I’ve played a number of MMOGs — Ultima Online, EverQuest, Anarchy Online, Asheron’s Call, Lineage II — none of them have come close to Saga of Ryzom in terms of freedom and enjoyment.

Great steps forward, above the alternatives:

• All “loot” from monsters are either crafting ingredients or quest items
  • No reason to bother “camping” mobs
• The game is heavily crafter-based, and items do not last forever.
  • People can play entirely as a crafter and still have a very rich and rewarding game experience.
• The game engine is GPL-licensed.
  • I do not like the GPL, but this is still a step forward. A “major” game available in stores based on an engine they developed under an almost-free license is pretty significant.

I’ll try to add more to this as I go, but for now I can easily recommend trying it out. Website is http://www.ryzom.com/ and they have a friendly forum there as well (It has some haters, troublemakers, but it’s still pretty good).