Minions of Mirth

Sane Mike wrote me an e-mail about a free MMORPG named Minions of Mirth, and I promised to check it out last weekend. But then I was rather busy with other stuff and never got around to it. And when I had a look, I couldn't think of anything more intelligent to say than what Sane Mike wrote in his mail. So I'm just hosting this as a "guest review", Sane Mike reviews Minions of Mirth:

I have just started playing Minions of Mirth and I think this could be the game for people like me. Mom is an MMorpg developed on a shoestring with a small player base yet it has a very rich and detailed world with lots of quests and characters. The graphics and sound are closer to EQ1 than WOW but still very respectable and all the main features quests, alliances, guilds, crafting etc are in there. The game is very moddable and there is player developed content. It is very solo friendly (you can even play an offline version) but there is also a global chat channel where all players on all shards can talk to each other.

It lacks the polish of a big name MMORPG particularly in making the game accessible for new players. When you log on first there are no helpful question marks over quest givers heads and such. Thankfully there is good in game help and the community though small are a friendly helpful bunch. The good news is that the interface is both straightforward and powerful once you get used to it. One particularly nice feature is a help bot called MOM that you can chat to and ask questions. For example:
"/tell mom where is chancellor wiggins?" is a good way to find chancellor wiggins.

My biggest concern about the game is that there are so few players - The server typically has only 20 to 30 players on it. There are group quests but it must be hard forming a group of similar level people.

You can play for free up to level 20. Premium access is a once off subscription of €30 and that goes up to level 100. I am still on the free server so I don't know what the game is like at higher levels but I have seen screen shots of epic monsters and such. Given the once off subscription model and the small player base I can only assume this game is more a hobby than a business enterprise. Never the less it is surprisingly good and seems to have fairly regular updates. I have seen reviews comparing it favorably to the original Everquest.

The game is available for download from here: http://www.prairiegames.com/

Regards

Sane Mike