Free MMORPG’s vs Pay MMORPG’s

This issue has been thought for a long time. It has been argued on both sides. This is a report detailing the pros and cons of Pay to Play MMORPGs and the Free MMORPGs.

The Pay to Play ones are like World of Warcraft, or Lineage II. While the free ones are less popular, at least in the western world, they are still quite well known. Games like Silkroad Online or Maple Story are two well-known games.

Pay to Play Games

The pay to play MMORPGs or the ones where you have to pay a fee every month, in addition to buying the game at a retail store, is the most popular in the western world. The first MMORPG was a pay to play game, and games to this day have usually followed the same model. Pay around $10-$15 dollars a month, which is to pay for the fees of hosting servers, production of new contact, and customer service.

This is true. Almost every pay to play game has excellent customer service, have bug-free servers, and get regular content updates. An example of this is World of Warcraft. At launch, it was still quite buggy, and with around 3000 quests. Today, it has around twice as many servers, around 5000 quests, with an expansion out too.

These games usually have better graphics and sounds, which has become a real need for today’s “modern” gamer. Also, with the constantly updated content, people who pay usually get something new to do, which keeps them paying.

These games are usually more popular in the western world, due to advertisement. Since most of these are US based companies, advertisement is easier, and games are related to something well known. Why was World of Warcraft so popular? The first Warcraft games came out in the late 1990’s. How large would the fan base grown over that time?

But then there comes other problems. One of course is the monthly fee itself. If you pay $15 dollars a month, it builds up to $180 a year. That isn’t much compared to yearly salaries, but another problem is the selling of in-game items. For a lot of games, people sell in-game items for real money. Those that are truly into the game, spend hundreds, even thousands of dollars a year on in-game characters, just to make them that slight bit better.

Free Games

Free MMORPGs are numerous. There are hundreds of them on the internet, some that you will never hear about. They aren’t as popular in the western world, mainly due to the fact that most of them are Korean made, translated to English (and usually not done all that well either), though they can be just as fun as pay to play games.

The main difference is obviously the monthly fees. This means that free games usually have less, more buggy servers, with very little additional content after launch. But this doesn’t necessarily mean it’s bad. The content included is usually good, and fun, at least for a while. Some games are better with less content.

The free games are usually more buggy as well, ranging from game to game, some games have random crashes, or random slow downs, others just have graphical glitches. These can really set back a game. One such game is the free MMORPG called Risk Your Life. A lot of people, including me, were victims of random crashes, around every half hour. This made the game really annoying, and made me quit.

Graphics are usually of lower quality, though most free games uses a different style that makes it seem good in its own way. An example of this is Maple Story; it doesn’t have the intense lighting effects of Lord of the Rings Online, in fact, its not even 3D. It is a side-view 2d game, with cute chibi-anime graphics. While some people won’t like this, other people love this style, and wouldn’t want the game to be 3D.

Sounds are around the same, varying from game to game, they can either be worse, or on par with pay MMO’s.

You may be thinking how do game companies make money, if the game is completely free? The answer to that is the cash shop. Almost every free MMORPG has a cash shop of some kind, where you spend real-life money, buying in-game items. These range from clothes that are just for show, to some kind of token that boosts your XP gaining rate. People that are really into the game, spend hundreds every year in the cash shops.

But it isn’t compulsory to use the cash shop, it will just give a small to moderate advantage to the non-paying players, you can’t help that, but everyone gets along nonetheless.

Pay to Play Games Pro’s

• More Content


• Less Bugs


• Better Servers


• Better Graphics and Sounds


• Better Customer Support

Pay to Play Games Con’s

• <You have to buy the game, and then pay a monthly fee


• Usually there are a lot of player who act like idiots


• A lot of people sell their items or money, and scamming people too.

Free Games Pro’s

• Sometimes more original/innovative


• Usually has a unique style of graphics


• No need to buy the game, or pay monthly fees


• Communities usually help each other more

Free Games Con’s

• More buggy


• Due to lack of customer service and/or GMs (Game Masters), more in-game scamming occurs more


• Worse graphics than pay games for people who like good 3D graphics


• Less things to do, and usually all you do is hack n’ slash

Conclusion

The game you choose to play affects which type you should play. Some of the free games are excellent, almost Pay to Play quality, while some pay games are so bad, they are worse than the Free ones.

They both have their pro’s and con’s and it usually depends on what the player wants to decide which is better. Like good graphics, or a lot of quests? Go play pay games. Like some creative styled games, or don’t have money? Play a free one.

The pay games are well advertised in the western countries (and the Asian ones), so you shouldn’t have much trouble finding one.

Free games however, can be harder to find. I also have published another article with a list of Free MMORPG’s, just go to this

link.

Go there for a few MMORPG’s you can try out.

If you want the quality of Pay MMORPG’s, I got a list, with a review and rating right here.

Hope you find the right game for you, and most importantly, have fun!