Playing MMORPG for free

Playing a big commercial MMORPG for a year costs about $200. So as long as the MMORPG actually glues you to the screen for a year, saving you money for other games and other forms of entertainment, the total cost of entertainment is rather cheap. On the other hand, if you buy a MMORPG in a box for around $50, and after a week you find you don't like it, the cost of entertainment is rather high. And if you are very poor, paying $50 for a game plus up to $15 per month might already be too much. So you would want to play MMORPG for free.

One good option to play for free is beta testing. Thanks to Tagart for making be aware of www.betawatcher.com. That site does a good job of listing all the MMORPG that are currently in beta, including links where to sign up. Normally it is hard to get into a closed beta, but easy to get into an open beta, where the developers basically only test server load and just invite anybody. The only disadvantage is that open beta periods tend to be short, so without a site like betawatcher you could easily miss them.

Another good option to play for free is "free trial" versions of MMORPG. Even if it is as short as 1 week, at least you know how the game plays. Screenshots, or even a review, can't really tell you if you will like a game or not. Playing it for some hours will tell you, aside from the question of long-term motivation. The only problem is that free trials for MMORPG are not yet as common as free trials for single-player games. Usually free trials are a sign of the game either being a small afair from some independant company, or they are being offered when player numbers decrease. My personal impression that Everquest 1 is going downhill is based on me receiving several invites to play it for free from Verant/Sony. I do not know of a dedicated site listing free MMORPG trials, but you can look on Fileplanet or check all games at MMORPG.com.

Just be aware that you always get what you pay for, which isn't much if you don't pay anything. Beta versions are often buggy. Both open beta and free trials are limited in time and are more of a marketing device to get you hooked. And whatever game you can find that is totally free of charge, will be graphically inferior to modern commercial games. If you never want to pay anything, you might be forced to jump from beta to beta to free trial, changing games frequently and being at home nowhere. There are so many MMORPG games nowadays that this is certainly feasible. But I think the best way to use betas and free trials is to form an opinion on which game suits you best, and then pay for it, and stick with it for a couple of months.
- posted by Tobold @ 9:37 AM Permanent Link