Any fun browser based games which aren't pay-to-be-good?

[Shask]

I used to play a game called "eRepublik". It's a browser based economics game. I adored that game, played with it from beta, was one of the best in my entire country out of a good few thousand players. There was a statistic for strength which you could increase - once a day - by clicking "train", and I had one of the highest strengths in the entire game. Then the developers introduced a system where, if you used "gold" - a resource you could purchase infinitely with real life money - you could e.g. get triple the strength gain. I immediately quit.

I just signed up to this extremely fun game called "The West". A few minutes in, I thought I'd definitely play it some more. But then, after fishing in a stream, I ran out of "energy". And I was immediately prompted: "You have no energy. Wait 8 hours. Alternatively, buy all your energy back now, for only $4.99!!".

Edit: Thanks to WarpedWiseMan for - albeit mistakenly - providing me with another example of a piece of shit. That game he posted bombards you with "Buy premium hero mode now!" which basically means you character is twice as good as everyone elses.

Just pathetic.

So, are there any games without this sucky feature? Maybe like Runescape, with a subscription. I don't mean ephemeral games like the ones in miniclip that you spend a few hours on, I mean an RPG type game, like OGame, DarkThrone, HoboWars, etc.

[SacreDoom]

http://www.boringrpg.com

[WarpedWiseMan]

I've really gotten into Die2nite which is a Zombie Apocalypse survivor game where you and 39 town members attempt to last as long as possible against hordes of zombies.

Takes 5 minutes to play per day and is loads of fun.

Be warned, it has a learning curve and the community can be dickish to new players.

[DigDog]

http://www.kingdomofloathing.com

[Shask]

I've really gotten into Die2nite which is a Zombie Apocalypse survivor game where you and 39 town members attempt to last as long as possible against hordes of zombies.

Takes 5 minutes to play per day and is loads of fun.

Be warned, it has a learning curve and the community can be dickish to new players.

I signed up. Please, learn to read. Within literally 30 seconds of signing up I was being bombarded with "Get hero mode! 2x faster at scavenging! Pay now!".

This game is in exactly the same pile of shit as 99% of other internet browser games, and this is exactly why I made this thread.

http://www.kingdomofloathing.com

http://www.boringrpg.com

These look ok, but both just come across as "joke" games. I'm looking for something real. Maybe it doesn't exist..

[sabinati]

play now, my lord

[FritzPL]

http://apps.facebook.com/projectlegacy/

Facebook,English and some sort of Assassin's Creed knowledge.

[Phaen]

I used to play a browser game called Travian. I love that game, but after 2~3 years I had to quit because being competitive requires me to log in more often than I'd like. It's a game about growing an empire, conquering land, making allies, fighting enemy alliances for territory, and eventually building a world wonder together with your alliance.

It does have a RL-linked currency ( "gold" ) but you don't need gold to win. The majority of the gold features are more about convenience than long-term growth. Message archiving, built in notepad, queuing up a 2nd building so you don't have to be online when the 1st one ends, extra links on the sidebar. These are the things that come with a Plus Account. Someone who checks Travian multiple times per day and plays optimally will grow at about the same speed with gold as without it. Someone who only checks once every day or two will grow faster with gold (but even with gold they'll grow slower than a non-gold-user who logs in multiple times per day). You might not like the instant-build gold feature until you see that the limiting factor for building is usually resources, not time. You might frown at the +25% resource field output buff that can be bought by gold until you realize that the majority of your income (if playing optimally) comes not from your fields but from raiding other players who buy that buff

The only gold feature I'd say really helps the active player gain a definite advantage is the +25% wheat bonus. More wheat means you can house more troops. A larger army means greater raiding income. Getting this bonus each week would cost 5 gold/week or 30~40 cents/week.

Anyway, good luck finding something to play around with =)
This might not be the right game for you, but I can't help but gush about things I enjoy playing

[falloutfan]

Die2nite is actually very good. It's a team game, so you aren't better than the rest of the players, you just help out a little more. I've never paid for hero mode, usually there is maybe 1-3 heroes in a town and everyone else just normal players. They aren't gods walking the earth of the non-player characters. It just helps a little more. Heroes won't make or break the town. I like how you said runescape is cool though, a game which flat out doesn't give you the whole game unless you pay and reminds you of that with ads or all those skills you can't use cause you didn't pay.

[Sarge]

This one is quite a bit of fun:

http://euotopia.com/