How to Find a Good Free Online Roleplaying Game

Step-by-Step Guide

1. 1

   Step 1: Search for "Free Online Roleplaying Game" on your favorite search engine.

   This obvious step will return a lot of irrelevant hits (bad domains, bad pages), but occasionally, it will spit out a good link to a game that is free.
   
   You might find higher quality games on an actively maintained list such as Wikipedia's List of MMORPGs.
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   Step 2: Search for and bookmark websites that specialize in finding new MMOs to play.

   While popular game sites, such as Warcry Online, will feature a lot of modern, pay-to-play games, they will occasionally post something that you can play for free. , When finding forums and newsgroups, make sure they are active (people post regularly, last post is not marked more than 2 months ago).
   
   In fact, the more active, the better. , Most free to play games don't spend money to advertise.
   
   Their publicity is by word of mouth.
   
   Being a social player is key to finding new online roleplaying games to try out. , These games usually are the latest generation in technology and they'll offer you the chance of playing tomorrow's next big MMO today.
   
   Some companies are even friendly enough to reward their best beta testers with free play time, items, and (rarely) free accounts.
   
   Most open-source MMORPGs will have free servers. , These sometimes require you to provide credit card information, so if you don't have one, pass on it.
   
   But it's worth it to play the latest games. , While these games still have pay to play features, they have also started to offer free accounts with limited access (like level restrictions).
   
   For the most part, however, you can play as long as you want and get a lot out of the game without spending a dime. , A shard is a player-run server of an online game.
   
   Searching for them gives you two benefits: you'll know what game to buy and you'll know where to play for free once you have your game.
   
   Shards also have the added benefit of sometimes running special rule sets that the original creators don't run on their servers. , One of them might turn out to know about a good game.
   
   Also, if you play with someone you know, the MMO might turn out to be a lot more fun than you thought it was. , Maybe you were looking for a combat-centered, PvP only MMO.
   
   Go out on a limb and try something new like The Endless Forest instead of World of Warcraft.
   
   You might just find that you were looking for the wrong kind of game. ,
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   Step 3: Join a forum or newsgroup that has topics for finding free roleplaying games.

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   Step 4: Make friends in your Online Roleplaying Games.

5. 5

   Step 5: Look for games in Open-Beta/Open-source stages.

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   Step 6: Play games that feature free-trial accounts.

7. 7

   Step 7: Find and play some of the oldest games

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   Step 8: like Anarchy Online and Planet Side.

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   Step 9: Search for "Free Shards".

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    Step 10: Ask your friends.

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    Step 11: Be flexible.

12. 12

    Step 12: If all else fails

13. 13

    Step 13: make your own!

Detailed Guide

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