Freebies: Free Online Game Awards

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Freebies

Since free online gaming continues to grow by leaps and bounds with more quality games all the time, GameOgre.com has decided to have special set of awards just for free games. Unlike our annual Online Game Awards where the staff chooses most of the awards, the Freebies will be chosen entirely by members of the Online Games Review Directory. Voting will last for 6 weeks total. Instead of having a one week elimination format like the MMORPG Showdown, nominated games will compete against each other every week for 5 weeks. In order to win for the week, a game must have a higher score than all the other games in the category. A tie will count as a 1/2 win. The games with the most winning weeks in each category will be the winners for those awards. At the end of the 5 weeks, the winners will compete in the final 3 categories.

Each week will start and end on Friday night at 11:59 PM Central.

Members may can vote on all games in each category but can only vote on each game once per week. To keep from hurting the regular review directory, all scores will be recorded for voting purposes but reviews with no explanation and multiple reviews by the same member can still be removed.

Any award winner here will automatically be a nominee for the 2007 Online Game Awards in at least one category.

Here are the categories and the current nominees for each category.

Best Free Online Strategy Game

Although this category lacks the blockbuster game that most of other categories have, the games up for nomination here have all received solid reviews and ratings.

Nominee: Pardus
GameOgre.com's 2005 Best Free Online RPG.

Nominee: Starport: Galactic Empires
Highly rated in the Review Directory.

Nominee: OGame
Popular online strategy game that just launched in 2007.

Nominee: WarOnline.net
Uses an interactive graphical map.

Nominee: BattleMaster
A former number one on the Top Ten list.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - OGame
Week 2 - OGame
Week 3 - Pardus
Week 4 - Pardus
Week 5 - Pardus
Category Winner: Pardus

Best Free Online Shooter

A wide variety of games with a large range in terms of graphics and production value between a free version of commercial success with FEAR Combat and a more basic game like Soldat.

Nominee: Soldier Front
Offers three different modes: Single Battle, Team Battle, and Clan Battle.

Nominee: War Rock
War Rock was GameOgre.com's choice for Online Shooter of 2006 and is currently ranked in the Top Ten of all games in the Review Directory.

Nominee: Alien Arena
Been around for a number of years. The latest version is Alien Arena 2007.

Nominee: FEAR Combat
Free multiplayer version of very popular FPS game.

Nominee: America's Army
Free multiplayer shooter from the U.S. Amy.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - FEAR Combat
Week 2 - War Rock
Week 3 - War Rock
Week 4 - Soldier Front
Week 5 - America's Army
Category Winner: War Rock

Best Free Virtual World

With the huge successes of Second Life and Entropia Universe, Virtual Worlds continue to grow in popularity and have extended to niches such as kids games and virtual pets.

Nominee: Second Life
One of the the largest and most controversial virtual worlds.

Nominee: Neopets
Huge virtual world with a pet theme.

Nominee: Furcadia
Social game where players are animals. This game has been around for several years.

Nominee: Club Penguin
Virtual world design specifically for kids.

Nominee: Entropia Universe
Virtual Universe with a real cash economy.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Neopets
Week 2 - Furcadia
Week 3 - Second Life
Week 4 - Club Penguin
Week 5 - Club Penguin
Category Winner: Club Penguin

Best Free Sports Game

Quite possibly the category with the most future potential since it has not been fully explored yet.

Nominee: Albatross 18
Combination of a MMO and a Golf game. Won the 2006 award for Best Fantasy Sports game.

Nominee: Shot Online
More of a golf sim than Albatross.

Nominee: Horse Isle
Train horses and compete against other players.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Horse Isle
Week 2 - Horse Isle
Week 3 - Albatross 18
Week 4 - Albatross 18
Week 5 - Albatross 18
Category Winner: Albatross 18

Best Free Kids Game

Whether it is an MMO or a virtual world, kids need to be enable to enjoy online gaming in a safe environment as possible.

Nominee: Club Penguin
Virtual world design specifically for kids.

Nominee: Disney's Virtual Magic Kingdom
Virtual world design specifically for kids.

Nominee: Toontown
Disney's MMORPG for kids.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Club Penguin
Week 2 - Club Penguin
Week 3 - Toontown
Week 4 - Club Penguin
Category Winner: Club Penguin

Best Free Browser RPG

Although not easy on the eyes like 3D games, these games usually often offer a uniqueness that can not be found in their larger counterparts. In a very close category where every game won at least one week, Renaissance Kingdoms won the category on a strong final week.

Nominee: HoboWars
Text-based game with a sense of humor.

Nominee: Kingdom of Loathing
Full of satire and practical jokes.

Nominee: Renaissance Kingdoms
Politics in the Middle Ages.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Kingdom of Loathing
Week 2 - Renaissance Kingdoms
Week 3 - 3-way tie
Week 4 - Hobo Wars
Week 5 - Renaissance Kingdoms
Category Winner: Renaissance Kingdoms

Best Free Action Game

Although it consists mostly of robot type games, the action genre in free online gaming continues to gain steam. Bots wrapped this category in just 3 weeks.

Nominee: Bots
Free action game by Acclaim that has advertisements in-game.

Nominee: B.O.T.S.
Been around years before the Acclaim game.

Nominee: Robot Rage
Build robots and then battle them in order to get upgrades.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Bots
Week 2 - Bots
Week 3 - Bots
Category Winner: Bots

Best Free Fantasy MMO

One of the toughest categories besides the final three. Both RuneScape and Maple Story have won the Free MMORPG category in GameOgre/com's annual Online Game Awards.

Nominee: Silkroad Online
Combination of ancient Chinese, Islam and European civilizations with fantasy thrown in.

Nominee: RuneScape
One of the largest free MMORPGs in the world.

Nominee: Rappelz
Some of the best graphics of any free game.

Nominee: FlyFF
Dominated the top 10 list at one time for a few months.

Nominee: Maple Story
Winner of Best Free MMORPG in 2006. Innovative due to its console game theme.

Nominee: Supreme Destiny
Like FlyFF, was once a dominate game on the top 10 list due primarily to its graphics.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Maple Story
Week 2 - Silkroad Online
Week 3 - Tie between FlyFF and Supreme Destiny
Week 4 - Supreme Destiny
Week 5 - FlyFF
Tiebreaker: FlyFF
Category Winner: FlyFF

Best Free Martial Arts MMO

With the huge popularity of MMOs in Asia, it should come as no surprise that this sub genre is getting quite crowded.

Nominee: Martial Heroes
Uses a combo system where players can combine skills with one button.

Nominee: 9 Dragons
Operated by Acclaim. Players learn different martial arts techniques.

Nominee: Hero Online
The game's storyline was written by a martial arts novelist.

Nominee: Conquer Online
Combination of Chinese Kung Fu and magic in an anime-style world.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - 9 Dragons
Week 2 - Conquer Online
Week 3 - 9 Dragons
Week 4 - Hero Online
Week 5 - Conquer Online
Tiebreaker: 9 Dragons
Category Winner: 9 Dragons

Best Free Pirate MMO

Like Martial arts MMOS, Pirate-themed MMOs continue to roll out.

Nominee: Voyage Century
Focuses more on ships than pirates.

Nominee: Puzzle Pirates
The name says it all. Puzzles drive this game instead of bloodthirsty combat.

Nominee: Pirate King Online
Players can get involved in the expansion and development of islands.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Puzzle Pirates
Week 2 - Voyage Century
Week 3 - Puzzle Pirates
Week 4 - Pirate King Online
Week 5 - Puzzle Pirates
Category Winner: Puzzle Pirates

Best Free MUD

Primarily for hardcore gamers looking deep roleplaying experiences, MUDs should be viewed as the golden oldies of free online gaming. These games are purely text based so no screenshots are provided.

Nominee: Wheel of Time MUD
Based on Robert Jordan's epic fantasy novels.

Nominee: Achaea
Very popular MUD that has been around since 1997.

Nominee: Realms of Despair
One of the very first games on GameOgre.com.

Nominee: Multi Users in Middle Earth
Based on J.R.R.R. Tolkien's Middle Earth.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Multi Users in Middle Earth
Week 2 - Achaea
Week 3 - Multi Users in Middle Earth
Week 4 - 4-way tie
Week 5 - Achaea
Tiebreaker - Achaea
Category Winner: Achaea

Best Graphics in a Free MMO

Although great graphics do not always translate into a great game, they do help to attract gamers. Supreme Destiny in 4 weeks despite Rappelz being nominated.

Nominee: Knight Online

Nominee: Rappelz
Some of the best graphics of any free game.

Nominee: Supreme Destiny
Once a dominate game on the top 10 list due primarily to its graphics.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Rappelz
Week 2 - Supreme Destiny
Week 3 - Supreme Destiny
Week 4 - Supreme Destiny
Category Winner: Supreme Destiny

Best PvP in a Free MMO

PvP is one of the hardest aspects to get right in an MMO due to balance and interface issues. This is also a feature that players complain about unless it is perfect (which none are). The games listed below focus deeply on PvP and allow it to drive the game.

Nominee: Shadowbane
Former pay-to-play game where players have a major impact on the game's world.

Nominee: Archlord
Another former pay-to-play game. One players gets to rule the entire game world.

Nominee: Corum
Guilds can control siege dungeons and can train guardians to help protect those instances.

Weekly Winners:
Week 1 - Corum
Week 2 - Corum
Week 3 - Shadowbane
Week 4 - Corum
Category Winner: Corum

Best Retail Game With Free Online Play

Free online play in major retail games began with FPS games like Doom and Quake. Diablo made free online play via a retail game more mainstream with Battle.net and now Guild Wars took it into the MMO realm. Very tough category with some of the greatest PC games ever. However, Guild Wars took the category home after winning 3 weeks in a row.

Nominee: Guild Wars
Winner of the MMORPG Showdown and GameOgre.com's Online Game of the Year for 2006.