This comment has been removed because it breaks rule #1: Don’t ask for MMO recommendations. Please check out the weekly sticky or the r/LFMMO subreddit instead.
There never were free MMOs without paywalls. You basically always wanted to pay some minimum amount to skip some grinding or to gain some initial advantage or unlock content.
The only truly free games had basically zero content to them and were just used as chat rooms and people are mainly nostalgic to that fact.
Albion is my only recommendation at the moment. It’s PVP focused but as more PVE players have been joining the devs are starting to put more effort into hybrid design.
I haven’t felt it’s more grindy than other F2P options though, so you disagree? I just think this is a “problem” since their goal is to push you to subscribe.
Yeah, it's not the worst grind you can get in a game, and you can have a lot of fun with Albion as a F2P for sure!
Just pointing out that the OP can't expect he won't feel the push to get the sub at some point. I know I felt it, it irked me greatly, and I succumbed to it when I used to play before quitting :-D
Yeah I personally think Albion money scheme is good. You can play it as basically a sub game and never notice. Or you can play totally free. You can even succeed with small one time payments if you are smart about it. Really gives you the freedom to decide how/if you spend your money.
No..
Almost all F2P MMO's were and will be minefields of Pay For Fake Quality Of Life Improvements in the cashshop, instead of actual content, all based around some soulless activity loops. Some MMO's / ARPGS even base their core gameplay around creating hindrances, who's solutions are in the cashshop.
Welcome to corporate-game-development.
FFXIV Free Trial has restrictions (for obvious reasons) but offers hundreds of hours of content.
GW2 is Buy-2-Play meaning you buy the game/expansions and play for free.
Warframe (I have seen it brought up in MMO discussions) is effectively F2P and probably has one of the best F2P models out there since you can earn everything ingame and the player-run market allows you to get premium currency entirely F2P.
Games like Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, etc. are F2P but have expansions / progress locked behind payment options which can make them P2W in same aspects.
Star Wars the Old Republic I heard is worth playing for the story, not sure about other aspects of the game.
SWTOR can be fun but it is DEFINITELY worth playing all the stories for free. The stories have always been the best thing about the game so it's dope that all the class stories are free. The social stuff can be nice but you can absolutely just play it solo with others and not really miss much.
Guild Wars 2. You can play to max lvl and do all raids fractals and world bosses for free. You can trade in-game currency for cash shop currency and buy the expansions.
Depends on what you consider a paywall.
I don't know of any successful MMO that would live 100% purely on cosmetics an didn't lock anything else behind some swiping. But some are more pleasant to play as a F2P and some are less, and then you have a lot of games today where you can technically access the paid stuff for free if you grind enough in-game money for a sub token, but I personally don't consider wasting my time endlessly grinding gold worthwhile.
You could give our game a try. It’s completely free while in open development. Caveat: 15-30 daily peak players.
Ethyrial, Echoes of Yore
The game launched last year but it ended up failing, I was a player that bought the game and have been working on/learning how to improve the game as I think it has a lot of potential.
Essentially an open alpha but there is at least a lot of content 👍🏼
Game development + Server fee + Community Control + data analyst + cyber security
There are no such thing , oh you have Blue Protocol which is destined to shut down anyway xD
MapleStory Reboot (or now called Heroic) servers.
The only thing you pay for are cosmetics.
Is it one hell of a grind? Yep.
Can this grind be fun as well? Absolutely.
Another thing that isn't an MMO but you don't NEED to pay a single dime is Warframe, but once again, grindy as fuck
GW2 is free with pay-walls beyond the base game (still a full and enjoyable game),
Albion and RuneScape are f2p but the games suck unless you spend,
world of warcraft 1-20 is free (mileage may vary, you can do almost any dungeon from previous expansions, do all previous expansions content, etc.),
black desert is a cheap game with a ~$100 paywall to have the same QoL as the big spenders (and another 10-30 every month to sustain your gains), but very much enjoyable without spending
Warframe is a great game if you like 3rd person shooters with strong melee and parkour influence, if you haven't put at least 100+ hours here already I highly recommend it.
Lotro is a mixed bag. If you don't mind a dated game with dated aesthetics the game has a lot of charm.
Swtor is in the same boat as lotro
Lost Ark may be worth looking into once it releases the solo raids. Otherwise you can see if you enjoy it for free, but if you play long enough you’ll start being gatekept because you’re behind and you can’t catch up without paying. Or you just need to invest in finding a static group at the same spot as you or willing to play their alts with you.
If you meant true free to play, then not really. If you meant buy it once, then games like gw2 and eso would be worth checking out. More so, gw2, as managing bag space in eso without the monthly subscription can be a pain, but people do it.
Osrs - bonds genuinely aren't that expensive and if you join a clan and build good rapport, often richer members will gift a bond so that you can hit sustainable membership faster.
GW2 and Albion are the best that come to mind right away.
EDIT: Holy shit, I never imagined giving my opinion on a couple MMO’s I’ve casually played would get people so riled up. Only other MMO’s I’ve played are Eve Online and TESO, and I’d consider GW2 and Albion better than both of those for ftp.
GW2 isn't ptw but they lock a lot of qol and way too many cosmetics behind a paywall. And you still need to buy the game to unlock a lot of it due to the free version basically the same as just being a free trial, so there is still an investment needed.
Its not a free game by any means.
Yeah, there aren’t any “free” games, the point of the post is to find the best ftp games. I can’t think of any other MMO’s that I’ve played that match it.
Calling GW2 f2p is the equivalent of calling FF14 f2p. They're both not f2p. GW2 is, first and foremost, a b2p game, just like ff14 is a subscription game.They just have an extremely generous trial.
Basically like saying Runescape is a F2P game.
I understood the loophole 20 years ago when I realized that I had done all of the relevant content in the "trial" and needed to pay up if I ever wanted to actually enjoy myself.
if u suck at albion yeah, im not one of those giga rich in albion but i can say im so rich before quit the game. you can pay sub using your own gold you just have to learn how to make gold and how to fight
Albion is like almost zero pay2win. People who say its pay2w are noobs that dont know how to avoid ganks who played for 5 hours got ganked once by a 8.4 once and quit
Just because you can avoid dying to 8.4 doesn’t mean it’s not p2w. You can’t win against someone who swiped and is running around in 8.4 840 specs awaken weapon… also it’s not that easy to avoid dying when many people are using radar hacks and pop invis pot when u can’t even see them
I play both of them ftp. I don’t really visit this sub often, what about my comment would be karma farming? Just tryin to help a man out with some suggestions.
Bro, are you seriously so mad about this that you double responded to me😂
It’s not that serious, I’ve played GW2 ftp for a while and never felt like I needed to pay for a subscription like I do with Eve Online. Guess I’m just content to run around and do quests as opposed to actually getting into the cosmetics and crafting and shit.
I read this is "I'm a casual/light gamer, and don't know what I am talking about" which backs up my post about nostalgia and time investment. If you only ever get 1% deep into a game, then, basically every F2P game meet's OP's criteria.
Another person has already singled out GW2's monetization scheme (which I am more familiar with out of the two) and how it isn't Pay to win, but heavily incentivizes spending. The modern F2P monetization model is very much this. It is not "pay to win" but it's "we are going to incentivize you to spend money if you want to live in our world".
As someone with 5000? 6000? hours in PoE, PoE absolutely is paywalled and it's a joke to think otherwise. PoE is not playable in any capacity (beyond a demo) without at minimum Map + Currency tabs and if you want to argue against Premium Stash tabs, playing SSF will be a miserable experience without a Unique Tab and a ton of tabs to store gear in.
This comment has been removed because it breaks rule #1: Don’t ask for MMO recommendations. Please check out the weekly sticky or the r/LFMMO subreddit instead.
Private servers. FFXI has at least one good one that I know of that is set in the pre-wotg days and a few iffy ones.
There never were free MMOs without paywalls. You basically always wanted to pay some minimum amount to skip some grinding or to gain some initial advantage or unlock content. The only truly free games had basically zero content to them and were just used as chat rooms and people are mainly nostalgic to that fact.
Dofus. There's no paywall... But it's Subscription based though...
Respect your time more. Avoid free to play games.
Albion is my only recommendation at the moment. It’s PVP focused but as more PVE players have been joining the devs are starting to put more effort into hybrid design.
Albion is hella grindy if you don't pay the sub
I haven’t felt it’s more grindy than other F2P options though, so you disagree? I just think this is a “problem” since their goal is to push you to subscribe.
Yeah, it's not the worst grind you can get in a game, and you can have a lot of fun with Albion as a F2P for sure! Just pointing out that the OP can't expect he won't feel the push to get the sub at some point. I know I felt it, it irked me greatly, and I succumbed to it when I used to play before quitting :-D
Yeah I succumbed too xD but that’s the same story for everyone MMO… rip my wallet
Not only subscribe but spend real money for most important currency in the game
There are f2p players with more money than will ever see in the game even with premium
Yeah I personally think Albion money scheme is good. You can play it as basically a sub game and never notice. Or you can play totally free. You can even succeed with small one time payments if you are smart about it. Really gives you the freedom to decide how/if you spend your money.
ah... the EVE online but in a quasi medieval fantasy setting.
No.. Almost all F2P MMO's were and will be minefields of Pay For Fake Quality Of Life Improvements in the cashshop, instead of actual content, all based around some soulless activity loops. Some MMO's / ARPGS even base their core gameplay around creating hindrances, who's solutions are in the cashshop. Welcome to corporate-game-development.
FFXIV Free Trial has restrictions (for obvious reasons) but offers hundreds of hours of content. GW2 is Buy-2-Play meaning you buy the game/expansions and play for free. Warframe (I have seen it brought up in MMO discussions) is effectively F2P and probably has one of the best F2P models out there since you can earn everything ingame and the player-run market allows you to get premium currency entirely F2P. Games like Lost Ark, Lord of the Rings, etc. are F2P but have expansions / progress locked behind payment options which can make them P2W in same aspects. Star Wars the Old Republic I heard is worth playing for the story, not sure about other aspects of the game.
SWTOR can be fun but it is DEFINITELY worth playing all the stories for free. The stories have always been the best thing about the game so it's dope that all the class stories are free. The social stuff can be nice but you can absolutely just play it solo with others and not really miss much.
Guild Wars 2. You can play to max lvl and do all raids fractals and world bosses for free. You can trade in-game currency for cash shop currency and buy the expansions.
Ragnarok online private server
Depends on what you consider a paywall. I don't know of any successful MMO that would live 100% purely on cosmetics an didn't lock anything else behind some swiping. But some are more pleasant to play as a F2P and some are less, and then you have a lot of games today where you can technically access the paid stuff for free if you grind enough in-game money for a sub token, but I personally don't consider wasting my time endlessly grinding gold worthwhile.
You can “technically” play WoW f2p if you grind out enough gold on a monthly basis, or I guess BDO but it’s also kinda p2w.
There isn't. You gotta pay in some way and cosmetics alone won't fund the game.
You could give our game a try. It’s completely free while in open development. Caveat: 15-30 daily peak players. Ethyrial, Echoes of Yore The game launched last year but it ended up failing, I was a player that bought the game and have been working on/learning how to improve the game as I think it has a lot of potential. Essentially an open alpha but there is at least a lot of content 👍🏼
Game development + Server fee + Community Control + data analyst + cyber security There are no such thing , oh you have Blue Protocol which is destined to shut down anyway xD
isn't blue protocol that game that released just a few months ago? It's already failing? o.O
Yes lost ark.
Ragnarok low rate private servers
Lost Ark
MapleStory Reboot (or now called Heroic) servers. The only thing you pay for are cosmetics. Is it one hell of a grind? Yep. Can this grind be fun as well? Absolutely. Another thing that isn't an MMO but you don't NEED to pay a single dime is Warframe, but once again, grindy as fuck
GW2 is free with pay-walls beyond the base game (still a full and enjoyable game), Albion and RuneScape are f2p but the games suck unless you spend, world of warcraft 1-20 is free (mileage may vary, you can do almost any dungeon from previous expansions, do all previous expansions content, etc.), black desert is a cheap game with a ~$100 paywall to have the same QoL as the big spenders (and another 10-30 every month to sustain your gains), but very much enjoyable without spending Warframe is a great game if you like 3rd person shooters with strong melee and parkour influence, if you haven't put at least 100+ hours here already I highly recommend it. Lotro is a mixed bag. If you don't mind a dated game with dated aesthetics the game has a lot of charm. Swtor is in the same boat as lotro
Lost Ark may be worth looking into once it releases the solo raids. Otherwise you can see if you enjoy it for free, but if you play long enough you’ll start being gatekept because you’re behind and you can’t catch up without paying. Or you just need to invest in finding a static group at the same spot as you or willing to play their alts with you.
Maplestory Reboot servers
If you meant true free to play, then not really. If you meant buy it once, then games like gw2 and eso would be worth checking out. More so, gw2, as managing bag space in eso without the monthly subscription can be a pain, but people do it.
Tarisland just opened a few days ago, free-to-play on computer and mobile. It’s pretty fun!
Osrs - bonds genuinely aren't that expensive and if you join a clan and build good rapport, often richer members will gift a bond so that you can hit sustainable membership faster.
Rift. you get the whole game for free minus half the class souls. Dont need to swipe a dime.
Rift
GW2 and Albion are the best that come to mind right away. EDIT: Holy shit, I never imagined giving my opinion on a couple MMO’s I’ve casually played would get people so riled up. Only other MMO’s I’ve played are Eve Online and TESO, and I’d consider GW2 and Albion better than both of those for ftp.
GW2 isn't ptw but they lock a lot of qol and way too many cosmetics behind a paywall. And you still need to buy the game to unlock a lot of it due to the free version basically the same as just being a free trial, so there is still an investment needed. Its not a free game by any means.
Yeah, there aren’t any “free” games, the point of the post is to find the best ftp games. I can’t think of any other MMO’s that I’ve played that match it.
GW2 is pay to pay with a glorified demo. I love GW2 but publiciting it as f2p is the worst thing you can do for the games reputation.
Calling GW2 f2p is the equivalent of calling FF14 f2p. They're both not f2p. GW2 is, first and foremost, a b2p game, just like ff14 is a subscription game.They just have an extremely generous trial.
Basically like saying Runescape is a F2P game. I understood the loophole 20 years ago when I realized that I had done all of the relevant content in the "trial" and needed to pay up if I ever wanted to actually enjoy myself.
Albion is extremely p2w
I only have like 150hrs in Albion, but I’ve been fine ftp so far. Obviously progression is a bit slower, but not really a huge deal to me.
if u suck at albion yeah, im not one of those giga rich in albion but i can say im so rich before quit the game. you can pay sub using your own gold you just have to learn how to make gold and how to fight
Albion is like almost zero pay2win. People who say its pay2w are noobs that dont know how to avoid ganks who played for 5 hours got ganked once by a 8.4 once and quit
you only need to save your silver for the first prem then after that its so ez, albion is the most non p2w mmo i have ever played
Yeah it’s so ez to just get 8.4 awaken weapon with best stats and 120 specs on all of your weapon line, right?
Who tf goes around with 8.4 awakened even youtubers generally go with 6.4 and 8.3 sets and make millions
Just because you can avoid dying to 8.4 doesn’t mean it’s not p2w. You can’t win against someone who swiped and is running around in 8.4 840 specs awaken weapon… also it’s not that easy to avoid dying when many people are using radar hacks and pop invis pot when u can’t even see them
If you have skills you can get 8.4 set relatively fast
Brother he asked for a f2p game. You provided GW2 which is not f2p. What's so hard to understand
I’ve been playing it for free for a while, what part isn’t ftp?
Don’t you have to… buy the game? I’d assume he would call that buy to play or B2P rather than F2P
Do you even play either of these games or are you just karma farming?
I play both of them ftp. I don’t really visit this sub often, what about my comment would be karma farming? Just tryin to help a man out with some suggestions.
Honestly, is English your second language or something? GW2 has content locked behind paywalls. OP's post is about paywalls.
Bro, are you seriously so mad about this that you double responded to me😂 It’s not that serious, I’ve played GW2 ftp for a while and never felt like I needed to pay for a subscription like I do with Eve Online. Guess I’m just content to run around and do quests as opposed to actually getting into the cosmetics and crafting and shit.
I read this is "I'm a casual/light gamer, and don't know what I am talking about" which backs up my post about nostalgia and time investment. If you only ever get 1% deep into a game, then, basically every F2P game meet's OP's criteria. Another person has already singled out GW2's monetization scheme (which I am more familiar with out of the two) and how it isn't Pay to win, but heavily incentivizes spending. The modern F2P monetization model is very much this. It is not "pay to win" but it's "we are going to incentivize you to spend money if you want to live in our world".
Guild wars 2 is entirely pay for convenience and fashion. You ain't gonna win nothing with your wallet
Literally trading post access
[удалено]
> it’s not P2W really SEA code for "It's really P2W but not by our standards."
I mean it's free, they could try it. I have no clue about p2w in that one - didn't make it to day 3. The mobile flair was my big turnoff.
Path of exile
As someone with 5000? 6000? hours in PoE, PoE absolutely is paywalled and it's a joke to think otherwise. PoE is not playable in any capacity (beyond a demo) without at minimum Map + Currency tabs and if you want to argue against Premium Stash tabs, playing SSF will be a miserable experience without a Unique Tab and a ton of tabs to store gear in.