As I write this, there's an add for a free MMORGP by the name of Shaiya or something...

MY GODDESS AWAITS! - Goody gumdrops.

Anyways, about 3 years ago I downloaded one of these free MMORPGs and... it was horrible! My character moved like those in really old, early 3D RPGs like Virtual Hydlide. At that point I had to go out and look hard for things. Now, they can't seem to sod off whenever I'm on a game site.

Question I'd like to ask is, has anyone played any of these latest free MMORPGs and what do they think of them?

Do they really offer anything in terms of good plot, presentation, gameplay or a polite community?

You can try: http://www.mythos.com
It's a free to play MMORPG, which will feature some buyable ingame items or enhancements (nothing to give anyone buying them an edge though) and it's similar to Diablo as a MMO in playstyle (I believe it's still in Beta right now though)
Also it might help to know that any major MMO is kind of "free" during Closed and Open Beta and you can try it as much as you like. Especially from late Closed or Open to Live there won't be much changing so you might as well try b4 you buy...
Oh and good luck with a "polite community"... it's the internet and it's good that way, if you want a "polite community" go to church or something xD

Ofcourse, they're free, and you can alwayse get so much for nothing. There is a lot of crap out there, but there are some gems between them too. I've just started Rohan Online Bloof Fued (:O Googlebot can read my mind, there is an add for that here when I'm writing this!). It's still beta, so the graphics are shit, but it has potential. It has some nice unique touches, good controlls (apart from some annoying things, but ofcourse it's just beta)and a good looking combat system. For the rest it's the basic free-mmorpg-formula, but they worked it out pretty decent and added some nice things. Ofcourse it doesn't live up to an Age of Conan, Guildwars or WoW, but it's nice considering it's free.

Most of them are just Vietnamese fodder.

Just finished playing, and then deleting, a Monopoly MMO. With guns and farts.

Yes, I'm serious.

I was thinking of downloading Shaiya, but then I remember I hated World of Warcraft and Guild Wars. So I decided against it.

Rubies of Eventide is ok, provided your patient.
Also it gets really irksome as the first town is often swarming with higher level players who, while not being pricks about it in the role-play server, are able to buy and wear all the cool stuff and dye it any colour while your stuck with quilted armour thats been coloured olive to demonstrate that you have completed a quest.

Runescape immediately pops into mind. That MMO, even in my time when PvP, trading and all that jazz wasn't nerfed, was terrible. Gee I was an idiot when I was younger...

I played Maple Story for a little bit. That wasn't TOO bad. Then me and my friend Lucas found Pirates of the Caribbean online and well, that was really bad (except the long rang combat had a pretty good thing going, but easily exploitable to kite mobs 20 levels higher than you).