Just out of interest, do you play MMORPGs? If so, which ones do you play.
The variation of these types of games is pretty high, mmorpgs are counted to the most played multiplayer games in the world.
Especially free to play games are mostly played to death but even games with monthly costs have a huge amount of fans (World of Warcraft is still counted as one of the best selling games).
I'm playing from time to time Mabinogi, a korean MMORPG which is set very loosely in the irish mythology. I like the gameplay design that you can freely train almost every skill in the game (except some race specific ones) similiar to the Elder Scrolls titles. While there are typical archtypes like warrior, mage, ranger etc., you can freely mix the skills of those, creating your unique skill set. Skills have 16 levels and to increase the level you have to use them regulary (similiar to TES). Increasing a skill level needs ability points that you get from leveling up. You can also reset every week your level with a system called "rebirth". It allows you to "start" new, you loose your level and all the stats you get from it, you can change your loo and even your gender ut you keep all the skilsl you've learned so far. This allows a less grindly gameplay, focusing more on having fun instead of killing hundreds of monsters just to get that perticular level.
I started as Alchemist, a support-like character, realized soon that he lacks some combat power so I switched to warrior to fill the gap. After alchemy received a big buff I rely now more on alchemy but from time to time the melee skilsl come in handy.
There is still some stuff that I don't like about Mabinogi. You can have only one char for free which isn't all that bad considering that you can change him freely like you want, including appearance and gender (but not the name or race) but it still seems cheap that you have to purchase every new character for a fee and not even offering character bundles for a reduced price. The other thing are pets. Pets are a common thing in MMORPGs, in some games they have a bigger impact as in others. In Mabingi you can use them for travels or as a bag to store items. You get only two pets for free and all other epts are only aviable in the web shop. Most of these animals are not even worth it, but limited time pets have deep impact on the gameplay because they come with good stats or some strong ability. As example I own a bone dragon with a skill, that damages enemies whenever the dragon is summoned. You can get some limited time pets from events ( I think you get a third pet from finishing a story campaign) but that's a rare case and involves a lot of work.
Also some skills are randomly awarded when using other skills. the amount of these skills is ridiculous low but this little random factor may drive you crazy because you see other people that have it and you don't because they had just more luck.
Besides that, I prefer Mabinogi over all other MMORPGs I played so far (and I played some). The freedom in doing what I want is refreshing from the typical class system that you see in most games. I can play a typical class but I don't have to. Also I'm not forced on doing any of the story quests, the game makes just fun with all the side stuff they offer. Smithing your own weapons, tailoring clothes, trading goods between different cities to make some profit, cooking, fishing and a lot more.
Another game I like is Path of Exile but it's more like a singleplayr game since every player plays on his own version of the world instead of sharing it with the other players. only the towns are filled with players so you can trade or create parties in order to do quests together. Similiar to Mabinogi you can freely create a character. PoE has a HUGE skill tree that reminds me a lot of the sphero board of Final Fantasy X (damn, I love that game). That huge skill tree comes with some drawbacks, you will get a little confused what you want to build and in the end you will end up with a build that does not work out very good. Except that the game plays a lot like Diablo and fans praise it to be better than Diablo 3 (I never played the third game in the series so I won't judge here). What i miss here a little is a currency. Some people claim this makes the game refreshing but for new players it makes the whole thing a lot more confusing. Instead of a currency you trade with items and especially as new players there is a chance you get ripped of from other players because you don't know what's worth how much. A currency gives you always the feeling for the value of items. You want to sell stuff for more that you get from the NPC shops but without a currency you loose that feeling. I avoid all player trades because I fear that someone will just rip me off my stuff and I end with somethign totally worthless.
What online rpgs do you play and why?
