Companionship is a vital part of any virtual world and there’s no better way to foster that sense of cooperation than letting players either start off with or rapidly acquire a pet. Pets have been linked with MMORPGs since the beginning and are especially popular among games aimed at a younger audience. These pets have their own experience meters and can level up, learn new abilities, and change over time. In GhostX, these pets transform into the player’s weapon, and in Grand Fantasia they help the player gather loot and rummage for goods. During character creation, players not only customize their pet’s appearance but also name them. GhostX and Grand Fantasia are two games currently in open beta with totally different art styles and themes but both make use of the pet system I just described. More recent F2P MMORPG releases use pets as permanent but mainly non-combat related companions. Not only can players feed and battle their neopets but they can even buy it books to improve its intelligence or paint various colors using special (and often expensive) brushes. The oldest of these is probably Neopets which is still around today and still attracting a huge audience. Many browser based games are built around the sole concept of virtual pet ownership. Players often form a special bond with their virtual pets. In NosTale, all players are accompanied by powerful pets which can level up and acquire new skills. Games like Ragnarok Online (which now has an official f2p server) allow players to catch almost any creature as a pet. Today, the most exciting experimentation with pet features is happening in the free to play MMORPG market. WoW broke the mold a little by allowing all players to own non-combat related pets but limiting the really powerful ones to certain classes like the Hunter.

Classes like EQ’s beastmaster or DAoC’s Necromancer were almost entirely reliant on summoned pets. In the next wave of games including Everquest and Dark Age of Camelot, it was only certain classes that had access to pets. Ultima Online had several skills dedicated to the catching and maintenance of pets it even allowed players to tame dragons for use in combat. Pets have played an important role in MMORPGs since the genre’s inception.

Eso non combat pets free