Rose Online: A Free MMORPG with a Fantastic Community

Unlike most online MMORPGs, Rose Online from Gravity Corporation, has an especially friendly and welcoming community. This is very unusual in the highly competitive world of online gaming, especially in free MMOs where hacking, cheating and PKing are fairly standard.
Produced by the Korean PC gaming company, Gravity Corp (also the makers of the once highly-popular MMORPG Ragnarok Online), has infused a cute blend of anime-style happiness into the world of MMOs.

I have played Runescape, Tibia Online, Shadowbane, Dransik, Planetside, and, of course, World of Warcraft, yet have not found a friendlier community than that of Rose Online. Perhaps it is the games atmosphere, or perhaps it is the lack of focus on player killing (PKing). Parties and cooperations are heavily encouraged-it is very difficult, slow and arduous to level up by playing solo, but it is actually fairly easy to level up when one is in a party. Experience sharing and item sharing lends to this, making it almost mandatory to 'party up' before trying to jump ahead a few levels.

I have found tons of over players that are willing to help out, usually without expecting anything in return, whenever I login to play. As with every game, you will come across a few super-competive players that aren't any help at all, but for the most part the community in Rose Online is helpful and friendly.

Still, it is not a perfect game, and still has its share of problems. One is the amount of annoying spam in the chat from gold sellers, something I have not seen Gravity take a firmer stand against. The player marketplace concept is fairly cluttered, player shops litter the main cities and really hurt framerates on most PCs when they come into view. While most of the translations in the game come through fine, every once in a while you will find a 'Now Laoding' screen or similar typo. These things plague many of the free, Asian-produced online role playing games, but they aren't too noticeable in Rose Online to detract from the overall playing experience.
As far as free MMOs go, Rose Online has a solid, welcoming community, a cheerful gameplay atmosphere and its producers have a good track record for releasing timely updates. It certainly won't be pushing World of Warcraft or Eve Online out of the MMO world, but it is a fun game to play for those looking for something a little more laid back and considerably more affordable!