Top Ten Multi Player Online Games of All Time

10. Phantasy Star Online - Released on the Sega Dreamcast, this was the first MMORPG I ever played. Set in the highly popular Phantasy Star universe, it was a pretty straight forward MMO. Take missions, head into the area of interest and kill stuff. Sometimes you would team up with another and kill stuff faster. If the Dreamcast was a bigger system this game could have been the beginning for a larger number into the world of MMOs but it was only for a few people. There was never a fee to play month to month, so it was one of the first to not charge at least.

9. Everquest II - Everquest is one of the biggest MMORPGs the world has ever known, it was so big in fact, the developer SOE released a sequel to the MMO. It was designed to bring new players into the game who wanted easier access to the game, which at release of the sequel had 8 expansions already out, and improve graphics as well. It did succeed in the graphics, but it caused a divide in the player base. While many players switched from Everquest to Everquest II, many remained with the original, not wanting to give up the characters they have worked so long on. The sequel is still running strong and is now up to it's eighth expansion as of last year. You can pick up the main game at EBGames for 20 bucks and the expansions vary from 5 to 30 a piece.
Min requirements:
OS: Windows 98/2000/ME/XP/Vista
CPU: 1.5 GHz
RAM: 1 GB
HDD: 6 GB free space
Video: DirectX 9 compatible; pixel shader and vertex shader compatible hardware with 128 MB of texture memory
Sound: DirectSound compatible audio hardware

8. City of Heroes - Everyone at one point or another wants to fly. City of Heroes offers the ability to fly and many other super hero abilities at your finger tips. Besides fulfilling those wishes, a great thing about the game is that there aren't really buy able expansions. Instead they give free content to subscribers via download, these are called "issues", there have been 14 so far, and 15 has been announced. They also have booster packs that give extra features to a specific class instead. If that wasn't all great enough, there is the one expansion to the game, City of Villains, yep you can play as the bad guys too! The game play works like a super hero game should, you team up to take on big threats and save the day. By creating such a strong game that has nothing to do with fantasy and be popular several years after release is very impressive. You can pick up the combined version of City of Heroes AND Villains for 10 dollars at EB Games.
Min requirements:
Windows 2000/XP,
Intel Pentium III 800 MHz or AMD Athlon 800MHz,
512 MB RAM,
2 GB Available HDD Space,
nVidia 2 series or ATI Radeon 8500 Video Card,
16X CD-ROM Drive,
16-bit Sound Card,
56K Modem connection,
Keyboard and mouse.
Mac OS X 10.5.5 Leopard or higher,
Intel Core Duo Processor,
1024 MB RAM,
2.9 GB Available HDD Space,
ATI X1600, NVidia 7300 GT, or X3100 Intel integrated graphics chip (Intel GMA950 not supported)

7. Dark Ages of Camelot - Another big MMORPH, Dark Ages of Camelot added a feature that has rarely been tried again, server vs. server. This feature is part of the story aspect as each realm is trying to vie for control in the post King Arthur world. This feature makes player vs. player combat more important then nearly any MMORPG ever. This makes the game a very important MMO. The game is 30 dollars through EB Games with expansions being 5 to 20. Min requirements:
Broadband Internet access
512 MB RAM
50 MB HD space (1000 MB for Disk Cache)
800 MHz x86 CPU or better (Windows, Linux)
1 GHz G4 or better/Intel Core Processor (Mac)
Graphics
nVidia GeForce 6600 or better
ATI Radeon 8500,Radeon 9250 or better

6. Final Fantasy XI - Final Fantasy is the biggest RPG series ever. So making an MMO out of it isn't brain science. What makes Final Fantasy XI so great is that it's not just on the PC, it also can be played on the PS2 and the X-Box 360. There are four expansions released currently that need to be bought with three new ones coming out in 2009 through download only. The game is 20 dollars with expansions ranging from 15 to 20 each.
Min requirements:
Windows (PC)
Pentium III 800 Mhz CPU
Windows 2000/XP
128 MB RAM
DVD-ROM drive, DirectX 8.1
Nvidia GeForce with 32 MB or ATI Radeon 9000 or higher
9.5 GB free hard drive space
Internet (TCP/IP) connection required.

5. Guild Wars - Guild Wars is a rarity among MMORPGs, there is no monthly fee. You only need to buy the game and the expansions to play. Another unique feature is a very low level cap (only level 20) players then make their characters unique through customization afterwards. There is player vs. player features and a cooperative player vs. enviroment mode as well. It's probably the cheapest MMORPG out there. Each game costs 20 a piece with a Guild Wars Trilogy that has the main game and two expansions for 50.
Min requirements:
Intel Pentium III 800 MHz CPU
256MB RAM, 2GB Hard disk space
32MB Radeon 8500 or GeForce 3 Series GPU
internet connection
Windows 98/ME/2000/XP

4. Everquest - Also known as Evercrack. This was the biggest MMORPG until World of Warcraft came along. Amazingly even though it has spawned a sequel, there are still expansions being released for the game as of 2008 (the 15th expansion). This game added a lot of MMORPG terms that are used today, including DKP (dragon kill points), proc, and farm. Having that much influence upon the whole of the market, and still running a decade after it's release, makes Everquest one of the biggest MMOs of all time.

3. Ultima Online - The grand daddy of the MMORPG, Ultima Online was the first popular MMORPG that started the whole thing. Released in 1997, the game is still running strong after all these years. This was the first MMO I ever saw played. I never tried it out myself but friends of mine would play it for hours on end and talk about it non stop. Suprisingly enough there have only been seven expansions for the game to date. Prices for the main game range from 9-30 dollars depending.
Min requirements:
Intel Pentium CPU
32 MB RAM
DirectX 5
Internet access

2. Second Life - This is one of the largest games of all time. Second Life allows you to create anything you want and join one of the many communities that thrive in game. It is completely free to download and play. It has been used in colleges for class, for concerts, and for "personal" experiences. People have made a lot of cash of creating land and other digital creations. There are some who make over a million dollars through this process. The only time a payment is required is for an upgrade that gives quicker customer service and a small weekly stipend of in game money. There is also a fee to get in game land so only you can change it and keep it however you see fit.
Min requirements:
Broadband Internet access
512 MB RAM
50 MB HD space (1000 MB for Disk Cache)
800 MHz x86 CPU or better (Windows, Linux)
1 GHz G4 or better/Intel Core Processor (Mac)
Graphics
nVidia GeForce 6600 or better
ATI Radeon 8500,Radeon 9250 or better

1. World of Warcraft - What is there to say about World of Warcraft that hasn't already been said? It is the most popular MMORPG ever, it is so massively popular it has become part of pop culture even getting featured in an episode of South Park. The game is simple for anyone to learn and has enough later on to keep the most hardcore gamer addicted. It's also one of the few MMORPGs that can be played on the Mac as well as the PC. This selling feature has garnered a new audience that isn't available to most games. Also, William Shatner (along with other lesser stars) has been featured in commercials about the game! There have been two expansions to date, with many more on the horizon. The initial game can be picked up for 20 bucks at pretty much every gaming place, with the newest expansion, Wrath of the Lich King, going for 40 dollars.
Min requirements:
Microsoft Windows
Windows Vista or Windows XP
Intel Pentium 4 or AMD Athlon XP 1500+ 1300 MHz
512 MB or more of RAM (1 GB for Vista Users)
32 MB 3D video card with Hardware T&L or better
15 GB free HD space
4× CD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection
Mac OS X
Mac OS X 10.4.11 or newer
1600 MHz or higher G5, or Intel Core Duo processor
1 GB RAM or higher
ATI or NVIDIA video card with 64 MB Video RAM or more
15 GB free HD space
4× CD-ROM drive
Broadband Internet connection[4]

Sources: www.ebgames.com