Top Ten Free-to-Play Games

[Ralsu]

Back After a Week off

Danny "Ralsu" Gourley makes his return with the Top Ten Free-to-Play Games. This time, he ponders the fate of Dungeon Runners, discusses his adventures in Archlord, and even agrees with a review by Cody "Micajah" Bye:

I don't always agree with Managing Editor Cody "Micajah" Bye's take on a game, but I cannot add anything to his review of Archlord. While the translation has gotten better in the seventeen months since Cody reviewed the game, the graphics have aged a little. And the grind has remained the same.

• Read this week's Top Ten Free-to-Play Games
• Then tell us your own top ten

[Finn]

Haha, I am actually one of the people who bought and played Archlord when it first came out. The ideas behind the game were awesome, and combat was honestly fun for a change. But you can never really have a game that is just all about the grind all the time. It won't work. But I will say Atlantica has certainly earned it's spot as your number 1.

[Ralsu]

Thanks for the comments as always, FinnGrimm. I am glad you are enjoying Atlantica.

I also wanted to note that I found out that Runes of Magic has a NDA. So for several weeks, I can only say that there is a beta and that I am in.

[Rocqu]

Have you tried Kingdom of Loathing yet?

[fatfoogoo]

Can confirm the NDA on Runes of Magic. Can also confirm it's wicked fun to play combining lots of different aspects of various MMO's. WoW clone it is not!

[Birinus]

The Stamina system that was added to Atlantica was a horrible idea on their part. The game was already starting to get grindy by lvl 40ish with having to collect all the crystals and vials for your mercs alone. They should have made the stamina give a bonus to exp/drops and then when it runs out you could refill it by buying something in the cash shop and through challenge leagues/guild quest which they do now. It could have sorta taken the place of exp increase items. That would have have gone over alot better with the masses. However I will say I don't think it was the main reason for the huge drop off in population. I think when most new games come out you see a ton of people stomping around to just check it out and then after a month or so the buzz comes down and people settle back to where they were leaving only the people that really dig it. The stamina system certainly didn't help though and probably knocked alot of fence riders off.

Also I tried out alot of mmo's cause of this article and probably made my modem cry

[Ralsu]

Originally Posted by Birinus

Also I tried out alot of mmo's cause of this article and probably made my modem cry

LOL

Thanks for the thoughts on Atlantica and Stamina. I agree that some F2P gamers just hop from game to game. And that's totally cool if that is what is fun for them. I don't travel with a ready-made guild, and I tend to stick to one game for as long as I can. With my limited play time, Stamina has not impacted me, but the official Atlantica forums are ablaze, aren't they?