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MMORPG fans who couldn’t afford a WoW subscription often turned to Free2Play alternatives in the 2000s, which, although of lower quality, were free. A YouTuber has now revisited an early representative of these online role-playing games.
A time travel back to the 2000s: When World of Warcraft brought the MMORPG genre into the mainstream, many players were eager to experience this then-unusual online gaming experience, which they had no desire or ability to pay 13 euros a month to California.
This benefited various Free2Play MMORPGs. In Germany, for example, Metin2, Flyff, 4Story, and Runes of Magic were popular WoW alternatives. In other countries, players preferred RuneScape, MapleStory, Silkroad Online, or Dofus.
Often, the alternatives were distinguished not just by their Free2Play model, but also by their immense accessibility. The browser MMO Sherwood Dungeon (first released in 2002 as Sherwood Temple) was available alongside other online games on the website maidmarian.com.
Interested players could create a character without registration or account creation and start playing right away. Some students might have accessed the game during computer science classes or computer clubs. The game also has no significant entry barriers in terms of gameplay. Sherwood Dungeon is still practically a chatroom with battles.
Since Sherwood Dungeon is still live today, YouTuber Memoria thought she could check it out to find out how much gameplay is actually in the game.
You can find more about the best genre in the world on the YouTube channel of MeinMMO. A new video about the biggest MMO release of the year 2026 has just been uploaded:
Into Sherwood Dungeon
What did the YouTuber experience? Memoria summarizes exactly that in her new video in just under 35 minutes. She dives into the adventure with a skeleton wielding a sword and shield. The first surprise comes in the first few minutes: In the chat of the 24-year-old game, several – apparently French – players are chatting happily.
Sherwood Dungeon still has a small but dedicated community today. Why dedicated? Well, because Memoria is already handed various equipment pieces by other players in the starting area that will likely be very useful for the upcoming challenges.
The first shock comes in the shop. The mounts there are apparently paid for with real currency and are only available for a limited time (about 8 or 12 months). In addition to mounts, there are also cool dragon wings for the character and companions, including a minotaur with nipple piercings: “Oh, I’m interested in those nipple rings too. But I won’t be investing any money here for now.”
After that, Memoria dives into the first quests, fighting against the native spiders. The combat system is simple: You position yourself in front of an enemy and use the few abilities in the action bar as soon as they are ready.
The animations feel naturally out of date. Hit feedback is almost nonexistent. However, every level-up is rewarded with a spectacular whirlwind spin and details about the new skill release.
Quickly, Memoria finds herself in the middle of an epic questline, for which she needs to find the 6 Stones of Power, summon a dragon claw, equip a magical scepter, and defeat the villain Bane. As part of this task, she gets to know one of the core elements of the MMO: a dungeon beneath Sherwood Keep that “leads hundreds of levels deep.”
Some NPCs near the entrance provide the player with new tasks for this very dungeon. However, in the depths, not only various enemies are waiting for Memoria, but also loot chests with useful equipment.
After a few level-ups, her skeleton is not only noticeably stronger, but Memoria is also accompanied by the aforementioned minotaur and has transferred all the important key combinations of the PC MMORPG to a controller so she can comfortably play from the couch. Additionally, she has crafted her first weapon with runes and scrolls – unfortunately, it is too weak and useless.
You can watch Memoria’s video on YouTube or below:
As playtime increases, the weaknesses of Sherwood Dungeon become more apparent.
- New skills barely differ from the others.
- There is no button to sell multiple items at once. Instead, you have to click three times each time before an item reaches the vendor.
- The grind is really heavy in this MMORPG – because each region requires a minimum character level and the main story leads players halfway around the world.
- The quests all play out the same: defeat enemies or collect something from defeated enemies.
- The character progression feels meaningless since everything (enemy strength, weapon damage and skills, received gold, gold costs) scales with your character level.
However, Memoria perseveres through this old-school gaming experience and notes how important the theme of clans (aka guilds) seems to be for the community of Sherwood Dungeon:
“The fandom wiki has 58 articles on specific player-created clans – with their respective histories, wars, and political relationships they’ve had with others. Many clans have their own websites where they keep their member lists and rankings updated and list their allies and enemies.”
Numerous quests and battles later, Memoria reaches her goal and defeats Bane. As a reward, she receives the Darkblood Greatsword of Chaos. The entire fun took … just one afternoon. After that, the player dove into some of the smaller quest lines and the endgame regions.
Despite the out-of-date experience, Memoria draws a positive conclusion: “This is of course heavily influenced by nostalgia and my bias, but it had a certain charm for me. Instead of actually playing an MMO, it feels more like being in a room with an MMO theme. A bit like with toys. So little happens that you have to create your own adventure.”
How about it: Did you also play Free2Play MMOs back then because the WoW subscription was too expensive? Which online game particularly excited you in the 2000s? Feel free to tell us in the comments!
Other content creators also occasionally check out forgotten MMORPGs and have remarkable experiences there. We particularly found the trip of a YouTuber to the “There.com” servers heartwarming: YouTuber wants to revive online game with 0 players – 7.5 million people watch, including the grateful developer
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