Top Ten Free-to-Play Games - Car Shopping

[Ralsu]

Don't Be Put off by the Cute Factor in F2P Games

Any connoisseur of free-to-play games would have to admit that there is a certain cute factor that goes with the territory. Even though a few F2P titles aim for children with their cartoony graphics, most are serious games intended to reach adult audiences. To find out what the deal is with the cutesy graphics in F2P games, Ten Ton Hammer turned to Danny "Ralsu" Gourley, its resident F2P enthusiast, who advises gamers to be careful of overlooking the reliability of simpler graphics:

Cartoony graphics hearken to the viewpoint of children, a perspective that is not clouded by the stresses of adult life. It is fun for gamers to visit a world where everything is colorful and playful and where it’s acceptable to embrace the levity of life.

Read "Car Shopping" to see Ralsu's exploration of the cute factor in F2P games.

[unholyblackdeath]

I am having a hard time imagining why you would put Runes of Magic number 1 above Atlantica? Runes of Magic has several serious issues, not the least of which is game breaking server lag. Would you care to enlighten me with your reasons?

I have played both, but I've enjoyed Atlantica much more and it seems a lot more polished.

[Ralsu]

Originally Posted by unholyblackdeath

I am having a hard time imagining why you would put Runes of Magic number 1 above Atlantica?

I speak to that in "The Time is Now." To me, the games are fairly even. Atlantica has more innovation. Runes of Magic provides a more traditional experience you can talk friends into trying and is more solo-friendly.

Originally Posted by unholyblackdeath

Runes of Magic has several serious issues, not the least of which is game breaking server lag.

I agree that RoM has issues. I have some interview questions out to Frogster to try to get some answers on the issues (Frogster is working on the answers, but there is an interviewer in line ahead of me).

Interestingly enough, I have yet to experience any game-breaking lag in RoM (which is still in beta), but EVERY time I play Atlantica (which has launched) for more than 90 minutes, I have to do a restart or the game becomes a slide slow. Still, my experiences do not invalidate yours or those of the people on the RoM forums who complain of lag. I know it's out there from time to time.

[unholyblackdeath]

The lag issue could have to do with location. That would explain why different people experience it differently or not at all.

Thanks for taking the time to answer, I have been wondering about that every time I look at the top 10 list.

[bobfish]

Aren't RoM's beta servers in Germany?

Anyways, nice article Ralsu, though I think on this occasion I will have to disagree with you. Whilst I'm a strong advocate that free to play and subscription games should not be compared, you can not deny that WoW's cartoonish appeal went down incredibly well with the western market and EQ2's realistic did not far so well.

This perhaps could be expanded further to cover the cartoon style, whilst Japanese animation is relatively new to the west and many new children's cartoons are based on this style, the older animation style that you see in perhaps Tom & Jerry, is familiar to adults in the west and more acceptable because they grew up with it. WoW has this much more traditional western approach to its cartoon style graphics, so that could be why it is acceptable and DOMO isn't with its Japanese style isn't.