by Kaitie » Fri Mar 29, 2013 6:57 pm ...at first, I thought this game was going to be another, "I'll be bored with it in a hour game". But, as I started playing and crafting and discovering stuff, I found that I played all while I was working! Hours and hours and hours! I work transferring video from one format to another, so it's not real work, per se... and it gives me a lot of time for diversions like this.
Anyway, I think I've fallen in love with this game in such a very short time! I didn't think I would, but I did! The little excitement of carving a little life out in the middle of the wilderness and making something from it just for the sake of it, I love it. Permadeath is scary and losing just about everything you've worked for is scary, but it kind of makes it a little more 'realistic' in a sense.
I thought it would take forever to do, but in a couple days I managed to get a house, build fences, seed crops, build a kiln, start working on bricks (I know eventually I'll want that brick wall, even though I can't even claim land yet). And, it's the little subtle details that seems to make it work, like putting wood in the kiln and firing it up and filling it with clay and then going about other chores. For some reason, you'd think this would be tedious gameplay, but here, it works... and I find it pretty and oddly relaxing to play this type of game (a first for me, really).
I managed to find an old boat that was in really bad disrepair, and since nobody seemed to be using it or caring for it, I repaired it and started exploring the rivers and lakes. I've sailed for hours, the world is HUGE! Massive! And, I've encountered tons of little places where villages look like they were started or were destroyed as everything was falling into disrepair... and a lot of little houses belonging to hermits living in tucked away corners of land. Then I discovered the ability to make crates and load them onto the boat, and foraging distant land for materials I don't have anywhere near me (like clay).... exploring is really quite a bit of fun. I'm always afraid of running into bears, but mostly I explore by boat anyway.... but I come across skeletons every now and then in strange places and wondered who they were and how they died. And then there was this one place where I found about 15 skeletons all piled together near some ruins written in Russian.... I have no idea what it said, but I couldn't help but wonder what happened to all those people. I think the cutest thing I found was this tiny island and it had a runestone which said, "Sir Steven's Island" and just next to it was a skeleton with a runestone that said, "RIP Sir Steven, we hardly knew ye". And the runestones! There's so many interesting runestones with cute and endearing or scary messages, but I read them all, and have left some of my own while out and about. Then, there's the truly massive land claims.... I came across this place called Roadville, they had HUGE sections of land claimed, it was immense, but it seemed to be dead, with nobody anywhere in sight.... though, the walls seemed to be solid and in good shape which means it wasn't left to rot. But, I think my favorite thing is discovering those little hidden hermit homes, in the undisturbed wilderness, and seeing people living a simple life.
I think what has drawn me to the game is the immense scope of the world; and that the world has a history you can see, define, and read. I have wondered, are there books in this game? It would be amazing if a person could write a book, and make copies of it.... interesting ways to share world history in-game, or events... and when villages go into ruin, maybe you'd find all that was left to it was an old book, telling its story.
And as my character grows, she'll become a part of the history, maybe she'll make an impact, or maybe she'll die mauled by a bear while exploring or at the hands of a merciless, ruthless raider who wants her useless stuff without making an impact at all! I think that's a part of what makes this game different than many others.... your character can make a lasting difference, and even when you're gone.... parts of you remain, even if it's just your skeleton, or your falling down house.
I hope the guys who make this world keeping working on it, it's a beautiful creation.... something really, really unique in the way it plays!
I still haven't met anyone inside the game yet, and I don't know who/how to trust other people not to attack me or kill me yet, lol... and maybe that's the only thing that needs to be fine tuned, to find a way that allows people to trust people while maintaining the "sandbox" of being able to kill. I did read that if a character dies, the next one can inherit its LP.... and maybe a character could have a lifetime of karma that builds; peaceful actions raise it, evil acts lower it, and the amount of LP your next character receives from the old one would be based on the amount of karma your previous character had. So, murderous no-karma players have something a lot more significant to lose if they die, while virtuous ones will be able to come back as a heir with little to no loss on LP. And if a virtuous character murders an evil one they could actually gain karma; and if a murderous one kills a more virtuous one, they would lose even more; promoting a much more 'socializing' atmosphere and promoting people to work together, while discouraging murdering without taking it away. I don't know, I'm too new to the game yet, but I've read a lot of threads and the lack of trust seems to be something people have issues with; and perhaps, something like that could help fix it. What do you think?
Anyway, yes, I'm enjoying the game very, very, very much, the only thing I see 'off' with the gameplay is the isolation and mistrust among people.
