So the MMO i've gotten into is Perfect World, which is both free to install adn to play. It's a Malaysian game, so it's biggest problem is the translations aren't perfect -- though this has only impeded me on one quest, though having done it with two different characters I think it's more a typo than a mistranslation.
I'm not sure I'm happy with the variety in classes: there are only 6 and three races, but I'm not sure I saw *that* much more variation in Guild Wars (yes, I have an account, yes, I've played it once now, but three of my Perfect World characters are nearly 20th level, while the guy in GW is only like, 3).
My final wariness is the "cubigold" items. While not required, they make getting a pet and a larger inventory hecka evening, and there are many items that can only be purchased with cubigold. Cubigold is gotten by purchasing a card. This is tolerable primarily because the game is free, and the coolest feature -- pets -- can be earned by questing by the time you're about lvl 20.
But that ends my complaints. My favorite thing, and the thing that, honestly, keeps me from getting really excited about Rappelz (also free to install and free to play) and GW, though they are both mechanically similar, have a larger English audience base, is the jumping. Perfect World has a very Asian flavor. All characters can make incredible leaps, which makes running across the world map much more fun. There's even a timed quest early on requiring you to scale a rather large building using your leaps -- the places to get across are not obvious and some of them still very difficult to make.
On top of that, elf characters can FLY at level one. Which, honestly, is pretty darn cool. And makes crossing the map even more interesting than jumping. Other characters can get flight later on, and there are monsters that fly and are unreachable by non-flyers.
Monsters at low level leave you alone unless attacked first, but as you approach level 10 more and more monsters are provoked simply by your proximity, which makes hunting a certain type of monster a little more difficult -- which makes it interesting; one of my near escape experience was when a 52nd level ghost monster attacked me while I was only lvl 13 -- I was finishing a quest to find a location, and it was there. Be careful where you walk. Also at early levels, it's hard to run out of mana or hit points, but again around level 10 it becomes much more important to manage it. You also gain the addition vitality stat which increases the more you fight -- some skills, like magician element shields and a really cool Warrior attack, use up vitality, so you can't use them willy-nilly. Basically, it means you can jump in and play and don't even need to *think* about a party in the early levels. Later quests are *not* impossible without a party. They just take longer because you need to recover sooner. Yet a party can still be useful and fun. This was ideal for someone like me who *likes* to play alone, but can still choose to party up if he so chooses.
The skill system is level based, but you have to have enough skill points to buy them. Admittedly it is frustrating to have three skills I can choose from but can't get them all because I have insufficient skill points, but then, that means you do a lot of running around gathering materials (higher percentage of skill point awards to xp than killing stuff or completing quests) or else planning what you want to upgrade.
Monsters are of one of 5 different elements, or of none. Each element is weaker against one other type of element and less vulnerable to another, while they deal damage in their type of element. This affects the skill system -- since attack and defense skills work with the elements, but also affects equipment, especially defensive equipment. Some equipment has a higher physical defense, while other equipment has high elemental defense -- a lot of the latter type covers all five elements, but some of it only two or three. There's also "dodge" bonuses, so you have three defenses to balance out.
And let me just say that a party of magicians all casting "rock fall" makes for a visual that's very "death of the dinosaurs" cool. I'll take a screenshot next time I see it happening.
One of the most appealing features to other people though, is the level of character customization. When creating a character you get to do more than choose from a half dozen models for head, face, body like in other games. Not only do they have more models, you can modify the models. The head shape, for example, has only a half dozen models, but you can use a sliding scale to change the size of the head vertically and horizontally, and also in portions, the forehead, the middle, and the lower head. This makes for a near infinite posibility of appearances -- you can do the same with the thickness of arms, legs, upper body, waist, and even breast size (for female characters -- though surprisingly this isn't as abused as much as you'd think). You can also get really specific on eyes, nose, mouth, and eyebrows -- with the exception of the nose, these features don't even have to be symetric, making for some really interesting possibilities for people who don't need the most beautifullest character ever. Lastly, color -- it's more than just a few selections, but a color selector much like Photoshops -- again adding to the range of possibilities.
If you want to spend money, you can use cubigold to buy non-stat-affecting clothing that you can change the colors with. While your armor still affects your stats, you can choose at any time to have it show your armor OR the fashion items. I've seen some interesting combinations -- not all of them very fantasy. Though the most common custom clothing wearers are female characters, and they tend to be elves in fancy gowns and custom wing appearance.
So, anyway, been playing a couple weeks, able to gush now, really like it. It's free, as I said, and you can download it from
http://www.perfectworld.com.my . It's a big dl, obviously, but the downloads are on mirrors like FilePlanet and CNet, so if you're wary of Asian file downloads -- which is not an unrealistic fear -- you can rest more at ease.
I have characters on both servers, Aeriruk is the one I use most on Oracle, and Fyryte is the character I use most on Delphi (apparently, I like lots of vowels and R sounds). Friend me if you choose to play and I'll help you level up or just hang out.
