Is this a good game?

[videoman1994]

Hello, new community I know nothing about. I am on a quest for a new game right now, I am wondering what this game has to offer and if it's anything or even better than runescape? Does it have skilling? Can I kill awesome bosses that drop amazing things?

For any of you who don't know, Jagex, the company that created runescape, just took a major crap on its player base with a real world trading(rwt for short) update. Currently people are raging hard on the forums and many want a game that offers things like runescape did, but doesn't support rwt. Currently this is the only game I have seen that participates with its community, lets us give suggestions(heck even lets us make content!), and doesn't sell items(like so many others do, which we hate). So what can you tell me?

I appreciate any support to my cause, although I'm sure I'll just get trolled. After all that is what happened in the last 3 MMORPG forums I went to...

[Zalya]

Is this a good game? I say yes! But its not like most MMORPG's you are probably used to. Planeshift is community driven, and will always be free. The game is still in Beta and I will admit that the questing, skills, creatures, and graphics are in need of improvement. But that's not what Planeshift is really about. Its about the people, and the roleplay going on. Everyone in the game plays a character, and everything they say or do must be something that the character would do. Its more of an interactive story than anything else. It dosn't have boss battles, but it does have believable characters living in this fantasy world. If you are more interested in stat based games, than this probably isn't the game for you, but if you love fun communities, roleplay, and trying new things than you will fit right in. Good luck!

[Rigwyn]

Its free, so don't expect too much. I would say install it and take it for a spin, then decide for yourself.

[ether]

Well, Runescape is a for-profit game developed by a well-funded company.  I haven't touched that game since back when it was 2D, so I can't really make a full and honest comparison.

On the plus sides of Planeshift you'll find awesome things like

- You won't get trolled here. 
- The game is completely free, 100%.  You never have to pay a monthly fee or pay for additional features and you couldn't buy items in-game with real world money even if you wanted to.
- GMs in the in-game chat channels and the owners and developers right here on the forums, reading and responding to your posts!
- An awesome player base ready and willing to help you with learning how to play the game and navigate through the world and its quests.
- The game is being developed and updated, new content comes out quite frequently.
- An intense focus on immersion and RP, creating a deep and interesting world to play in with intricate quests, and real consequences and rewards for your character's actions in quests.

On the down sides of Planeshift, the game is still in its Alpha development, meaning that a lot of features are still in their rudimentary forms and it is mostly incomplete.  Keep this in mind as you play around.

The short answer is: if you like roleplaying, this is an excellent place to do so, one of the best on the net if you ask me.  If you're more into games where you'll be spending most of your time fighting awesome bosses and grinding out on lowly mobs, then you're less likely to have much fun here.  Though you still can, the game isn't very refined in this area.

[novacadian]

PS is definitely worth a try. It's free so there is no cost to take it for a test drive.

If your big into RP then you will be very happy with it.

It has kept the grinder in me satisfied for the last couple of years as well. My feeling is that when the monsters become configured to be aggressive and moving around with the Tribe feature; which is coming down the pike; then it will be an even more satisfying ride for the hack and slasher.

Get started now to build up your stats for that eventuality.   

- Nova

[Talad]

The best way is to test it yourself, and be sure to bring your friends from Runescape in here. The good thing about PlaneShift is that's always in development and everyone can contribute it's ideas.

[Timil Deeps]

Download it anyway! Give it a try, and remember: it's still in  (or sort of an alpha-beta). Also bear in mind, right now is midweek in the morning, US time. Try again on a saturday night, and you'll see more activity. 

[Minks]

"I'm not joining because there are not enough players." <- This kind of circular reasoning is one of the reasons why we don't have enough players. 

[Minks]

No, what LigH meant that active players usually have more than just one account, not that they are multi-clienting all the time. I have 3 for example. One for playing, one with mules and one with tutorial helpers. I almost never use the last two accounts. And accounts never get deleted. That means you still have accounts from, like 2004 in the database, test accounts, and such.

And many people that leave after the first few minutes of gameplay are those who don't even manage the tutorial because they can't be bothered to read the ingame instructions. I've tried chasing them with my tutorial helpers. But they don't even bother to read what I say.  But all those accounts are still in the data base.

Summary: The way the data base is managed, the number of accounts does probably not reflect the number of able-brained potential players.

[Rigwyn]

So those 20 players could in fact be 1 player running 20 characters?

No.

The game has been around since 2002. That number would include all the accounts that have been made since then - whether they still play or not.

Currently the population is an a serious low. Head count goes from say 10 to 40 players online at a time. 5am US/Eastern is when I'll see 10-30 players, however you only need a few good role players to have fun. I personally prefer small crowds - say 5-10 players per group as too large of a group can be too much.

Few players play multiple sessions at the same time, of those few would play more than two accounts at a time due to system requirements. The numbers that you see are probably quite accurate.

If need 10,000+ players to have fun, then you will not like Planeshift. There was a time when PS had 200-250 players on at a time. It would be nice if the numbers went back there again, but it takes time for a population to grow. It doesn't just happen over night. The game is much more stable than it was when the population diminished.

Lastly, I would rather play with 5 or 10 solid role players that with a huge population of players who just level and don't get RP. I've never played eve online, so I won't make any assumptions, but I'm skeptical about how many of those 10,000 players actually role play and do it well.


Good luck,
Rigwyn