World of Warcraft is available for Mac systems running from OS X 10.12 and Windows 7 64-bit or newer. Is there a better alternative? Yes, WoW has started to show it’s age. Newer titles, like The Elder Scrolls Online or Final Fantasy Online, offer updated graphics. Both of them have their own strengths.

Can we even talk about the genre without mentioning World of Warcraft? I don’t think so. And despite its age and increased competition, it’s still our favorite and, we think, the best Mac MMORPG.

The most successful MMO ever created, at one point WoW had over 12 Million subscribers, more than all its competitors combined. To be fair, WoW’s subscribers are decreasing, but there are still plenty of players around and 2016’s and the upcoming Battle for Azeroth expansions indicate Blizzard’s continued support of and belief in the franchise. Everything in WoW works great. The missions are fun, the dungeons are rewarding (yet, accessible) and the raids are hardcore as ever. The Player versus Player (PvP) is equally good, and there are professions, crafting, and countless other things to do. Leveling up and getting better gear will become your obsession.

WarCraft: Orcs & Humans (aka WC1, WarCraft I) is a video game published in 1994 on DOS by Blizzard Entertainment Inc. It's a strategy game, set in a fantasy, real-time, rts and war themes, and was also released on Mac.

And with the expansion, WoW is set to become the best Mac MMORPG 2018 will deliver. Real Pricing: WoW offers a free trial that goes to level 20 but if you want to play this seriously, the game costs $49.99 up-front (including the all the expansions) and requires $14.99 per month. For a long time, Guild of Wars 2 was the only MMO that could compete with World of Warcraft. The Elder Scrolls and Final Fantasy 14 changed that, but Guild Wars 2 is still one of the top choices. What I love the most about Guild Wars 2 is that it does everything it can to limit the “ grinding” (you’ll hear a lot about grinding in this article). You know, killing 500 Level 1 rats to level up.

Instead, Guild Wars 2 focuses on group events and worldwide stories to advance. The other thing that sets Guild Wars 2 apart is the fact that it doesn’t require a monthly subscription. This is a true World of Warcraft competitor that doesn’t ask for more money every month. This was already a big deal, but did even better. The core game is now free, though expansions are not. An MMO that can go up against WoW but is free?

That makes Guild Wars 2 our runner-up. Real Pricing: The base game is completely free; there are two paid expansions available which you can get for $49.99 but you won’t ever have to pay a monthly subscription. A cross-platform open-world MMORPG, Elder Scrolls Online (ESO) is the only way for Mac gamers to get into the Elder Scrolls universe. And while there were various criticisms leveled at the game when it was first released, updates and fixes have firmly established it as one of the best MMORPG games for Mac around. Set in the same universe but at an earlier time than previous games in the series, ESO features a wide open world that you can explore and play in as you like.

With a rich story, plenty of side quests, crafting, battles and more, ESO allows you to explore the world of Tamriel as you wish, alone or with your friends. While there are still technical issues with the game on MacOS, our experience with the game was mostly positive. Also, it is so, it was even playable on our 2012 MacBook Pro. A great-looking AAA title with a reasonable price playable on a 6-year-old MacBook Pro? That’s enough to make it our MacBook pick.

Real Pricing: The game costs $29.99 and includes the Morrowind expansion. An additional expansion is available for $49.99. There is an optional $14.99 monthly subscription available which provides access to all paid DLC, faster crafting, increased experience, and more. Developed and published by, Lord of the Rings Online (LotRO) follows the story from the movies and gives you full access to almost everything it has to offer for free. The only differences with the paid version are the 2 character slots (as opposed to 5), the fact you cannot send money through the in-game system and the lack of destiny points (high-end points that only VIP members can use). LotRO was always a good game, and now that it’s free-to-play, the player base is finally big enough to make it great. The game features everything that you’d want from an MMORPG set in Middle Earth.

Explore the places you’ve read about like the Shire and the Mines of Moria, meet Gandalf and Strider and battles the forces of Sauron. Or play as one of his minions in Player vs.

Monster mode. However you make your way through Middle Earth, LotRO is gorgeous to look at, fun to explore and includes all your favorite MMORPG elements such as crafting, quests and of course battles. Free-to-play MMOs are a dime a dozen, but Lord of the Rings Online truly stands out. This is without hesitation the best free MMORPG for Mac. Real Pricing: The base game is really free, but there are several paid expansions offering more quests to play. There’s also a $14.99 monthly “VIP” subscription that unlocks every expansion, access to the monster class, free LoTR points and more. With the release of the, Final Fantasy 14 Online became an excellent game.

The problem was the MacOS version, which was a buggy mess when released. The performance was so terrible, Square Enix had to and offered refunds. But things have changed for the better. Updates have improved the Mac client so that we can now truly enjoy FF14. The game runs on a new engine and offers good gameplay and a great story. FF14 also features cross-platform multiplayer with Windows and PlayStation 4.

Needless to say, this is the best anime MMORPG on Mac. FF14 offers everything a fan could ask for including free switching between classes and jobs, challenging dungeons and trials, and huge battles (up to 72 players in PvP).

Plus, the game now offers a free trial which lets you play the game for free up to level 35. Not as good as some of the generous free-to-play games on this list but still helpful.

Real Pricing: A $19.99 Starter Edition lets you play up to level 50 and includes 30 days play while a $59.99 Complete edition eliminates all limits and includes all available expansions. Both include a 30-days free play period. Subscriptions are $29.99 for a 60-day card. EVE Online is a fascinating space adventure that lets you do whatever you want. You can choose from a variety of professions, including mining, manufacturing, trading, piracy, exploration, and more. Everything happens in real-time, even when you’re not logged in, which is tedious for some people but provides added realism for others.

EVE Online truly feels like a parallel universe that will go on with or without you. But the best part of EVE may be the impressive space battles. These battles can involve ships as big as entire cities and can cost literally thousands of dollars. In fact, in 2014 a, costing gamers over $300,000 in damages! Recently gone free-to-play, the game and community can be difficult to break into, and it is often the most fun when played with friends in online co-op mode.

For those with patience for both the learning curve and the in-game time, EVE is a rewarding space sim that you can try for free. Bottom line: EVE is an MMO for space combat fans. Real Pricing: Free-to-play but with limits on skills levels and ships you can acquire. A subscription eliminates those limits and opens the whole game universe. Subscriptions are $14.95/month.

Featuring cartoon graphics, Spiral Knights has a slightly different take on the MMORPG. In this free-to-play cooperative MMORPG, you and your fellow space-faring knights crash on an alien world and must explore the underground Clockworks to find a mysterious energy source and fix your ship. What this really means is you go underground to explore an ever-changing dungeon, battle enemies, and solve fairly simple puzzles. Played from a top-down third-person perspective, Spiral Knight focuses on the real-time battles, which are fought cooperatively with other knights against hordes of enemies. In between battles you train, rest, chat and more in the town of Haven on the surface. There’s also a PvP mode for when you’re tired of getting along with your other knights.

Real Pricing: The game is free-to-play, with downloadable content and in-game purchases available but not required. There are some complaints of excessive grinding if you don’t pay for Orbs to help you advance. Looking for a Minecraft-y online MMORPG on Mac? Trove’s got you covered. With a focus on cooperative multiplayer and action, Trove gives you all your classic RPG elements inside a Minecraft lookalike universe. In addition to going off on adventures on land and underground, alone or with friends in cooperative multiplayer, Trove allows you to craft anything you want and use it in the game. You also get your own house in which to craft and relax.

And if you don’t like the worlds that already exist in the game, you can even craft your own, again alone or with friends. Trove is praised for its community and gameplay, but it can suffer from server issues and some claim the grinding becomes excessive later in the game. But for those looking for a Minecraft-style experience, Trove is definitely your ticket. Real Pricing: Free-to-play with paid DLC and in-app purchases going from $2.99 to $49.99 for the biggest bundles, some complain it can become pay-to-win to get the materials you need to craft higher-end items. An open world sandbox MMO, Albion Online is set in a medieval fantasy world where player choice dominates gameplay. Using a classless system, you’re free to develop your skills in different areas and switch between roles at will.

Another nice twist is the economy, which is completely player driven. Everything available to buy and sell has been gathered or crafted by other players. You get to decide how you want to fit into that economy. Need a break from the exploring and fighting? Albion Online provides you with a private island where you can farm and build your own dream house. Along with Guilds, PvP battles and cross-platform multiplayer with Windows, Linux and even mobile (Android, iOS in beta), Albion Online has it all for those who want to create their own adventure. Real Pricing: The base game is $29.95.

There are various upgrades and DLC available but not required. A newer entry in the WWII genre formerly dominated by World War II Online, War Thunder also includes the Korean War era in its air and land combat options.

With a huge number of available planes, tanks, and even navy vessels, War Thunder offers anything your heart could desire for mid-20th-century combat. War Thunder features full-scale PvP battles, historical campaigns in PvE, a large number of solo missions, and cooperative multiplayer.

Plus it’s cross-platform on MacOS, Windows, Linux, and PS4. What else could you want in a military MMO? Well, we’ll throw in modest system requirements allowing even more of you to try it out.

Real Pricing: Free-to-play with lots of paid DLC and in-app purchases available. There are also premium accounts available starting at $7.49 for 20 days that offer extra bonuses and experience points. Savage 2 is a combination of real-time strategy, first-person shooter, and role-playing, with MOBA elements sprinkled here and there. That’s a mouthful, but it’s the best way to describe it. Savage 2 gives you the ability to change the game’s perspective so you can play it the way you want to. You can zoom out and play it like a strategy game or zoom in and play it like an FPS.

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That said, the strategy components are greatly overpowered compared to the rest. The learning curve is very high, making the tutorial next to worthless. Nonetheless, the sheer amount of fun and the fact players are more helpful than those in DOTA2 make Savage 2 a worthy alternative. Real Pricing: Free-to-play with optional Premium membership available.

An action-shooter MMORPG featuring classic 8-bit graphics, Realm of the Mad God is all about the fighting. Sure you’ll have looting and exploring to do, but that’s just to get you to the monster killing. As a character transported to the Realm of the Mad God to serve as food for his minions, your job, along with your fellow players, is to kill everything. As you battle through each realm, you’ll level up, earn Fame, and improve your arsenal.

However, the game features permadeath, where you lose (almost) all your equipment and stats when you die. Fame you have earned allows you to buy in-game items. With a focus on cooperative multiplayer fighting, Realm of the Mad God is classic 8-bit RPG fun. Real Pricing: Free-to-play with just one optional $9.99 Adventure pack including several items for your character.

An open world, choose-your-own-adventure style MMO, Runescape began life as a browser-based game but long ago graduated to its own client software. Runescape claims fame as the world’s largest and most-updated free MMORPG according to Guinness. Runescape is known for its classless system and non-linear gameplay.

You improve skills by using them, and choose how you want to play the game. With plenty of skills, quests, monsters and more, Runescape gives you everything you need to explore the world of Gielinor. Real Pricing: Free-to-play but unlocking many elements requires a $9.49 monthly subscription. Dungeons & Dragons Online was the first free MMO I ever played. What I like the most about DDO is the narrator or “dungeon master” that describes the paths and options available to you.

This makes DDO feel a lot like a tabletop game and not just a video game. By the way, DDO is based on the Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 ruleset, which is the foundation of most RPG elements within the game. When it comes to the graphics, DDO looks a lot like the Lord of the Rings Online, but that’s about the only similarity they share. The storytelling and mechanics are completely different, clearly catering to different audiences. Speaking of audience, DDO’s player base is much more forgiving than the average.

DDO is a favorite among our team here and if you like tabletop RPGs, I’m confident you will love it too. Real Pricing: Free-to-play with paid Expansions and DLC packs required to unlock some classes. Looking for an MMO with tanks instead of dungeons?

World of Tanks Blitz (WoTB), the MMO version of the popular World of Tanks, is for you. Featuring 7-vs-7 tank battles with cross-platform multiplayer (including cooperative multiplayer), WoTB is what you need when in you’re in the mood for some heavy metal.

With over 200 different real-life vehicles and 18 different battle arenas, there’s plenty of variety to keep things fresh. Despite some complaints about matchmaking, the community and what some see as a pay-to-win formula at higher levels, WoTB is still a fun, free-to-play tank fest for you and your friends. Real Pricing: Free-to-play with in-app purchases. Games Games Our take Demand Level Free games only? ✅ Not demanding Wild Terra Online A hardcore sandbox RPG, the world of Wild Terra Online is created completely by the players. As with some previous games on the list, you improve your skills by using them, learning to craft all the things you’ll need to survive.

Difficult and grindy but rewarding, Wild Terra Online allows you to create the character you want and do what you will as long as you survive. NA Metascore Not demanding No ✅ Not demanding RPG MO A retro style MMORPG, RPG MO is for fans of RuneScape and Ultima Online. Another open-world sandbox MMO, RPG MO is known for its player-made economy and being truly free-to-play.

You’ll have the usual grind, but you also get a house and pets for relaxing. And with modest system requirements, RPG MO is great for throwback fans with older and mid-range machines. NA Metascore Not demanding Yes ✅ Not demanding WAKFU Another game featuring a player-driven economy, WAKFU is also known for its beautiful anime style, its turn-based tactical combat, and its unique class system. You’ll also have the usual crafting, quests, dungeons and battles you’d expect in a MMORPG. A unique and fun anime MMO, WAKFU suffers as some others do from a small user base, making a player-built world difficult to maintain. 76 Metascore Not demanding Yes ✅ Not demanding Planetshift Planeshift is a completely free 3D MMORPG set, inside a giant stalactite attached to the roof of an even more giant cave.

Containing all the classic RPG elements, Planeshift, like several others in this list, allows you to chart your own path as you explore the world of Yliakum. NA Metascore Not demanding Yes ✅ Not demanding Ryzom Another free and open source MMORPG, though with subscriptions available, Ryzom is set in a science fiction/fantasy world and features a classless system and a world that responds to your actions. Another persistent 3D world MMO, the developers are also very open about seeking input from players to help in the game’s development. NA Metascore Not demanding Yes ✅ Not demanding Puzzle Pirates Looking for something a little more casual and less focused on RPG elements?

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Puzzle Pirates may be what you’re looking for. You’ll be a pirate progressing through the game by solving various puzzles and mini-games. Don’t be deceived by a cartoony look and some casual-looking puzzles, this isn’t a kids or mobile game. With single & multiplayer, including cooperative multiplayer, Puzzle Pirates is a different take on the MMO. 78 Metascore Not demanding Yes ✅ Not demanding Champions of Regnum This is the epitome of a Japanese grinding MMORPG. After starting out and getting to level 10 or so, the quests fade out and the only thing left to do is wait for special events like realm vs realm battles, or pay for boosts from the online store to help level-up and grab a mount for traveling speed.

The beauty of Regnum is the singular focus on PvP combat. There is no crafting, no raiding, and almost no high-level content. Learning to battle at end game (level 60+warmaster) is the key to Regnum. NA Metascore Not demanding Yes. While everyone’s top MMO list might be different, we strive to ensure that ours is at least a legitimate one for Mac gamers. To do that, we have a set of criteria we use for all of our games and lists: Native These are all native games, no Wine, Parallels or Bootcamp needed.

They all install or play natively on your machine. Performance While we strive to perform benchmarks on every game on these lists, most MMOs are free-to-play, allowing you to test their performance on your machine and know for sure if they run well. That said, we have tested the paid MMOs on our three main test machines. Keep in mind that we test all our games on Medium settings because we believe they are an acceptable compromise for testing across a wide variety of machines. By the way, if you have an older Mac, you’ll probably have a much better experience playing at lower settings than ours.

And for your reference, this is how we interpret the results: Below 20 FPS Unplayable Laggy gameplay, full of stutters and slowdowns. 20-30 FPS Borderline Can be Ok in slow paced games. Still, not optimal. 30-45 FPS Playable Acceptable for most (most gaming consoles do this). 45-60 FPS Smooth Fluid gameplay, with no perceivable stutters. 60+ FPS Very Smooth For hardcore and professional players, a luxury for most.

We usually aim for 30 FPS, because 30 FPS is enough to guarantee a smooth and fluid experience. Critical acclaim We all know how subjective reviews can be, and how games can be review-bombed by the public for reasons sometimes having nothing to do with the game itself. But we make sure we pick only games that have been positively received by both professional reviewers and average gamers. Pricing While some of the top tier MMOs do have an upfront fee, most are free-to-play. We’ve tried to be clear about the cost structures in our descriptions, including the level of free-to-play and the availability or requirement of subscriptions and DLC.

I’m very much looking forward to Ashes of Creation. It will be subscription based ($15 a month) and have absolutely no P2W (the devs literally created the game because they hated how P2W was ruining MMOs). It’ll feature Castle Sieges, Large scale PvP, Housing, Player directed city development, Caravan trading, and a lot more. It’s coming in 2019 but the alpha is starting September 2018.

They give away alpha/beta keys weekly if you sign up here: It’s already the most anticipated upcoming MMORPG. It’s gonna be fantastic.

Intel Mac mini Q&A - Revised November 4, 2009

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Is World of Warcraft (WoW) playable on the Intel Mac mini?

Please note that this Q&A was written to refer to Mac mini systems that are powered by Intel GMA 950 graphics (those released prior to the 'Early 2009' model on March 3, 2009). The 'Early 2009' and 'Late 2009' Mac mini models are powered by NVIDIA GeForce 9400M graphics and exceed the minimum requirements for World of Warcraft.

No doubt 'playable' would be defined differently by different people. As mentioned elsewhere in the Mac mini 'Core' Q&A, the Intel-based system is not really intended to be a 'hardcore' gaming system.

A MacWorldeditorial, referring to Apple's marketing of the Intel Mac mini systems as supporting 'the latest 3D games', bluntly opines that:

Frankly, that's an assertion I dispute. . . We can play semantic arguments until we're blue in the face about what 'latest 3D games' means. But it seems like a lot of our readers, judging from the forum posts made this week, have higher expectations than what our initial tests are showing as possible for this machine.

I'll be the first to tell people that if they want a gaming Mac, they're much better off looking at an Intel iMac.

The author of a BareFeatsreview, who also places a great deal of emphasis on gaming, says that:

Games are not just something people do for fun. We like them because they rigorously test the advanced graphics features like shading, reflectivity, dynamic shadowing, transparency, [and] distortion.

In my humble opinion, the [Intel] Mac mini is a poor investment unless you have a display, keyboard, and mouse you can't part with. You may pay more for the iMac 'Core Duo' 1.83 [17'], but you get a lot more -- an LCD screen, a faster CPU, a much faster and more capable GPU, a faster/bigger hard drive, easy to install memory, and an iSight camera.

Regardless, the World of Warcraft Community Website lists the minimum system requirements for the Mac version of WoW as:

• 933 MHz or higher G4, G5, or Intel processor
• 512 Megabytes RAM or higher
• ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more
• 6 Gigabytes or more of available hard drive space
• 4X CD-ROM drive
• MacOS X 10.3.9

The recommended configuration boosts the RAM to 1.0 GB or higher and the VRAM to 64 MB or higher.

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The stock configuration of Intel-based Mac mini models -- prior to the 'Early 2009' models -- have 512 MB or 1 GB of RAM, and can be upgraded to as much as 2 GB or 3 GB. The only minimum for systems prior to the 'Early 2009' models that isn't met is the 'ATI or NVIDIA video hardware with 32 MB VRAM or more' requirement, as pre-Early 2009 Mac mini systems all have an 'Intel GMA950 graphics processor with 64 MB of DDR2 SDRAM shared with main memory'.

However, the World of Warcraft website also lists the Intel GMA900 as supported video hardware, and Intel shows that the GMA950 is at least modestly faster than the GMA900.

You may wish to review the in-depth information available on the Intel website, but to summarize, the GMA900 and GMA950, respectively, are marketed as [emphasis added]:

With a powerful 333 MHz core and new DirectX 9 hardware acceleration, Intel GMA900 graphics can provide performance on par with graphics card solutions that cost significantly more.

With a powerful 400 MHz core and DirectX 9 3D hardware acceleration, Intel GMA950 graphics provides performance on par with mainstream graphics card solutions that would typically cost significantly more.

Although both statements are similar, it is worth noting that Intel uses the more conservative 'can provide' for the GMA900 and the more definite 'provides' for the GMA950. Many likely would debate the claims made when referring to either graphics processor, but it is safe to assume that if the GMA900 meets the minimum requirements, the GMA950 does as well. However, one should keep in mind that even the GMA950 lacks support for 'vertex shaders' and 'transform and lighting effects'.

When it comes to gaming, perhaps the most valuable bit of information is from those who have tried the game on their system and can provide first-hand comments. A thread on the World of Warcraft Forums discusses using the Intel Mac mini, and one person mentions that they have a long ago discontinued Mac mini 'Core Solo' 1.5 and find the performance to be acceptable:

I've mucked about with the settings a bit, and got a decent result. Typical framerates for the [Mac mini] Core Solo with just about everything turned down, with trilinear and vertex checked, are around 10-15 FPS and can go above 20 here and there. Still playing in windowed mode.

I know that I'll get better results with more RAM, and will definitely be upgrading to 2 GB as soon as I can.

Another website to visit for 'real-world' performance information about WoW on the Mac is the always excellent XLR8YourMac.

Whether or not to purchase an Intel-based Mac mini is entirely your decision. If you have budgetary constraints and reasonable expectations, you likely would be content with a Mac mini model for playing WoW. Alternately you could instead save up for an Intel-based iMac.

Also see: Will games that say an ATI Radeon or NVIDIA GeForce graphics card is required run on the Intel Mac mini systems?

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