Online games: What makes and breaks them

For a couple of years now, online games (web browser games and otherwise) have been evolving into a social community activity. First person shooters normally don't develop much of a community, expect for new mods, maps, graphics packs, etc. Role-playing games that tend to take several months to play normally end up with IRC channels, forums and of course in-game interaction with other players. Normally the players can also group together and form Clans, Alliances, Parties, Cults, etc., depending on the game type.

What does get highly annoying with the browser based games is when the game is full of bugs and incomplete sections, but then the developer focuses on stuffing every frame (frames based games) full of adverts which cause errors and annoyances. I have played an online browser based game since February 2005, the round is getting closer to finishing (6 to 12 months usually), and the game is now in Beta 5. The greatest annoyance is the fact that now ads pop up inside the main frame, and since they get clipped off, there is no way to reach the close button on the right. The advert for the premium account to remove the ads and get extra features is always present, but that is only available for two countries in Europe, while I am in South Africa.