RF Online

RF Online, originally named 'Rising Force', (Korean: 라이징 포스) is a 3D MMORPG developed by CCR and set on another planet, called Novus, After the End.

The first version of the game was released in South Korea and was later followed by Chinese (Mandarin), Japanese, Portuguese and English translations. The North American/European version of the game launched its retail phase on February 21, 2006 and closed on November 10, 2008. RFO is currently a free to play game.

Unlike other MMORPGs, this one is actually focused on PVP against other races: Empire Accretia (Empire of Cyborgs), Holy Alliance of Cora (Theocratic Elves), and the Bellato Federation (A Federate Union of short people). It has four starter classes (Accretia only gets three, as they are no longer capable of magic), with each class having at least 2 class-ups. There are so called "chip wars" every day where you can fight to the death to destroy the other races' chips and get mining rights, which bolster your nation's economy. Each week, people also get to vote for their Patriarch, a sort of leader for their faction, who command the forces of their race in chip wars and handle some diplomacy.

RF online provides exampes of:

 * Allegedly Free Game
 * An Adventurer Is You
 * Arbitrary Gun Power - You can get more powerful guns as you level up. If you have the cash.
 * Black and White Magic -Corites have dark/Summoning magic. Bellateans have light magic.
 * Black Mesa Commute - If you're going to Ether, you have to get on a flight. You can move around but it takes five minutes before you can get off.
 * Boring but Practical - Mining
 * Bribing Your Way to Victory
 * Character Customization
 * Character Level / Stat Grinding - Levels for maximum HP/SP/DP and attribute level, and stat grinding for the attributes themselves: Melee - strength, getting hit - defense, blocking hits - shield, etc...
 * You can only get skillups from monsters that aren't too low-level. But they also only gain points on successful use. If you neglect any particular stat for too long, your chance of success against the lowest-level monster that can still give skillups is less than 0.01%.
 * Collection Sidequest - LOTS
 * Competitive Balance - Each class has an edge over another. And each RACE has an edge over the other two.
 * Negated entirely by how many people you're fighting or how overleveled one side is compared to the other. 1v1 between players of similar levels is basically a lost cause for both parties because neither side can output enough damage to bypass how quickly auto-potion will heal them. Don't expect to just outlast their potion stock either -- this is a game where carrying only hundreds of potions is considered poor planning.
 * Any given server would have a seriously lopsided amount of Bellato Armor Riders. Armor Riders can pilot semi - Humongous Mecha into battle called Maus. A fully upgraded MAU's power is comparable to that of a melee class equipped with +4 gear (there are 6 levels of upgrade) but getting the funds and experience to ride one of these things is theoretically long and hard. Unfortunately the developers overlooked the fact that this method is still far easier than trying to get a full set of +4 equips, since the odds of that happening are woefully low if you're trying to do it the intended way. Plus, you get to pilot a HUMONGOUS MECHA!
 * Any server that tries to balance the aforementioned MAU incident by giving people +4 gear for free results in the server being overrun by Accretian Strikers, who excel at dealing maximum damage with their now-not-so-rare +4 rocket launchers. Combined with a Siege Kit and any Accretian Striker can out-range and out-dps most other classes.
 * Critical Hit
 * Death Is a Slap on The Wrist
 * Dude, Where's My Respect? - Justified, you're a soldier of the [insert race government here]. The service is probably compulsory.
 * Easing Into the Adventure - Tutorials and the first few quests are for this purpose.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors - Monsters have elements indicated below their name. This troper has 1 inventory space dedicated to all elemental bullets, just in case.
 * Enemy Detecting Radar - Red for monsters, purple means other races.
 * Exclusive Enemy Equipment - You can only equip armour and weapons designed for your race.
 * Fighter, Mage, Thief - Warrior, Ranger, Mage (Except Accretians), Specialist (Unique abilities to each faction)
 * Fire, Ice, Lightning - Mages, of course.
 * Hit Points
 * Inventory Management Puzzle - Although, you can purchase 4 more additional "bags".
 * Item Crafting
 * Jiggle Physics - Restricted to female Corites. Bellateans are all flat-chested, and Accretians are robots.
 * Job System
 * Level Grinding - Before you start killing members of the other factions, you need to kill monsters for a long while.
 * And because the game encourages you to buy potions by the hundreds and has an auto-use option, this basically amounts to setting yourself on any high-level enemy that won't two-shot you, dragging it far enough away to not attract others, and getting a sandwich.
 * Or if you're grinding defensive abilities, standard practice is using shield and go to an area with aggressive monsters and SIT FUCKING DOWN THERE.
 * This even goes into the game of things. If you want money, grab a turret, deploy it in an arena of aggros, lay a CD case down on your "Collect" button and go to bed. In the morning your inventory should be chocked full of Vendor Trash. If you just want upgrading minerals, the game actually EXPECTS you to stand there for 4-6 hours.
 * Your penalty for death is loosing anywhere between 2 and 10% of experience. Not so much in the early game where a simple Flan can give you three times that much, but heinously evil lategame, where getting 0.5% from the strongest monster is exceedingly high. Needless to say, large amount of the game is devoted to level grinding.
 * Mana Meter
 * Ninja Looting - Doing this gets you killed. And not by the enemy.
 * Peninsula of Power Leveling
 * Player Party - Party limit is at 8
 * Player Versus Player - The raison d’etre of the game, even though you have to wade through oceans of level grinding to reach it.
 * Arguably this is what makes high rate servers of RF much more appealing than high rate servers of other games, as there's very little sidestory for completing quests and much more motivation to not-suck during the Chip Wars.
 * Each Race can elect an "Archon" to lead them each week, who gains an aura that buffs stats of him and those around him. The runner ups are also promoted to his "council", receiving similar buffs. To even be eligible for Archon-ship requires you to be in the top 6 in terms of PVP points, which slowly drops as you stop killing others.
 * Prestige Class
 * Real Money Trade - Like many other MMOs, getting caught could mean getting banned, yet it still goes on...
 * Reduced Mana Cost
 * Respawning Enemies
 * Run, Don't Walk
 * Scenery Porn - Regardless of your opinion of the game's execution, it's very pretty to look at.
 * Unwinnable By Mistake - See Character Level. If you neglected a stat long enough, your chance of successfully getting points for it drops morbidly low, and you require a lot of points to skill it up once.