Top Ten Free-to-Play Games Week 8

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Posted June 11th, 2008 by Ralsu

By Danny "Ralsu" Gourley

About This List
Please refer to the Top Ten Free-to-Play Games Portal to find out how to get a game you make or like on this list.

Week in Review
This week, I played quite a bit of Rohan: Blood Feud. I really have nothing but good things to say. Rohan has nice graphics, good music, a familiar user interface and controls, interesting lore and a fun skill tree system. It also features some very unique social options. Players caught botting or selling gold can be put under a citizen's arrest and sent to a "jail." From the jail, they cannot speak in global chat or gain experience.

With a tool as powerful (and so open to grief) as this citizen's arrest component, the onus is on YNK Interactive, the publisher for Rohan, to be sure that the complaints are legitimate. Repeat offenders who earn their imprisonment will be banned, of course--as will people who wrongfully accuse the innocent repeatedly. The setup is aimed at encouraging the community to police itself, but I did not get to play with this tool. I wouldn't want to try it out without a developer approving my use of it.

My early impression is that Rohan has a solid tutorial and some fun starting quests that allow players to get into the lore. The factional-based PvP elements are apparent early. I'll try to bring Ten Ton Hammer readers some Rohan coverage in the next week, but for now, I will just give you the overview from the official website:

Rohan: Blood Feud is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG). The game is a rich and expansive persistent online world, set on the continent of Rohan. The land is full of quests to embark upon, from simple to glorious. Friends and enemies will be made and lost, spectacular battles will be fought, and an abundance of unique game features will keep players on the edge of their gaming seats. There are many features of the game that set it apart from more traditional MMORPGs, including:

REVENGE: Players who have been slain in-game by another will have their killers automatically recorded on their "Hit List". Once resurrected, the slain can teleport to their killers for a chance at revenge.
TOWNSHIP BATTLES: In-game groups - called 'guilds' - have the opportunity to rule each town within Rohan. Other guilds may wage civil war with the ruling guild, with the chance to gain control of their own. In addition to treasure & riches, the right to tax all commercial exchanges within the town for one week goes to the winner.
BUY & SELL SAFELY: There are several ways in which players can buy and sell goods within the game, including a website specially designed for player-to-player transactions.

With my attention focused fully on Rohan, I did not get a chance to play the copy of Rakion I installed. I'll look at it again next week. I did go through a couple of quests in the Holic tutorial and decided that game is best left to our sister site, Ten Ton Hamster. It is very clearly aimed at young gamers even though the foundation looks solid enough for older audiences.

Finally, with Rohan coming onto the list, something had to drop off. For now, that game is Fiesta Online. That is not to say Fiesta is not a good game. I actually have enough quality titles here now that it is getting pretty tough to contain myself to 10 choices!

The List
Coming up, I will bring readers some coverage of Rohan. I'll make Rakion a priority, too, and look one week for a functional download link for Perfect World before giving up that search and looking at another game, Hero Online.

Here are my Top Ten Free-to-Play Games for this week.

Top Ten Free-to-Play Games June 12, 2008
Rank	Previous	Game
1	1	Mythos - (www.mythos.com) Flagship Studios, Inc. Mythos Portal Many Mythos players are in limbo now. They can either test the overworld on the test server or test the old content on the beta server with the understanding that most resources are going into the overworld. It's a little stagnant right now, but the results will be great.
2	2	Mabinogi - (http://mabinogi.nexon.net) NEXON Mabonogi Portal Mabinogi actually gets more fun the longer you play--just the opposite of many other free-to-play games.
3	3	Wakfu - (www.wakfu.com) Ankama Wakfu Portal The English Closed Beta of Wakfu has finally started. The game is under NDA, though, so beta testers can't comment on Wakfu's progress.
4	N/A	Rohan: Blood Feud - (www.playrohan.com) YNK Interactive Rohan Portal Rohan has nice lore, appropriate music, and most of the bells and whistles of a pay-to-play game.
5	4	Dream of Mirror Online - (http://domo.aeriagames.com) Aeria Games & Entertainment DOMO Portal Dream of Mirror Online gives players all of the versatility with classes of Final Fantasy XI without the monthly fee.
6	5	Requiem: Bloodymare - (www.playrequiem.com) Gravity Interactive Requiem Portal Requiem is easily the highest quality horror game I have tried.
7	6	Dungeon Runners - (http://www.dungeonrunners.com) NCSoft Dungeon Runners Portal Dungeon Runners is great for mindless fun and dungeon romps. It's even better if you have a set gorup of friends to play with.
8	8	Magic World Online - (http://mwo.enjoymmo.com) Goldcool Games Magic World Online Portal Weeks later, and I still can't find many games with stories as good as the one in Magic World Online.
9	7	NeoSteam - (www.neosteam.com) Hanbitsoft NeoSteam Portal NeoSteam is one of those games most gamers will either love or hate. It's a pretty good game that does not get a lot of attention.
10	10	Warrior Epic - (http://warriorepic.com) Possibility Space Warrior Epic Portal Warrior Epic is still one of the more secretive titles on this list. I have faith in the concept and look forward to seeing the execution.