My First Free 2 Play MMO Experience is Excellent - How was Yours?

So I'm in the European Closed Beta for Vindictus. Damn was I not prepared for how awesome that game is. It reminds me of Secret of Mana on the SNES. Bloody good co-op hack 'n slash fun. It kinda feels like a Capcom or 16-bit era Squaresoft release. It would totally do these big names justice.

I suffer from WoW-template MMO fatigue, so I didn't think some random free 2 play product would have what it takes to get me hooked. I thought I'd take a peek, giggle at its inadequacy and move on to the shrinkwrapped copy of Bulletstorm sitting on my shelf. Damn was I wrong. I will play Vindictus thoroughly through to Monday the 19th, when this Beta phase closes shop. Solid to the core action mechanics with a robust and addicitive character building and a deep loot/craft/economy element to boot. Dang - I hope Diablo 3 will have this type of hooks into me soon.

From what limited experience I had with the Play 4 Free business model, I am extremely surprised at how positive this experience has been thus far. I will likely play more free 2 play games in the future. Definitely gonna try out the Firefall and Tribes Ascend. Maybe it's time to get started with some League of Legends too.

I'm still not yet entirely sure if I'd rather have Vindictus and other upcoming F2P games rather be paid premium productions, but damn, I cannot argue with this fun I'm having. I just unlocked the first 10man raid encounter. Gonna try and get a decent group together for that now... 'til then, enjoy some Korean doing the fight solo in the following youtube video.

What the fuck this is free to play?

Holy shit.

Played this back when it came out in the US last year or so. Gnoll Chieftain was nightmare hard, and I quit after I beat him.

I'm very happy with Lord of the Rings Online.
 
Earning stuff ingame instead of buying? Totally rad.
So far I spend 15 bucks for a month sub once just to get some perks (bags, free riding skill, the like) for all my characters and rest is all ingame earned.
I love it.
 
That game looks like Monster Hunter...gonna look it up.

Cool, I didn't know Vindictus was coming to Europe. I hope Tribes is good.

@Mmmslash said:

Played this back when it came out in the US last year or so. Gnoll Chieftain was nightmare hard, and I quit after I beat him.

Huh? It does get proper challenging. I'm currently farming the Kobold Chieftain (higher tier dungeon boss). The Gnoll Chieftain was nothing in comparison and I'm sure it'll get a whole lot harder.

It's 100% fair and skill-dependent up to now. Love the core fighting mechanics. Makes the more grindy elements less of a chore and more of a joy.

I'm fighting with the 360 gamepad. Pretty much plays like Devil May Cry. Same league of responsiveness and depth.

I don't meant to come in here and shit all over that game, but I guess I will a bit. That game is repetitive as fuuuuuuck. I had a lot of fun for the first four or five hours, but you have 4 combos or possibly 5. It got so boring. Though, I know they released some major content patches since I played last, so maybe it would be more fun now.

Anyways, my first F2P MMO was Runescape, which I absolutely loved and still love even though I don't play it. I started being a member around level 40 in it and played it a good 3 or 4 years ( '03 to '07 and several months on and off since).

I've actually not had any fun with an F2P MMO since. That is, unless the Warhammer endless trial counts. I had a ton of fun getting to level 10 and wrecking people in PVP. Convinced me to buy the game, but then I got to level 15, didn't know where to go to level more and didn't have enough desire to continue playing to try to find out, and quit.

@Seppli: Mayhaps it's because I played at launch, but I literally had to spend 20 minutes running away, throwing boulders just to beat him. I was loving the game up until then, though.

Yeah Nexon generally publishes good stuff, my personal favorite is dungeon fighter, best Beatemup I've ever played.

Anyone else look at this and think of dynasty warriors? the basic attack combos are super reminiscent. DW never had bears though, so this is a clear improvement on the formula.

Edit: Actually adding something to the conversation.

I've played a number of F2P mmos, and for the most part they're fun. Rose Online, FlyFF, Graal back in the day. Good god, Graal. That would of been back in 2000? Around then.. Graal was graphically comparable to the Legend of Zesa: Link to the Past, but it was an MMO. Tons of servers and anyone could create content and submit it to the server for it to be used. That was a good time, I made my in-game living by memorizing the name of every level/zone/what have you and hunting people for money.

FlyForFun and Rose were both Korean RPGs. I don't recall much of Rose but FlyFF had a pretty interesting leveling system. You had your base experience and skill experience. you gained both by killing mobs, but you couldn't gain base experience without filling the skill experience first. By setting certain abilities to level as you use them, they'd consume the skill experience and would level that way. This led to some seriously overpowered characters if you put in the time to level abilities. The low level healer class could buff pretty much any stat and by the time I was level 20 I had a character that was comparable to level 40's after self buffing. Unfortunately the last time I went to check on Fly For Fun they had changed it to a regular ass leveling system. You gain skill points and distribute them to the abilities you would use much like Diablo 2.

I haven't found any other f2p mmos that interested me like those though, and while I admit that this game looks beautiful (not even stopping to consider that it's f2p) I don't think it's something I'll try. Just doesn't rub me the right way for some reason.

If you do like that game however, there's another game published by Nexon I believe called Dragon's Nest or something; I played it in beta and it's similar to Vindictus but not quite as repetitive and the enemy types are more varied. I played as a warrior for like 30 minutes or something and had several regular combos and four or five skills. It's in an anime style. The beta ended August 16th I think, not sure if you can play it right now.

LoL is good, but that's more of a free to play MOBA. I had some fun with Spiral Knights as far as free to play MMO type game go.

My friend has been raving about this game. Also is it just me or was the Bayonetta music near the end of that video?

I don't MMO anymore, I have a job now.

Runescape. Loved it, still love it even though I haven't played it for years.

My first F2P MMO was RuneScape, so I've been tainted for life.

I really wanted to get into it when they opened it up, but I cant play any of the nexon games cause the assholes lock service to specific markets. But the game seems cool, Im glad you get to enjoy it.

First was RuneScape so i've been burned already. But now I play TF2 so its all good. I've always been meaning to check out Vindictus because it looks a lot more action-y than other MMORPGs which is the part of an MMO that is most important to me.

Action MMOs make me wet.

The first MMO I ever tried was MapleStory like 4-5 years ago. I thought it was pretty good up until I realized that soloing meant I was on the road to grind city T_T I still try free MMOs here and there and find them pretty enjoyable.

I have been playing the US version of Vindictus for a bit. It actually plays nothing like Monster Hunter or Dynasty Warriors. I also found playing with a 360 controller to make the game less responsive so I swapped to mouse/keyboard(I started with controller). Very good game, might be the only ftp mmo that is actually retail quality.

Vindictus is alright but... I don't know the combat is fairly basic and the enemies are incredibly generic and repetitive from what I played.

The only MMO I have ever just completely been sucked in to was Ragnarok Online. That game may be a grindfest but it was the people that really saved it for me. It was the only MMO I have ever really loved, nothing has ever been close.

The first MMO I played was Runescape though :3.

I've tried a few free MMOs and overall I'm just soured on the whole MMO (pay or not) thing. Unfortunately for me, all my friends play MMOs, when I met them they all played FFXI. Now one just went back to XI, one plays XIV, and one jumps from one game to the next, with XIV probably his next. I tried XI when they were all playing it (free month) and I barely got anywhere and didn't really enjoy it. I won't even touch XIV. We all played Vindictus for a while, but eventually we all just stopped, starting with me.

The only MMO that really grabbed me was Anarchy Online, years ago. It has gone "free" now too, and I'm actually downloading the client right now to see it again. Too bad it has been so many years that my character is gone, along with my account that had the expansions. I don't really remember much about it, so I wonder how this will go.

I played Vindictus for a little while, but I... really, really couldn't get into it. I tried it because someone I know was raving about it being the best MMO they've ever played, but it felt like little more than a slightly less-horrible PSO/U. The combat is definitely more entertaining than in PSO/U, and the graphics are leaps and bounds better, but the game does feel kind of... shallow, compared to other MMOs out there.

To be fair, I think calling it an "MMO" is a bit of a misnomer. The dungeons are all instanced locations, and there's no world to run around in -- it's more like a multiplayer action RPG with some hub towns to do your crafting/bartering, and that's where you'll see players to party up with for dungeon runs. Like I said, there are a lot of parallels to PSO/U, which I also never agreed with calling an "MMO".

I don't know. I gave the game a fair shot, and I tried to enjoy it for what it was, but I guess "what it was" just wasn't for me. I can understand why some people think it's the bee's knees, so I'm not saying it's "bad", but personally if I'm in the mood for that style of game, I'd rather it wasn't done up in MMO trappings -- and definitely without a microtransaction store mucking things up.

It should be stated that my background lies primarily in EVE Online and Lord of the Rings Online, with some dabbling in other MMOs over the years. I've never played a F2P game for longer than a few hours (with the exception being Vindictus, which I played for at least a month to give it a fair shake). LotRO has since gone F2P, but I have a lifetime subscription, so I get all the paid-tier benefits.

I really don't like the microtransaction stores that come with F2P, and it still irks me that they now exist in my primary MMOs, which weren't originally designed with them in mind. I already pay subscription fees for the games (paid upfront in the case of LotRO), so I don't like the fact that there are now store-exclusive items that I have to pay for separately, and which in the past would have simply been added to the game as being purchasable from NPCs or as instance drops.

My first F2P MMO experience lasted 10 years on and off. Those 10 years were when I was young and didn't have money of my own to spend on games. It was an old Korean MMO called StoneAge sort of like Pokemon where you level up your pets and character. It was fun but I'd never go back to it now that I can afford games.

Here's a video of a team duel (make sure to mute):

@Atramentous said:

I have been playing the US version of Vindictus for a bit. It actually plays nothing like Monster Hunter or Dynasty Warriors. I also found playing with a 360 controller to make the game less responsive so I swapped to mouse/keyboard(I started with controller). Very good game, might be the only ftp mmo that is actually retail quality.

Yeah - its basic production quality and how solid it plays without investing any money is what surprises me the most. And being a source engine game with tons of interactive objects and decent physics simulation really gives it a 'legit game' feel. That's what's so intriguing these days about F2P games. They really seem to come into their own now.

Firefall could be bloody amazing and it would be a shame to disregard it just for being F2P. Vindictus definitely shows how far the business model has come. Vindictus is F2P and a proper game - color me amazed.

Worthwhile Free 2 Play: Vindictus is definitely one of them. LOTRO, DDO(Only really recommendable if you have friends to play with, though, game is party required, nearly. But fun as hell when you do have a party), Champions Online made the transition suprisingly well. Hellgate: London's F2P relaunch is surprisingly less of a crapfest then the retail game was. Spiral Knights is even closer to a Secret of Mana game, but it does require you to party to get anywhere.

I haven't really gotten any far in it, but I tried Forsaken Worlds on Steam, it is pretty good. It's definitely wow-ish, though.

Free to play MMOs are usually pretty good, thats how they get people to pay for them.

RS... Never forget.

What happend with RuneScape? So many of you seem to have gotten burned by it. Give me the dirty details.

@Mmmslash said:

@Seppli: Mayhaps it's because I played at launch, but I literally had to spend 20 minutes running away, throwing boulders just to beat him. I was loving the game up until then, though.

Just realized Europe gets the 'Extreme Edition' with some major improvements and a completely retweaked difficulty curve. Apparently its starting dungeons are easier compared to the original. They've sped-up the game somewhat. Added a dynamically scaling damage modifier - the higher the combo chain, the higher the damage modifier. Also - characters can jump and attack in the Extreme Edition - which wasn't the case in the original Vindicutus release. Love how online games are a living breathing thing. As long as there's enough of a community and traffic, these games keep on evolving.

If you disregard the German intro, there's an informative English developer walkthrough of the European Vindictus Extreme Edition (likely to be what's live in the US too?)...

My first F2P MMO was Ragnarok Online when it was still in beta back in early '02. I had been itching to play an MMO for years at that point (mostly Ultima Online) but could never afford the monthly subscription. Despite all of it's flaws (at the time it was just a grindfest with some PvP later in the game), I still consider RO one of the best MMO experiences I've ever had.

So after the third all-nighter, playing Vindictus all weekend long, except for some me-time working out, grooming myself and cooking and eating food (and sleep of course) - this has to be the most intense beta experience since I fried a computer playing Guild Wars 1 for like 2 days straight during a beta preview weekend event. Got my Fiona character (sword and board) pretty much maxed out (only 3 dungeon areas in Closed Beta Trial). Gotten almost all the quests/titles and the finest gear. Feeling grand. Might just crack 1k dmg smashes when I wake up. There's at least another good 6-8 hours of gameplay in it before Closed Beta ends at 00:00 CET.

One day next year, instead of doing a paid premium game, I'll max-out a character in Vindicutus for however long that will take. Might even shell out some dough for some storage space, if only I had online distributable cash set-up to spend. Hopefully it will be as valid to play for free when it's officially out.

omgthatlooksamazing. Why have I not heard of it before?!

my first mmo was an anime called endless online. it was this 2D game. the server was horrible for the game. i could only play it for about an hour 30 minutes because i would disconnected and couldn't connect back. i remember all i did was kill penguins to get meat. when i finally got enough meat i was able to make this awesome sword.
 
i was also into world of warcraft for a couple of years. i didn't get to really raid or anything because i worked. the place that i worked at had me work like 14 hours during the weekend.

I got really bored with Vidictus very quickly, and I am not sure why. I have never been a fan of the whole F2P market of MMO's as they usually are full of wallet-burning micro-transactions to enjoy the game (I am an end-game person) or lack an end-game. Sometimes I run into a game that has terrible translation too.

Dang, the Vindictus European Closed Beta Trial was over before I thought it would end. I woke up this morning still fixin' for some more playtime. I had big plans for farmin' the last set piece of the Blood Prince armor.

Vindictus marks a change in my attitude. It is time to take F2P games more seriously and stay informed about new developements in this segment of the market. Guess it's time to sign up for the Firefall beta now.

My first free MMO was Flyf and it sucked.

@Enigma777 said:

My friend has been raving about this game. Also is it just me or was the Bayonetta music near the end of that video?

That totally is the Bayonetta music.

Vindictus and LOTRO are probably the best times I've had with a Free to Play MMO, though some of the quest stuff in Vindictus is lame.
 
Gonna try out Dynasty Warriors Online in a bit.

this is a mmo? it looks amazing. why have i never heard of this? and its F2P you say? is there any sort of magic class or is it all slash-y guys?

Years ago I got started with Runescape. Afterwards, I went on an MMO spree and tried out several f2p MMO's. Flyff was my most enjoyable and longest lived f2p MMO experience. I grinded for about a week before I quit. Nowadays, I find MMO's to be too much like a job and not like a game. I don't have fun with them anymore.

Played some of the Euro beta, it was alright. Spears were my absolute favorite part of it.

I wouldnt call it an MMO though, was more like GW - CORPG (This is just judging from the beta, if there are open zones later: retract).

First MMO experience was Runescape, still have player mod - though my account has been inactive since before GW released.

That looks really, really cool. I might have to add that to my F2P list with that Monster Hunter MMO rip off the interns played recently, Blade Hunter.

I mean Hunter Blade. Or whatever.

So - just made a Firefall account in hopes to get some hands-on time early. Any other upcoming F2P games I should have an eye out for (especially Beta-wise)? Really love these 'limited time only' experiences. Like Crystal Pepsi.

Still can't believe this is gonna be F2P and not paid premium...

It looks so good! And innovative to boost.

For some reason, when I see "Free to Play", it's a big red flag to NOT play it. I don't know, it's like there this deep subconscious thing that makes me feel that any game worth playing is a game worth paying for. And it's even worse for me with a free MMOs. I mentally avoid them like the plague.

If it's free, then it's not worth my time.

Strange, I know.

Vindictus is very fun. Used to play all the time.

@Seppli: I signed up for the Firefall beta a while ago. I got this in my inbox on Sep. 7th.

THE WAIT IS OVER... LET'S DO THIS:Raise your hand if you want beta! Okay, you can all put your hands down now. We know everyone is very excited about getting their hands on the game, and the tribe at Red 5 is proud to announce that beta invites started going out Friday, September 2nd, 2011. We've released 500 invites for a preliminary test taking place in two weeks.
Keep in mind that our beta will be a staged process. Registered members have been chosen to participate in Closed Beta: Stage 1. Our selection is partially based on positive community member activity, and partially at random.
Over the next 2 weeks many more lucky people will be invited to subsequent rounds of our closed beta. Additionally, those invited will receive an invite themselves to pass out to their friends. Look for your email invitation and please know that if you have not received one yet, it's likely to land in your inbox soon!

It has been two weeks already at this point and I have yet to receive a beta invite. I'm guessing that means I'll have to wait for open beta now. Regardless, I'm planning on checking this out too.