Wurm vs Istaria: and the winner is... (part 1)

Well, if you want to know, you'll have to wait - I don't have time to write it all up in one go! I've broken the games down into pretty typical key areas (combat, crafting, community etc) and looked at my experience of the games. In fairness, I've only being playing Wurm for about a month, and Istaria for years, so I'll happily admit that there will be many depths of the former that I'm not yet aware of. However, a game either grabs you or it doesn't, so I feel justified in making my decisions based on my time played to date. Just take any comments on Wurm as what they are - a beginner's perspective.

Combat

This is quite a way from perfect in both games (although my guild mates in Istaria would question what I know about it, seeing as I craft all the time!).

Battles in Istaria can be fantastic. Fighting single creatures near to your level is usually challenging and certain creatures will heal each other and generally join in the fun if you're not careful. Groups are easy to set up, team combat is fun and despite some lag issues its a rewarding and fun experience. There is a strong array of combat classes; any MMO player should find a style they like to play. There is also a strong multi-classing element to the game, so it's also possible to mix things up if you want to. Creatures too have a strong range of abilities, similar to those players can use, so you'll often find the spells you're casting being used back on you! It's certainly better than many MMOs in this respect.

On the down side, the weakness of Istaria's creaking engine means creatures don't appear in an area until you arrive there and hang around for a few seconds. This can certainly make life interesting, but doesn't do anything for immersion. Also, due to the trouble the game has had with funding and staffing over the years, there aren't a whole heap of interesting quests to do. However, the nature of the game's economy and crafting system means that you'll often have a reason to go hutnig that doesn't need some poor quality fantasy novel idea to string it along: need some cool new armour? You'll have to go hunt for the tech items which drop from creatures. Need to build your new crafting station? Well you'd better take your sword, because those woods are full of treants and spiders.

At lower levels at least, Wurm's combat is quite simply awful. There are no creature animations (at all - not even movement. Things just kind of float towards you), no interesting moves, no nothing. It is painfully slow and in no way enjoyable - you simply choose which combat 'style' you are going to use (defensive, normal or aggressive) and stand there, hoping for the best. Yes, it really is that bad. Magic, ranged combat etc do come into the game later, but why anyone would still be bothering with combat in Wurm by then is beyond me.

In fairness, Wurm's combat does stay true to the game. It's hard from the off, meaning you will struggle to kill anything, even a cow. If you die your skills take a pretty big hit and you'll also find your weapon will degenerate quickly (not that it's much good to start with). You can run away pretty easily though, which was a surprise. It also fits well into the realism element of the game, with animals being used for skins and meat (and not dropping +1 swords).

Overall, an easy win for Istaria when it comes to combat (although I'd be interested to hear if Wurm's combat gets better at higher levels). I'll look at crafting tomorrow.

Istaria - www.istaria.com

Wurm - http://www.wurmonline.com/getting-started

Blight Delta 176: Tier 2 Revamp - I'm confused...

Below is the latest news on what's happening on 'Blight' - the Istaria test server that is open to all Istaria players to check out.

The game is often talked about in 'tiers': roughly speaking this describes the heightening levels characters go through and the corresponding creatures and resources they will come across and use. The last big changes affected 'tier 6' content - the highest in the game. This was understandable, as people have been hanging on with little to no new content for pretty much years. But somewhat surprisingly, the developers have decided to turn their attention to 'tier 2'.

Istaria could certainly do with keeping more players, but I presume the thinking was that Tier 1 was in good enough shape to leave 'as is' for now. Admittedly there are plenty of quests etc for the Tier 1 players, so it's not completely surprising, but for me there are more important things that could do with a bit of polish.

Personally, I would've liked to see a bit of work done on the general difficulty/annoyingness of the different crafting professions and tiers - this can't be more difficult, and would have a much bigger impact on the entire playing community.

For example, why are several tiers of metalwork reliant on making bars out of two components (very frustrating) when other crafting is much more straightforward. Also, there are some big differences on the difficulty of gathering areas. At Tier 4, for example, it is very easy to gather metal and stone, although the forests are crawling with creatures you need to fight/avoid if you're after wood.

I would like to see a balance in all tiers: have areas for each type of resource that are more spread out but safe, with other areas that have creatures but a higher density of resources, making gathering easier when more dangerous (which would encourage groups to work tough areas).

However, its just great to see the game moving forward again with real purpose. Check it out at www.istaria.com

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Tier 2 Revamp

The Revamp of the Dalimond Peninsula continues with this patch, but it is by no means complete. Areas still incomplete include the Shadowed Coast, The Warrens, the Dark Forest, as well as both mini-dungeons (Helian's Tomb and Ashlander's Tomb).

• The eastern part of the Dark Forest is now populated
• Chiconis Battlefield has been repopulated and both Iron and Silver Quarries have been touched up
• Gnomish Observatory has been spruced up
• Elm and Iron can be found north of Bristugo
• The Cleric's Tower is now populated
• The top of the Dalimond Ridge has had a major change from grass to snow and ice (along with a requisite change in monster types)
• Slate Crest has acquired spawns of wolves as well as various resources
• Spirit Corruption storyline is now in and available in Chiconis (for Dragons) and Cleric's Tower (for bipeds)
• Both Spire's Gate and Spire's Trail attunements are now available.
• Additional quests in the Withered Aegis storyline are available in Heart
• Sand Beetles on the beaches north of Dalimond and east of Chiconis are now known as Tremendous Sand Beetles
• Shrines for binding are available at the Observatory Outpost and Central Valley
• Onye Kutima is now in the Temple of Istara in Dalimond
• The Observatory Peninsula has been invaded by ogres and pygmies. The stench of these foul creatures has also drawn flies to the area. Overall Observatory Peninsula, and inside the blighted area called The Observatory itself is now a much more dangerous place to be.
• Source of Power storline is now available from Dreveon.

Additions

• Conjurers now get Multicast IV at level 95.
• Quest "Naithis' Lost Knowledge" to Naithis the Watcher
• Quest "Gerix's Quest: Visit the Cities of Dragonkind" to Gerix in Kion

Changes

• Lowered the evasion of Sand Crabs on the Island of Talinis
• Updated Kazrok the Guardian's dialog to be more Sslik-ified and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Guardian school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Revanus the Batltemage's dialog and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Battlemage school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Rea Telsun the Berserker's dialog and modified it so that OOC data about level and skill requirements for the Berserker school are displayed in a blue tutorial box.
• Updated Kaliphar's dialog to be more Helian
• Squirrel Stew is now stackable
• Cerulean Azulyte can no longer be found on the Chiconis Battlefield
• Silver can no longer be found on the Chiconis Battlefield, but has appeared to the south along the coast.
• Brighter Tarantulas are now known as Aviculara Scavengers
• Brighter Spiders are now known as Dark Crawlers
• Updated the treasure for Winter Wolves
• Nipper the Winter Wolf will no longer spawn on Scorpion Island, instead a Winter Wolf Alpha will spawn
• Drastically reduced the spawn density and rate of Winter Wolves on Scorpion Island
• Vladtmordt now gives the quest "Vladtmordt's Replica Tempered Scale" and "Vladtmordt's Replica Scale of the Prime" out using the quest bucket system and requires Dragons to be at least level 30.
• Quest "Dragon Quest: Replica Tempered Scale" is now known as "Vladtmordt's Replica Tempered Scale" and contains better directions to Winter Wolves and Dark Crawlers.
• Quest items used in the Replica Tempered Scale quest are now stackable but no longer tradeable.
• Quest "Dragon Quest: Scale of the Prime" is now known as "Vladtmordt's Replica Scale of the Prime" and contains better directions to Ulmus Beetles and Ruxus.
• Updated the treasure of Snow Ogres and assigned them an AI template
• Updated the treasure of Frost Beetles and assigned them an AI template
• Updated quest "Mage's Quest: Speak with Maester Larson in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Rennis
• Updated quest "Scout: Seek out Jyrris Wind in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Geela
• Updated quest "Warrior's Quest: Deliver a Report to Sergeant Addlier in Dalimond" and added it to the quest bucket of Mattias
• Quest "Dragon Instant Heal III: Dark Crawler Breeders" now uses kill_keyword and has updated dialog and directions.
• Small Frost Beetles will now spawn along with Large Frost Beetles
• Frost Beetles are now known as Large Frost Beetles
• Adjusted the spawn rates of Iron Golems on the Chiconis Battlefield
• Adjusted the spawn rates of Lapis Lazuli Golems
• Tweaked the treasure tables of Lapis Lazuli Golems
• Cleaned up the Iron Golem spawns around the Chiconis Battlefield, Iron Boulder Golems and Iron Golems now spawn separately from one another.
• Cleaned up the Silver Golem spawns near the Chiconis Battlefield
• Tweaked the treasure tables of Silver Golems
• Human Magical Aptitude now gives a boost to spell damage.
• Racial abilities, Enhanced Armor Use, Bow, Evasion, Ice Magic, Life Magic, and Magic Defense, and Increased Health all now grant a passive 10% bonus to the base skill/attribute value instead of a 5 or 10 point increase.
• Racial ability, Innate Armor, now grants a passive 5% bonus to Armor instead of a 5 point increase.
• Fireflies ability now reduces enemy movement speed on an increasing scale and has greater damage potential starting with Fireflies III and up. It also has a longer recycle.
• Blight's Favor now has a longer recycle, a much shorter duration, but greatly impacts your Blight and Nature skills.
• Pillage Spirit now has a shorter recycle, a slight post-delay, shares a recycle with Critical abilities, and does greater damage.
• Nerve Strike now shares a recycle with Power strike abilities and will overwrite some debuffs now. Fixed a bug where the Stun would conflict with the statistic debuff.
• Cleaned up the Elm Treant spawns west of Chiconis
• Dark Crawlers (formerly Brighter Spiders) can now inflict poison on their prey

Fixes

• Volcano spells will no longer consumed when cast after being scribed.
• Zhaguxal's Vanguard is now removable
• Quest "Island of Alged: Defeat the Taskmaster" now properly directs you to kill the Task-Master of Terror instead of the Machine of Inhibition.
• Quests no longer give Imperial Lore Tokens as rewards.
• Guran the Blacksmith on New Trismus will only give out the training quests for players who have not completed the Blacksmith quest series on Spirit Isle.
• Tier 2 Techniques now list the proper components that they require.
• Corrected the name of the Cenotaph Guardians
• Trophy Hunter quest "Go Bag 5 Snow Ogre Bludgeoners" is now given at a level appropriate for Snow Ogres
• Fixed Gerix's quest so that he is the one you should speak to after completing the task in order to tain your reward.
• Reinforced Hide Satchels made using the Expert Hide Satchel formula will now properly require Hide Strips
• All resources required by the Expert Hide Satchel now have consistent skill min/max values by tier
• Quest "Imbue the Orb With Your Spirit" now reminds you (both in dialog from Semeneth and in the journal entry) to have the Small Glass Vial in your possession when fighting Kaa the Shade.
• Small Glass Vial used in the Rite of Passage is now attuned

Known Issues

• Forest Skulk Hunters have bows, but no bow animation. This is in progress.
• Some of the items (tech-kits, crystals, quest items) are missing icons. This is a known issue and is in progress.

Wurm and Istaria: play them for free, forever (to a point)!

Keen readers (haha) of my blog will probably have spotted that of late I've been dabbling in two MMOs - Istaria and Wurm Online. However, seeing as I don't have enough free time to dedicate to one, let alone two, games, one had to go. So which was it and why? Well, before I tell you (in my next blog), did you know both games can be played for free, indefinitely, as long as you can take some pretty hefty restrictions? Scroll to the bottom for links to the official sites.

Istaria has a great policy which allows you to 'play for free, forever'. Yup, that's downloading the client and having access to the entire game world for free, as well as being able to level up all the way - as long as you're happy to be a human, with no plot of land to call your own, and have no other characters.

This means you get to really try out all aspects of the game except plot building and being a dragon. However, this isn't much of a loss as far as making your decision about the game - dragon play is very similar to biped play right up until the higher levels (where dragons get to fly). Plot building is great, but essentially uses crafting skills that you can do without actually building your own place.

Wurm is free in the initial 'n00b' area, but costs once you move out into the big wild world. This is a really nice idea, as the initial area is both massive and challenging, giving you a really good chance to get to know the game before deciding if you want to pay for the privilege.

Also, a lot of experienced players have a paid Wurm account as well as a free one, so they spend time in the free area to help and welcome new players to the game, with advice and opportunities to work for hard-to-get items and resources. It's another great example of how small game communities go the whole nine to help build the game's subscriber numbers.

It's pretty annoying that other games tend to give you a free time period to try out the game - this either assumes you have a week/month off to really get into the game, or that you're confident you will be able to make a good impression by then. In my experience it's not often the case - I often think I'm going to be able to play a good 10+ hours in a week (even a day!) but then real life comes along and scuppers you, meaning you get an hour at best (probably drunken and in the middle of the night).

Surely it would be better to give a set amount of free in-game hours, to level the playing field, or copy the great systems employed in both Wurm and Istaria. To get going in both games, check out the free play info here:

Istaria - www.istaria.com or http://community.istaria.com/pg.php/download

Wurm - http://www.wurmonline.com/getting-started

My incredibly selfish Istaria wishlist - the Top 5

I know, it's selfish, but every MMO player has a personal list of things they'd love to see in game soon er rather than later. Here's mine:

1) Recall points: In Istaria (as in many MMOs), your character can 'bind' themselves to a spot and return their any time at the press of a button. However, you can only be bound to one place at a time. With a beautiful plot on the edge of the village of Darvus, it's not practical to make it my recall point because it's in the middle of nowhere, and I have to run a mile to the nearest portal (think Stargate-style teleporters that take you to other points in the world). It would be great if we could have a home recall as well as one other - perhaps we could do a cool quest to get the privilege once we get a class to level 100, for example, as a reward for our dedication to the cause :)

1b) OK, I know giving myself a cheaty extra wish already is a bit much, but its a kind of cover for the fact 1 is a little unlikely (and probably hard to implement). If not a second recall point, please, devs, could you at least put an 'out' portal in Darvus? Our neighbours have them and we're sick of being poor relations, especially on Order where Darvus is way more developed than the likes of Elmnic nearby.

2) Resources: While we're on the subject of Darvus, it would be nice if a few more nodes could appear nearby. One of the main things that makes Istaria great is the crafting, and making buildings that help people work on various crafting skills. My plot now has everything a young woodsman or weaver needs to ply their trade on the local elm and kenaf. However, the unpopulated local village of Elmnic (which also has an out portal, I may add!) gets nearly all the elm trees. Share the love around, please.

3) NPCs: NPCs, or non player characters, play an essential part in any MMO - they give out quests, buy and sell items, act as guards and gate keepers etc. Sadly, a couple of NPCs are missing in the region of Spire's Shadow, a key area to work on maple trees. While its certainly not a game breaker (top tip - jumping off Spire's Apex gets you pretty close - just be careful of the lake!) it surely wouldn't take much time to get these lazy buggers back to their posts so that we can attune to these landing pads. And bring back Seldon, even if its only for a week. I've still got a note to give back to him from about five years ago!

4) Structures: There have been persistent rumours of new buildings for players to build - non-human versions of many of the common structures such as houses, workshops and silos would be a great start. This would add so much to the landscape and give a much needed boost to players who have been around a long time. Istaria is very much built on players building on their plots and this area could do with a bit of love. Which leads me to the most important request...

5) Community projects: Please keep these coming! If I had to define one thing that made Istaria great, this would be it. There should always be community projects to work on - I've not been involved in the last few, as I've been working hard on my own plot, but some of the best times I've had in game have been on them. They bring people together, introduce new content and get people talking - all the good stuff. And if you can throw in random spawns of Withered Aegis (Istaria's bad guys) so the adventurers can get stuck in too, more's the better.

Learn more about Istaria at the official website, Istaria.com

My brief Alganon experience

I beta tested a game recently that has now had it's NDA raised, so I'm free to talk about what a depressing experience it was. The game is launched next week and may do OK: it's called Alganon, and my experience of its closed beta test lasted all of a week.

I'd looked forward to the game without reading too much about it. What appealed was the idea of a skill system that would continue to improve you while you were offline - a system very well implemented in Eve Online but not (to my knowledge) in a fantasy MMO. Essentially, you set a skill to increase while you're not playing the game, slightly levelling the playing field for long time players who have invested their cash in the game without being able to play 24/7.

After excitedly downloading the game client, it took me about five seconds to start to become disillusioned. And it's not like I normally give games a fair try too - of my gaming friends, I'm normally one of the more resilient (several of them tend to fail to get past the first month nowadays before giving up). But this time was different because of the impending doom of the very first screen.

Let me take you back about two or three months. I'd read about a free MMO called Runes of Magic: a free to play World of Warcraft (WoW) clone that looked really impressive. I downloaded it, played for about a week, but failed to talk any of my friends into giving it a go. That wouldn't have stopped me (none of my RL friends still play Istaria, for example) on it's own - the truth was that Runes of Magic was essentially WoW lite and if I wanted to play WoW, I'd play the real thing: I'm not exactly loaded, but I'm happy to play a small monthly fee to get the best game experience.

But loading up Alganon - a presumably pay to play MMO in the making - it was the Runes of Magic feeling all over again, but if anything more so. From the loading screen to the graphic style to the GUI to the skill trees to the health/mana system to the, well, everything, it seemed like a clone. The offline skill system I'd so looked forweard to was bolted on as an aside rather than a major game mechanic, adding some bonuses. Perhaps those bonuses improved dramatically with time, but it was obvious Alganon was the worst kind of WoW-a-like in ever other aspect.

As I said, I only played for a week, but in that time I saw absolutely nothing that made me want to stay - a pretty damning indictment for a fan of the genre. If anything, it was very depressing - to think that a bunch of imaginative and talented people had seemingly thought, 'the only way we can justify ourselves is to make a game that's like WoW in every way possible'. If the industry carries on in this fashion, the future is looking far from bright - which is at least good for games such as Istaria.

I should thank the makers of Alganon though - it's saved me a lot of time, because I won't even bother with beta tests from now on, let alone playing games in the first month of release. Instead I'll ignore the hype, wait for the 'real' reviews after launch, and then make a decision on whether to take a dip. Although I've said that before I'm sure...

On the bright side, as I've always played a character called Algenon in MMOs (more than a decade now!), at least I didn't have to face the ignominy of people thinking I was the kind of person that plays characters called Legolis or Gimloi in Lord of the Rings Online!

If you're interested in looking into the game Istaria, visit the official website at www.istaria.com

Making a crafting game for fun and profit

When Istaria (then Horizons) launched in late 2003,things went downhill pretty fast after a decent amount of hype pre-launch. If nothing else, it proved their was a market for a certain type of game if done right – one where crafting was king.

What makes Istaria stand out (other than playable dragons) is the importance of crafting, both in terms of item building and community projects/player-owned plots. But like all MMOs seem to start out, the original team had a grand plan covering everything to player versus player (PvP) combat, but somewhat surprisingly – as release loomed – it was PvP that was shelved.

It's interesting to look at the pay monthly MMOs that have stuck around longest. Ultima Online (1997) was the first truly massive MMO, going over 100,000 subscribers, and has a good mix of crafting, property ownership and combat – both PvE (player versus environment, meaning the game's AI) and PvP. The same can be said of Eve from a sci-fi game perspective. Both should be applauded for squeezing it all in.

Like Istaria, Star Wars Galaxies and Ryzom also feature crafting as a truly important game mechanism. However, most other MMO stalwarts (EverQuest 1 & 2, Dark Age of Camelot, Final Fantasy, Anarchy Online, City of Heroes, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online) concentrate almost solely on combat. Sure, they all have crafting to some extent, but it could largely be withdrawn without having any serious affect on the overall outcome endgame.

Most people thought Istaria would fold, but while a string of combat orientated games perished, it hung in there. Star Wars Galaxies was hugely anticipated and an almost complete disaster. So little worked it wasn't even funny, but it's still going. Ryzom also had its problems, and a lot of people barely even noticed its arrival, but again a core of players stayed loyal. That these crafting games stayed afloat while many combat-centric ones perished is no coincidence – put simply, crafters hang around. So why hasn't someone really nailed this game mechanic?

It could be argued that games such as The Sims Online, A Tale in the Desert or even Second Life have, to a certain extent, taken chunks of this audience away. However, a great game where the emphasis was on community, combat and expansion through crafting could be a real hit.

Start at point A, which is surrounded by a hostile environment. Adventurers must keep the wildlife at bay, while crafters expand the parameters of the settlement – something akin to Harry Harrison's Deathworld books comes to mind. The larger the settlement becomes, the better technology is available, allowing for bigger and better items to be manufactured – but these need new structures and equipment to make them in, so more expansion is required. Being part of that would be amazing.

Playing a bit of Wurm Online the other day really made me wonder what could be done by a half decent dev team with a reasonable amount of cash to spend on a game that was aimed at a sizeable niche, instead of world domination. Wurm is Java based, can be played for free and looks bloody awful, but has more imagination in one of its badly rendered barrels than the recent slew of showy WoW-a-likes have in their wholly vacuous worlds.

Istaria doesn't give you the freedom Wurm does, or some of its other really hardcore sandbox aspects, but its still so far ahead of the competition in some crafting/world manipulation respects – six years after release – it's hard to believe.

Have a look at Istaria by heading to Istaria.com

You can check out Wurm Online at WurmOnline.com

What - and who - makes an MMO community?

An interesting, well written article went up on MMORPG.com about Istaria yesterday, most of which I agree very much with. It's great to see the game getting some publicity on a massive website too, but I have one pretty big issues with it. The article itself is here:

http://www.mmorpg.com/gamelist.cfm?bhcp=1&page=1&game=17&feature=3694

Rather grandly, the piece starts out with the claim that "that one thing" that pulls millions to MMOs "is the feeling of connectedness with other people - the feeling of community". In my experience, to a very large extent, that simply isn't the case, although I wish it was.

The piece goes on to assert there's something special about logging into a virtual world that you don't get from solo games. For me, that's true - a solo game has to be very, very good now to draw me away from playing something else online. But sadly I would say the majority of online games – especially around launch – are far more about weeding out the chaff than enjoying the wheat, because being a part of something doesn't mean squat to most online gamers.

I'm not sure if someone out there has a magic figure for the amount of people that get past the first month of an MMO, and how quickly the player count drops off from there. It has to be massive. Personally, I've vowed not to play any MMO during launch month again and I suggest you make yourself the same solemn oath. Frankly, it's a bloody nightmare.

I would suggest the vast majority of MMO players – a good 90% – don't stay long enough to be part of the community in any sense beyond making up the numbers. After a few months of a game's launch, 'friend' lists make pretty depressing reading. But once the compulsive levellers, naysayers, free trialists and pre-teens bugger off to pastures new, the serious business of community building begins - if the game stays afloat, of course. Even then, many players just plug away solo, or with a friend or two, making no effort to connect with anyone else.

In an ideal world, community would be the thing that brought players to MMOs, but instead its relegated to one of the reasons why some people stay in them. In reality, I'd suggest people flock to MMOs because they love RPGs, and playing them in a group adds an interesting element. Solo RPGs tend to have a good 80+ hours of life in them, and cost the same as an MMO – often more. There's no reason not to pick up an MMO and play it for a month just as you might an RPG – if you put the hours in, you're certainly getting your money's worth without continuing to subscribe.

That quibble aside, it's a lovely article that does capture the community of Istaria. The likes of World of Warcraft and Lord of the Rings Online are outstandingly well put together games, but underneath all that polish an essential ingredient is missing – purpose. Sure, you can level up, then fight for your faction over the same piece of land every day or endlessly repeat the same dungeons to kit yourself (or your guild mates) out with all the latest uber togs. Until the next expansion comes along, and you do it all again...

In Istaria, the community works together to complete structures that are genuinely needed for everyone's life to be easier. Workshops are built (or rebuilt as people move on) near important resources; storage silos and banks go up to make crafting a smoother process; warriors clear areas of creatures so their guild mates can harvest particularly dangerous areas for the rarest ingredients; or fighters hunt for trophies that can be used to make more powerful items. There hasn't been a paid for expansion to Istaria, ever. But we're still playing it, still building and rebuilding and improving on what's there, like a real community should. Long may that continue.

Check out Istaria at www.istaria.com

Defending Istaria: What's an MMO; and why I play this one

I've dabbled in a lot of MMOs over the last 10 years (scroll down for a definition), but the one I've spent most time with is Istaria, formerly known as Horizons. It has an extremely chequered past, and now a relatively small user base, but it's still the game I find most endearing. I'm sure I will lambaste it for its faults another day.

Istaria looks like a typical fantasy MMO. It was launched in 2003 and, despite several changes in ownership and a string of seemingly terminal issues, it has outlived many of its rivals. A key reason for its longevity is a dogged insistence from those passionate about the game that it will survive. But why? Quite simply, it has a couple of pretty special qualities which, when interwoven, make it unique.

Crafting

In the majority of MMOs, crafting is reduced to a pretty dull and ultimately pointless exercise. Systems are rarely well thought out, items rarely of any use to anyone, and the whole thing is an exercise in futility – only the top end items are ever worth anything, and these levels take ridiculous amounts of dedication to achieve.

Horizons is one of the rare games that makes crafting worth bothering with, especially due to the ability to buy a plot of land and actually build on it to your own specifications. As in other games, you can make better quality items as you gain levels – however, unlike other games, many items cannot be bought and have to be made (including all building materials), meaning crafters will always be gainfully employed - even high level crafters needs some low level materials, leaving room for young crafters to chip in and be genuinely useful. Star Wars Galaxies and Eve also make a good stab at this.

The sandbox

Many gamers are waiting for a 'proper' sandbox game, defined as a non-linear open ended gaming experience where the world alters due to player action and interaction. Eve is probably the closest right now, with the likes of Horizons, Ultima Online and Star Wars Galaxies a little further from the mark. For example, you can head off to anywhere in the world pretty much straight away, so exploring can be immediate. You might not last long, mind...

I really don't think I can stomach another completely non-sandbox title, unless it's like Lord of the Rings Online, which has fantastic quest and story implementation. Games such as World of Warcraft funnel you from a to z via every letter in between, rarely offering much of a challenge or need for interaction. While this continues to be the case, my monthly fee will go to Istaria: my plot of land is used by others crafters, I help others build their plots, I go on joint hunts to gather items that we actually need to use, not just to sell for coin or to 'level up'. I've had enough of that, thanks.

The setting

While some of your typical fantasy genre trappings are in evidence (dwarves, elves, undead etc), there is enough theme and originality to give Istaria its own flavour. Some of the creature animations are fantastic and there are some great original races. Its very thin on deep quests, but those it does have include a good dose of humour and challenge.

Yes, there are plenty of the kill 10 badger type quests so derided in MMOs, but this is often tempered by the fact that killing creatures offers actual rewards more tangible than the experience - for example, it may have body parts you need to make a certain spell, or be harvested for resources.

Dragons

Yes, you can play a dragon. But a nice touch is that you can't just dive in and fly – you start out as a small dragon and, through questing, follow a story arc to become a fully fledged ancient. Few other MMOs offer a reward of this magnitude, especially as all the other races (human, elf etc) have no way to fly at all and cannot visit certain areas of the world.

Dragons tend to attract role players too, which adds a nice flavour to the game often lacking in others. A lot of people are drawn to Horizons simply because they want to play a dragon. As no other game out there really does this right, these people tend to stay, despite the game's problems.

Multi-classing

I'm not sure anyone has actually done it, but in theory a single Istaria character could attain level 100 in every class in the game (excluding dragon classes, which are separate). For a humanoid class, this is 28 different adventuring schools and 19 crafting schools. Enough to keep anyone occupied...

To put this in context, most games give you perhaps two classes, one adventurer and one crafting; if you want to try out other classes, you need to make another character. Even then you are often limited to a small amount of characters per account (or per server). Istaria's wealth of options certainly appeals to me, and many others.

What's an MMO?

MMORPG (often shortened to MMO) is hardly the catchiest abbreviation in the world, but standing for 'massively multiplayer online role playing game' it could well be the geekiest.

Essentially, they do what they say on the tin: they are role playing games (RPGs) you play online along with thousands of other players. Some of the biggest computer RPG franchises now have online versions, including Final Fantasy and Warcraft. Game genres range from fantasy, sci-fi and super hero through to real life historical settings. They can be free, browser based games or huge multi million selling behemoths (recent figures suggest World of Warcraft, the biggest game on the market, has 11.5 million monthly subscribers). It's a massive industry.

The games tend to follow a basic format: you create a character (sex, race, look, profession, perhaps skills) and set out as a weakling with the aim of gaining experience to progress levels and become stronger, just like in a solo RPG. however, this is normally made easier by grouping with other players and joining a guild (the MMO version of a social group). You can do quests, fight creatures, make items, anything the game decides will help you progress – even kill other players' characters (although this isn't a part of Istaria).

To find out more about Istaria, visit www.istaria.com

Prologue: Why, Who, How, What, Etc.

Sometimes things just fall into place.

I've been interested in writing a blog since I first heard about them, but unlike everyone else in the world (or so it seems) I never got round to actually doing it. But last week my boss says, 'Look, I want you to completely reassess the editorial direction of our website - I'm thinking, more bloggy'.

Then, just a few days later, I get an email from the online game I play, Istaria (previously called Horizons), saying they're looking at rewarding players who spread the word about the game through various mediums, one of which was the blog. So, I get to research the future of my job by writing about the game I play when I get home. And maybe get a reward. Peachy.

As you may have gathered, I'm lucky enough to be able to write for a living. It's not glamorous, and I'm not well paid, but I realise the fact I like what I do puts me in a privileged position so I'm not going to cheapen my situation: in the grand scheme of things, I'm pretty lucky.

Outside of work, gaming and music are my two big loves. I've been playing online games - specifically MMORPGS (massively multiplayer online role playing games) since The Realm back in about '97. I've played most of them to some extent, from Ever Quest and Anarchy Online through to Eve and World of Warcraft, but the world I've returned to most is Istaria.

I also have no idea who, if anyone, will read this, so I'll start with a few descriptions over the next few days - I don't want to exclude anyone by being presumptuous. Maybe you don't know anything about MMORPGs, or specifically Istaria, and almost definitely not my alter ego in Istaria, Algenon.

After this, I'm thinking the blog will be a pretty big mixture, from review to rant to fiction to storytelling. If you have any bright ideas about what I should write, just let me know. I intend to update it at least twice per week, hopefully more, but I lead a pretty busy life so I won't promise anything. Hopefully someone will like it :)

If you're interested in looking into the game Istaria, visit the official website at www.istaria.com