<climb up on soapbox>
First a little perspective on me, and where I come from. I am a programmer, I started programming in the late 70's. I love programming, and expect to be doing so until I die. Back in the day I played the Colossal Cave(aka advent) and was so excited by the wonders of what computers could do. You could image my excitement at playing Zork.
In college I played D&D and various board war games. I played many of those into the '80s.
I did not get into MMOs until EverQuest. After I did I also convinced my wife to play. I even had my mother in law playing. We all 3 switched to World of Warcraft. In retrospect I realized that EverQuest felt more like a job than recreation. I tried EQ2, but thought it was just a better graphics version of EQ and but still more like a job. When we left EQ most of our EQ friends thought we were foolish, because they felt the artwork in WoW was too cartoonish. Well I can handle cartoon if it is fun, and it was.
6 months ago we decided we were bored of WoW, and moved onto Warhammer.
What do I like about Warhammer, the public quests, the RVR to take over keeps and the quest helper showing where to complete your quests. But the other night I was playing with my wife and we were both complaining about problems with the game. And I thought there must be something better.
So what did we not like? Well for one thing, the spawn rate. You could would fight a mob, and before you can loot the body it pops up again. Some named mobs I would have 4 or 5 of their bodies on the ground but not able to loot one. Of course I was there to pick up a piece of paper off the table. Second was you would get blocked by the dumbest things. A mushroom, a branch. Now granted they might block you if you are careless, but come on its a game. It should not be a challenge to have your character walk down the stairs.
So I go looking around, and I find 3 interesting games online. One being the lord of land, back in the days, more of a strategic game. Another where you run a government, pretty much modern days. And your game.
I was real excited when I noticed you needed people to help ... hey that would be real cool. My two little children were excited, because now all 4 of us could play together. And even grandma! Realize my youngest is going into 1st grade and can read a little. He also had a 20th level toon in WoW and a 16th in the short time in Warhammer.
Of course dad has to check it out first. Download went fine, installation no problem, although I expected an Icon on the desktop (warhammer had the same problem), creating a character was a bit of a challange. First off the race selection, I think it is poor form to have to scroll a very tiny window to try and read about each race. There is plenty of unused space here. Lets say dedicate ... oh 40% of the screen to the text description, and 40% for the view of the toon, and oh 20% to the buttons choosing the toon? As opposed to the current 10% for the text.
In choosing the phyical attributes, I really expected to change more, but hey for the price who am I complain. My recommendation would be to support multiple hair colors next, although if toons wear a lot of hats it might not matter.
As I was selected my parents history I was a little confused as to why I was doing that. The number on the side changing, I was thinking at first represented starting cash. Although I eventually figured it out and went back to make sure I spent all the points. It might be useful, but might not, to add a screen explaining 'To get the fullest enjoyment of the Role playing, it is important to develope a character history. The choices you make will impact your characters stats and starting skills. You are limited by what you can choose and each has a point cost associated with it. You have a total of X points to use. Note some history issues give you points back.'
From a purest point of view I can appreciate the character development. I really like it. But I know my 6 year old will have trouble as will my avid reading 10 year old. As psychologist have found out, too many choices make you less happy, not more. Also I think, to make it more exciting, adding major flaws would be useful. Back in the old D&D days, one friend of mines character actually cut off the hands and tongue of another persons character. The victim was just being annoying to everyone and he hoped he would stop playing with them. The GM wouldn't let him outright kill him. Well Mr Handless/voiceless actually developed that character very well and made the whole game more enjoyable.
Tutorial, oh I love tutorials. First toon everything went fine, well mostly. I would recommend a way to turn off 'move to where I click'. Maybe its just me, but that is annoying. I will use the arrows, thank you. So I click on the toon, and now I have to click in the dialogue box, and oops, not the toon isnt highlighted argg. I am sure it was my fault but it felt annoying.
Second toon, 'Hi Abidel sent me to talk to you about blacksmithing' Or whatever her name was. 'I am here to teach you about blacksmithing'. Hmm I knew that but now what do I type in? 'Ok I am ready' 'Sorry I ...............', hmm somehting wrong here. After a few minutes I realize I missed the word 'Miss'. 'Hi Miss Abidel sent me .....'. Oh this wont go over well with my wife, neither of the children, nor the mother in law
.
Did I ever mention that in the Colossal Cave most people never finish. And of those that do, almost no one gets the last point. You have to know to:
take clam (to pick up a sleeping clam)
examine clam (to find the note on the clam)
read note (to get the last damn point)
Being able to figure out the exact phrase that pays is too much like work, and too little like fun. In this world where common local venacular is indeed local, it is hard to expect someone to find the exact matching phrase. When the NPC only accepts one concept from my toon, lets just agree that my toon says what your NPC expects, and not make this a typing or mind reading exercise.
Lastly I was surpised I had to reregister to post on this forum, I would have expected my game registration would have worked for both.
<step off of soapbox> Next ....
