How to get the Most out of F2P MMO's
This is for members who've been jumping around MMO after MMO and need help finding a place to settle down for at least 1 or more weeks. This is also to help create a new grading scale for other F2P MMO's, instead of the 'it's the same shit' reviews.
Anyone who has hopped from world to world many times will know that many F2P MMO's always share the same base concepts and ideas... but what sets them apart is presentation, execution, and community.
So instead of going into an F2P MMO looking forward to the gameplay, pay attention to:
-Presentation (Art style, animation, coloring, sound, music, etc.),
-Execution (Overall Management of the game, i.e., GM's and support staff and updates)
-Community (Who are playing the game and what is their social level)
Now with these guidelines in mind, I will give examples of PEC (Presentation, Execution, Community) ratings (All games have been played for at least 1 month):
Sword of the New World
P - Excellent. Graphics and music are superb, however, the music becomes repetitive and stale as you get up into higher level areas.
E - Average. I played the version from K2 Network. Their customer support usually responds to tickets within 1-2 days, but usually responds with an automated message, and their admins are active on the forums. The biggest issue is their bot control, in which they are not being aggressive enough in their banning (Look at Warhammer's control. They have zero-tolerance and ban straight out, banned ~400 accounts within the first week).
C - Below Average - Players AFK most of the time and rarely interact with each other unless in a guild, but even in a guild, it can still be dead quiet. The Faction Wars (Guild vs Guild Feature) is also unbalanced due to mega-guilds controlling everything, making players not even pay attention to this feature at all and getting bored fairly quickly, as these mega-guilds also control raids.
Shattered Galaxy
P - Below Average. It's a 10+ year old MMORTS. It's old.
E - Way Below Average. The main company has sold this game to KRU Interactive. This company only runs the servers and payment features, but nothing else. Updates to the game have ceased, and KRU does not address bugs.
C - Average. This one is a bit tricky because of the way the game is played. Join a regiment (Guild/Clan) and communications with players will go way up and battles are easier. Fight while not in a regiment, and you'll be losing a lot due to players not communicating with each other and caring only about their own units.
-Even with these low grades, SG is a good game... for being so old.
Albatross18
P - Average. Standard music and standard graphics with fantasy themed courses/characters. Nothing too spectacular.
E - Excellent. GM's are helpful and very active in-game and on the forums.
C - Above Average. Players are sociable, especially in Tournament matches. Forums are also active with many players. The downside is the quitter players who drop out of a game midway because they missed a shot, causing you to waste your time and not get much out of the match.
Now that you have an idea of how to use this scale, how can it be tweaked, and what games do you think have high PEC scores?