Ashen Empires is a classic massively multiplayer online fantasy role-playing game. As a player, you'll create a character from one of three fantasy races and explore a sandbox world. Trading and crafting are crucial to gameplay. First released in 2003, this is a classic game with simple graphics and some unusual challenges.

A game from an earlier era

If you've played a lot of modern MMOs, the simple graphics and slightly opaque gameplay of Ashen Empires may be a little confusing. For instance, the game doesn't include a quest tracker; when you receive a quest in game, you'll need to jot down a note of its objectives or risk forgetting it. Lovers of classic RPGs may recognise many elements of the Ultimate games here. The open-world gameplay focuses a lot on trading -- including trading with other players -- and gathering resources to get what you need; the result is a game that rewards patience and careful attention to detail rather than charging in and bashing in heads. The graphics are obviously dated, and they certainly don't hold up compared to modern games, but they're clear enough that you can get the information you need, especially if you enlarge the window and move UI elements into the black border.

Get fighting and trading

If you don't mind dated graphics and doing some record-keeping yourself, Ashen Empires is a classic that holds up well.