Linux gaming, part four: massive multiplayer online games
June 26th, 2007 | Games, Linux by thMassive Multiplayer Online Games are hugely popular nowadays, especially thanks to the World of Warcraft which brought online gaming to the mainstream. So what’s the state of online games on Linux?
Linux has many high-quality online games available which players unfortunately may not be aware of. Some are commercial, some are surprisingly professional open source projects, and even some very popular online games from the Windows world run on Linux through emulation. Here is a review of ten online games that run on Linux. Feel free to drop your suggestions to the comments.
A Tale in the Desert 3
Although many online games focus on, in a way or another, killing things, A Tale in the Desert 3 is an exception as the game has no combat system. The focus of the game is on economic development and social communications. The player base is relatively small, consisting only of a few thousand players and the players are fairly dedicated to the game. The game runs well even with older computer, as it requires only minimum of 700Mhz processor and Geforce MX or Radeon 9600 graphics card. The game costs 13.95 USD a month after first 24 hours of play. Client for the game is available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows, and can be downloaded from the A Tale in the Desert homepage.
A Tale in the Desert 3
Crossfire
Crossfire is an open source, cooperative multiplayer graphical RPG and adventure game. Since its initial release, Crossfire has grown to encompass over 150 monsters, about 3000 maps to explore, an elaborate magic system, 13 races, 15 character classes, a system of skills, and many artifacts and treasures. Crossfire has a long development history, the development started in 1992 as as university project. Although the game lacks fancy graphics, it has a magical appeal for old-school gamers and is a good example that games don’t need good graphics to be fun.
Screenshot of Crossfire client
Eternal Lands
Eternal Lands is a free online game with decent graphics and a lot of potential. The game has clients for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X and it also compiles on FreeBSD. It is also very friendly for older computers, as it requires only 450Mhz processor and OpenGL supporting graphics card. Although Eternal Lands is still work in progress, there are a lot of things to do - You can fight monsters, other players, form parties to slash enemies together with other players, mine minerals, build armors and weapons, create potions, summon animals to aid you in combat, role-play with your friends and a lot more.
Screenshots of Eternal Lands
Dofus
Dofus as an online game with fun graphics and a huge player community, it has over three million players. The website of the game says it’s half-way between a tactical video game and an interactive cartoon. Dofus has 12 different classes and the choice of class determines which spells your character will receive. The game is free, and has clients for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X.
Screenshots of Dofus
Daimonin
Daimonin is a free open source ‘mmorpg’ which is based on Crossfire (mentioned above) but the game has a different setting, background music and good-looking isometric graphics. Daimonin is free to play and the source code is available under the GPL license.
Screenshots of Daimonin
Guild Wars
Although Guild Wars is not a native Linux game, it’s hugely popular and runs smoothly under Cedega and Wine. So if you’re moving from Windows and have worries about Guild Wars, worry not, it runs just fine. Unlike many commercial online games, Guild Wars does not have monthly fee to play, you pay only for the game once. Guild Wars is story-based, which means the game actually ends at some point and the equipment and experience in the game have very little meaning after you have reached level 20. More screenshots here, Wikipedia information and the official homepage.
Screenshots of Guild Wars
Planeshift
Planeshift is simply a gorgeous open source game which uses the well-known Crystal Space 3D engine. PlaneShift is also the first 3D MMORPG to be completely free for players. The player will start his journey in Yliakum, a big underground city with different races, factions, guilds, adventures, and many unexplored places. Since the game is free, download it and give it a try!
Screenshots of Planeshift
The Mana World
The Mana World is an open source 2D online game with cute graphics. Although the project is still in version as small as 0.0.23, it looks very promising. If you’re looking for an alternative online game for all those 3D-hack’n’slashes, The Mana World might be the game for you.
Screenshots of The Mana World
Vendetta Online
Vendetta Online is a MMORPG (massive multiplayer online role-playing game) from Guild Software Inc. The game has been in development since 1998 and is evolving all the time. Vendetta is a commercial game with monthly fee to play and it’s available for Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. It has nice graphics and is a good alternative for Eve Online on Linux.
World Of Warcraft
There is no native version of World Of Warcraft for Linux, but the game runs on Linux quite well with Cedega and Wine (tutorial). Although the players should support native Linux games, being able to play existing games is important for many Windows converts, especially with games as popular as World of Warcraft.
Read also other parts of this article:
- Linux gaming, part one: first person shooters
- Linux gaming, part two: strategy games
- Linux gaming, part three: strategy games (continued)
- Linux gaming, part four: massive multiplayer online games
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[…] Linux gaming, part four: massive multiplayer online games […]
[…] Part Four of the series. […]
As an avid Dofus player, I feel the need to correct you on a technicality. There is no Linux or Mac OS “client” for Dofus; it is a flash-based game and therefore runs by default in a browser on both of these platforms.
Mac users have the option of installing a standalone Flash player in which they can play Dofus (and other flash games), but the standalone flash player for Linux is extremely buggy and at my last attempt would not run Dofus properly (alas Flash in Linux is still not as well supported as many of us would like).
However, the Windows client program (basically a Flash projector compiled in with the game) runs beautifully under Wine (I’ve never used Cedega so not sure there).
Vendetta Online looks interesting (checking it out right now) but EVE Online runs on Linux just fine under Wine. From the way you said it, it sounded like EVE didn’t work properly. There’s a bit of set up involved, check the forums for a guide, but it runs like a champ.
Hey, I can create A list..
Maybe you should try getting some answers from devel teams about those few selected hot open source games out there.I think we’ll find future of gaming industry there too 
[…] part IV is up - Nice coverage of gaming in […]
Wurm Online is another good MMORPG that works on Linux (or any other platform that runs Java). It’s free for trial accounts or €5 a month for a paid one. Check it out here http://wurmonline.com
Hey, thanks for posting this. You are seriously tempting me to partition my HDD, anyone know if the Ubuntu graphics drivers from nvidia dont cause crashing on the EVGA Nvidia 8800 GTS anymore?
Hey,
what type of machines are you running, i always found that in ubuntu the games always were slow. Is it my machine.
Thanks
Amd athlon 3200 ect…
nvidia gforce 6600gt something like this 512 mb
1gb ram etc
I know its getting old but is it time to move on.
Well, I have pretty much the same, Athlon64 3400 with Geforce 6600 and 1gb of ram, and it runs all games mentioned in these articles just fine.
A very useful guide to linux gaming. Thanx
th on July 3rd, 2007
Well, I have pretty much the same, Athlon64 3400 with Geforce 6600 and 1gb of ram, and it runs all games mentioned in these articles just fine.
Thanks for the reply, will try again to play games.
Quite a useful guide, especially the one on FPS.
I play Guild Wars under Linux using regular Wine - only thing not working is combat sounds. One thing to note is that the Guild Wars game only really starts when you reach max level 20 and finish the storyline. Although the story may end, there is still tons of stuff left to do in PvE and the huge world of PvP to explore. The game definitely does not end.
You have written another great article, but you forgot an important game here:
Regnum Online
http://www.regnumonline.com.ar/index.php?l=1
Although it’s not an opensource game, the team behind it made a Linux client(in beta though)
You should add it to your list
[…] Linux gaming, part four: massive multiplayer online games […]
well Dofus isnt really free, it just got some trial account, here: http://community.dofus.com/mmorpg/pay.html you got full list that have full members. Great Artciles anyway, keep up good work!
Is there a part 5 coming about normal non-online RPG’s?
Part 5 will be Action & Arcade
[…] of posts that contain great information about gaming on Linux, and the one I am referring to is their post on MMO’s. They have games on there that I have never heard of before that look like they could be very fun. […]
I play WoW on FC6 via WINE regularly, and it runs so much better than on Windows.. On Windows I generally can’t have any other programs running when I play, but on Linux I’ve had a whole list of apps running whilst playing.
Bang-Howdy
Is an interesting fast-paced turn based strategy game in Java.
I can play it on Linux and even in a browser (but at slow connection, it is better to download the desktop client).
http://www.banghowdy.com/
It is commercial but you can play for free and pay for improvements and add-ons if you want them.
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I don’t have any problem with flash on my system. I usually turn it off, it’s really buggy that way. It used to crash my system when I used windoze, not to mention being a portal for all kinds of malware and annoyances.
you should check out top class games at http://rangit.com/software/top-8-linux-games-of-2007/
im really intrested in two games of yours, enternal lands and planeshift they seem very… entertaining and looks fun so nice job… bye.
Regnum? I played that one.. really didnt enjoy it. I used to play some free MMO’s under windows such as cabal, 9dragons… the korean grindfest ‘engrish’ translated types
They don’t play on wine because of the security guard *grrr*
i think eve online is better
the best mmorpg for linux to RP and PK is:
www.abandonedrealms.com
used with the open source tintin++ Client.