Mar 23, 2009

A (mostly) free MMORPG

Free download. No monthly fees.

Pretty words, taken with a health dose of skepticism.

Runes of Magic touts itself as a free-to-play fantasy MMORPG. Some might call it a World of Warcraft clone, but it remains to be seen whether RoM's production values put it in the same league. It seems that Frogster intends to generate revenue through micro-transactions, by allowing players to purchase individual items instead of trying/hoping to find them in the game world:
"Runes of Magic is a free-to-play game, and we want to ensure we are creating a game that appeals to the widest possible audience," said Sean Kauppinen, president and CEO of Frogster America, Inc. "Many players don't have the time to wait for randomly dropped items that could enhance their overall gameplay experience. For those players, and players that have their heart set on a specific item, we have opened the item shop and are looking forward to delivering a fun, immersive, and social online game that appeals to the widest possible audience."

Mr. Kauppinen seems to be suggesting that those "inclined to grind" can grab new toys without ever opening their wallets. Creating a 100% optional market doesn't sound like much of a business model, though, so players should probably expect "dropped" (and thus free) items to be rather uncommon.

In any event, the absence of monthly subscription fees should prove enticing to many. Here's what the game looks like:

4 comments:

  1. Cute little cinematic, but without any real game content I can't possibly have an opinion about the game. Making the game "free" isn't appealing at all to anyone who really enjoys a good game like wow. (Sigh) Let's play word association ...

    FREE MMORPG - Unsupported
    FREE MMORPG - Hacked
    - Server Wiped
    - In Game Spam from Advertisers

    Let's not even get into the demographics of FREE MMORPGs ... where the average age of a player dips into the single digits.
    Adults play WOW and games like and invest time and gaming energy into the game - which makes it more appealing. 11 dollars a month is a small price to pay for things like :Customer Support and updated game content.

    But thanks for posting it :)

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  2. I'll see if I can find a review in a couple of days. In the meantime, if you're after gameplay videos, there's plenty on YouTube:

    http://www.youtube.com/results?search_type=&search_query=runes+of+magic&aq=f

    ReplyDelete
  3. Laziness... pure laziness !
    Can ya do a bit more around here ?

    :)

    I'm trying to get in the habit of stopping in more, will continue my efforts.
    It's a nice Blog :)

    ReplyDelete
  4. Actually, I have found one review already, but it's not in English.

    ReplyDelete