NCsoft North America has launched Dungeon Runners, the first in a series of free MMO titles from the developer. Players also have the option to upgrade to a membership level, but this one will cost them some $4.99 per month. However, the paid level features extra storage for items, log-in queue priority and "access to the most powerful items, weapons and armor," as Ncsoft points out.

Dungeon Runners lead programmer Stephen Nichols said that "Regardless if a player pays to be a member or plays for free, Dungeon Runners will deliver more than 200 hours of game play and a continually growing number of missions and quests. The game is also designed to appeal to gamers who have limited time to give to a game, but it will have the content to keep players adventuring for hours at a time," NextGeneration posts.

Other free-to-play/download games are in the works over at Ncsoft include Xsteel, (NCsoft's Korean offices are now working on this one). However, "The development for that is going very slowly," said NCsoft PR rep Mike Crouch in a phone interview, referring to Xsteel, due to the transoceanic nature of the game's development. Still, the game is on the way, the developer assures.

Currently, some free NCsoft MMO games are also under wraps: "[The free-to-play/download] model is one that we're looking at seriously for a catalog of games," says one of the company's officials adding that "So far, the response to Dungeon Runners has been excellent, so we're happy with it so far."

The developer's mature attitude towards charging for additional content has brought the Guild Wars franchise quite a name on the gaming market. The game (also a MMO) requires no monthly fee, but as Ncsoft has to make a profit somehow, they have been releasing new standalone Guild Wars additions every six months.

Keep in mind that Guild Wars 2 is on the way, as NC soft recently announced, and of course, this one won't have any monthly subscription whatsoever. It's nice to know that you can play the same ol' MMO game for as long as you want, without having to pay a dime, isn't it?

Be sure to check out Dungeon Runners for yourself. What the heck, for all we know, it could be a better version of WoW, or just a bad replica of Dark Age of Camelot; either way, it's FREE!