Ryandor.com

WoW has a trial now, so I decided to give it a try. I must admit, it is one of the funnest MMOs I have ever played, even though the graphics, for the most part, suck.

It has been the somewhat cartoony/boxy graphics that has kept me away, along with the price, but now that I have played, I think I will buy it eventually.

I love that they have PVP RP servers, little insta-travel, and the ability to sit in chairs.

The best thing about it, though, are the quests. Yes, they are almost all of the "go to x" or "find x" or "kill x number of y" variety, but what makes them good is stupidly simple: the quest text scrolls out at a slow enough pace that you read it out of boredom waiting for the "Accept" button to become available.

In all the other games I have played, nobody, including myself, read all that crap beyond level 5 simply because the greed and powergaming overrides story and amusement. Since you have to wait, anyway, though, it is really quite nice to read them.

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net

I've played it long time ago, but decided that it not worth the funds. Keeping waiting for Kingdom Reborn. I'm ready to spend money for it, although i'm sure i haven't to.

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"Be calm and silent, as Darkness care not of passions and lies. Be patient and cold, as Darkness exists out of borders of time and emotions. Just be yourself, as You are in the Darkness and Darkness is inside of you."
-Dark Ones Doctrine, 2001y (c)-

I spent a week helping with making a video in WoW, so I can technically say I've played it, but while everyone invovled swaore I'd love it once I tried it, I really wasn't interested.

Almost everyone I know plays it but I just can't see it..

Oh well.

-Ryandor

It's only amusing if you start as a new character and go through the quests. It does not play like Ultima Online, and it really can't compete with the playstyle UO has. It is a quest/pvp game, not so much an open-ended sandbox world.

If nothing else, though, it does have some interesting characteristics.

The customizable UI and the use of Lua scored big points with me. I am a huge fan of Lua, and have used it in my software before to great effect. I was also able to download some UI mods that make the game much more friendly to me.

I also like the fact that the chat window is less a chat window and more a command console.

I also appreciate the smaller details they included, like a fare that travels around the game world that has all sorts of little games you can play. My girlfriend loves to play this game where you control remote-controlled steam-powered tanks called "Tonks" and try to blow up the other people playing Tonks. There's also a cannon you can get yourself shot out of.

Besides that, the travel systems scored huge points with me as well. There is very little insta-travel, and most people take public transportation between major cities and points of interest. There is a subway that is fun to ride as it goes under the ocean and you can see some sea monsters looking in. There are also gryphons that let you fly between places -- they take scenic routes so you can view the players and monsters underneath you as you fly to your destination.

The fact that there are few stops to wait for loading of zones helps, too. The only time it ever happens is when you enter an instance (IE, a dungeon).

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Blog: http://www.sydius.org
Web: http://www.sydius.net