I've been playing World of Warcraft for free and have found it somewhat fun to play.

Problem is that I'm not sure when I hit the level cap of 20 that I'd want to pay $15/month to stick with it.

I know other MMOs are "free" but that you pay real money for certain upgrades you might want for your character.

There are so many out there. World of Warcraft is regarded as the most "polished" but others get mixed reviews. Some are raves, some are jeers...on the same title.

Anyone able to offer suggestions on what MMOs are worth getting into?

I've done my fair share of MMO's and I've discovered that in the long run they are not worth it. I could get into elaborate detail about this if you wish me to or you could just take my word for it and enjoy some single player games.

Edit: I will be fair and say I have not tried LOTR online.

There are very few high quality free MMOs available. The ones I'd recommend are Allods Online and Lord of the Rings Online.

Allods is one of the most underrated MMOs ever if you ask me. It's this steampunk-ish Russian MMO which is free to play and has an item shop (it used to be pretty imbalancing, which is why the game often got bad review scores). What's unique about Allods Online is that it's ridiculously polished. The loading times are virtually non-existent and character movement and menu interaction is so smooth it feels pretty much identical to WoW. Oh and the soundtrack was created by the same guy who created the soundtrack for Fallout 1 and 2.

Lord of the Rings Online isn't as polished.. it has long loading times and character movements are a bit weird sometimes. It does however have pretty graphics and a huge player base. Unfortunately that huge player base is almost exclusively low level players and high level players so leveling from 25-ish to the max level can be really lonely. The game has an item store where you can buy aesthetic items and content (quest packs and new classes). The item store is probably the most balanced item store I've seen in a F2P mmo (and I've played a lot). There is virtually no way you can get an unfair advantage over a F2P player if you spend a lot of money in the item store.


Also, inb4 this post:

LOTRO was okay, it kept me kind of interested and I hate MMO's. TOR on the other hand is like playing a single player RPG, but with small portions multiplayer (optional). 8 classes, and 8 unique stories that are told in a Bioware fashion. It's got me totally enthralled.

Guild Wars 2 is revolutinary in termss of MMOs, and you don't have to subscribe. Just pay the retail price and you have it for life. Its not out yet though, so try the original Guild Wars, which also doesn't have a subscription. SWTOR is pretty good from what I've read and heard, but you have to pay a subscription.

Interesting, I might have to check this out. Never had any long-term luck with these kinds of free MMOs.

IMHO, none.

A single player RPG that you need to buy for $60, followed by $15/month installments.

The Old Republic. I can't seem to get enough of it.

What class are you playing? Do tell.

http://mmohuts.com/

There's a whole site devoted to free MMOs, including good reviews and a pro/con list. Check it out.


WoW is really the only MMO that is worth paying monthly.

Right, but given the scope of the game it's entirely reasonable provided I finish them in a timely manner. One Bioware RPG per character, and it's up to their usual high quality. I have yet to see if the end game content is worth paying for, right now I'm here for the story. It's simple if you can beat all 8 classes to level 50 in a timely manner you can pay only what you would have to pay for a single bioware game. Each character has enough content to be classified as its own game. These are usually 60 dollar affairs. So that means if you can beat each class within six months. Your only paying for one bioware RPG game. If you go beyond six months for each class, then it becomes an additional fee. If you look at it from the single player perspective. All it requires is some math to figure this out. Basic, basic grade school math.

None. I've played countless MMOs over the years, and looking back I can safely say that it was all a huge waste of time and money.

I played Age of Conan recently, which was my first MMO and to my surprise I really enjoyed it. It is free to play but there are restrictions. The biggest bummer is that 90% of the dungeons are locked to free players. Also some of the races and classes, and the official forums. But there's a lot you can do even if you can't get into the dungeons.

The biggest problem I had with it is a lot of the quests and nearly all the dungeons require a group to be able to complete, and finding people to play with is often an exercise in frustration.

Runescape?

EVE: Online is a cool game.. if you can get past the learning curve and are into spaceships.

Run Escape

I had a blast with LotRO, though that was before it went f2p. I've played a bit after, and I'd say they've polished it up if anything. There is that lonelynes at higher levels, but if you find a good group of people to play with or a nice guild that shouldn't be a problem. And the game is fun at low levels, too, so it's not just a grind until the "good stuff."

Heck, it's funner at low levels. I always get bored once I hit Moria. There used to be a nasty dull patch after the Lone Lands, but now that they've made Evendim awesome it's smooth sailing to level 50 (if you have the points for Evendim anyway).

Everswim Evendim is what made me quit the first time around

This, ten times over. They're fun if you're playing with a great group of people... if that's what you're looking for in a game anyways. But in the end, it's such a waste. I don't want to even say how much money I wasted on the years I played.

I would say Guild Wars, but it's fairly dated by this point in time. Guild Wars 2 should be coming out in 2012, and its a one time purchase.

Guild Wars is one of the few MMOs that you can play completely by yourself, or with a full group of friends at any time.

DC Universe isn't too bad. Great customization and free to play. I only made it to level 5 so far though.

I actually thought it was called that at first.


The upcoming Guild Wars 2 sounds good. Combat is more active than in your average hotkey MMO and the quest system is very nice.

Basically some quest lines are on a track, where the story can be pushed two ways. One way is the good way, which is done by participating in the quests, and the other is the bad way, where if a questline is left alone for too long the evil monsters or whatever start taking over areas. So completing and neglecting to complete these quests actually has an impact on your environment, whereas in an MMO like WoW it's just 'fetch X items' or 'kill X boss' with neither having any impact on the world itself.

And it's just a one time purchase, no monthly fee. Perfect for me since I play a lot of other games as well and I probably wouldn't be playing GW2 enough to justify paying a monthly fee.

I'll confirm that most MMO's are really not worth it at all. F2P ones tend to be so so, if not totally dependant on spending real world money to get anywhere. While subscription based themepark MMO's get stale after a while (either while leveling, or hitting cap and realizing there isn't actually anything fun to do...). The few MMO's I've played and actually enjoyed have all been sandbox based. WoW, and most other themepark based MMO's I've played all end up hitting a brick wall where you realize there's no real content, and the "social interactions" really end up meaing getting [censored]ed at by "lulzy" peoplecave dwelling preteens that think they know what trolling (or a sense of humor/attractive personality) is. I'd really just say avoid it altogether.

The few MMO's I've truly enjoyed:
Planetside (MMOFPS: Planetside 2 is supposed to be out sometime in the near future, I'm keeping my fingers crossed, but I'm still a bit skeptical of SoE)
Runescape (although it's been a while, they've added quite a bit of new content, although the community has always been its biggest problem. Monthly fee is less than most MMO's though, and you can get pretty far F2P)
Star Wars Galaxies (cancelled, a beta emulator is in my sig, but you'll need the original game discs which can be found on ebay/amazon for pretty cheap. Kind of a niche game in its current state)
Fallen Earth was interesting when I played the open beta, but it's was too buggy for me to really get into. It might have been improved since, I dunno. It gets props for being sandbox based.
EVE seemed interesting, but its almost more of a space/economy sim more than a real game. It's got mad depth, but it didn't appeal to me.
I hear good things about Guild Wars, and the lack of a subscription fee is appealing, never played it though. Sequel is coming out soon however.

Can't say I recommend anything else. SWTOR is getting a lot of press lately, but it's by EA, and Bioware has started to decline in quality (IMO). I'd probably wait a couple months to see where the game is going, it might end up just dying fading away like most "WoW killers". Can't say it looks like it brings much to the table, other than a gimmicky story feature and a morality scale (yawn).