Slayer Noir's MMO Tour

As some of you may know, I'm planning to trial some MMORPGs, other than RuneScape, over the summer to increase my knowledge of them. Hopefully I'll learn more about what does and what doesn't make a good game and it'll improve my ability to write suggestions.

I'll be writing reviews here, which you may find interesting to read.

Review 1: Adventure Quest

First stop on my tour of MMOs is Adventure Quest. I started here because out of all the browser games, I'd heard of it the most - courtesy of quite extensive advertising.

Everything started extremely well. It took no more than 3 minutes (perhaps even less than two) between me deciding to play the game to me being in the game, ready to play. Signing up was quick and there was nothing to download. Creating a character had quite the lack of choices, which was disappointing but probably contributed to the speedy set-up time.

The first thing I noticed was the graphics. For those of you that don't know, they're little more than cartoons. Not at all what I'm used to, but endearing in a strange way - cute, almost. Probably better than the blocky polygons of the early days of Runescape.

However, that's about it for compliments. It's all downhill from here.
Having created my account and taken a second to take in the graphics, I was dropped into an unfamiliar location. No explanation, no lore, no tutorial, nothing. I was on my own, feeling far from immersed and not knowing the controls.

Now supposedly I'm smart (believe it or not), but figuring out how to use this game was neither easy nor enjoyable and ended up being largely achieved through random clicking and button spamming. Eventually, I mastered the basics and began exploring.

The map is divided up into many different segments and rather than a smooth transition between the two, you're either in one or another, with no intermediate (imagine rooms in Dungeoneering, but not being able to see where you're going or where you came from). At first I hated this but soon realised I disliked for no reason other than it being alien to me, and got on with my playing.

A couple of minutes exploring got me to a shop. I opened it, to see if I could buy anything and realised I had no idea how much money I had - more searching through interfaces ensued and before I could find out how much gold I had I was offered to buy more with real world money. No thanks, Adventure Quest. I moved on.

Wandering around for a bit more and I found some creatures. They looked ugly, so I assumed they could be attacked. Combat here is much like RuneScape's - largely click and wait, but there are a few other things you can do. I found an extra attack, "Viper Strike" or something, with a short cooldown time so I pressed that a few times. For once, I was actually given some extra information on what something did, but sadly what I was told meant little to be - I don't know what a "3% critical rise" (or something similar) means in Adventure Quest because I haven't been told. The thing died and I got an item, but I couldn't find my inventory to see what it was - by this point I was fed up and not trying very hard.

I spent a few more minutes searching for some sense of storyline and excitement - an interesting plot may have kept me engaged. Instead, I came across what could only be described as a monorail train in the shape of a cat. Seriously, I swear to God that's what it was. I couldn't even board it and was instead told to talk to someone I'd never heard of in a place I'd never heard of.
Looking at this giant cat-shaped monstrosity got me thinking - this story I've been searching for is probably going to be quite childish and pointless. And thus, I lost all reason to play the game, and hit the X button on my browser.

Oh yeah, and apparently there's some sort of class system in Adventure Quest. I was meant to be a rogue, though I never got told or figured out what that meant or what I could do with it. I quit having no idea...

So what did I learn from this?
-Engaging your players early on is so important. A tutorial of some kind and a sense of purpose are needed. This sense of purpose could've been easily achieved by some sort of plot.
-Usability is key. I could've picked up the game quicker if, for example, the interfaces just used words rather than trying to represent tabs with symbols.
-Graphics aren't everything, but they help.
-Quick set up is great. I wish all games were so easy to start playing.
-Consistency in lore is important. For example, if you're a medieval fantasy game, you shouldn't have motorised public transport in the shape of household pets...

What you going to try next?

Good question.

I'm trying to be natural - do things how a normal gamer and not a researcher would do, so I may wait for an advert to come up and tempt me in.

Of course, games get around by word-of-mouth too, so if you have any suggestions, let me know.

I'd reccomend Allods online, for me it's pretty good.

And, you didn't had the tutorial in Adventure Quest? That's wierd, yes, I am a player, and, if you had kept playing you could have seen the more dark quests in the game, the Devourer Saga, Hall of Memories, Bizzare Flecks, No Man's Land Saga all of those have more, dark, serious elements, and have in mind it has to be family friendly, and, there are more serious monster. And, as I said again, more dark themes, the storilines are quite good, but to understand, and enjoy them, to their full, you must join the forums.

You can also see a different take on udneads in it, I meant, the elemental avatar of Light, yes it works iwth elements, has a whole army of undead and necromancers at her disposal, yes, the elemental avatar of light is a she. Also, it's not entirely medieval per see, it has more advanced races, and if you level up, you can see more technological weapons. But, tbh, I have grown fond of the game. ANd due, the commands to attack are fairly simple, so as to cast spells. Also, the class sytem is in the middle of a revamp, if you used the map and went to Krovesport, or talked to the woman in the inn, you could have gone to were rouges train, and get the armour for the class

See, explanations like the ones you've just given me should've been ingame. It would've made the whole thing a lot easier for me.

I may go back to adventure quest later. With you helping me, I could overcome the difficulties starting up and perhaps write a second review on other aspects of the game, learning even more.

But first, I want to try some other MMOs. I shall google "Allods Online" next time I become bored with Runescape.

It's a bit laggy, but there are main storilines that are called world mysteries. You can get your own Astrall SHip, and, tell me when you'll play itand I'll help you, jsut join the EMpire.

Also, here's my AQ character http://aq.battleon.com/build30/charview.asp?temp=22204872

My name on the AE forums is Mortarion if you join it, also, don't be afraid to ask questiosn that might seem stuppid, the forums are a a godly paradise compared ot the RS ones.

Also, here's a guide regarding builds http://forums2.battleon.com/f/tm.asp?m=19845366

Also, I have been playing without a proper build for all the time WIch I plan to fix soon

Okay, I would possibly recommend RIFT and EVE Online. Why? Because I entered contests to design content for those games.

Also, check out Star Wars - The Old Republic Online, I see it advertised nearly all the time.

World of Warcraft is also another obvious choice, but I personally wouldn't be that bothered, because they use celebrity endorsement rather than try and present their themes. It shows variability of character, but not much else in terms of content. I only heard what I know from a friend, but it made very little sense.

I don't want to pay for anything. Sorry, I should've made that clear. Rift, WoW and Old Republic are all p2p, aren't they?

I think Rift isn't, hmm you could check Warhammer Online, it has an unlimited trial, and forsaken world,oh and global agenda

Have you also checked TERA?

HE doesn't wants to pay, so I am not sure a trial would work for him, but I could be wrong.

Why it is that there are never MMO's that offer you the chace to play as a mutant/demonic race? I mean, they are, but they are few

they typically are the evil ones that everyone wants to kill. I mean why can't we play as goblins for that matter?

That'd be awesome. And, I generaly despise having to play as the hero, I am more an anti-hero/villain player

then get Fable. Most games force you to play the hero, but in Fable, you can be a complete dick and criminal. ...or even Skyrim where you can also live a life of crime without punishment.


BTW, I think there was a game series where you played the role as a demonic ruler who summons demons to kill nice things as if they were the enemies. Was it like Overlord or something?

Hmm, that I know. But I like games were I don't have to be a human. And those games are built so the "right" choices/decisions, are more rewarding

Can I make a recommendation for Flyff? I always wondered what that game would be like...

*anime-fan alert*

Wait are we talking MMOs or RPGs?

Fable isn't an MMO.

I was talking about RPGs in general.

But if you want me to move back to MMOs I can.

So SLayer, you played Allods, did you liked it?