MMORPGs are grand multiplayer worlds where you can exist alongside other players. For the MMO, the game's community is the most important aspect, as without it, many of the genre's shortcomi𝔍ngs become much more blatant.

MMOs also live and die by their payment model; whether a game is free-to-play, purchased once, or requires a subscription can impact how successful the game actually is. Below, we'll take a look at several free-to-play MMOs that were ultimately unsuccessful or shut down altogether, but ꦰmay have done better if they weren't free.

8 ꦚ Blade & Soul 🔯

Blade & Soul is a Wuxia-style MMO with some of the best action combat and movement in the genre. A trend you'll start to see popping up in this list is a game releasing wit♏h the same name, or a slightly different name, or on a different platform, or with a different payment model, and it all gets very confusing to keep track of.

This is no different for Blade & Soul, and the number of different free versions of the 🌠game that have been released over the years is definitely not helping new players. If you searched the name of the game and saw three different versions to choose from, how do you even pick? Even if they're all basically variations of the same game, a new player isn't go🐻ing to try to parse through all that information.

Maybe if Blade & Soul had been released as one unified buy-to-play game, it would have done better. The extensive cash shop certainly isn't helpinꦏg, either.

7 Tera

Tera is an interesting case that directly proves that games sometimes do better when they aren't free-to-play. Originally, Tera released as a buy-once MMO, and had some of the best combat and art direction at the time. However, a year or so after ✅la🐼unch, the game shifted to a free-to-play model, and that's where things started to go downhill.

At first, the game saw a sharp rise in popularity due to new players checking it out, but the pay-to-win lootboxes and the rise of bots and gold sellers quickly ruined t꧅he experience. Tera eventually shut down its PC servers in 2022, but the console servers are still going.

6 Tree 🦂Of Savior

Tree of Savior is another MMO with great potential, ruined almost entirely by its monetization. The game has a beautiful and di🌌stinct art style, fun action combat, tons of classes to experiment with, and lovely music that accompanies each area.

However, it's also marred by some of the most egregious monetization in any MMO, including the need to gamble for new classes using premium currency and pay-to-win bundles that let you skip the grind. Despite all this, 168澳洲幸运5开奖网:Tree of Savior🙈 is still online to♒ this day, albeit with dwindling player counts.

5 Lost Ark

While not technically a flop due to its relatively active player base, Lost Ark definitely suffers from its free-to-play model. Free-to-play games🎐 or games with free trials often have problems with bots, but Lost Ark is on another 🅺level. Bots operate at every level of the game, to the point where doing casual dungeon runs will place you in a party devoid of real players.

The game is also heavily time-gated, incentivizing spending money on the cash shop to accelerate your progressi♊on. It's not technically pay-to-win, as you still have to play the game, but pay♉ing players will have a lot easier time than non-paying ones.

It's a shame since the game's Diablo-esque a♒ction RP𝔍G combat is a lot of fun, and there are some great moments in the campaign.

4 🐈 ꦆ MapleStory 2

MapleStory 2 was a free-to-play MMO with one of the worst bot epidemi🌌cs in any MMO. The game started off great, with its 3D version of the eternal classic MapleStory, but 🧸bots quickly took over the world, to the point where no matter where you went, you would see bots trying to sell you gold.

As you can imagine, this is extremely off-putting for most players, and numbers started to decline rapidly. Eventually, MapleStory 2's servers were shut dow🧸n, but maybe this wouldn't have been the case if they had at least dealt with the bots, or even shifted to a buy-once model. The original MapleStory is still online, though, so not all is lost.

3 🦩 Bless Unleashed

Bless Unleashed is the latest rerelease of Bless ꦚOnline, an action MMORPG with a beautiful open world that sadly suffered some 🐓of the worst publisher neglect in the genre. After the original game performed poorly, it was relaunched as Bless Unleashed on consoles, then again at a later date on PC.

Despite these relaunches, players were never able tꦺo move past the shameless cash-grab nature of the game, and eventually Neowiz, the publisher, sold the game to Valofe, who have largely ignored it. Bless Unleashed hasn't seen new content in montꦍhs, but we can't help but wonder what would have happened with a buy-to-play or subscription model and dedicated support for the game.

2 🧸 💎 Secret World Legends

The Secret World𝓀 is a dark urban fantasy MMO with some of the best quests in any MMO. The original game was released with a buy-to-play model with an optional subscription, and it did pretty well for itself. The writing, story, and setting were all praised by players, but the somewhat generic combat held it back.

The game was eventually relaunched as Secret World Legends, a free-to-play version, in 2017, while the ওoriginal game continued to function. However, Secret World Legends's cash shop and lack of support have kept it from reaching the highs of the original game, which just goes to🐓 show that the buy-to-play model worked better, at least in this case.

1 Silkroad Online 🍌

Silkroad Online is a historical fantasy MMORPG set in the seventh century Silk Road between China and Europe. The game's main feature is its Triangular Conflict System, which lets you be either a Trader, Thief, or Hunter. Traders attempt to deliver their goods along the Silk Road, while Hunters protect them and Thieves try to steal🦄 the goods.

This system led to some incredibly immersive gameplay, but the game is unfortunately brought down by its extensive grind. The game 𓂃is so grindy, in fact, that bots are just an aౠccepted part of the experience, and most dedicated players run them to have an easier time leveling up.

Silkroad Onliꦉne is by no ᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ⁤⁤⁤⁤ᩚ𒀱ᩚᩚᩚmeans a flop, but it's definitely getting long in the tooth, having originally launched in 2005. Without any significant changes to its core systems since then, Silkroad Online's player base has been slowly dwindling. That said, it's still online, and maybe a buy-to-play relaunch could revitalize it.