Playing WAR for a bit put me back in the mood for trying new MMOs, especially since WAR's interminable waits for RvR (supposedly a main focus of the game -- which you will wait hours upon hours for) have left me with a quite a bit of downtime. Fortune smiled upon me, and unleashed a whole host of free to play MMOs and trials.

In short order, I downloaded
Final Fantasy XI, which has a free trial for the first time in six and a half years. I've had some crash issues with it, so I can't comment on the gameplay yet.

Vanguard. This is a game that had massive levels of hype, and was known as a disappointment upon release. It's gotten quite a cleanup in the last year and a half, and so far, I'm having fun with it. It seems like a fully-finished product now, and a quite deep one at that. Of all the games I've trialed recently, this one seems like the one I'd keep. And I'm surprised to say that myself.

Ryzom. I knew barely anything about this game, and still don't. I've hardly played any of it, but since its free, I'll probably get a bit more into it over time.

Twelve Sky. This is a free to play Korean MMO with a cash shop. There was a promo with Xfire over the last week, which is why I downloaded it. It's billed as a 'martial arts' game, but really it's just like any other MMO. It's free, so I'll probably put some more time into it, but overall I'm rather mixed.

Ragnarok Online. This was a game I always wanted to try, but never wanted to pay for. I know that there are player-run servers, and I know that there is a ton of botting going on. I also didn't really like the little that I played of this game, so I guess I'm not that worried.

Also, I downloaded RF Online, only to find out the next day that Codemasters was shutting down the Western servers. Oh well. J&R was up untill recently selling boxed copies of this even though it had been free to play for some time.

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In other news, I've barely touched Guild Wars, even though Xfire reports me as having played for 20 hours one day. I wish I had 20 hours a day to play Guild Wars. I also have barely touched Dungeon Runners, despite having a paid subscription. I also unsubbed from Tabula Rasa, although I plan to sign up again, especially if they have something good planned for their one year anniversary in November. Trying Vanguard got me to thinking about Sony's subscription model, where you pay $30 a month and get access to a large number of games. If NCSoft did the same, I would sign up in a heartbeat.

That's it for this too-long blog post. Happy gaming!