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The Last Days of an Online World
These are the last days of Asheron's Call 2. We've known since late August that the online world was slated for sunset, and Wired has a stirring look at the final days of a dying world. From the article: "The economy has also tanked. When the announcement first came down, players say, a majority of gamers immediately fled. Previously, you'd log on and find several hundred people online; now you'll get nine or 10. High-powered character accounts used to sell for as much as $500, but the online auctions have gone silent. That's partly because, as the end nears, Turbine is tossing out some freebies and giving away more "rare" items, making them less rare. Without a sense of a future, capitalism ends. There's no demand in a condemned world."
There's always Neverwinter Nights. You still have to buy the game, but there's dozens and dozens of different worlds all free to play on.
There's also the MUDs of old, or some 'free' MMORPGs, but generally speaking they make it a pain in the arse to play for 'free' (ie: Runescape's fencing off easy ways to get to places and then making a door that 'donators' can go through is one example of this, while people playing for free have to go the long, long, long long way around).
Also, Anarchy Online is free for the base client+world, no monthly fee, don't have to pay for the client. You can download it off their website of via their own bittorent tracker. You have to pay the monthly fee if you want to play with any of the expansions, but you don't NEED them to experience the vast majority of the fiction.
I'd suggest some websites with free MMORPGs, but those have gone downhill the past couple years as well. Well, at least the ones I knew about and used frequently.
well, if it's not worth $15 to you, I wouldn't say you're exactly dying to try one. More like mildly interested.
If forums teach us anything, it is that logic and critical thinking should be required courses in the public schools.
Actually since they're constantly adding new content and you're playing on their servers, I think the $15/mo is more than fair. Imagine that you're paying a subscription for a passworded server and buying a small expansion pack every month.
This isn't like UT where a single box can run the whole game. They run more than just a server browser.
But if you really feel that way, Guild Wars is an MMO with no subscription fee. You could try that.
I'd suggest some websites with free MMORPGs, but those have gone downhill the past couple years as well. Well, at least the ones I knew about and used frequently.
Are you talking about those turn-based browser games? If so, and you like that sort of thing, you might give my game a try. It's different from the big name browser games in that there's no link-clicking and more strategy. The link's in my sig.
There is a "servervault" option that allows server-side character store only.
The eternal struggle of good vs. evil begins within one's self.
If you run an NWNServer you can set it to ServerVault (meaning all stats, character file, etc are saved server side) you can also turn on ELC (Enforce Legal Character) and ILR (Item Level Restriction) meaning even if a person 'hacks' the character file in some fashion on the serverside, it still has internal checks to make sure the character is within valid limits. Also there is server side scripts for verifing character, items, etc that you can get from the vault or write yourself... meaning if you find an expliot (or someone in the community does) you can create a script to check for it and then take action (log it, boot character, ban player, etc) till bioware releases an offical fix.
Bioware is good at community support and involement (more then any other company I've seen)
On the server I help run and host (free btw), we've fixed probably atleast 200 differant expliots (or things that unbalanced 'gameplay').
[b]NWNServers can be VERY secure[/b]. It all depends on the server host.
AC IS still going strong. It actually has one very cool feature that most MMPOGs don't have - true pathing for arrows, spells, etc. You can step out of the way of an arrow or spell, and it misses you.
It's AC2 that's being shut down.
I played AC (my first MMPOG) for a year or two - it was fun. I remember when they did their big Christmas update, the first year, and there were snowmen, and snow, etc. Was really cool.
I played AC2 during the beta, and it was dead and empty. Looks like it's leaving the same way it began.
I like the idea of releasing the engine, etc, but Turbine might be making other games.
Asheron's Call, in my humble opinion, was and still is one of the greatests MMORPG's to grace the Earth. Great gameplay and skill advancement, magic system, great however now dated graphics, monthly updates with TONS of content, huge arcing storylines, an entire city getting blown off the face of the planet, the list goes on and on.
I played in the original Beta and we had the same situation. The world was going to end, because the beta was ending, so it was basically a huge ingame party. People were running around giving away items, dancing and chatting the time away until our connections all timed out. Met some great people in my several years on the Frostfell server.. good times.
WoW, while it is the next generation, just doesn't keep up to par for me. AC1 was a sublime experience, my first MMORPG and will likely remain my favorite for a long time.
Just doesn't seem to exist. It is a real case of americans not being able to understand that the rest of the world is not like america.
Credit Cards in europe are expensive, rarely accepted and just not popular. Some american companies realize this, most don't. The ones that don't are the ones who say that europe doesn't do business over the net. Despite the fact that europe got more money, more people, more broadband AND a bigger reason to buy via the net (get dvd's NOW instead of 6 months later).
Oh well.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.