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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.
Nominee: Diablo
2
Still an online gaming favorite.
Nominee: Sacred
Best retail online RPG since Diablo 2.
Nominee: Battlefield
1942
Added realism to the genre and was
designed specifically for online play.
Nominee: Half-Life
2
One of the most popular shooters ever with
countless mods and spin-offs.
Nominee: Neverwinter
Nights
Average RPG that became an all-time
classic due to player-made modules.
Nominee: Unreal
Tournament 2004
Turned the shooting genre into a
futuristic sport.
Nominee: StarCraft
One of the best RTS games ever.
Weekly
Winners:
Week 1 - Tie between StarCraft and Diablo 2
Week 2 - Guild Wars
Week 3 - Guild Wars
Week 4 - Guild Wars
Category Winner: Guild Wars
Best Free Text
Game
This category
will only consist of winners in text-based
categories.
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free Online Strategy Game = Pardus
Nominee: Winner
of Best Browser RPG = Renaissance Kingdoms
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free MUD = Achaea
Category
Winner: Renaissance Kingdoms
Best Free
MMORPG
Nominee: Winner
of Best Fantasy MMO = FlyFF
Nominee: Winner
of Best Graphics
in a Free MMO = Supreme Destiny
Nominee: Winner
of Best Martial Arts MMO = 9 Dragons
Nominee: Winner
of Best Pirate MMO = Puzzle Pirates
Nominee: Winner
of Best PvP in a Free MMO = Corum
Category
Winner: FlyFF
Best Free
Online Game
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free Text Game = Renaissance Kingdoms
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free MMO = FlyFF
Nominee: Winner
of Best Retail Game With Free Online Play = Guild
Wars
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free Online Shooter = War Rock
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free Action Game = Bots
Nominee: Winner
of Best Free Sports Game = Albatross 18
Category
Winner: Guild Wars
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