I\'m wondering if anyone else has played this before. Web Earth Online is a MMORPG with a little twist... you play an animal in a North American ecosystem. Your goal is to survive and breed. Sounds simple, but this game is actually extremely complex and involving. It runs in a Java applet, and seems rather slow, but you\'ll get used to it.
It\'s free to play untill you unlock the Condor species, and if you want to play some more advanced animals you\'ll have to pay a small fee. However, it\'s by no means necessary, as the free species are interesting, diverse and fun.
There are two active worlds, which are essentially clones of eachother. The first world is meant for new players who are just starting out and need to learn the basics. You\'ll need to find food, shelter, keep yourself clean, run from predators (or hunt prey if you are one). Time goes through all 4 seasons of the year and your survival tactics need to change accordingly- for some species, this means hibernating in winter. The second world is \"survival of the fittest\", focused on rough play and the struggle to stay alive. (I think this difference is only to the players... the gameplay doesn\'t seem to change between the two worlds).
There are always hundreds of NPC creatures in the world, making up for a lack of players (this game is several years old and sees 8 or 9 players max at any one time), and they properly live in the world just like players do. The AI is pretty smart- they hunt, breed, run if attacked, and fight for dominance. There\'s a ranking system in the world, which you\'ll need to be aware of if you are playing a Male- you\'ll need a high ranking dominance to be able to claim a female as your mate during your breeding season.
The current community there is rather inactive. I see a few kids playing from time to time (if you see someone called Arwen, give her my regards... and then eat her
).
It\'d be nice for a few friends here to join me, if survival sim games are your cup of tea.
I\'m currently playing out the end of my natural life as a condor- this one life has racked up over 20,000 points for me, more than you need to unlock all the free animals available.
Not bad eh. You might see a few Moogichilds flying around, my proud lineage for when my current incarnation dies. Anyways, next I might try a King Snake, so I can get into those tree holes and steal some yummy chickies. ^^
Here\'s the site if you want to try it out:
http://www.webearthonline.com/As a footnote, I\'d like to make sure people are aware of the advertising rules here... they\'re rather picky, but this is how the devs see it: Free = good, Open Source = good, Paid/Hack\'n\'Slash = bad 