Top Free MMORPGS: Dungeons and Dragons Online

Dungeons and Dragon Online is one of the best free Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) available online today. Anyone can download it and start playing immediately at DDO.com. Dungeons and Dragons Online offers a nice break from the tedious and repetitive nature of many other free MMORPGs (as commonly seen in the likes of Runescape, Tibia, Maple Story and others). Originally a pay-to-play game, it has since transitioned to a free play model, with some limited micro transactions available in the DDO store.

Several months ago, I started playing Dungeons and Dragons Online (DDO) after spending several days looking for a good MMORPG to play. I've played World of Warcraft (WoW) for three years, but after the costs started to climb with the expansions and the subscription fees, I had to quit. The reason I picked DDO out of the legions of other MMOs out there was because of one simple reason: DDO is a 100% free game to play. Even though it does have options to buy different in-game items, you don't need to buy any to have fun playing the game. In fact, you can earn "Honor Points" in the game which can be used to purchase those same items that require real money. Thus, for poor guys like me, this game rocks.

When I first started playing DDO, I was rather confused on how to play it. DDO has a unique style of gameplay. For example, it uses an "Active Combat" system in which your character is not "locked" into combat as most MMOs are. Instead, your character can dodge arrows and spells by simply stepping out of the way, and you can block attacks by simply raising your shield. Every left mouse-click makes your character slash or stab with his weapon, which makes the game have a more "real" feel to it. This really helps in keeping players attached to the game, as it offers something a little different from the usual click-fest that so many other MMOs dwell on.

The world of DDO is mostly dungeon-based. This sounds a little weird (and perhaps trite, given the name of the game) but it basically is similiar the heavy reliance on "instanced" or localized areas and regions seen in Guild Wars. There are tons of instances/dungeons that your character goes into by himself or with a party and they can range from only a couple minutes to as long as six hours. There are several "main" cities in which players can buy and sell loot to NPC vendors or at an "Auctioneer", give non-sellable items to "Collectors" (who will give items in return, such as robes, wands, arrows, etc.), visit taverns, pick up quests, or meet up with other players. Cities have portals to different dungeons and different outdoor world zones. These outdoor zones are also like a dungeon, in that they are just for you or your party, and other players that aren't in your group can't see you in there, only that they are outdoors and feel more "open".

Overall, I've loved playing DDO. It is completely different from WoW and even though the world is not as large, it is still an extremely fun game to play. It is one of the best free MMOs out there, not only because it has the name-brand power of D&D behind it, but also because it offers nice graphics along with a stellar gameplay style to keep me logging in, time and time again. Try it for yourself today at http://www.ddo.com