by looking at all the mmos out there free to play (ftp) and pay to play (ptp) the obvious conclusion is that there are quit a few good titles on both sides, however, ftp mmos have the edge of beieing FREE and therefore have a huge initial apeal.

that being said, one could ask: if ftp mmos are good or as good as ptp mmos then why those later ones even exist? shouldnt everybody be playing for free and saving a monthly subscription?

i, myself have tried a couple of free mmos and notabely maple story and perfect world, both games are amazing, PW being more technically superior with its fancy 3d graphics etc... both games have a huge player base and many millions of fans all arround the world, when you play such games, first you are very impressed, but while progressing through the game and having a more profoundd understanding of its mechanics, you come to know that it is a HIGHLY grind grind game and that YOU HAVE to purchase items from that item mall in order to have a descent experience. now they all say no no no, you dont realy have to use the item mall (real cash) to play the game and that the item mall is just optional... but thats not true at all, the games are made in a way that a regular progression through the game will require cash items and without them, the experience is at least nightmarish if not impossible and time waisting.

now, i understand that devs need money for their effort which is really faire, but how? how would a ftp mmo make enough money for the studio who made it and still maintain it, without disturbing the game experience?

and the answer is simple:

1- an item mall that contains "non gamplay altering items". an item mall could have fashion clothing, decorative items, alternative mounts, dyie items and cutomized items etc...

BUT DO NOT CONTAIN: in game money, exclusive weapons/ armor, power up items, etc...

2- use the power of google ads (or any other ads) !

it is a very known fact that websites which have a descent organic trafic make thousands of dollars every month, why not a an mmo with millions of users?

PUT ADS you idiots and cut the crap... ok im getting angry here, ill finish this later.

leve a comment or email me any thoughts.

now i have been playing eve for a couple of months or so and here are my sincere thoughts about this mmo:

1- it really feels like im just scratching the surface... now that i know about (almost) all the ships, factions, corps stuff, piracy, mining, R&D etc... i can easily say that i am more interested in playing this game even more than when i started. why? first because it seems more interesting now that i know more, do more, and have more stuff. and secondly because i know that there is more stuff that i can be doing in the future with more (skills and ISK (money)). so i kind of of have objectives in the game, not just playing to lvlup so i can kill higher lvl monsters/npc's...

2- my corp which i joined as soon as i started playing Have just finished the recruitment processin high sec (safe/limited) space and now is moving to 0.0 (free/dangerous) space where we are going to have our own POS (player owned stations) and will have to defend our own space and make our own rules ! R&D our own ships and gears... and also join other corps to form huge alliances. is that cool or what?

when i first started playing EVE on-line, i saw that i would need like 2 years of skill training to get into some type of ships and i was like wtf !!! but now i understand why is that so. Its to make the game fun and interesting for both noobs and 3+ years old players. i know its kind of complicated to understand if you don't play the game, but if you do, you will see noobs and vets fighting in the same wars in the same fleets and all having fun and completing each others roles...

A couple of months ago, i started looking for a serious/good mmo to play. i play a lot of other genres mainly RTS and FPS both on PC and Consoles, but its always good to have a character in training in some mmo, mmos gives you friends and clan mates that no other genre will ever give you.

Anyway, i started with Perfect world international (PWI), it was "free" to play, looked good and have a descent community, so i gave it a try, unfortunately, after about a month or so and after getting close to level 50, i found myself spending more money on the cash shop than on a paying mmo. not only that but basically just to do the same exact thing again and again... at level 10, i was killing level 10 mobs, and at level 40 im killing the same looking but lvl 40 mobs ! so, by doing basic math, its not worth it at all. the devs and some community members will tell you that the cash shop is not mandatory and that you can always make it through the game just by grinding and making in-game money... well that's bull $hit, will not happen... unless you wanna grind for the rest of your life... who ever made that game, made it in a way the YOU WILL use the cash shop sooner or later.

FINAL Verdict for PWI: stay away, its a waist of time and money.

So i decided to try a paying mmo instead, i was planing to get Age of conan (AOC), but a friend told me that it was useless, it gets boring very soon... so i got War Hammer On-line (WAR), it looked pretty good, smooth, descent community... however, when i registred and as soon as i logged in, the game prompted me to join a server, and so i did... jut to find out at lvl 10 that it was a desert oceanic server... at level 14, i gave up, that game was just anoter sword waving game... well it is actually a good mmo, have a lot of potential in PVP but somehow just felt empty... a very few selection of weapons and stuff made it look kind of dull...

FINAL VERDICT for WAR: good mmo, but not for me.

Then, i saw some posts about EVE on-line (EVE), i thought i would give it a shot, the 14 days trial was just in time, now i played it for about a week and it didnt stop to amaze me, the gfx are soo good that i forget im on an mmo... the interface is one of the best if not the best user interfaces ive ever seen, both clear and smooth, the game is honestly VERY difficult to learn, it is by no mean an easy game but its not because it was badly made but because it is a close to reality as you can get. the complexity and the ingenuity of the ships and personal attributes is just outstanding. skills can be trained even while you are offline, and the skill tree is very diversified, you can chose a Carree of making money by training trading and mining skills or a war carriers by training skills relevant to weaponry, war ships and command... i didn't get yet into any full scale PvP warfare, but only from looking at the ships variations and dependency upon each other, this game looks like a lot of fun...

Initial VERDICT for EVE: very good, but with a very high learning curve, and only for hardcore Sci-Fi fans.

if you are woundering why i didnt try WoW, its simply because its gfx are too old, its kind of an insult to any 2008 rig, i would love to buy it and play it, but Blizzard should invest some time in making a newer engine for it. because honestly for anyone who played a game like the Witcher, going back to WoW will hurt his eyes.

more to come...

i was planning to get one for a while, mainly for the BluRay, but with GTA IV not on PC, it was enouph of a catalist for me to get it, first impression : The PS3 is great and stable...

new config :

q6600 GO - eVGA 8800GTS 512 - eVGA 780i mobo - 2G Corsair Dominator.