After playing two of the most recent free to play MMORPGs to hit the market, Dragonica and Dungeons & Dragons Online, I am yet again impressed by the quality of free to play games. Free MMORPG
games are just getting better and better. A long time ago – the term
‘free to play’ was usually associated with low quality poorly
translated games, but today that stereotype is largely gone. Games like
Dragonica, Atlantica Online and Runes of Magic feel just as ‘high quality’ as pay to play games like World of Warcraft
and Eve Online both in all aspects from gameplay to the soundtrack.
Anyone that has had a chance to play Dungeons & Dragons Online or Dragonica Online will agree with me here.

Heck, I would argue that some free MMORPGs like Atlantica Online
have superior graphics and gameplay than some pay to play MMORPGs. 
Older pay to play games like Final Fantasy XI
and Ultima Online are a lot weaker in terms of content, graphics and
gameplay than newer free to play titles. Heck it’s also quite easy to
argue that pay to play games like City of Heroes and Pirates of the Caribbean Online are ‘worse’ in terms of overall content and graphics than free to play titles like Shaiya, Twelve Sky 2 and even Last Chaos.

Basically, what I’m trying to say is that the days of ‘free to play’
MMORPGs being labeled as ‘crap’ is over. The free to play revolution is
quickly taking the industry by storm. Even companies like Electronic
Arts have jumped on the bandwagon with Battlefield Heroes
and BattleForge. It’s just a matter of time before more developers and
publishers ‘go’ free to play. I wouldn’t be surprised if pay to play
MMORPGs like Age of Conan, Warhammer Online
and Vanguard go free to play – as these games haven’t done as well as
expected commercially, so they may try going all out free to play.