We’re Here To Keep You Busy

The dilemma: You’ve not only been anticipating WAR, but you’ve cleared out your summer gaming schedule for its June release. Now, weeks after the delay to fall ’08 was announced, you’re scrabbling around for something — anything — to fill the MMO void in your life until WAR swoops in to save the day.

The conditions: You don’t want to get too attached to another game, in terms of investing so much time and money (in subscription fees), that you’ll have a hard time dropping it and picking up WAR. You want FREE. You want FUN. You want DISPOSABLE.

WAAAGH! is here to help, but only if you promise that you’ll use your summer responsibly, and chase after those ice cream trucks like the slobbering sugar junkie that you are. Here’s a quick list of MMOs to fill the time, and all of them are free, fun (if not as fun as WAR promises to be), and easy to drop when you’ll need to.

ANARCHY ONLINE – Funcom’s aging scifi game went somewhat free (you can only play the basic version free) a couple years back, so you can try it out without having to spend a dime. It does skew to the older MMO mindset of incomprehensible stat placement and a world of endless running, but there are so few good scifi MMOs out there that it deserves a look.

DUNGEON RUNNERS – If you need a quick, mindless Diablo fix with a sense of humor, DR is your game. There’s a “premium” subscription that allows access to better loot and whatnot, but the free version is fully fleshed out and offers hours of hack-n-slashing fun.

MYTHOS – An even better Diablo clone, created by the Diablo people themselves, is coming to open beta very soon. It’s an awesome little game, with the only drawback of a near-certain wipe upon actual release. But hey, free!

GUILD WARS/HELLGATE LONDON – Both of these titles offer free online MMO-ish play, but you do have to pay for the game box itself (just no subscription). Guild Wars is more of a PvP/Magic the Gathering-style game, while Hellgate is a bland futuristic Diablo clone. It’s all in your taste, but they’re there if you need ’em.

DOMO – Want cutesy Chinese MMO goodness? People tend to rave about DOMO, but its very look just scares the crap outta me. If this sort of thing is your bag, you might as well check out Maple Story as well.

KINGDOM OF LOATHING – A web-based MMO for the literate person who likes puns, stick drawings and turn-based combat. It’s pretty funny and incredibly complex, but I’ve never been able to sink more than a few weeks into it at a time before giving up.

RUNESCAPE – Looked down upon by almost every serious (and paying) MMO player, Runescape nevertheless boasts impressive subscriber/player numbers, and has the added bonus of being a totally free, java applet that plays right in your browser. Never tried it.

EXTEEL – Giant robots beating the gears out of each other. Promising idea by NCSoft, except that the game is 100% PvP (shudder) and the better skills and gear must be purchased.

PUZZLE PIRATES – Combining cute pirates with addicting puzzles is an odd match, but PP (heh) made some waves (heh) with its extremely casual appeal. I briefly tried this back in the day, and didn’t find anything too gripping, but hey, you may!

SWORD OF THE NEW WORLD – I’m listing this because I’ve read fairly positive reviews about it from a few different sources. Plus, it’s one of the few MMOs I know where you play not one, not two, but three characters at once. Your own party!

BETAS – Yes, you should play these to TEST them, but… they’re free too! And you might just figure out whether they’ll be games you want to stick with past launch.

I know there’s a ton of other free MMOs — many of which serve to prove the point of “you get what you pay for” — so I’ll just wing you over to this locale for more ideas. So, what free MMOs do you recommend?