A free crime MMORPG that runs in your browser
My Criminal Life is a free crime MMORPG with no client to download. You build one character in a city shared with other players: levels, stats, a home and a rank, with gangs and fights, all in a web page.
Sign-ups are open.
Is it really an MMORPG?
MMORPG usually means a massively multiplayer online role-playing game. The short, honest answer is that My Criminal Life has the multiplayer and the role-playing, and how massive it is depends on who turns up.
Multiplayer and online. There is one city and everyone is in it. You can attack other players, start a gang or join one, write to people through the mailbox and the forums, keep friends and enemies lists, and put bounties on people. The Hall of Fame tracks who is ahead in each category.
Role-playing. You build a character. It has a level, five stats (strength, agility, guard, labour and IQ), a home, a job and a rank. Nobody tells you what order to do things in. You can be a street fighter, a steady worker, a gang boss or a bit of each, and the game keeps score.
Massive. Not yet, and we would rather say so. The game is being rebuilt from an earlier version, and its community is young. Expect a small city that is growing, not a crowd.
What it does not have: an avatar you walk around a map, real-time combat, or a client to install. The world is a painted map, menus and numbers in a web page.
What “free” covers
Every part of the game is open to players who never spend anything: the crimes, the gym, the jobs, the casino, the gangs and the newspaper. Optional packs exist. A Donator Pack, for example, refills your energy faster. The Store is closed right now while payments move to a new provider, so nothing can be bought at the moment.
Paying does not put anyone above the Rules. Paying players get jailed and banned like everyone else, and trading cash, points, items or accounts for real money is against the Rules and gets accounts wiped or closed. The casino uses game cash only, and what you win has no cash value.
You need to be 18 or older, and it is one account per person. The Rules, the Terms and the casino odds are public, so you can read all of them before you sign up.
Day one
- Cost
- Free
- Download
- None
- Cash
- $100
- Level
- 1
- Rank
- Nobody
- Home
- Cardboard box
- Age
- 18+
How a character grows
Crimes pay cash and experience, and so do fights you win and walk away from. When the experience bar fills, an [Up] link appears next to your level, and pressing Level up on the Promotion page is your choice. Each level adds 2 to your maximum energy and brave, 50 to your maximum health, and a merit to spend.
The gym turns energy into strength, agility, guard and labour. A pass costs $100 and works from level 1. Jobs pay once a day at 5:00 PM New York time and nudge your stats too, and the Local School sells courses that raise them. A better home raises your will bar and counts toward your rank. The Estate Agent sells fifteen places to live, from the cardboard box up to a private island.
Your rank is worked out from your level, which is the biggest part, then your stats and the value of your home. There are 16 rungs.
The ladder, bottom to top
- Nobody
- Corner Kid
- Lookout
- Runner
- Hustler
- Stick-Up Kid
- Muscle
- Enforcer
- Fixer
- Lieutenant
- Shot Caller
- Underboss
- Boss
- Kingpin
- Crime Lord
- Untouchable
Playing with other people
Fights are the plainest form of it. You attack someone from the search page or their profile, a fight takes half your maximum energy, and a win lets you mug them, put them in the hospital or leave them alone, which is the choice that pays experience. New accounts get a few nights of protection before anyone can come for them.
Gangs are the long game. Starting one costs $500,000 and makes you its president, who picks a vice-president and declares wars. The members share a vault, and a bigger hideout makes room for more of them, up to 500. Between gangs at war the score is respect, and a gang that runs out of it is disbanded.
Most Wanted is cooperation by accident. Every city has a boss on a board, sitting on a stash that grows over time. Anyone can take a swing, and when the boss goes down the cash and gear are split by how much damage each player did. For more on how the rest of the game hangs together, the gangs and turf guide has the full rules for gangs and wars, and the browser crime game page walks through a first hour.
Quick answers
Is it free?
Yes. Every part of the game is open to players who never spend anything. Optional packs exist, and nothing you buy puts you above the Rules: paying players get jailed and banned like anyone else.
The Store is closed right now while payments move to a new provider. You won’t be charged while it is closed. More under Money.
What does MMORPG mean?
It stands for massively multiplayer online role-playing game. My Criminal Life is multiplayer and online, you build a character with a level, stats and a rank, and it plays in your browser. It has no avatar to walk around and no real-time combat.
Can I pay to get ahead?
Optional packs exist, and a Donator Pack, for example, refills your energy faster. Everyone is held to the same Rules, paying or not, and trading cash, points, items or accounts for real money is against them. The Store is closed right now while payments move to a new provider, so nothing can be bought at the moment.
How many people play?
The game is being rebuilt and the community is young, so expect a small city rather than a crowd. You will still find other players: the mailbox, the forums and the chat dock are all live, and fights and gangs need real people.
Does it work on a phone?
Yes. The pages fit a phone screen, and it works in a current browser on a phone, a tablet or a computer. There is no app to install.
More answers are in the full FAQ.
More about the game
Browser crime game
What a crime game that runs in a web page is, and what your first hour in this one looks like.
Games like Torn
If that is the kind of game you came for: what to check in any of them, and where this one stands.
Gangs and turf
Starting a gang, the shared vault, gang wars and respect, and the turf coming to the map.
How to play
Your first day in Noob City: the bars, crimes, the gym, jobs, jail and levelling up.
The front page
What the game is, in one screen, and how to start.
About the game
The city, the ranks and the people who run it.
Ready to try it?
Make an account with your email. It’s free, it works on your phone, and you have to be 18 or older.
Sign-ups are open.