Based on your post, Eeyesadi, the game seemed worth at least a look, so I went to their homepage to investigate. :glasses:
Okay first thing I notice is the really beautiful background art, male warrior and mage on the left, with the coolest armor and robe I've seen--and then their female counterparts on the right, a g-string and sparkly belt for the mage, and a warrior who forgot to put her pants on. :bigsmile: Like you said, "Definetly aimed at the young boys among us. . ."
But I did scroll down to the bottom of the page and saw a group of characters--females included--fully dressed and in some really nice clothing. This alone made me want to fire it up just to have a look see. Looks like there's a costume contest, so I'm wondering how much ability do you have to customize your clothing.
All this talk of clothes, like nothing else is important in a game! Well I'm female; this kind of stuff is just very important, you know. :exmark: 0:)
This little pitch has given me enough incentive to give it a try. I can't deny that the FREE part worked its magic in me as well.
Though I agree that "free" more likely means "free to log in" at best.
Well, if you can get by the female exploitation - it really is a VERY nice game. Much more detailed than I saw on my first look. Crafting and housing in particular are very deep and I have just begun to discover their wonders.
Clothing - From my EQ2 days I never thought I'd see a game to compare. LoTRO does very nicely as does RoM.
Pets and mounts - OMG! The mounts are gorgeous. And Diverse. All in all a VERY pretty game.
BUT - BUT - The real "hook" for me so far, after only a few weeks here, is the duel class system. Dang, it is sweet! More fun than anything I've seen in quite some time. You may have a Mage/Warrior, or a Warrior/Mage, for example. And you will have two TOTALLY different toons! Truly, the strategies seem endless, and, is that NOT so critically important?
Major update today as they are adding Elves as a race (only humans so far) and Druids and wardens as classes. Game is down for 24 hours. I can't wait to see them. I'm betting they will do a bang up job on them and only add to the beauty of the game.
VERY important comment. Tho the game is truly "free", the cash shop contains TONS of the "cool" stuff. I've read that you do not really have to spend a penny to get "stuff", but will note right up front that it will take you MANY, MANY hours to get stuff for free.
Still - The game has hooked me this trip thru. Can't wait to hear your point of view.
Who knows - We may establish that lil "guild" here! BTW - The guild hall is GINORMOUS! If anyone is like me, THAT is also a major draw! AND - like housing - They are free to obtain and their is NO rent! You can get a house 1/2 hour into the game! Guild halls are a different story.
Frogster America, Inc. today announced that it will soon introduce a new plant cultivation system for Runes of Magic, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles. The new feature gives players the opportunity to grow and harvest plants from the fantasy world of Taborea, giving them access to valuable crafting resources. The plant system will be deployed across the servers in one of the up-coming updates and is currently live on the test server.
For successful planting, players will need a pot which they can then set up in their player's house. There will be a wide range of different plants to choose from, and seeds can either be dropped by slain foes, or bought in the Item Shop. The quality of the seeds defines the yield of the plants once they have grown to maturity. Players who regularly water their plants and fertilize them with magical runes will find that within three to seven days they will have a harvest. The plants have the chance of producing a rare yield and will need to be cared for especially well. If players neglect their plants, they'll wither and die after a few days.
Once the plants have grown, players will finally see the fruits of their labor. The extent of the yield from the plants ranges from special runes, which adventurers can use to upgrade their character's equipment, to ores, wood and new plants. With the right kind of seeds, the harvest can even produce rare "blue" crafting material.
About Runes of Magic
With an extensive range of features Runes of Magic is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles. Runes of Magic conveys an absorbing story through more than 1,600 quests in an exciting and dangerous fantasy world. Players can choose between six main classes and combined with a secondary class, choose to create a character from 30 character class combinations. All characters possess unique skills with impressive combo attacks and can use mounts including war horses.
A particularly attractive feature for guilds and players is the ability to decorate their own virtual homes with individual furnishings. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PVP, as well as demanding dungeons and boss monsters, Runes of Magic has something for everyone. The Taiwanese developer Runewaker, has developed Runes of Magic according to western MMO standards and put more than three years of development into the game. The studio will continue to provide new challenges for players every four to five months with free add-ons and updates. MMO fans can find more information, pictures and videos on the official website at: www.runesofmagic.com.
Runes of Magic features:
• Free-to-play: no monthly fees, free download
• Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
• Versatile spell- and attack-combinations
• Enthralling background story
• More than 1,600 quests and quest series
• No zone boundaries thanks to seamless architecture
• Dungeons: Instanced and tile based as well as persistent
• Individually developable skills and spells
• Armor sets with special bonuses
• Dynamic item system with hundreds of runes for upgrading
• Optional PvP system with arena battles and guild wars
• Ranking system with player-ranking lists
• Multitude of unique mounts
• Epic crafting system with the chance to improve existing items
• Personalization of player houses through individual furnishing
• Reputation system
• Customizable user interface with the option to use Add-Ons
• Map and radar system to find dealers, resources and quests easily
Runes of Magic - Snap Judgement Review
Review of Runes of Magic - Free MMORPG
by bulletbutter (1,782 pts ) , published May 19, 2009
Leave a comment
Runes of Magic is a free to play MMORPG. When compared to other free to play MMORPGs Runes of Magic takes the cake. It has more features than just about any free to play MMORPG on the net!
Gameplay
Rating
Both casual and hardcore MMORPG players will feel right at home with Runes of Magic. It takes most of the common features found in all MMORPGs and adds a few new features to to mix. Possibly the most appealing feature in the game is the dual class system. Once a player gets to level 10, they have the option of selecting a secondary class. This allows players to be able to fill two different group roles or just a way to mix up the grind.
Upon reaching certain levels the class you pick will unlock spells and abilities to use on your journey. Just like every MMORPG you will accept quests, kill creatures to gain experience and earn TP (talent points) to spend to upgrade your class abilities. Whether you like to quest for loot or simply kill things and grab the best drops from the most deadly creatures, you will feel right at home.
Moving around is done in one of several ways. Using the W, A, S, D keys or the arrow keys on your keyboard. You can also use a combination of the keyboard and the mouse. Casting spells is done by clicking and dragging your class abilities to action bars and hitting the corresponding button on your keyboard.
With a maximum level of 100 (50 for each class if you dual class) you will find plenty of content in Runes of Magic to appease your appetite for adventure. Although once you reach level 50 you stop gaining experience, you will continue to gain TP to allow you to increase the strength of your class abilities.
Features Rating
Aside from the dual class feature Runes of Magic has a host of pretty much all the features one would expect from an MMORPG. Gear management, auction halls, crafting with several professions and no limit the amount of professions you can have, dungeons, raids, guilds, daily quests, item malls and even pvp. Runes of Magic simply has it all and much, much more.
It doesn't stop there either! From the beginning of the game all players have access to their very own house. You are free to decorate it in any way you see fit. You can also expand the size of your house, give it a name and even invite your in game friends over to show it off. There are over 130 decorations in the game and that number grows every patch update.
Some of the more unique features in Runes of Magic include PvP dungeons, randomly generated instanced dungeons and gear upgrading. Each time you enter a dungeon, everything from loot to the types of monsters are randomly generated so each visit is completely unique.
Some gear in Runes of Magic can stick with you for a very long time. You can take a piece of gear you obtained at level 10, upgrade it and still be using it well into your 30s.
Graphics Rating
Those of you familiar with old school MMORPGs such as Dark Age of Camelot or even a newer MMORPG such as World of Warcaft will be stunned with the amount of nostalgia. The game looks extremely familiar to those types of MMORPGs, especially World of Warcraft. By spending a few minutes chatting in Runes of Magic you can hear that most people even consider Runes of Magic to be a free to play World of Warcraft.
The graphics aren't spectacular so don't expect anything to great. Even though it is a 3D game the graphics appear to be a bit dated with cartoonish models. However, that doesn't hurt the gameplay in the least bit. The graphics are good enough to keep you enthralled in the game. Even with the cartoonish graphics you can still see some amazing artwork and scenery.
Overall Rating
Simply put, Runes of Magic has enough content no matter what your flavor is. If you want to spend all day dueling oth er players, running 6 man dungeons or raiding then you will be completely satisfied. The amount of customability and flexibility you are givin in this free to play MMORPG is astounding. There is hardly ever a dull moment in Runes Of Magic. Chances are when your not leveling, you are upgrading your gear, crafting to make money on the market, running dungeons or raids to get better gear, expanding your house or just having a blast chatting it up with random people in chat.
The community here is awesome as well. The stigma that most well known MMORPGs have is almost non-existant in Runes of Magic. People are friendly and glad to help with any questions you may have. With the amazing amount of content availible, there is no reason to not give Runes of Magic a try. What are you wating for? Check out Runes of Magic today, you will not regret it.
Runes of Magic is simply, hands down, the best free to play MMORPG. It has more features than any other free to play MMORPG currently available. To much to cover in a simply review in fact. The amount of issues/bugs in the game are very little and the game is simply addicting to play as well. Those who decide to give this game a shot will most undoubtedly be spending a lot of their free time in Runes of Magic.
Okay, I had a go at RoM and glad to say I found it a fun little experience.
The character creation (a big one for me) had a surprising amount of options, and I was able to get a pretty good look for my mage. Graphics aren't top of the line, but decent, and appealing. I'm still a bit baffled, however, how some female characters (mages, priests, scouts) begin the game fully dressed, and how others are well, not completely dressed. They are strangely dressed to mirror exactly the male counterparts--but are completely lacking in pants! I don't just mean they have the Daisy Duke's version of the male costume--I mean they literally have a full costume minus the pants. :O :)
Okay that aside, I liked the tutorial, very concise and easy to follow. And the environment is very pretty in a fairy tale/WoW-ish kind of way. The really cool thing that surprised me was when I completed the tutorial, I arrived in the city atop a pretty white horse! Is it truly mine?! Surely they jest!
Well hopping off it showed me an hour cooldown till I could hop on again, but that seemed lie a pretty nice little compromise to allow people to have mounts early on, without having to huff through twenty levels or so to get one, and yet still might give them an added advantage of no cooldown when they get a higher level mount.
Ya, I'm just guessing this part. I have no real idea how the horse thing works. Do you get a limited mount at the outset, and a more accessible one later on?
The horse, by the way was gorgeous, if I haven't already mentioned it. :)
From there, you start picking up the standard type quests, nothing too inventive or original in them, at least not the early ones I got, but that is very WoW-like in style, and I really feel this game is going for that, like the review above suggests. In that, they definitely succeed.
I didn't get to investigate too much more, such as the ready housing or the touted crafting system, but what I saw I thought was really well done and visually appealing (minus the fraction of the population who just wanted some pants). I would say that if this game was genuinely free (and I doubt any of the "free" games really are "free") then it's one that would be worth the time for people who just want to get in, and have fun from the get-go without having to shell out any cash or commitment.
I don't know if I would have the time to play now or any time soon as I am living between two worlds already, but I would like to see how the crafting and housing looks nonetheless, and the options for decorating, and the costume options for your character, which I didn't get a chance to look into. So I will try to get in a look around a bit more, if I can manage it.
It does look like a good game. I think I still might prefer Chronicles of Spellborn for a ftp, as it will become free to play at the beginning of the year I believe, and that's in terms of character creation, combat, and atmosphere. But RoM seems to me it would appeal to a wider variety of people and perhaps be more successful overall. I recommend others should give it a try and post their reviews here too if are able. :)
Glad you took a look, and enjoyed what you saw. Mounts......hmmm.....A wider variety does not exist in any game! Coolest mounts ever. That said.....this is where the "free" part starts to blur.....you can "rent" them for 7 or 30 days, or buy one permanently. BUT - they certainly are not a must have. If you do decide to try again, you absolutely must get to level 10 (about 2 hours of game time) and look at the duel classing! I know of no other game that really allows you to have 2 characters in one, leveling each independantly, yet sharing some core skills between them. It really is neat!
Housing - Again you may have a house for free at level one. BUT, the real cool stuff is in the cash shop. Not needed tho. You REALLY can play this game for free and enjoy it without the need to spend any money. That said, the logic has to be that most folks will succomb to the temptation to buy SOMETHING. There really is a ton of cool stuff there from mounts to costumes to all kinds of stuff! Have to stress tho, you can enjoy the game for the gameplay alone, without the need to buy anything. So far, I have seen NOTHING there that one must have. It just makes things easier or more cosmeticaly attractive.
You really must give the dual class a look. it's a gamemaker!
And yes.......as I stated early on......The young boys will surely love the scenery!
The housing.....you get a free house at level one. Unlike LoTRO's hooks, you can place anthing anywhere you choose. BUT - Your free house is limited to 10 items and, yep, you can use the cash shop to buy a bigger house or enhance the capacity of your free one.
Not sure who among us is big on guild halls - I was in love with them in EQ2 - but they have a HUGE guild hall in this game. Basically you "build" it by harvesting boatloads of materials, and adventuring for some serious cash. But they are huge! More to follow as interest is evidenced! I will have one! Tis a goal!
Based on your post, Eeyesadi, the game seemed worth at least a look, so I went to their homepage to investigate. :glasses:
Okay first thing I notice is the really beautiful background art, male warrior and mage on the left, with the coolest armor and robe I've seen--and then their female counterparts on the right, a g-string and sparkly belt for the mage, and a warrior who forgot to put her pants on. :bigsmile: Like you said, "Definetly aimed at the young boys among us. . ."
But I did scroll down to the bottom of the page and saw a group of characters--females included--fully dressed and in some really nice clothing. This alone made me want to fire it up just to have a look see. Looks like there's a costume contest, so I'm wondering how much ability do you have to customize your clothing.
All this talk of clothes, like nothing else is important in a game! Well I'm female; this kind of stuff is just very important, you know. :exmark: 0:)
This little pitch has given me enough incentive to give it a try. I can't deny that the FREE part worked its magic in me as well.
Though I agree that "free" more likely means "free to log in" at best.
I'll post my findings next time. :party:
Well, if you can get by the female exploitation - it really is a VERY nice game. Much more detailed than I saw on my first look. Crafting and housing in particular are very deep and I have just begun to discover their wonders.
Clothing - From my EQ2 days I never thought I'd see a game to compare. LoTRO does very nicely as does RoM.
Pets and mounts - OMG! The mounts are gorgeous. And Diverse. All in all a VERY pretty game.
BUT - BUT - The real "hook" for me so far, after only a few weeks here, is the duel class system. Dang, it is sweet! More fun than anything I've seen in quite some time. You may have a Mage/Warrior, or a Warrior/Mage, for example. And you will have two TOTALLY different toons! Truly, the strategies seem endless, and, is that NOT so critically important?
Major update today as they are adding Elves as a race (only humans so far) and Druids and wardens as classes. Game is down for 24 hours. I can't wait to see them. I'm betting they will do a bang up job on them and only add to the beauty of the game.
VERY important comment. Tho the game is truly "free", the cash shop contains TONS of the "cool" stuff. I've read that you do not really have to spend a penny to get "stuff", but will note right up front that it will take you MANY, MANY hours to get stuff for free.
Still - The game has hooked me this trip thru. Can't wait to hear your point of view.
Who knows - We may establish that lil "guild" here! BTW - The guild hall is GINORMOUS! If anyone is like me, THAT is also a major draw! AND - like housing - They are free to obtain and their is NO rent! You can get a house 1/2 hour into the game! Guild halls are a different story.
Anxiously awaiting your "review"!
Frogster America, Inc. today announced that it will soon introduce a new plant cultivation system for Runes of Magic, the Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game (MMORPG) that is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles. The new feature gives players the opportunity to grow and harvest plants from the fantasy world of Taborea, giving them access to valuable crafting resources. The plant system will be deployed across the servers in one of the up-coming updates and is currently live on the test server.
For successful planting, players will need a pot which they can then set up in their player's house. There will be a wide range of different plants to choose from, and seeds can either be dropped by slain foes, or bought in the Item Shop. The quality of the seeds defines the yield of the plants once they have grown to maturity. Players who regularly water their plants and fertilize them with magical runes will find that within three to seven days they will have a harvest. The plants have the chance of producing a rare yield and will need to be cared for especially well. If players neglect their plants, they'll wither and die after a few days.
Once the plants have grown, players will finally see the fruits of their labor. The extent of the yield from the plants ranges from special runes, which adventurers can use to upgrade their character's equipment, to ores, wood and new plants. With the right kind of seeds, the harvest can even produce rare "blue" crafting material.
About Runes of Magic
With an extensive range of features Runes of Magic is redefining the standard for free-to-play titles. Runes of Magic conveys an absorbing story through more than 1,600 quests in an exciting and dangerous fantasy world. Players can choose between six main classes and combined with a secondary class, choose to create a character from 30 character class combinations. All characters possess unique skills with impressive combo attacks and can use mounts including war horses.
A particularly attractive feature for guilds and players is the ability to decorate their own virtual homes with individual furnishings. Thanks to an extensive crafting and reputation system, thrilling PVP, as well as demanding dungeons and boss monsters, Runes of Magic has something for everyone. The Taiwanese developer Runewaker, has developed Runes of Magic according to western MMO standards and put more than three years of development into the game. The studio will continue to provide new challenges for players every four to five months with free add-ons and updates. MMO fans can find more information, pictures and videos on the official website at: www.runesofmagic.com.
Runes of Magic features:
• Free-to-play: no monthly fees, free download
• Extensive dual class system (six primary and secondary classes)
• Versatile spell- and attack-combinations
• Enthralling background story
• More than 1,600 quests and quest series
• No zone boundaries thanks to seamless architecture
• Dungeons: Instanced and tile based as well as persistent
• Individually developable skills and spells
• Armor sets with special bonuses
• Dynamic item system with hundreds of runes for upgrading
• Optional PvP system with arena battles and guild wars
• Ranking system with player-ranking lists
• Multitude of unique mounts
• Epic crafting system with the chance to improve existing items
• Personalization of player houses through individual furnishing
• Reputation system
• Customizable user interface with the option to use Add-Ons
• Map and radar system to find dealers, resources and quests easily
• In-game auction houses for trading items
• Teleport-Runes for instant travel
• Mouse and keyboard controls for movement
• Regular updates with new content
• Guild castles in special zones
Runes of Magic - Snap Judgement Review
Review of Runes of Magic - Free MMORPG
by bulletbutter (1,782 pts ) , published May 19, 2009
Leave a comment
Runes of Magic is a free to play MMORPG. When compared to other free to play MMORPGs Runes of Magic takes the cake. It has more features than just about any free to play MMORPG on the net!
Gameplay
Rating
Both casual and hardcore MMORPG players will feel right at home with Runes of Magic. It takes most of the common features found in all MMORPGs and adds a few new features to to mix. Possibly the most appealing feature in the game is the dual class system. Once a player gets to level 10, they have the option of selecting a secondary class. This allows players to be able to fill two different group roles or just a way to mix up the grind.
Upon reaching certain levels the class you pick will unlock spells and abilities to use on your journey. Just like every MMORPG you will accept quests, kill creatures to gain experience and earn TP (talent points) to spend to upgrade your class abilities. Whether you like to quest for loot or simply kill things and grab the best drops from the most deadly creatures, you will feel right at home.
Moving around is done in one of several ways. Using the W, A, S, D keys or the arrow keys on your keyboard. You can also use a combination of the keyboard and the mouse. Casting spells is done by clicking and dragging your class abilities to action bars and hitting the corresponding button on your keyboard.
With a maximum level of 100 (50 for each class if you dual class) you will find plenty of content in Runes of Magic to appease your appetite for adventure. Although once you reach level 50 you stop gaining experience, you will continue to gain TP to allow you to increase the strength of your class abilities.
Features Rating
Aside from the dual class feature Runes of Magic has a host of pretty much all the features one would expect from an MMORPG. Gear management, auction halls, crafting with several professions and no limit the amount of professions you can have, dungeons, raids, guilds, daily quests, item malls and even pvp. Runes of Magic simply has it all and much, much more.
It doesn't stop there either! From the beginning of the game all players have access to their very own house. You are free to decorate it in any way you see fit. You can also expand the size of your house, give it a name and even invite your in game friends over to show it off. There are over 130 decorations in the game and that number grows every patch update.
Some of the more unique features in Runes of Magic include PvP dungeons, randomly generated instanced dungeons and gear upgrading. Each time you enter a dungeon, everything from loot to the types of monsters are randomly generated so each visit is completely unique.
Some gear in Runes of Magic can stick with you for a very long time. You can take a piece of gear you obtained at level 10, upgrade it and still be using it well into your 30s.
Graphics Rating
Those of you familiar with old school MMORPGs such as Dark Age of Camelot or even a newer MMORPG such as World of Warcaft will be stunned with the amount of nostalgia. The game looks extremely familiar to those types of MMORPGs, especially World of Warcraft. By spending a few minutes chatting in Runes of Magic you can hear that most people even consider Runes of Magic to be a free to play World of Warcraft.
The graphics aren't spectacular so don't expect anything to great. Even though it is a 3D game the graphics appear to be a bit dated with cartoonish models. However, that doesn't hurt the gameplay in the least bit. The graphics are good enough to keep you enthralled in the game. Even with the cartoonish graphics you can still see some amazing artwork and scenery.
Overall Rating
Simply put, Runes of Magic has enough content no matter what your flavor is. If you want to spend all day dueling oth er players, running 6 man dungeons or raiding then you will be completely satisfied. The amount of customability and flexibility you are givin in this free to play MMORPG is astounding. There is hardly ever a dull moment in Runes Of Magic. Chances are when your not leveling, you are upgrading your gear, crafting to make money on the market, running dungeons or raids to get better gear, expanding your house or just having a blast chatting it up with random people in chat.
The community here is awesome as well. The stigma that most well known MMORPGs have is almost non-existant in Runes of Magic. People are friendly and glad to help with any questions you may have. With the amazing amount of content availible, there is no reason to not give Runes of Magic a try. What are you wating for? Check out Runes of Magic today, you will not regret it.
Runes of Magic is simply, hands down, the best free to play MMORPG. It has more features than any other free to play MMORPG currently available. To much to cover in a simply review in fact. The amount of issues/bugs in the game are very little and the game is simply addicting to play as well. Those who decide to give this game a shot will most undoubtedly be spending a lot of their free time in Runes of Magic.
Okay, I had a go at RoM and glad to say I found it a fun little experience.
The character creation (a big one for me) had a surprising amount of options, and I was able to get a pretty good look for my mage. Graphics aren't top of the line, but decent, and appealing. I'm still a bit baffled, however, how some female characters (mages, priests, scouts) begin the game fully dressed, and how others are well, not completely dressed. They are strangely dressed to mirror exactly the male counterparts--but are completely lacking in pants! I don't just mean they have the Daisy Duke's version of the male costume--I mean they literally have a full costume minus the pants. :O :)
Okay that aside, I liked the tutorial, very concise and easy to follow. And the environment is very pretty in a fairy tale/WoW-ish kind of way. The really cool thing that surprised me was when I completed the tutorial, I arrived in the city atop a pretty white horse! Is it truly mine?! Surely they jest!
Well hopping off it showed me an hour cooldown till I could hop on again, but that seemed lie a pretty nice little compromise to allow people to have mounts early on, without having to huff through twenty levels or so to get one, and yet still might give them an added advantage of no cooldown when they get a higher level mount.
Ya, I'm just guessing this part. I have no real idea how the horse thing works. Do you get a limited mount at the outset, and a more accessible one later on?
The horse, by the way was gorgeous, if I haven't already mentioned it. :)
From there, you start picking up the standard type quests, nothing too inventive or original in them, at least not the early ones I got, but that is very WoW-like in style, and I really feel this game is going for that, like the review above suggests. In that, they definitely succeed.
I didn't get to investigate too much more, such as the ready housing or the touted crafting system, but what I saw I thought was really well done and visually appealing (minus the fraction of the population who just wanted some pants). I would say that if this game was genuinely free (and I doubt any of the "free" games really are "free") then it's one that would be worth the time for people who just want to get in, and have fun from the get-go without having to shell out any cash or commitment.
I don't know if I would have the time to play now or any time soon as I am living between two worlds already, but I would like to see how the crafting and housing looks nonetheless, and the options for decorating, and the costume options for your character, which I didn't get a chance to look into. So I will try to get in a look around a bit more, if I can manage it.
It does look like a good game. I think I still might prefer Chronicles of Spellborn for a ftp, as it will become free to play at the beginning of the year I believe, and that's in terms of character creation, combat, and atmosphere. But RoM seems to me it would appeal to a wider variety of people and perhaps be more successful overall. I recommend others should give it a try and post their reviews here too if are able. :)
Glad you took a look, and enjoyed what you saw. Mounts......hmmm.....A wider variety does not exist in any game! Coolest mounts ever. That said.....this is where the "free" part starts to blur.....you can "rent" them for 7 or 30 days, or buy one permanently. BUT - they certainly are not a must have. If you do decide to try again, you absolutely must get to level 10 (about 2 hours of game time) and look at the duel classing! I know of no other game that really allows you to have 2 characters in one, leveling each independantly, yet sharing some core skills between them. It really is neat!
Housing - Again you may have a house for free at level one. BUT, the real cool stuff is in the cash shop. Not needed tho. You REALLY can play this game for free and enjoy it without the need to spend any money. That said, the logic has to be that most folks will succomb to the temptation to buy SOMETHING. There really is a ton of cool stuff there from mounts to costumes to all kinds of stuff! Have to stress tho, you can enjoy the game for the gameplay alone, without the need to buy anything. So far, I have seen NOTHING there that one must have. It just makes things easier or more cosmeticaly attractive.
You really must give the dual class a look. it's a gamemaker!
And yes.......as I stated early on......The young boys will surely love the scenery!
The housing.....you get a free house at level one. Unlike LoTRO's hooks, you can place anthing anywhere you choose. BUT - Your free house is limited to 10 items and, yep, you can use the cash shop to buy a bigger house or enhance the capacity of your free one.
Not sure who among us is big on guild halls - I was in love with them in EQ2 - but they have a HUGE guild hall in this game. Basically you "build" it by harvesting boatloads of materials, and adventuring for some serious cash. But they are huge! More to follow as interest is evidenced! I will have one! Tis a goal!