The Crims: Live The Thug Life in This Free Online MMO

The Crims is a free massively multiplayer online game that has been making the rounds on the Internet since 2003, and is in the same vein as other gangster games, most notably Mafia Wars and Mobsters, two Facebook/MySpace games that attract millions of active monthly users.

Like Mobsters and Mafia Wars, start out The Crims as a low-level thug and climb the crime ladder by doing jobs and running errands -- which earn you cash and respect -- used to buy weapons, drugs, prostitutes and the ability to start your own gang. Your gangster has a limited amount of energy, or "stamina," and players must spend the energy doing jobs and other activities. Once the energy runs out, you must wait for the stamina to refill (or give it an artificial boost by taking drugs. ) The ultimate goal is to be the gangster with the most respect points after the end of 30-60 days.

Unlike Mobsters and Mafia Wars, Crims can only be played by going to the official Web site, www.crims.com, and signing up as a member. That means, it will take a little more effort to convince your pals to sign up and play with you. Instead of inviting friends by sending them a Facebook invite, they'll have to register, get a user name and password, sign in and then join up with you by searching for your user name. We'll see how long it takes for Crims to join the social networking club. Until then, join the 3 million registered Crims players and get your thug on.