Forsaken World: Osiris- A Game Changer

Guilds and Mentoring

Looking out over  Guild Base

What a difference a random event can make in your gaming experience.  One night while bored out of my mind, I decided to play Forsaken World. I was having trouble sleeping so I logged into the game. Being that I play on a West Coast server, people are still up at that hour it seems.  While playing in town doing the daily grind of quests called "Life in the Harbor" which is repeatable 30 times a day for xp and coinage and is considered a prime grinding tool, I happened to notice in World Chat a guild advertisement.  Normally, in any other game, this would be something that would be an annoyance to me, but being that as I wrote last time, my experience with the FW community had been non-existent outside of a random act of kindness from a stranger, I decide to read it.  It was a simple add, one you see all the time.  "Guild X is recruiting, Any level welcome, we like to help one another out and just hang out" or something along those themes seems to be the majority of guild spam, amirite?  Well since the X was Osiris and not something borderline offensive and sophmoric like Pygmy Hermaphrodite Chinchillas, I decided to look closer. The person who was doing the advertising wasn't some wierd sexual reference and didn't have pwn or some other pvp reference in the name, so hmmm maybe just maybe.  So I whispered him, a guy named Bashbrother.  I have to say, I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, but I am so happy that I made that step.  So I mentioned that I was new, as in a day or two of playing the game new and had no clue on many of the mechanics and nuances of the game, but that I was looking for people to play with and learn from.  And amazingly enough, the reply was simply sounds great, welcome to the game.  As a gamer, one of the worst things many people can say to you to hurt and belittle you is to call you a n00b or some variations of it.  To have a potential guild recruiter so openly welcome a new player who truly is a noob in this game was... refreshing.  So in no time flat, I basically said "sounds like what I am looking for in a guild, I'd love to give it a try if you'll have me."  And boom! I'm a new member of the guild Osiris, thank you Insomnia!

So the first thing they tell me is, we have a base and the coordinates are linked in guild chat. Go have a look around they say.  So being the curious blogger by day that I am, I did.  Mind blowing this was.  Guild housing is something I've only heard about as none of the games I've played to this point have it.  To finally see it was, breathtaking.  Set up in the sky overlooking the desert (which is very Egyptian themed of course) on "Guild Island." the base is an elaborate maze of plateaus and floating structures.  There are quest givers, vendors, and more up there.  One of the things that at the time I was not able to do are the construction quests, as I was only level 23 at the time and the quests require you to be at least level 30.  Sleep finally came, so I reluctantly logged off and went back to my nice warm bed.  

The next morning, I logged on and immediately went to my newly guilded toon rather than the others I had been putzing with more or less equally up to that point. I was eager to test the theory that if I needed any help just to ask in guild and somebody would be happy to help out, as I was told in my welcome.  So many guilds claim this, but so few deliver I was skeptical.  Let's face it, even one of my most pleasant gaming families in all of MMOs, the Dragons of New Avalon, is very cliquey and hard for new people to fit in at times.  So what would Osiris be like once the noob was loose?  One of my burning questions was regarding the Master/Apprentice system that the game keeps telling me I really need to get involved in to progress. What the heck is it? And how does one find a Master? Most of the people on the list that comes up when you search for one have obscene references or silly characters in their names, and the few that don't are too busy to reply when you pm them.  So since guild was hopping with a lot of idle chit chat between people who clearly were friends, I asked my question, prefacing it that I was a noob.  I braced for the ignoring I expected, or the backlash for being rude and interrupting a conversation that I feared.  Instead I got multiple "welcome to the guilds, and the game."   I then got one player who started to ask me about my gaming experience and we talked about WoW some as most gamers seem to.  I mentioned my experience as a player but that I was new to FW.  Then the conversation on the Master/Apprentice thing started.  It seems that the system is a set of daily quests that the pair need to do each day, and they can do other things together as well.  The apprentice gets gobs of experience points and a high level character to help them out.  The Master gets mentor points which allows them to do things at high level that help in the farming of gear and such as I understand it. So I got invited to be an apprentice, and given a great briefing on the game. Apparently Bard is a popular class as it is OP (Over Powered) as a damage class, and I had through my reading of the game text, stumbled upon the top end game build, Wind.  However, it's a challenging class to play, or so I am told.  Thus far, I have not found it so, but I am still a lowbie.

So we did our M/A quest, and I learned that "skull" mobs take only 1 hp from any ability you have, so spam your free attack only, it gives you participation but doesn't make you go Oom (out of mana) so if you have healing abilities (which I do strangely enough) you have mana for that.  We then turned it in, and I went up a level.  Just like that.  We then went to two drag throughs of level 20 and 30ish dungeons. I got some gear, some loot to put on the AH and four more levels.  Toss in a sixth level from turning in all those triple xp dungeon quests, and viola six levels in under two hours.  However, my new Master, Arblockus, was not yet done. He gave me some gear for when I get higher level (including some nice level 60+ gear) and a lot of information.  What classes are like, how to level and gear, and what the differences in guilds were in this game from others.  I was hooked.

So when I logged back on later in the evening, I found myself more confident talking in guild chat. I felt I belonged.  Not that I have too much trouble with this being an extrovert the way that I am, but hey it's nice to feel you fit in.  The grind on my own suddenly felt so... slow.  Then I learned of a Campfire event. Not just for roasting s'mores apparently.  Basically, you sit around at the Guild Banquet around a campfire and get xp buffs.  And for thirty minutes, you get xp for sitting around and chatting. How cool is that?  I crafted, brushed my teeth, got ready for bed, and chatted with my guildies.  And made nearly a third of a level from it. Gotta love free xp. :)

Pass the S'mores will ya?

PWI: Remembering Ye Goode Olde Days

Keepin' It Real

So after playing Forsaken World where the XP falls off trees, PWI or Perfect World International feels like you are caught drafting a snail.  The game has a much more old school approach to things, you have fewer health than most other MMORPGs I've seen at the start and do piddly damage out of the gate.  An hour or two of play time might get you a level or two, but not much more out of the gate.  Took me a couple of hours to get to level 5, which in a way is refreshing. It really helps you learn you two primary abilities and how to manage your resources a bit better.  Like Forsaken World, which I wrote about yesterday, PWI has several of the same benefits in that you have auto routing options, most of the mobs in the starter areas are neutral to you, and you do get some benefits to help you level up (somebody on the server hit 105 last night, it was a big deal).

Betarde, the Human Blademaster Starting Gear

Like it's sibling, it is graphically stunning, perhaps evena little more so than FW.  For those into character customization, you can go really nuts on the colors of skin, eyes, hair, lips, mascara, etc. 

Some of the things that take getting used to however are that the default key bindings for the toolbar are the Function Keys, not the numerical keys. Those are saved for the side bar.  Not sure why exactly, as yet, but it is an interesting concept.  I am certain I can swap stuff around to be more familiar when I get more familiar with the UI, given how customizable everything else in the game appears. 

The Quest system is again very similar to FW, in that you have quest text with the occasional response, though scripted, it at least gives the feeling of interaction with the Quest NPCs.   Unlike its sibling, after the starter zone, everyone does not get dumped into the same city. This gives the game a more realistic feel in a way. I don't necessarily feel that all the races of the world would melt into one melting pot flawlessly after being separated at the start.  In many ways, that is the primary difference I noticed between the two Perfect World games here, PWI has the more real feel where FW is more stylized high fantasy with that odd mix of steampunk and magic.  Both work, in their particular game, but there is something to be said for the rare game that tries to stay grounded in reality so far as a fantasy game with magic can. 

Upon arriving in the first city, you are given a quest to talk to an Elder who sends you around the city to meet up with the various vendors and skill people, not to learn their stuff but to find them.  This in turn gives you a set of gear to start your adventures with that is a complete set rather than the basic clothing you start with.

You even get a Genie Pet/Companion

Talk to the Watcher of the Earth behind me here, and you get your little Genie Companion. The Blademaster has a great weapon fighter sorta feel to it, though with a Far Eastern Flair.  I can't say I don't like the look. I think it's easily one of the nicest sets of starter gear I've seen in an MMO.

From here, I rolled my first love, an elven archer. Though Elves in PWI have little wings on the side of their heads, and can fly through full size wings that appear out of their back when they activate it, they are in most other ways typical fantasy elves. Big pointy ears, and very in tune with nature. 

Look, up in the sky it's a bird... It's a plane.... No, it's just a winged elf.

The auto-routing works better on the winged elf, since they can fly and when they take the direct route, are able to fly over obstacles that running can't get past. Though it does take some micromanaging in the Elven starter zone due to the big trees.  Once you get to the city and get your starter gear, you are much more potent than the Blademaster or at least that was the sense I got. Of course there is something appealing to me to stand back and let fly and let the mob die on it's way to me rather than having to get up in it's face and smell the stench of death first hand.  So this may be a slight bias of mine ;).

PWI does have a table top feel to it in many ways. When you level, you are given 5 attribute points to distribute between your 4 abilities.  This allows a degree of customization that you don't see in most of the other MMOs directly.  Given my table top background, I found this gratifying. 

Starter geared and ready to fly

However, the table top gaming aspect of the game may be a double edged sword in many ways. For those used to fast leveling and being able to tear through the older content to get to the "End Game" the experience of slow methodical leveling through 105 levels might just be too much.  Ironically, in a game of such massive customization options, the one thing it lacks is a talent tree system.  Not that its a bad thing since in most games everyone plays a cookie cutter one anyways, but I did find it surprising. 

If you are looking for a fast paced game where you can rip through it, this isn't for you. However, I rather enjoyed the slower pace and the gritty table top feel. And you can't beat the look of the game. More to come.

Forsaken World: Tweens Unite!

Pretty But What Else?

So Perfect World introduced "Arc" to allow players of their games to have a single loading interface to load any and all of their current games.  It also allows players to access community Forums and such from in game through the Arc Browser.  So having been playing a lot of Neverwinter I downloaded it, and installed it.  After doing so, I decided to check out some of their other titles.  Of the three games I looked at, the Forsaken World has held the most appeal to me so far.  It is a digitally attractive 3-D game world with stylized characters.  While most of the men in the game aren't "masculine" in my definition of the word, I am admittedly not their target demographic (Heck, I'm nobody's target demographic).

So, meet Roricsaxon (should be Roric Saxon) but the space wasn't allowed. He's a Warrior, that is to say a great-sword wielding killing machine in defense of the Lionheart Champions.  Of the four characters I created, he is the most "manly" in the traditional sense.

Starter gear in the town of Winter Heights

The game has a rather simple feel to it, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.  Much of the first twenty-five levels (of 80 currently) have a tutorial feel to it.  Most of the mobs (monsters) are neutral to you, and not aggressive until you attack them, even the "rampaging beasts" that you are sent out to kill.  Makes it easy to complete quests, in case you somehow take damage and need to rest. Or if you are like me on the staff of a certain cat, and she gets hungry just as you are in the middle of a centaur camp. The other feature that I really like is the auto-routing.  Most of the quests so far have the ability to click the target in the quest text and get auto-routed to that place.  If you have a mount (freebie one around level 10-15, free flying mount at 25), it even mounts you before taking you to your target automatically.  Given the fact that the mobs don't attack you without provocation in many cases it is therefore, possible to go get a drink while your toon is running/riding/flying to the quest target area.   Combat abilities appear to work the same way.  If you are targeting something and click a combat ability, your toon will automatically move to the maximum range for that ability if it's a ranged attack, or move to melee range to execute the attack. Saves on pounding on the keyboard some.

Currently, most of the servers I saw are giving xp buffs to new players to the tune of 300% quest xp up to like level 70 or so.  Thus even though the starter area quests are up to level 10, you are usually 13-15 when you reach Freedom Harbor, the first city I've found.  The first dungeon I've heard about is around level 17, though it says 15-20.  I have yet to find a group for it, but then again I've played sparingly so far.

Screenshot showing the default UI.

The UI is simple, clean and customizable.  A second bar is placeable directly above the one on the bottom, which I have put into place since this picture as my character got more abilities.  Also as is popular in PW games, you get a combat pet who has 2 abilities that I put on the second bar as well.

My biggest complaint about the game is the community seems closed.  From what I can tell, based on reading of forums and about topics, guilds are important in the game.  Guilds get bases and such and control/occupy regions of the world.  When you enter an area it tells you which guild controls the area.  However, joining a guild seems... difficult.  Getting somebody to talk to you seems even worse.  Outside of a female character on a fancy white mount that came up to me today and gave me a beautiful rare quality weapon for when I hit level 40 out of the random kindness department, I've had no player interaction.  Unfortunately, said player had to go quickly so I couldn't ask them questions.  But hey, it was still really cool. So on the off chance that player ever finds and reads this... Thanks!

Level 15 Roric with his Wolf Pet. Though he looks like he has a hairball right now.

I do like the stylized look of the game, and the quest system is a nice mix of the WoW-style flat text quests and the more evolved Star Wars or Secret World cut scene quests in that while there is only text, it is interactive to a degree.  It gives a bit more feeling while not making you wait for a cut scene if you're not into that thing.

For the moment, the jury is still out on this game. I like the look and feel of the game, but so far the community has left me cold overall (outside of the one great moment).  I will return to this and update you as I find out more.