look at it, killing 10 scorpions for the local butcher shop isn't fun.

I'm also tired of seeing the leveling system in 99.9% of MMORPGs. Why are developers so afraid of breaking away from the norm? Sure it's easier to use an already established system, but players definitely want to try new things. I for one would give ANY game a shot if it looked unique to me in some way, even if the game was pay to play, but even pay to play games lack uniqueness. The only game I see in the pay to play market that seems at all unique is Eve online, and I congratulate the people over at CCP [the developers of Eve Online] for taking a chance and avoiding the entire leveling system and focusing rather on a skill system. I'm not at al claiming that games with a leveling system are bad, as if the system is very well polished and balanced it can still be fun, but I'd love to trying something new.

Lastly, I'm tired of seeing the fantasy genre over used. I've already written about this, so i'll keep this short. I'd love to see developers try out new genres. The Sci-fi theme definitely hasn't been fully utilized yet, as there really aren't any free MMORPGs that have a large community yet that are sci-fi themed. One game Luckily, there are companies out there that are trying to innovate. Gravity for example, has released Requiem: Bloodymare which labels itself as a "horror game". Although Requiem feels a bit like fantasy, I'd like to congratulate Gravity for at least trying something new, and would like to encourage all game developers to try something new for a change.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/mmorpgs-are-all-the-same

The Free MMORPG market is undoubtedly growing at an incredible pace and there are easily over 100 free MMORPGs on the market today. For a free MMORPG, games can no longer be "good for a free game", but rather genuinely good for the game to succeed. Back when free to play (F2P) games were relatively new, games could be mediocre and still be wildly successful, as they were free. When F2P games first began to come out, players excused developers for slow bug fixes and unbalanced game play, as they weren't paying anything for the game and there weren't any other free MMORPGs to play.

Today, for a free MMORPG to be successful it has to be nearly flawless. With intense competition from other established games and new MMORPGs coming out each and every day, developers have to constantly fix bugs and add new content to keep players hooked. If a developer is too slow to fix an exploit or inconsistent with content updates, odds are players will jump ship and shift to a new game. Searching for "Free online MMORPG" on Google today yields over 600,000 results, making alternatives to a bad MMORPG abundant

The massive amounts of F2P MMORPGs on the market today are also pressuring pay to play (P2P) games to either offer more content to their players or make their game free. Games like Archlord, Anarchy Online, Shadowbane, Rf Online and so many other games became free to play from pay to play. Rose Online, a long time pay to play MMORPG, has recently announced plans to drop their subscription based business model and make the game free to play. The games that remain pay to play have an enormous amount of pressure on them, as if they don't constantly update their game, players may quit to play one of the many free MMORPGs out there.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/it's-good-for-a-free-mmorpg

MMORPGs today lack any sense of role playing and story. I remember when I first started playing Everquest, I felt as if I was thrown into an actual world, as NPCs actually interacted with you. I remember when I walked down the streets of Qeynos, a town in EverQuest, one day I heard two guards discussing the politics of the town, and I heard another guard arguing with another NPC. If you walked around town long enough you would learn a lot about what was going on in the town, in terms of story which was actually really interesting.

One particular quest I remember doing was trying to eliminate the corrupt guards in Qeynos. The quest was assigned by one of the guard captains who knew there was corruption amongst the ranks of the guards and would reward you for finding and killing the guards that were corrupt. Players could identify corrupt guards by right clicking a random guard and checking your particular standing with that guard's faction. Corrupt guards would view you "Dubiously" while regular guards would look at you "indifferently or amiably". Finding low ranking corrupt guards and killing them was easy, but every time you killed a corrupt guard your standing with their faction would decrease. Upon completing the Quest the guards went from looking at my character "Dubiously" to attacking my character on sight. Walking around town with half of the town's guards attacking you was no fun at all, but it added another sense of game play to EverQuest, as players had to manage their faction standing with everyone. I still remember the name of the leader of the corrupt Guards, Lieutenant Dagarok. If you had low standing with the corrupt guards he would run up to you and one shot you.

EverQuest definitely had the best faction system. Everything you did in the game impacted your standing with one group or another. Whether you killed a monster or completed a quest, odds are it will benefit your standing with one faction and hurt your standing with another. I've played World of Warcraft, and that game's faction system isn't even comparable to EverQuest's. Everquest simply felt like an actual world where what you did in the game affected how other NPCs treated you. I'm not claiming that EverQuest was the best game of all time; the game had its fair share of flaws, but definitely has the best reputation system of any pay to play or free MMORPG.

I always wonder what great looking MMORPG games like Sword of the New World and Perfect World would be like if they had a better story / more player interaction with the game world. Games like Archlord and Luminary: Rise of The Goonzu are definitely taking steps in the right direction with an in game political system, but I'd love to see other MMORPG games create similar systems. In Goonzu players can elect players into local town positions and can even elect a leader on the national level who has a great deal of influence over the entire game. These systems aren't perfect yet, but they definitely add another layer of game play to MMO games.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/mmorpg-or-just-mmog

Every time I download and play through a new free MMORPG I usually spot a few similarities in that particular game that I've seen in other games, which is perfectly normal. I actually prefer that games borrow successful features from other games, but when a game looks almost identical to another game, there is definitely something wrong. MMO developers are definitely getting lazier and lazier and are simply looking to older games for inspiration rather than trying to be creative on their own.
The single best scenario of a game copying another is the case with MapleStory and Ghost Online. Before I explain the similarities, I'd rather show you a screenshot first.

Maple Story

Ghost Online

The games look almost identical, and they play almost identically as well. Ghost Online is a shameless knock off of MapleStory. Although difficult to see, the maps in both games are 100% identical. Players on the map for both games are marked by red rectangles. I'm not going to say that Ghost Online is a horrible game, as then I would be condemning MapleStory as a bad game, which it isn't. Both games are actually pretty fun to play, but MapleStory is hands down the superior game.

One company, TQ Digital, is notorious for their lack of creativity. Every single one of their games play just like every other game they have. Crazy Tao for example is a clone of EuDemons, but with cartoony graphics. And by clone, I do mean clone. Both games are 100% the same game, just with different graphics. Don't believe me? Please try it.

There are plenty of other games that are way too similar to other games; like Secret of the Solstice which copies Ragnarok Online and Combat Arms which is very similar to WolfTeam minus the wolves. I'm not saying these are all bad games, they're not, but Developers, please stop copying each other and work on new ideas.

I've played countless free MMORPG games and I've noticed that almost every single one has something in common; garbage translations. Free MMORPGs released in the United States and Europe avoid this problem but it's upsetting that so many good MMORPGs are plagued with poor translations. Games like Holic Online and RF Online would be a lot more fun in they had better translations, as both games try to incorporate some sort of plot within the game, but the broken English makes users want to skip it. When I played Holic Online, I would find myself trying to decipher the NPC dialogue, as it was so poorly worded.

The single best example of a game with poor translations is Magic World Online. There are so many things that got lost in translation that I don't know where to begin. Two of the final job advancements for a Magician are called "Dragonbaking Master" and "Freezing Uranus". What in the world is a Dragon Baking master? Is it supposed to be some sort of chef that specializes is preparing dragons? I can't remotely fathom how that ****title could at all be intimidating or even sensible. I'm not even going to start with "Freezing Uranus". If you go ahead and pick "Freezing Uranus" you're going to be ripped on by both your friends and everyone in the game. I'm not even joking; these are two different job advancements from Magic World Online.

The fun doesn't stop with the ****s in Magic World Online; the game also has some ridiculous quest dialogue. The game definitely has the most absurd dialogue I've seen in any other game.
Actual Quest Dialogue:
NPC Name: Mysterious Beggar

Let me get this straight. This BEGGAR is offering to trade me a "GOD'S created stone" for a piece of fried chicken? How on Earth did a beggar manage to get his hands on a gem created by god? If this guy can find a God's Gem, he shouldn't have too much trouble selling it and buying his own fried chicken! Couldn't the developers have spent an extra minute and rewrite the quest dialogue so it doesn't sound so absurd? They should have just called the gems something like "attack stones" or something else that wouldn't make the quest dialogue sound so silly. Please publishers, if you're going to spend millions bringing a game to the United States, please don't cheapen out on the game's translations!

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/mmorpg-translations-suck

5. Holic Online
Holic Online just barely made it on this list. The game has absolutely gorgeous 3D anime inspired graphics. Holic Online definitely blows away every other "cartoony" game in terms of graphics. The only other "cartoony" game that can almost hold its own against Holic Online is Dream of Mirror Online, but Holic Online still gets the #5 spot on this list.

4. Sword of the New World
Sword of the New World is probably one of the most visually impressive games out there and even more noteworthy is the game's soundtrack. Sword of the New World has a completely original and remarkable soundtrack that'll keep you entertained while grinding. The game also has incredibly unique game play where players get to control up to three different characters at once.

3. Project Torque
Project Torque probably has the best graphics for any MMO in the sports genre. Everything from the game's environments to the vehicles are stunning. Aside from graphics, Project Torque is a solid racing game, and a must play for gamers that are tired of all the cartoony racing games out there.

2. Rohan
Aside from having incredible visuals, Rohan Online has a large community and balanced game play. Rohan is one of the best free MMOs to be released in a long while, so if you haven't played it, I recommend you at least check it out.

1. Perfect World
Perfect World definitely has some of the best graphics I've seen in a long time and even holds its own against some of the best looking pay to play MMORPGs. Everything from the game's character models to the water is beautifully rendered. If you haven't played Perfect World yet, I strongly recommend that you do, as the game is definitely one of the best free MMORPGs released to date.

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/top-five-graphically-impressive-free-mmos

Every time I download a new MMORPG game, I pray that the game has a large selection of ****s, as I'm tired of playing games that only have 3-4 different ****s. The more ****s a game has, the more unique each person is in the game world, as if there are only three ****s, a third of the game's population is the same ****you are. Aside from adding individuality, a game with a large selection of ****s also has a lot of replay value. If I enjoyed an MMORPG game, but got tired of it after some time, odds are I'll go back and create a new character and choose a ****I haven't played yet to experience the game in a new way.

One game with very few playable ****s is definitely Eudemons. Eudemons currently has three playable ****s; Warrior, Mage and Paladin. The third **** paladin, was actually just released within the last month or so, so the game had only two ****s for most of it's existence. Having two ****s wouldn't be a problem if the game has unique character development and growth, but unfortunately Eudemons lacks any sense of individuality, if you play a mage every other mage in the game will be almost exactly like you. To be fair, Eudemons isn't a terrible game. The game is unique in the sense that it has incredibly fast paced leveling and a unique pet system. TQ Digital, the company Behind Eudemons is notorious for churning out unoriginal clones of their older games with revamped graphics. Crazy Tao, for example, is another game made by the same company as Eudemons and for all intensive purposes is the same game as Eudemons, but with more anime graphics.

If adding more ****s to a game is too difficult, I urge developers to at least add more "job advancements" to their games. When I'm playing an MMO I don't want a third of the entire game's population to be exactly like me. One game that had an excellent job advancement system is Magic World Online. Although the game only had four playable ****s, the game more than made up for it by having four job advancements. I'm not claiming that the game with the most playable ****s is the best game out there, but having more ****s in a game definitely adds to the game's enjoyment and replay value.

Magic World Online's Job Advancement system:

Source:

http://mmohub.org/2008/more-character-****s-please

In order to compete in the rapidly growing MMORPG market, developers are definitely trying out new things. When I first started playing MMO games back in 1999, games like Ultima Online and Everquest offered no tutorials at all, and players had to figure out what to do. Games are becoming more and more user friendly and now involve more in-depth tutorials than ever before. Games like Eve Online and MapleStory both offer lengthy tutorials, the Eve Online tutorial being just about an hour long. In order to try something new, Martial Heroes and Magic World Online both decided to try and make their game as convenient as possible for players.

Martial Heroes, a 3D MMORPG set in the ancient orient, is probably one of the most accommodating MMORPGs on the market. The game's developers tried their best to make sure players start off with enough equipment and supplies to enjoy the game. Unfortunately, the developers over did it. All new characters in Martial Heroes start off with 1,000 HP & MP potions, all the skill books they'll need for the first few levels, a mount and a set of free equipment. There's nothing wrong with starting new players off with some basic equipment and a handful of potions, but it's clear that the developers went overboard with handouts. Being convenient is one thing, but giving new players everything they could possibly need takes away any challenge an MMORPG has and the fun of having to save up for an awesome new sword.

Magic World Online actually makes itself even more convenient than Martial Heroes. The game has a built in "bot" which actually plays the game for you. The "bot" doesn't just grind, it loots, uses potions, and even runs away when your HP is low. If you do happen to die in Magic World Online while using the game's "bot", have no fear, as the "bot" will run all the way back to the place where you died, and resume grinding for you. Players can easily configure the "bot" to use skills and spells as well, and to even run back to town and sell the loot you gather while grinding. If you don't like grinding you may be thinking that this is an awesome idea, but it's not. You'll never actually play Magic World Online, as the game plays itself. It's sort of like Progress Quest, but with graphics.

Source:
http://mmohub.org/2008/are-mmorpgs-becoming-too-accommodating