Part 4: Miscellany - And Now for Something Completely Different
Try as we might, we couldn't come up with a thematic thread to tie these three games together. Yet all three boast high user populations and garner their share of attention from game enthusiasts, casual players, and even the mainstream media. If you march to the beat of a different drummer--whether that means creating virtual art galleries, exploring an anime universe, or walking the plank--these games may appeal to you, even if MMOGs aren't really your thing.
Who Should Play: Virtual entrepreneurs, shopaholics, and social butterflies
Second Life is a do-it-yourself playground. "It" in this case means building it, playing it, buying it, coding it, and yes, doing it. Linden Lab's social experiment is more of a sandbox than a game, and almost every bit of content you encounter was created by other players--though there is user-created gaming to be had. Once you log in, you'll build and customize an avatar on Noobie Island. Training includes basic ground movement, free flight, and the most important activity of all: running over small rodents with Segway scooters and cars. Our first suggestion, however, is to turn off voice chat because the disembodied, reverb-heavy moaning of other players is more than a bit freaky.
You fly around from hot spot to hot spot like a superhero, though the software suffers from major slowdown when you do so. Expect to see areas erect themselves around you as you fly or to bump into invisible walls that have yet to be rendered onscreen. If you grow tired of aimless flying, you can teleport around the map. The world is vast and there are few clues as to where to go and what to do, but you'll eventually discover that the hundreds of thousands of users who log in each month tend to cluster in the same social regions. There are dance areas, card-battling areas, combat areas, sex areas, and so on, and you find them through exploring, socializing, and doing Internet research. Your best bet is to visit secondlife.com, which showcases locations of interest and other oddities, such as the fascinating Robots and Doughnuts exhibit at the Museum of Robots. There are combat zones too, where players duke it out with weapons they scripted themselves.
Once you're past the learning curve, you'll marvel at the ingenuity of fellow gamers, and one of the most satisfying ways to approach Second Life is as a tourist. There are complete re-creations of Amsterdam, aerodromes, dance halls, European castles, multistory mansions, and sprawling estates. If you're the entrepreneurial type, you have even more possibilities to explore because a little real-world cash can buy you virtual real estate and in-game advertising. Second Life is an electronic universe where players can bend the rules of physics and society in a safe environment. Depending on what you're looking to get out of it, you may find it dreadfully boring--or uniquely compelling.
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Who Should Play: Kids and MMOG newcomers.
If you're an experienced online role player, MapleStory isn't for you. On the other hand, if you're looking to get your virtual feet wet, or if you want your kids to explore a safe and user-friendly online environment, this colorful game might just be the ticket. Rather than giving you a full 3D environment to explore, MapleStory combines the basic qualities of a 2D side-scroller with a colorful and charming persistent world. It just overflows with cuteness, from the childlike player avatars to the kooky gear they might be wearing. And just like with a side-scrolling platformer, you'll jump to higher levels and climb ladders to get around.
From a gameplay perspective, MapleStory keeps things simple. You'll control all of your character's actions with the keyboard, moving about with the arrow keys while using other keys to attack, jump, pick up loot, and so on. You can customize these keys, but frustratingly, you can't reassign the basic movement keys, which means you'll probably keep both hands on the keyboard and switch to your mouse from time to time when clicks are required. It's a little awkward, but once you get used to it, you'll be stabbing at spritely monsters in no time flat. In fact, there's no shortage of them, and they spawn really quickly. That's fine, though, because you'll be surrounded by dozens of other players at any given time, and you'll all be swinging madly away at the same horde of snails and tree stumps.
There are some minigames to play, such as a variant on the classic card game Concentration. But there's no real depth here, hidden or otherwise, so if you're looking for complex character customization or a feature-rich experience, you'll need to look elsewhere. If you're new to the genre and enjoy all the preciousness, MapleStory is a simple but appealing introduction to online RPGs.
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Who Should Play: Landlubbers who enjoyed the films and aren't afraid to admit it
Storytelling isn't often the main focus for games in a genre more centered on monster killing and friendly adventuring than on linear narrative. Yet Pirates of the Caribbean Online bucks this trend by sending you on a long series of quests featuring surprisingly endearing cutscenes populated with characters from the eponymous films. If you can't get enough Jack Sparrow in your daily life, you'll get plenty of glimpses here.
On the other hand, it's not so surprising that this Disney-produced MMOG would be friendly to players of all ages: You must select from a preset selection of monikers for your character's name (you can create your own pirate name, but it must be approved before you can begin playing), and the community is affable enough. It's also entertaining to play. Swordfights are fun and well-animated, so you won't mind fending off the usual selection of crabs and giant scorpions. You can also take your ship out to sea, where you can set Royal Navy ships ablaze, or go after the East India Trading Company vessels for even better loot. To get the most out of your seafaring, however, you should grab a few buddies to man the cannons for you. This way, you can navigate the currents while your foolhardy crew sinks the dastardly foes that dare block your path to fame and fortune.
The catch, though, is that to play for free, you have to deal with advertisements and nag screens, and because paying members get log-in priority, you may have to wait a few extra moments before you can enter the game. You also won't have access to certain quests, weapons, ships, and parlor games that are reserved for paying customers. On the sunny side, because the game streams new content as you play, the download process is an absolute breeze, and you can expect to be playing a few short minutes after you create your account. If you think Johnny Depp looks good in beaded dreads, grab your parrot and don an eye patch because Pirates of the Caribbean Online might be right up your alley.
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So there you have it, a dozen free-to-play MMOGs that could easily soak up your leisurely hours, but none of your hard earned cash. Keep in mind, though, that all MMOGs are subject to drastic changes from one patch to the next. This means that these games may be quite different a year from now than they are as of this writing. Heck, they may no longer even be available to play. Another x-factor, as with any online game, is the community. A good game can be dragged down with an immature user base, so no matter which of these games you choose, we recommend keeping a close eye on your fellow players in the early hours to get a handle on the community at large before investing in a game as time-consuming as these.
This list is just a taste of the available free MMOGs available for download and play. But as you can tell, quality gameplay can be found as long as you know where to look. Of course, time and bandwidth are valuable too, and we hope our guide assists you in your search for the free persistent world that's right for you.
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Cheaper by the Dozen: A Look at Free MMOGs
We compare notes on some free-to-play massively multiplayer online games so you can decide if any of them sound right for you.
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