In the last edition of “My Take on Different Online Games” we covered, Second Life, Shadowbane, and Anarchy Online. These were the first games that I played, or at least among the first five games I really played online. As I probably noted in the previous posting, I have tried several online games. So, another one that was early in my exposure was Entropia Universe. Which at one time in its exitence was known as Project Entropia and is currently undergoing a metamorphosis into Planet Calypso and will be a part of the Entropia Universe.
Ok, so truth be told, one of the things that really attracted me to trying the games was an article I read that talked about this person making real money playing a game. I didn’t remember the name of the game. Then later, I read about Anshe Chung making money in/with Second Life. I suspect, the original story I read was either about Julien Dibble’s book “Play Money” or it was about the legendary Neverdie in Entropia Universe.
I find Entropia Universe because it’s free to download and free to play. Really, you can play the game for free. It’s a big challenge. I suspect it was much easier earlier in the existence of the game/world. When you enter the game/world you are a colonist on a distant planet that last I checked has 2 continents that are known, a space station and an asteroid. You arrive with the clothes on your back. No cash, no weapon, nada. Your job is to figure out what to do. And stay alive. Usually, when you arrive, you are in a “newbie” town and you have a better chance of finding someone who can answer your questions. I wasn’t that lucky. I waited through the very lengthy download and was all excited to get into the game. Unfortunately, or fortunately, my arrival was at a time when they were having server challenges and the load on the server for the newbie town was too high so I got bumped to the middle of nowhere. A bad middle of nowhere. I learned to die early. I got bumped around a few times in those early days. I would logon and the server for where I was would be down so I’d get to be logged into a different location. It was a way to get to learn about the game world. I did a lot of exploring, without aim. I finally turned to some online resources for the game. I learned about sweating. This is the only skill you can really use or develope when you first arrive on the planet. The idea is that you gather sweat from the creatures around and then you sell it to other players/colonists and they mix it with something to make something usable. This is the only way to get cash and truly play the game for free at first. Once you have some cash and can take up hunting or mining, you have the chance then of making more cash. There’s a catch with those professions. You have to pay for your bullets and you have to pay for your mines or probes.
With Entropia Universe, there is another way to play the game. They boast that it is the only online world based off the real world economy. Or something like that. That’s because you can legitimately purchase game cash on a 10 to 1 ratio. You can get 10 in world currency, called the PED for 1 US dollar. Oh, and you can withdraw money from your game account, I think at the same ratio minus some fees. After all the reading of the online resources for the game and the running around, when I finally made it to a town, I thought I might take up mining. And I decided to “deposit” or purchase game cash so I could get the mining equipment. I did well at first. It’s beginner’s luck, trust me. I hit a big enough haul early on to be excited about it and sucked in. I also got killed while mining and so had to run back to where I was mining and once or twice I couldn’t find it so I lost a claim or two. Out of frustration, I deposited a little more to get a gun and some armor. I got lucky, I purchased some good armor for the price.
So what I like about the game, it’s cool looking and I thought the concept was interesting. I am intrigued, and enticed by the idea of being able to withdraw cash from your game account. The idea being that you could make money playing a game. I like that the game is not designed such that you are required to be a member of a player organization to really advance in the game or get ahead. I’m sure if you are with a good group that is well organized and the other members are dedicated that it can be a help in getting ahead. Always someone to hunt with or watch your back while you mine. Or even if you want to craft, sometimes they supply the materials. It isn’t required though. They have an auction system for selling your goods to other players and they have the ability for you to just sell your stuff back to the system. There is the ability to add friends and the have chat and groups. What I would like to see in the game is a better communications setup. There is no way to reach someone from in the game if they are offline, unless they have provided you with real world contact info. That’s a little frustrating to me. I’ve seen this option in a couple of games and I like it a lot. And while on the one hand, I like that you do not have to do quests or missions as part of the game, they do serve a purpose in that they assist you with leveling or getting skills and they give you something to do in game. Entropia Universe has no quest/mission system. You get in the game and you have to figure out what you’re going to do. Sigh. You can own property in the game or have a store and sell your stuff, if you can get hold of some. That can be a challenge. I was lured by this. After watching the auction for a while I got frustrated with it and then when I thought I’d rent a store and couldn’t because the way it was setup, I got really annoyed. It’s also frustrating that every few patches the graphic requirements go up so high that you need to replace your graphics card. This happened to me. It got to the point I couldn’t even log in. The game has some good things and some areas it lack. I do like it in general though I haven’t been on it a lot lately.
Another one I haven’t played much in the last few months though I like it, is Voyage Century Online. Last I checked, it was free to download and to play. It requires not subscription. You can purchase stuff from the game store that can be used in game as a cool outfit or a benefit to your character. I have always played this as free. You have your choice of professions, you can farm or mine, or hunt or be an adventurer or a warrior or even a pirate. You can do all of it if you want, only being a pirate can make that a little more difficule. You are started off in the game with a task that lets you arrive in your home town with a boat and a little cash. It’s enough to get you started. While you can run off and just mine or farm or whatever, it does help to do some of the tasks to get things and to earn cash. It isn’t required though. I like that you can take a merchant task to collect goods from one town and take them to another and while doing that, make some cash as well. It can be very profitable if you play it right. It can be a little annoying to deal with the NPC pirates in the game. My first time with one, I thought it was another player attacking me. I’ve also had the fortune to be stuck in a hurricane and had my ship sink. The world is loosely based on the world around te 14th and 15th centuries and this adds a bit of interest to the game. It helps to know a bit of your history and geography so you have a rough idea which way to sail when you are told to go from Athens to Istanbul to pick up some goods and bring them back. The world map reveals itself as you sail. Once you have been to these places, or near enough to them, you get the discovery of them and then they always show on your map. Finding them the first time is the trick. There is no auction system in the game though you can setup a a vendor booth and sell your goods. Some towns are the centers of commerce and so will have a lot of booths setup. You have to level a skill to increase the number of items you can buy or sell though. There isn’t a good communication system in the game that I recall. You really can only get hold of someone if they are online at the time. There is a way to send stuff to another player in another town though and that I believe will hold until they pick it up. I’ve only used it once and I think they have to be online to send it to them.
Voyage Century does have a task/quest/mission system that helps the game move along. They do have player organizations as well though I’ve never been a member of one in this game. I don’t recall any unprovoked PvP action either which is nice. I think the things I like least are trying to get into or out of a really congested port. I often get kicked off and have to log back in. I also get a little bored/tired with the time it takes to get places. Ugh. The travel time is an issue. All in all though, it’s a nice game that doesn’t really require you to be too aggressive or cut-throat to enjoy it. I just don’t play it a lot right now.
And that brings us to 9Dragons. It has admittedly been quite a while since I played this one. I like the idea of it being based around Chinese Mythology and history. I find that interesting. I only really tried one character in this game and I was making reasonable progress before I got sidetracked to something else, probably life. Which says something about the game I suppose. There is a questing system in the game and it really is helpful for advancement and the opportunity to move into new skills and areas. I found some of the quest to be really very challenging. I did not participate in the grouping in the game though I was often invited. I think there are player organizations as well if I remember right. I was never a member of one. I found the game mechanics generally pretty good. I think it had an ingame communication system though I don’t recall how well it worked. I never had anyone I needed to send a message to. I don’t think I really got far enough along in it to really understand what the point was as you got higher up in skill and rank. The fact that I have played it more recently that say Anarchy Online and I don’t remember some of these things, indicates a lack of lasting impression or attachment. I do recall it being a medium download and a very very long update process for this one. It was also free to download and to play and has a game store that you can purchase goodies for in the game. There were some lag issues and times during the peak play times that things would go down. That could be frustrating. I don’t remember much about the ability for crafting in this one. I think it was mostly a questing and leveling game. I do know that the download and update process was so bad that I have not reinstalled it on the new computer.
Of the three games I’ve discussed in this posting, the only one that I made a point of loading on the new computer is Entropia Universe and that was initially because I wanted to play out my assests since I get tired of the increased hardware requirements. It looks awesome on the new computer though.
I guess this was a long one post. Maybe for part three I’ll cover some of the games I didn’t stick with long and give you a quick assessment of them.
Remember, these are just my opinions and experience in these games. You may have a different experience with them. I’m not suggesting you don’t play any of the games. I’m not even offering much of an opinion as to their merits. I only offer my experiences.
Until next time…
See you in the Machine.
Games
Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.
