I'm a bit surprised nobody has mentioned Furcadia yet.

Best: Path of Exile
Worst: almost all the rest.

Yes, the level of dishonesty is very annoying. They need to stop using the fucking word "free" unless everything is free.

This is first time I see that name. Is it good?

The best free MMOSG in the world.

Sounds interesting. I should play it. Thanks. :)

I'm rather iffy on Path of Exile myself. When I played it, everything was click-based. Attacks, moving around, talking, doing anything at all... everything required the same action of me, which made it not only boring, but very tedious, because multi-tasking was made all the harder for it (no positioning for a better attack, for instance). After a few hours, I quit, because it just had this huge barrier in front of all of its depth that every other player has talked to me about.


When it comes to F2P games, I think when talking about the "best" here, it can be divided into two questions: "Which is the best game?" and "Which does F2P best?" The first one is the one typically talked about, because the second one is prettymuch about its economic model and how it gets money from the players, which most people don't think about--or don't like to think about.

I'm going to mostly talk about the second question here though, because I find it to be the more interesting one. It will solely cover games I personally have enough experience with and memory of that I can talk about them at length.


The majority of F2P games are either mobile, or PC online multiplayer games (typically MMOs or MOBAs). There are games that do F2P well, and as a result are often more popular than games that do F2P badly but are otherwise similar (gameplay, art style, marketing). These games tend to only require money for things that do not affect core gameplay--i.e. things that do not give players a mechanical advantage, such as cosmetic upgrades to characters--or give the players things that would otherwise be much harder to acquire.

For example, in the mobile game Jetpack Joyride, you collect coins while avoiding hazards (zappers, rockets, lasers, etc.) until you die. The coins can be spent on cosmetic upgrades (for the character or for the vehicles in the game), but also on special items that grant specific abilities or bonuses during the game. You can spend money to gain a large amount of in-game coins, thus making it easier and faster to acquire these special bonus-granting items. However, you can still get these items simply by playing for a while and gathering enough coins to buy those items.

A more well-known example is League of Legends, probably the most-played MOBA of the present. In League of Legends you can also spend money to buy things, but you can also spend in-game currency that you get from playing the game. However, the only thing you can buy with money that you can't buy with in-game currency, are cosmetic upgrades. "Runes", which boost a character's in-game abilities and are essential for the game, are all easily acquirable through in-game currency. Champions, the game's terminology for its characters, are also all capable of being purchased with in-game currency, though of course they're costly enough that it'll take a few games to save up enough to buy one. Real world money simply makes it easier to get them.


Years ago I enjoyed playing Perfect World, but then I found out that a lot of stuff has to be bought with money to be able to advance or even meaningfully contribute to a party in the game. When you can buy things with real world money that you cannot get any other way, and those things include stuff that gives you a mechanical advantage in the game, then the game is Pay-to-Win. That's simply it. A lot of people call F2P in general P2W, or any F2P game that they dislike, but the above is the pure defition of P2W. A real shame, because Perfect World was otherwise quite enjoyable, despite the combat being rather shallow.

There are also some games that are partially F2P, but later have to be paid for to continue. World of Warcraft sort of has this, in that you don't have to pay for a subscription up until a certain level (and I've heard that they are removing/have removed the subscription entirely by now). Lord of the Rings Online is a worse version, but I have less experience with the paid parts of that game.

PoE is the best diablo 2 clone ever, so of course it is only going to be clicking. *scratches head* i don't know how you could expect anything else. that said, i loved the game bc that's exactly what it was. a clicky, loot-fest. honestly, i still can't understand how Blizzard hasn't sued the pants off of them for copyright violations (music, enemies, etc).

- PoE is a Diablo-ish rpg. So it follows Diablo's formula plus its own features. I think it's a really good one for gamers who want action rpgs similar to Diablo.

- Good info & details by you. Thanks for participating. :)

Do classical freeware games count as free2play too or does it have to have online DRM to fit the definition?

It really depends what you mean by F2P... if you just mean free games, there are quite a few. ADOM and Dwarf Fortress come to mind if you don't mind ASCII graphics (and dying a lot)

As for the 'genre' (if that's what you'd call it) of F2P there aren't many I could genuinely recommend. I haven't really played many on PC, but Angry Birds on Android is F2P and perfectly playable without spending any money. Plus if you play with data and wifi off you don't get the ads.
Pokemon shuffle on 3DS is reasonably fun (but has the wait 30 mins for another life mechanic of many free to play games)

As for bad.. There are a whole host of Android games I've played that fit that category but I couldn't tell you any of there names..

I've played several F2P MMO games... Honestly a few of them i put a lot of time into and ended up disappointed, or lost interest. Be it i was going solo, apparently entered a PvP area where i was sniped for easy XP, or didn't have friends to play with. A few of them just didn't keep my attention, like it had the framework but not enough content to be worth playing...

Hmm as for free to play without being MMO, i'd say limited almost entirely to Kongregate as free games by budding game designers... Damn i went through a lot of games before, always annoyed that flash would be defaulted to the highest quality rather than lowest (for speed)...

*PRE-EMPTIVE WARNING!!*
The matchmaking suck...erm, is virtually non-existant.

*SECOND WARNING!!*
The game is tough, I mean a very steep learning curve.

*THIRD WARNING!!*
Dayum, this game is fuuuuuuuuuun & will suck the hours from your life.

Wizard Wars, an (almost) purely PvP game which plays along the lines of Magicka, except this time, you`re actually meant to kill players (albeit preferably those with red name plates ;p)

That`s a referral link, feel free to use & it`ll get you some in game coins/items (I don`t need the referals as I`m already maxed but handy for you folks)).

If you search the youtubes for Wizard Wars Lemons that will show some of the pro`s.

https://forum.paradoxplaza.com/forum/index.php?forums/magicka-wizard-wars.791/

Check that forum, it`ll have some links to streamers/youtube links to give you a hint at what`s what.

The game is fun. It does have some problems, but when it works well, it`s absolutely well worth having a blast at.

I find most MMORPGs to be boring, and most F2P are MMORPG. I don't mind microtransactions (It's better to have them where they belong in a game like that than in a fully paid game) as I like having a way to pay the devs back when I enjoy a game.

I like a few on Android (WWE Immortals for one) But even Path of Exile bored me to tears. Not as fast as TESO did, but still. I've played a few F2P games, and enjoyed a few that weren't pay to win. But in the end, I just don't like the endless grind and people who game the system for the sure thing win.
Forsooth It's what Diablo 3 COULD have been.

Hmmm I'm still bummed about Diablo 3. I remember hearing about it coming out and for 6 months or so before it's launch i was sorta excited... But the Always-Online has seriously made me hate Blizzard in their entirety...