We’re going to venture outside of GOG.com this week to look at ten MMORPGs that were released in 2007, one of the best years for the genre. You can play these games for free, so check them out and enjoy.
Elsword
Elsword is one for the older, more experienced gamers, despite its colorful, anime-like appearance. This MMO, developed by the South Korean company KOG Studios, places an emphasis on skill-based gameplay alongside the more familiar MMO tropes, such as the roleplaying elements and community features, including guilds, chat, and item trading. You have the luxury to play the whole game with a controller rather than a keyboard and mouse if you wish.
The game is set in the once-barren Elrios, a continent which had once been known as “The Land Abandoned by God” or “God’s Disaster” before the El Stone appeared and stimulated life into the land once more. During the Harmony Festival, an event that takes place when the sun and the moon align, the El Stone shattered into millions of pieces and scattered all over the continent. The game begins with the land in turmoil. choose between Elsword the knight and nine other characters to seek out and restore the El Stone.
9Dragons
9Dragons is a good pick if you are into martial arts but want to play something other than fighting games. Developed by the Korean company Indy21, you are a young and promising martial arts fighter known as a “Vagabond,” a person who has no affiliation to the Clans that exist within the game. These are divided into three categories: White (Wu Tag, Shaolin, League of Beggars), who are loyal to the emperor; Black (Heavenly Demon, Sacred Flower, Brotherhood of Thieves), who are not loyal to the emperor; and the Advanced Clans (Black Dragon, Disciples of Iron Fist, Union of Noble Families), which have not been implemented into the game as of 2013, but have been speculated to be neutral. The game offers both PVP and PVE and, with a very high level cap, you could play it for a very long time.
Fiesta Online
As you may tell by the name, Fiesta Online is more lighthearted than the average MMO — in fact, you could pretty much label this “the anime MMO,” because of the 3D-rendered art style and common anime tropes, both RPG and non-RPG, in this game. Published by Korean company Ons On Soft and Germany-based Gamigo, its most famous and popular feature is that weddings are an in-game mechanic. Being wed and attending weddings as one of thirty guests lead to actual awards. Gamingo is also planning an estate system in the future, which will allow you pull said estate — rooms, furniture, and all — out of thin air anywhere you wish.
Myst Online Uru Live
This one is a bit of a treat. Myst Online: Uru Live was developers by the creators of Myst, Rand and Robyn Miller, and the staff at Cyan Worlds. They now own and are working on Myst Online after several legal entanglements, so this is the Myst MMO as the creators envisioned and conceived it. What’s even more interesting is that the game is open source, with both the client and 3ds Max plugin released under the GNU GPL v3 license. The server code is still being worked on, but once it’s done, you will be able to host your own Myst Online servers.
Myst Online is the multiplayer partner of 2003’s Uru: Ages Beyond Myst, so it takes place in caverns below New Mexico circa 2000-something where an ancient civilization known as the D’ni once lived. Archaeologists discovered the caverns and wished to publish educational video games about them based on any recent findings, which is how Cyan Worlds releases content and patches for the game every so often.
Poptropica
Poptropica is not for everyone, but it definitely has a place on this list. This is a patently safe-for-kids MMO and eschews the potentially tedious and repetitive combat, inventory, and skills management of conventional MMOs. The focus is instead on questing, problem-solving, playing mini-games, and completing challenges. You can customize your character to a satisfactory degree while communicating and playing with other players under a kid-safe set-up. If you have a child who you want to play something educational and engaging, thirty-six islands await him or her in this game.
The Lord of The Rings Online
It should not be necessary to explain to you the selling point of this game — it’s The Lord of the Rings! It does focus on the lore from the books — save for The Silmarillion and The Children of Húrin, which American developer Turbine does not have the rights to — and it’s also taken pains to recreate the feel of experiencing a Tolkien book. For example, PVP requires one player to turn into a monster, simply because you can’t have Hobbits fighting each other. There is extra emphasis on crafting, cooking, and even music.
Granado Espada
IMC Games’ Granado Espada took me by surprise when it was first released because of the many distinctive features that attempted to separate it from other MMOs. Formerly known as Sword 2 and Sword of the New World: Granado Espada, the game boasts a grandiose and elaborate Baroque aesthetic, as well as a three-character player system. It is set in the world of the Kingdom of Vespanola where the queen has created a new policy called Reconquista in an effort to attract people from the Old World to settle there. You take the role of a pioneering family from the Old World. I can’t really do justice to the game, but suffice to say that Granado Espada is different enough that veteran MMOers should give it a look.
Regnum Online
Regnum Online, also known as “Realms Online” in America, is far more conventional than the other MMOs on this list, but it does have one interesting and distinctive feature: it has a heavy following in Argentina, where its developer, NGD Studios, is based. It takes heavy inspiration from Dark Age of Camelot; so like DAOC, Regnum has three realms — Alsius, Ignis, or Syrtis — with one faction, composed of three different races, in each. The game strongly emphasies team PVP, known here as “realm vs. realm.” While you’re able to reach level 25 with single-player quests, the game will eventually pull you into multiplayer via international servers. Think you’re up for the challenge?
Dragon Oath
Also referred to as Tian Long Ba Bu, ChangYou.com’s Dragon Oath is a distinctively different flavor of Chinese MMO than the earlier mentioned 9Dragons. This game boasts grandiose lore that is based on the wuxia novel, Demi-Gods and Semi-Devils by Louis Cha, and is deeply immersed in Hindu Buddhist cosmology. It emphasizes your role in making a name for yourself in the multifaceted, 2.5D world of the Kingdom of Dali and offers both fighting and community-building aspects.
Age of Conan: Unchained
You simply can’t go wrong with Conan. Delve into the fictitious Hyborian Age, the time following the drowning of Atlantis and the early days of recorded history, in this MMO and build your own legend. Developer Funcom has created a premium game based on Robert E. Howard’s famous barbarian of old and now, you are able to play the game for free.
