A-B-C Frugality

When money gets tight, most people who need to to cut things out of the budget may be sniping away all the fun stuff. Fortunately, that isn’t necessarily true in this digital age. There are many options now-a-days for those guys (and gals) who really love playing video games, butt can’t really afford a monthly fee or even just an initial $50 boxed game at the store. In my inaugural article I am going to go over a little run down of some video games in several categories that are very popular right now and are free or have no monthly fee to play.

• Shooters
  • Combat Arms: Nexon is a very reputable company that has a big list of free to play games, and one of their finest is Combat Arms, an online first person shooter similar to a Battlefield or Medal of Honor. This game is free to download and start an account, and there are no fees whatsoever. Like other Nexon games, there is a micro-transaction system where you can purchase, for a fee comparable to a song download, upgrades like weapon add-ons or new armor. I have also seen Nexon’s NX Cards at places like Wal-Mart and Bestbuy starting at $10 denominations that would be a great stocking stuffer or birthday card insert. To put your mind at ease though, not having upgrades won’t really affect the game play for you. As you play, you can collect points for upgrades without the need to shell out any cash, but it just might take a few days longer.
• Massive Multiplayer Online Games
  • Guild Wars: Of course anyone who knows me, knows that I am big Guild Wars junkie in a very bad way. This is an MMORPG somewhat similar (but way cooler) to World of Warcraft with one really big difference. After you pay for the initial game (which the GOTY edition is only $19.99 everywhere it is sold), you can play as long as you want, whenever you want, without worrying about your wallet getting hit even if you haven’t logged on in a few weeks. This is great for casual gamers who actually go outside every once and a while to get some fresh air. There are three flavors of the game spanning different genres that are all stand alone, as well as one expansion pack that will lock on to any of the three full releases.P.S. If you choose this one, let me know so we can play together.
  • FreeMMORPGList.com: www.FreeMMORPGList.com has a great inventory of all of the free to play MMO’s out there right now. I have actually played a few of these, such as Rappelz and Cabal Online and although impressed with the graphics and gameplay, I can’t find myself able to ditch the aforementioned game up there. If even a small initial start up fee is too much for you, start at this list and see what they have to offer. Some of these games really are top notch contenders in this category.
• The Rest
  • The Nethernet: This one of a kind game is a Passive Multiplayer Online Game (PMOG as it was called by it’s original name) that comes in the form of a toolbar for Mozilla Firefox. Once you create your free account and download the toolbar, you start “Leveling Up” by taking missions that lead you through a series of player created website lists. Taking certain missions will lead your profile into certain player types which can give you special tools such as landmines that other players might trip upon loading a webpage you plant it on. As the name implies, it is very passive and you can play it as you browse the net as you usually would.
  • Addicting Games: For a good time killer or a way to keep the youngsters ammused for an hour or two, head on over to this site for thousands of different games you can play. Offerings range from Arcade, Sports, and Puzzle games. You can even find old favorites like Max Dirt Bike (think Excite Bike for NES) and a variant on Hangman called Civil. Be warned, it isn’t called Addicting Games for nothing.

I hope that points you in the right direction for finding a good game, and as with anything else we post here, If you have a question just shoot us an email. We are fairly resourceful and can probably help you find what you really need in no time at all.