This is useful training as the game on the mainland relies on most people being members of guilds. This is a brilliant form of protection for players where a gratuitous PK will get a whole guild coming down on the guilty. You can, in fact, play a loner but I suspect this is for the brave, the stupid or the high level. I understand from some of my more experienced players that guild battles are something to behold.
The helpfulness of the other players helps to make it pretty newbie friendly. There is even a broadcast in chat, which allows you to ask the whole island. Most of the time your question is answered fairly sharpish. The game interface can take a bit of getting used to, but works well once you do and is fairly intuitive. Ditto camera angles and point of view. There are quite a few options as well, so you can tweak. Initially when you show up in the newbie town in the "world" (server) you choose it can be pretty damn daunting. Fortunately, really low levels go by quickly (especially in a group) once you get accustomed to everything. As its fairly easy to get to level 10 or there is less reluctance should you make the wrong choices at the beginning. There are lots of choices to make along the way, as you expect from an RPG.
It is highly recommended that you read the documentation to this game because it is actually rather good and there is quite a bit of stuff in it you need to know. Several sites have sprung up, in addition to the official ones to help you along the way.
These are the positive aspects to the game, now the current downside. Both the application and the servers are ropy. Lag is a constant problem, especially in large groups. Considering the game is based on group battles this is a problem that needs to be addressed soon. In chatting with fellow players (especially around the statue after people have all died), I have found that the game lags, horribly at times, even on cable. The one advantage to this of course, is that everyone is suffering a similar fate. It is not just the 56k users who are getting the short end of the stick. There are server problems as well, last week the server died at midnight PST. At times, it is impossible to log into the game at all. Please note that I have been playing between about 8pm EST and 3am EST, which I had hoped, would be better for lag. I tried to log in at 9am and had not luck, mid afternoon is fine until 5ish.
Article comments