Yearly Archives: 2008

Mabinogi Preview

By Michael Justice

Our dear friends at Nexon decided to pick up this little MMORPG called “Mabinogi” and translated

it, mainly due to the fact that it received staggering amounts of popularity in Japan. While many

of Nexon’s faithful fans were fretting over the cute graphics and daily adventures with Lorna and

Pan, I was simply skeptical about it, like I am with most new MMORPGs now. I love trying out new

MMORPGs, for one, but I never try to put my expectations too high, in terms of a complete beta

MMORPG experience. I was, however, very pleased to what I would soon find within the world of

Mabinogi.

Upon creating my character and entering the world, I met Nao, who is the official “mascot” of

Mabinogi. Her large, round eyes really made me feel welcome to this whole new world. The tutorial

is quite extensive and it really lets you explore and learn about all the features there are. It’s

very hard to choose to do one of the many things in Mabinogi there is to do. Unlike other MMORPGs,

this one focuses less on “hey here are all these rats, go kill them so you can level up” and more

on the entire MMORPG experience, which is mainly interacting with the community as well as taking a

role in fantasy world as an adventurer. That is something that is vital to a good MMORPG and

Mabinogi really brings it out into the spotlight.

As I stated before, Mabinogi has features galore. It really does seem like there’s something for

everyone. You have an extensive, rock-paper-scissors combat system, for the fighters, a detailed

craft system, for the various artisans and several other things that I could go on and on about, it

even has an aging system, where you get older every earth week and you also acquire stats after you

age.
If you take all of these things and combine them, you can be entangled in the world for hours on

end. I remember after I first started out, I did some dungeons for an hour, some quests for a half

hour and then I sat around a campfire for three hours. Its simple things like this that makes

Mabinogi amazing. Sadly, everything isn’t always perfect, much like life.

You’re probably thinking “wow this sounds great, there is so much to do!” well, you’re right, there

is so much to do, however, you can only take it so far before you collapse under the symptom I call

“Idonthaveenoughskillpointstodoanything fever”. You see, while Mabinogi does have an extensive

free-willing character system, it also has one of the most notorious game-spoiling system to go

along with it.

Yes, I’m talking about a skill point system. In Mabinogi, you can do some fighting, then do some

magic and then do some archery, but you might find yourself struggling with everything whereas

there is this other person who just focuses on combat.

There is no class system, so there is no designated tank, nor is there a designated healer, nor is

there a designated nuker. Some people frown upon this and some people rejoice upon it.

I personally don’t have a preference, because I usually find a way to manage, one way or the other.

Now, while you’re thinking “well hey, that’s ok, I can just level up my lightening magic and then

I’ll do some crafting”, well, you might also want to reconsider that. You’ll be weak in lightening

magic if you level up some blacksmithing, and vice versa. As you can see, the entire system is

essentially, pointless. People are pretty much forced into playing as a tank or playing as

designated healer. There is no point to a free willing skill system if you’re going to limit people

so that they are forced into playing just one role, whereas they could be playing multiple roles at

the same time. That is probably the only downside to the real Mabinogi system I have,

unfortunately, it is one of the biggest problems and will probably never be solved.

Skills aside, there are other features to Mabinogi such as the ability to interact with the

community around a campfire, sharing food, getting fat. The occasional person with a lute comes by

and plays some song from “Final Fantasy VII” and the other people also get out there lutes and do

the same. We all have a good laugh, it hardly gets old (well ok the song gets old, seriously, I can

only listen to “One Winged Angel” enough…). It’s fun, wow, shocker.

Who would have thought that a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game would actually involve

the community while having fun at the same time?! A group of friends and I would head down to the

ol’ dungeon and fight some Goblins and a big mean Golem.

After we all have to use phoenix feathers 50 times over, we finally get our reward and head out to

the campfire again… and we eat again… and I get fat again…someone plays that stupid song…AGAIN… To

be honest, there is not much that a group can do besides sitting around a campfire and killing

stuff together.

There is plenty of stuff to do by yourself, such as crafting, questing, etc. however, when it comes

to group play, there just isn’t a lot we can do before it gets old. We might head off to the arena

for some PvP or go kill a field boss nearby, but those are pretty much static, and don’t happen

very often.

The last subject I dread talking about as I type will be the cash shop… It’s a very touchy issue

that disturbs me greatly and I don’t like discussing it simply because it makes me sick. It really

makes me nauseous thinking that there is this beautiful game, full of possibilities and potential

and that while some of it is restricted naturally, there are some people who can simply throw some

money at the problem and make it go away.

This is the case for most MMORPGs with cash shop, and I am repulsed by the idea. I would sooner pay

the full monthly amount of 20$, than watch as some rich, spoiled kid spends $200 on items from a

shop to increase his game effectiveness than another kid who works hard and earns his items by

nothing but pure in-game work. Cash items that bolster a user’s game playability are simply bribes,

nothing more, nothing less. Bribes to get better at something that is meant to be equally shared

between people who get a chance and work hard.

Mabinogi offers items in their cash shop that allow users to expand their horizons with

customization when making their character. This means that when you make a character with a regular

card, you will only be offered around 6~ styles of hair, 6~ styles of eyes, etc.. With a premium

character card, you are allowed probably five times the amount of hair styles, colors, etc. To me,

that is simply a restriction of creativity and pettiness on Nexon’s behalf. I could deal with

anything else (well ok maybe not the next couple of things) but restricting how your character

looks compared to people who can spend money to get more flexible and unique looks comes close to

breaking the right of free speech, in my opinion.
It doesn’t stop there, however, oh no. You can also buy pets to help you in combat, buffs, etc. I

am not sure how pets work exactly, apparently they have a “summon time” which I’m not sure if that

means they stay alive for that long and then disappear or perhaps you have to wait for them to get

rested before summoning, I don’t know. The fact that they would put restrictions on something that

is already restricted is just a rip-off.

The last couple of things I would like to graze about the cash shop are the premium services they

offer. You can pay around $15 to get a full premium wave for a month which includes the Nao service

(which is free in the Japanese version, by the way) which lets Nao help you in various ways like

revival from death, etc. and she even gives you presents and stuff every week (which isn’t free in

japan), isn’t that nice? It’s kind of like a virtual hooker. The premium $15 thingy also includes

the Advanced Item service, which is basically items that are unattainable through regular means

which have a much better effect than a regular item would. Like the “advanced phoenix feather” lets

you resurrect anyone in the world, anywhere, you just type their name and boom, and they’re alive.

I am unsure if this is useful or not, due to the fact that you get one of each item in alternating

days, and that I do not know if this is real earth days, in which case that would be pointless, or

in-game days, in which case that would be way overpowered.

You also get a storage boosting thing which lets you switch storage between characters (because you

know people who spend money to make more characters need to have access to the storage of their

other character!); lets you put up a shop, expand your storage and inventory space. It also lets

you create a Guild (which I also, believe is free in the Japanese version). Premium character cards

(close to $10) also let you rebirth your character, so that after you hit, oh, the age of 25 (25

earth weeks) you can restart as a kid and get even more stat points than if you were an old geezer

like that free player over there who is 52.
Just face it, Nexon gets good amounts of money from all of this, they know they do from Maplestory

(dear lord millions just from “gachapon”) and they are simply going to do it with every game they

can stick a cash shop in. It is the most disgusting thing I have seen that is relative to MMORPGs,

it’s like tying rock sacks on a cat’s feet.

To sum up Mabinogi from an optimistic viewpoint, it has an amazing combat, skill and living system

with a few kinks that can’t be helped, and it also makes up for it by having a nice interaction

with the community and such. From a pessimistic viewpoint, it is, in its true form, a caged bird

that will never be able to fly due to the fact that someone chopped its wings off to sell to

foreign traders.

Experience the Magic of Knowledge, MMORPG’ers Being Habituated to MWO Trivia Contest

With the help of the considerate MWO BOT, players are able to sit back and appreciate the fantastic accomplishments of all the Olympic athletes. Moved by the spectacular show of grace and athleticism, do you ever wonder if it is possible to transform the tremendous drive of the Olympics into some actual practice?

 

Magic World Online, the hottest new concept in MMORPG’s has just completed a new integration of a unique Q & A system into its sophisticated game world. The Trivia Contest purpose is to improve the knowledge and wisdom of the MWO players while still having fun. Only by answering some questions will your hero level up easily and quickly!

 

By teleporting your hero to Uptown by Sun City or Sky City Teleporter you can challenge the great Genius Boy in his Trivia Contest. By partaking in his contest you are assured great rewards of leveling experience points. The amount of experience points rewarded will be tailored to the hero’s level.
Remember the great Genius Boy will also give you the following explanation when challenged:
Quiz can be done once a day (system resets at 00:00 PST every day). Quiz contains 10 random multiple-choice questions, with 30 seconds’ time limit for answering every question. Next question will appear automatically when current question is answered. If you answer a question correctly within in the time limit, the remaining amount of seconds will add to your final quiz points. 29 seconds left = 29 quiz points earned; 0 sec left = 0 quiz point earned. When your quiz is finished, click [Exit] to have system count (calculation based on character level) your total quiz points into experience points prize. The amount of experience point’s prize will be displayed on the lower right of your screen.

 

The trivia questioned used for the Trivia Contest comes from players like you; so if you would like to share your knowledge with others please do so via http://www.mwo.enjoymmo.com/question/question.php

 

Both physical and mental competences come from accumulation. So which hero has the greatest knowledge and wisdom? Which hero learns things so fast? Answers up to your mastery! Let’s truly make progress every day, at leisure in Magic World Online!

Volunteer Journalist Team Recruiting

Good news! Volunteer Journalist Team is recruiting members! A feature page will be available on TQ community site soon! Different from tips or stories collection on TQ game forums, the Volunteer Journalist Team has a formal system for recruiting long-standing writers. The manuscripts will be classified into different categories in a more detailed way and the members will receive generous TQ point cards as reward! It will be a long-term program of TQ community site aimed at providing better gaming experience for all TQ game players.

 

Wanna be the first group of Volunteer Journalists? Wanna see your articles and names appear on the Journalist Team feature page as soon as it is open? Pay attention to the following information and we are waiting for you and your articles!

 

 

Journalist Team Member Mission:
Wanna be the first group of Volunteer Journalists? Wanna see your articles and names appear on the Journalist Team feature page as soon as it is open? Pay attention to the following information and we are waiting for you and your articles!

 

Jounalist Team Member Requirements:
If you are passionate to TQ game, if you can type (…), if you have a keen nose for news and information—-then you are the one! Just feel free to join!

 

Journalist Team Member Reward System:
See image —>

 

Game event or contest report: more than 300 words, 2-5 Screenshots, to be awarded 20-30 merit points.

 

Interview: At least 800 words, picture or photo is prefered, to be awarded 30-50 Merit Points.

 

Game news, tips and short story: more than 300 words, to be awarded 20-30 merit points.

 

Game novel: More than 500 words for each chapter, if serialized for less than 10 chapters, each chapter will be awarded 20-30 merit points, if serialized for more than 10 chapters, each chapter will be awarded 30-50 merit points.

 

Similar article: If more than 60% of the article is similar to another one posted on TQ game sites or other websites, 30 merit points will be deducted as a warning.

 

 

How to Join:

  1. Your pen name;
  2. E-mail address or MSN;
  3. The TQ game you’re playing, the server you’re in, your character’s name;
  4. Write a short article (about 300 words) about TQ game;
  5. (Optional) Your short introduction and a photo.


 

 

Please send the above stuff to our official E-mail:jteam@tqdigital.com or MSN with the same account. Suggestions are also welcome 🙂

 

If the above E-Mail is bouncing your e-mails then send your material to : zyz615@gmail.com (Jasper’s, our Journalist team Leader and Chief Editor’s Mailbox) Then tell us the boucinng problem here. Thanks a lot~

 

Expecting your participation!

 

Live Support, Get Instant Help From GMs

Attention pilots!

 

Tired of waiting around forever to find out what to do with that item you just found?  Not sure how to buy codes? Well we’ve got the solution! Now Live Support is launched to better assist you with your questions and problems!  Simply go to the website and click on the Live Support icon on the home page, and you’ll be connected with a TQ representative, ready to handle your Zero issues. We look forward to hearing from you!

 

Online time:
Monday-Friday, 18:00-21:00 and 22:30-2:30 PDT(GMT-7), not including the holidays.

 

When our Live Support is offline, you can send your questions to our service email (service@zero3000.com).

 

Suggestions:
If your questions are about the game guide, such as game installation, manual patch, mission walkthrough, gem socket, etc, we recommend you to post them on the forum (http://forum.91.com/zero), many experienced players would be very pleased to help you out and give you the most satisfactory answers.

PERFECT WORLD INTERNATIONAL LAUNCHES CLOSED BETA

Popular MMORPG Redefines Free-To-Play Game Space with Premium Content
 
August 19, 2008 – Redwood City, CA
Perfect World Entertainment Inc. (“PWE” or the “Company”), a wholly owned US subsidiary of Perfect World Co., Ltd., today announced the closed beta for its highly anticipated online game “Perfect World International” has now officially launched. Beginning today, registered gamers will have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the expansive game world and experience “Perfect World International” prior to its open beta this fall.
 
“Today’s beta launch is an exciting milestone for us as it provides the opportunity for North American gamers to receive their first introduction to Perfect World International,” said Dr. Alan Chen, CEO of Perfect World Entertainment Inc. “Providing early access to the full game underscores our commitment to customer satisfaction while demonstrating the well-designed, high quality entertainment experience that gamers can expect from Perfect World International.”
 
“Perfect World International” is the English-based, international version of Perfect World II.
With millions of players worldwide, the game has been heralded as one of the most successful 3D MMORPGs in a number of countries. “Perfect World International” offers an immersive online world with three unique races and six different classes; all the while maintaining its free-to-play business model. In addition, it boasts one of the most in-depth character creation interfaces known to date, numerous quests full of lore and depth, and an extensive selection of customizable fashion items.
 
Fans of PVP will also enjoy Territory Wars, a unique feature in “Perfect World International” in which guilds fiercely compete in weekly battles to dominate certain parts of the world. The victors walk away with a great deal of reward in addition to the many added benefits that the conquered territory provides.
 
For additional information on “Perfect World International” and the closed beta, visit http://www.perfectworld.com.

SAGA MMO RTS Unleashes its First Expansion: the Undead

SAGA launches a new faction for the Brotherhood, with over 20 new units and an expansion to the SAGA world map.

Orem, UT – July 25, 2008 – The first expansion to the SAGA MMO RTS (by Silverlode Interactive) world adds 17 new Undead troops and 5 spells to the core unit set and enables the Undead as a playable race. The Undead are a fearless faction, featuring such powerful units as the self-regenerating Undead Dragon, and the Lich, who dominates with his Terror ability, which breaks the morale of even the most resilient foes. The Undead expansion also adds new quests for players trying the new race, as well as a number of new quests advancing the SAGA storyline for all races and factions.

 

SAGA has an ever-developing storyline, with new quests and content added every other week; each faction has a distinctive play style and back story. In the near future, Silverlode will implement an innovative story system, where players’ choices will affect and determine the direction and events of the ongoing saga.

 

With the unleashing of the Undead, SAGA has now advanced to the Third Age. When SAGA first launched in March ‘08, the five factions were at perpetual massive war, every faction for itself. In the Second Age, the Elves, Dwarves, and Giants formed an allegiance called The Order, determined to wipe out the darker factions…

 

The Orcs and Dark Elves were thus compelled to form their own blood pact, known as the Brotherhood. Outnumbered and under attack, the Brotherhood desperately schemed to release an Elder God,  the God of Death, from his Underworld prison, to join them against the Order. They succeeded, and the Undead have now joined the Brotherhood, restoring the balance. The Third Age has dawned.

 

The saga continues, and the story will unfold as new quests and game features are added every week or two. Only Silverlode Interactive president Jason Faller knows what will happen next, and he’s keeping it close to his chest…

 

About Silverlode Interactive
Silverlode Interactive is an expanding game studio outside Salt Lake City, Utah, founded by movie industry professionals. Silverlode’s flagship title, SAGA, is set to revolutionize RTS gaming. Visit http://www.PlaySaga.com to register for free.

Perfect World International (Closed Beta) Interview

Jon Belliss, Product Manager of Perfect World International was interviewed by Onrpg’s Senior Editor Brian.




Question: Can you tell us about each of the races and how the choice of race will affect the gameplay for each player?


J.B.: Each race is different in one way or another.The obvious difference between the three races is the classes that are available. The second most obvious effect is your starting location. Each race has its own starting location with separate lines of quests.
Now in terms of effects that are not so obvious to new users, Winged Elves have the ability to fly from level one. This gives them a lot of freedom in terms of travel, and also eases long travel times by allowing you to simply take off and fly in any direction you need to go regardless of terrain. This is just one example of how your race affects gameplay.

Question: What are the most likely roles for each class to fill?


J.B.: Each class of course has primary roles that they were designed for. Key examples of this are the Barbarian, designed to be a meat shield, and the Cleric, which is usually a healer. In Perfect World International, despite these primary archetypes, players can choose their skills and allocate their points however they choose. So technically, you can be a Cleric that specializes in metal magic and damage spells, or you can be a healer, it’s entirely up to the user.

Question: Would you say Perfect World International is a solo oriented game, group oriented game, or is there truly room for both and how so?


J.B.: I believe there is truly room for both in Perfect World International. Some people prefer to solo, and some prefer to group, and Perfect World International really does a great job of catering to both of those behavioral habits. You’ll find that a majority of the quests in game are solo-able, but you will of course run across quests that will be easier to accomplish as a group.

Question: Are the classes in Perfect World International balanced, or are there a few classes that are clearly fan favorites?


J.B.: Perfect World International has been out in China for some time now. Now what does that mean? Millions of players worldwide have played Perfect World and submitted tons and tons of feedback. The development team for Perfect World International is really quite amazing. They work very hard to stay in touch with the user base, and they take their fans very seriously. A lot of tweaking and changing has been performed by the development team in order to ensure that every class in Perfect World International is an enjoyable and effective class.

Question: What tradeskills are there, and how will they impact the game?


J.B.: The trade skill system in Perfect World International is quite unique. One of the primary reasons its unique is that you’re not restricted to one or two trade skills, you specialize in as many trade skills as you like. The second reason why the crafting system in Perfect World International is unique is related to the actual materials used for crafting. There’s an alternate use for all of the ores, herbs, and minerals that you find around the game world. Players can combine these minerals into wines, and use the wines within instances. So what does the actual wine do? At the entrance of every dungeon, there’s an old swordsman, who is looking for some thirst quenching wine. If you bring him the correct type of wine, he will repay you by clearing all of the trash mobs in the dungeon, allowing you and your party to march straight to the boss.

Question: What do higher level players have to do? Do you have any sort of raiding system or massive boss battle to keep them challenged?


J.B.: The instances in Perfect World International are quite challenging, specifically the bosses. Other than instances, there are also random mobs in the world that require a team of people or in some cases a raid, to take down.

Question: How have players responded to the beta so far?


J.B.: The response from the user base has been great so far. A lot of users have been taking note of all the hard work our team has been putting into this title, and of course

we’ve been collecting any and all feedback in order to better improve the game.

Question: Are there any plans to add new races and/or classes in the future?


J.B.: We always hear rumblings from overseas about new races and/or classes, but I honestly can’t provide you with any concrete information at this point in time.

Question: How would you say that the localization process has affected the game as a whole?


J.B.: The localization process has really added a new level of polish for this game. We have multiple teams that work on localization and they have really done a superb job with Perfect World International. I have seen Perfect World International evolve from Engrish to English, and I must say, the end-user experience is definitely much stronger as result.

Destiny Online

 

Destiny Online is a great community MMORPG featuring teamwork and pet raising. Team up with up to 4 other players, and you can earn up to 5 X Experience when you train. There are also many other exciting features such as Weapon Refinement, Tribe System, Marriage System, Master/Apprentice System, Trade System, fun quests, super cool skills (both for heroes and pets), and so forth. You never play alone in the world of Destiny Online! The legend starts in an ancient eastern world where one day, the 10 naughty sons of the Almighty God decided to turn into 10 suns playing over the sky. The human suffered due to the scorching heat and everything on Earth was dying. A hero appeared carrying a powerful bow and fired 9 arrows into the sky, shooting down 9 of the suns, and thus returned peace and safety to Earth. The 9 fallen suns, turned into nine golden plumes, and scattered over the great mystical land. It is said that whoever finds all 9 plumes will gain the almighty power of God.

Power Soccer

Join the world’s largest online soccer game! Power Soccer is the latest sports game by Powerchallenge and offers a browser based 3D game with over 1 million other players to play against.

Free action soccer! Challenge your friends or an opponent across the globe and play full screen 3D soccer right in…