Networks like G4 almost completely ignore the free MMORPG genre. It's as if they don't even acknowledge its existence. There aren't any major print magazines that follow free MMORPGs either, except for maybe a specialty publication with little circulation. Let us analyze the free MMORPG market for a bit. There literally hundreds of free online MMORPGs out in the US market already with countless games currently in closed beta. Nexon's MapleStory game in the United States alone makes over $30 million a year and it is expected to increase in 2008. With big publishers like Outspark, Netgame, AeriaGames and Gpotato releasing new games almost every month, the industry is poised to continue growing.

These games are usually offered as free MMORPG downloads to anyone who wishes to participate and provide a great way for people to get their feet wet in the world of MMORPG games without paying the hefty monthly fees. Many of the independent game developers make titles that offer greater variety of free MMORPG downloads so there is certainly something for everyone. It just takes a little time in order to find a game online, but not impossible.

There are countless fantasy MMORPGs out there today and publishers keep bringing more and more of them to the market. The problem with this is that developers continue to produce the same generic MMORPGs. I enjoy reviewing unique games like S4 League and Project Powder, but playing a generic fantasy MMORPG isn't at all exciting.

Today many different styles of massively multiplayer games are available, such as: (i) MMORPG (Massively multiplayer online role-playing games). (ii) MMORTS (Massively multiplayer online real-time strategy games). (iii) MMOFPS (Massively multiplayer online first-person shooter games)

First-person shooters such as Quake, Unreal Tournament, Counter Strike and Warcraft 3 are also immensely popular online multiplayer games, but they are not MMOGs. Up to recently, these games were played only on the computer.

Since these games involve thousands of gamers playing simultaneously with each other in a giant virtual world, they are also called Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs). These were made possible only with the growth of broadband Internet access. [Examples: World of Warcraft, Guild Wars].

The two leading MMORPGs as of the time of writing are probably World of Warcraft (WoW) and Final Fantasy XI (FFXI) , each with millions of active players worldwide. The distinctive difference between MMORPGs and the other kinds of online multiplayer games is that RPGs are not round-based, and do not have a time limit or any specific goal to achieve. They are just there to be explored along (or sometimes against) other players.

A typical example is Warcraft III, which is the most recent in the Warcraft realtime strategy game series by Blizzard. It is played on the so-called Battlenet, a major online gaming hub by Blizzard, which also serves other strategy games like StarCraft. In Warcraft III it is possible to play both random opponents matched to you approximately by skill, either one on one or in teams of up to 4 on 4, or play others in pre-arranged teams.

In first-person shooter games, the basic principle is simple. Shoot or be shot, kill or be killed. Starting with the original Castle of Wolfenstein and Doom, these games have developed to a level of frightening realism mainly for men living out their ancient predatory and fighting instincts (according to some surveys, there are about 10 times as many male as female players in average FPS games). One of the recent milestones in this category, Doom 3 is a game which is psychologically scary even to adult men with the highly detailed and realistic monsters suddenly attacking from dark corners.

For most of the 20th century, life used to be rather simple for most people. There was school, college, work, retirement. Along with that you had hobbies like cars, bowling, or gardening. The former was more or a less of a chore, the latter the fun stuff you did in your free time, usually together with local friends from the same neighborhood. This was basically the same as a thousand years ago. For a few lucky people the two areas overlapped and they could do the stuff that they liked as their main job.