• Black Desert (thread) - Buy to play ($30). BDO is an action sandbox KMMO with a large goon population (100-200) and plenty to do. Once you hit level 45, you become subject to non-consensual PVP in the open world, although due to game mechanics you'll rarely be ganked for no reason. Leveling and gear improvement both get very grindy at the higher levels, but there's so much to do (fishing, exploring, crafting, supply chain management, horse breeding, etc) that the grind is hardly noticeable unless you focus on it. While the entry fee is $30, be aware that you'll probably end up spending another $30 in the cash shop for pets (which provide an important quality-of-life feature) if you get serious about the game.
  
  
• Tree of Life (thread) - Buy to play ($20+). Tree of Life is an open world sandbox MMO focused on base building and leveling with open PVP (including friendly fire). It's really crafting focused - you'll probably spend the majority of your time using crappy tools to harvest basic materials. A lot of great opportunities for running around the map ganking pubbies and looting their stuff. Currently a handful of goons playing this game.
  
  
• Haven and Hearth 2 (thread) - Free to play. Haven and Hearth 2 is the direct successor to H&H (which inspired and was developed by the same team as Salem). Similar to the others, it's a sandbox survival MMO with permadeath (although certain traits pass along to future generations on death). It has gone through a major rewrite since release with positive results. Devs are active and push out updates on a weekly basis. There are a handful of goons playing with a few select non-goons.
  
  
• Salem (find the thread yourself) - Free to play. No one plays this game. And neither should you.
  
  
• Wurm Online (thread) - Free to play. A very fun sandbox with bad graphics. Grindy as hell. If you want to get mauled by a bear or die of spider bites in the wilderness and have a snowball's chance in hell of recovering your gear, this is the game for you. Somewhat low overall server population. Some goons still play this.
  
  
• Mortal Online (thread goes here) - Limited free to play with subscription option ($15/mo). First-person sandbox mmo with open PVP, non-instanced housing, Ultima Online style progression, and a big open world. A lot of the content (world, crafting, etc) remains unexplored or undocumented, giving you lots to explore. Sounds great, right? Well, it was also developed with 2005-era hardware and internet connectivity in mind, whatever that means to you.
  

• Albion Online (thread) - Currently in a closed beta stage that allows access to supporters who have purchased a $30+ package. Albion is a MMO with a full-loot PVP focus. Goon presence has more or less died for now. We are expecting a wipe in late 2016 at which point interest may be revitalized, although deadlines have consistently been pushed back so hold your breath. Consensus is that the developers are clueless and seem to be in an endless rework loop of core systems while failing to provide much needed content. Note that the company actively bans players from their forums and deletes reddit posts that have negative opinions of the game (link).
  
  
• Project Gorgon (thread) - Free to play. Project Gorgon is a super zany open-world PVE sandbox with a metric ton of content made by a single guy. Everything you do has a skill associated with it, many of which provide bonuses to one another in weird ways. Pretty reminiscent of first-gen MMOs. There was a decent goon presence in game when I last played (6 months ago), not sure if it's still busy. Heard the game was going to go to a Buy To Play model when it debuted on Steam - is that still happening?
  
  
• Das Tal (link) - A wise goon in the Albion thread once said "'Let's take a MOBA and make it a MMO' thought no one ever." According Das Tal's website, this is exactly that: a full loot PvP sandbox with MOBA mechanics. The combat sports friendly fire, which solves a lot of the zerg-mechanic issues Albion faced. This game has been designed to be accessible with people with day jobs: low grind, non-crippling death, soft-caps, and catchup mechanics. No goon community yet, but Pavlov promises to write up a thread when he thinks it's ready for one.
  

• Crowfall (thread) - I don't know, someone write up some poo poo about this because I don't want to. Vaporware? Open testing is scheduled for end of year, so clench those cheeks until then.
  
  
• Shards Online (thread) - Currently in a pre-alpha stage that allows access to supporters who have purchased a $30+ package. Heavily inspired by UO. General consensus is that the game seems like it'll be fun to play when it's released, but that you should wait for further development before handing over your money. Also the art direction is kinda crap.
  
  
• Chronicles of Elyria - A really ambitious pre-alpha game that's going into Kickstarter in June. Ever heard of such a thing?! Well apparently they plan on featuring no-level characters, a closed economy, finite resources, fully destructible environments, and character aging (and eventually permadeath). Will have an offline demo with core mechanics in place.
  

• Amaranthine (thread) - Free to play text-based idle-timer game. Runs in your browser. Basically, every action you perform in the game is on a timer which caps at a minimum of 20 seconds. Most actions auto-repeat. Fire and forget in your browser to level up while you're working or watching Netflix or doing something else. 75+ active goons. There is no PVP and the mods will punish or ban you if you do overtly "mean" things to other players (e.g. scamming), but goons still do a good job riling up the locals in global chat.
  
  
• HellMOO (???) - Is HellMOO still around? A bunch of goons played this at one point. If you want to shoot up crack, get killed by ghosts, throw orphans into a furnace, grow some mutations, and have sex with hookers and your fellow players in a text based online video game, this is probably a good place to do said things.
  
  
• Wayfar 1444 (link) - "has more features than Star Citizen" except for the graphics, since it's a text-based game. It is substantially cheaper, though.
  
  
• Race War Kingdoms (link) - Free to play. Not about your Always Sunny in Philadelphia styled race wars. Long running browser game that is bound to give you RSI. Claims to be a game of power, intrigue, deception, and war. It looks like one goon plays this. Someone besides jiggerypokery weigh in please.
  

Ruggan fucked around with this message at 21:38 on May 1, 2016

Alexander DeLarge fucked around with this message at 11:02 on Apr 22, 2016