Patheos

DISCLAIMER - I must state that I know some of the people who work for the game studio Wahoo! So yes, I know more about this game then the average Joe would. However, I do not work there and am giving my personal and honest opinions below:

Saga is currently accepting alpha testers (just got in myself). This is a Massive Multiplayer Online Real Time Strategy game. It has the lead programmer from Starcraft: Broodwars (which is what piqued my interest) and so far its pretty darn cool. Head on over to the website www.playsaga.com to sign up for alpha. They are currently adding in new players on a weekly basis.

Some of the cool features I enjoy are:
- No monthly fees (you can purchase troop packs that are like $3 to add a bunch of troops to your army, or you can just get them in game using your city resources). The way game play works, even the guy who is dirt poor and never buys a troop pack can still play against the guy who spends his whole paycheck every month.
- Persistent world - your troops gain levels, can equip better armor, weapons etc. and when they die... It actually sucks. You can resurrect them after battles, but it costs some resources.
- Online trading system - if you have too many of certain troop type or need to get some more, you can always buy/sell/trade at the marketplace. You use in game resources - not real world money.
- Guilds, guildwars, and guild spoils - join a guild to help you gain resources faster, join in massive wars and generally just have fun. I enjoy multi-player battles a lot.