Friday 13 March 2015

My view on realms

There are now two different realms, and the creator has mentioned the possibility of hardcore and casual realms someday. Here is my opinion:

Casual realms must be done cautiously. The reason open PvP makes an interesting world is that you have a lot of different characters in the same place. Some are really bad dudes, other people are just there to get XP, occasional saints, roleplayers, backstabbers, noobs, people who specialize in strange magic, and maybe someday people doing tradeskills like chopping wood or picking berries.

If you make an area or realm which doesn't allow PvP, or is for some other reason much easier with no drawback, then you get these various people being split up. The PvP world will be purely for people wanting to attack eachother, because any other player will train in the safe world. This ruins it for everyone, since people who want to experience a proper open-pvp world (with a mixture of character types) still end up training in the safe world, because the PvP world no longer contains a mixture of good and bad characters, since bad and good are no longer forced to be together. It becomes a giant game of Prisoner's Dilemma, where it is in everyone's interest to defect even though it would be in the group interest to co-operate (in this case, to play in the same world).

That said I still think casual areas or casual realms are not to be dismissed. They just need drawbacks. Perhaps weak loot for instance, or less experience, or bosses blocked off. That way you still get lots of different types of people in the dangerous areas, because they have an incentive to go there and try to survive.

In general, realms are really cool from a creative perspective. There could be heaven and hell realms, weird realms, realms that are really complicated or difficult to get to (such as for powerful mages), realms where everyone has large heads or mustaches. Possibilities are endless, and minor changes in color or design will still feel like exploring somewhere new. So overall it is a lot more fun then just choosing "server 1" or "server 2", and like many updates I am very impressed by the unique approach to an old problem.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

Interview with Yunlong

Yunlong is an old player and is interesting to talk to, since he reads books and has a good taste in games. But age has not prevented his poverty. Probably because he is always in a war, which seem to come from disagreements about right and wrong. For example, is scamming a "troll" a crime? Questions like this makes him a "love or hate" kind of guy.

  

How did you end up being hunted by the Empire?

It's a long story. You have to be in my position to know the reasons for my actions. It started when I made a new alt for getting some quick cash. I saw a person called "Four" while looking for rogues to slaughter. I was killed by a rogue in Four's zone. I believe he had seen me die. Then I came back with my main, and saw Four slaughtering thieves, so I trapped and killed him. I got most of my stuff back. After, I saw him in town, I gave him the stuff engraved to him, and kept mine. Later, I found out this was an alt, an alt by the name of Junglist.

Junglist is famous for that, he's written about hunting down people who grief his alts

He left to be with Calenture, Tmalla, and Greenmile. They all have plans to kill me, they might just get me one day.

I don't think they're all in the Empire

No. I don't mean the whole Empire by the way. I mean, Vader, Majora, and Jung. They all want to kill me. But Jung has too much on his plate already.

How long have you played

Since late March 2013.

Where are your scrolls? Or potions? It's very empty in here.

That is due to one person my friend. I might be in the top 10 right now if he had not ruined my luck again and again. He is the almighty PvP master: Cheesiy. Me and him had many wars.

What is your game suggestion?

I'd like another orc cave. Maybe two more!

Calenture's vault


Ghosts


Sometimes Aberoth has ghosts of dead players. Often they are only a pixel, or an arm; if you're lucky it is full sized, and if you're very lucky you can bump against it. Three months ago the Rogue Den was blocked by a full-size ghost for two hours, which people in town called "The White Spirit".

I know it's a bug. But it's an awesome one.

Rarest item in the game


Everyone is buying the Green the hats in the hope of getting (virtually) rich one day. Maybe we should name our rabbits things like "Troll" or "Dragon".