Imagine yourself new to this MMO Wurm Online. You enter the world with only a handful of tools. This world is vast, with rolling hills, lakes, deserts, plains, oceans and thick forests. You can shape the world as you see fit, you can clear cut forests, move mountains, dig trenches and mines, all that limits you is time. You decide to go about it alone, thinking that it would be nice to have a quiet cabin in the woods. You set off and explore the world. Starting from the opening location, you go explore using the player built road network seeing farms, monuments, ships, towns, cities, and other user created content along the way.
You make your way off the beaten path to find a secluded spot. This journey is very dangerous, as your fresh avatar has no fighting skills. So you run away from everything; giant spiders, dogs and the occasional lion. Finally, you reach a spot that it just right. However you're avatar is hungry and thirsty. Thankfully there's a nearby lake so you take a drink. Food however, is another story.
After some reading in the Wurm wiki for instructions, you begin to forage the grass and find an assortment of berries and nuts. You now need to cook the food. This requires a fire and a bowl (you already have the bowl to make this example so much easier to digest). You start chopping down a tree with your hatchet. It takes some time, but you get it down. Now you cut the felled tree into logs. From the couple of logs you chopped up, you take one and use your carving knife to make kindling. Now with logs and kindling, you can build your fire to cook your food to eat! Using your flint, you make a fire, and then place the nuts and berries you found into the bowl. Placing the bowl on the fire, you start cooking your food, occasionally adding more wood to the fire so it doesn't burn out. Finally, the food is cooked and you've created a low quality stew. You eat it, filling up a small part of your 'hunger' bar.
Now at this point, you may be wondering, why the hell do I want to play a game that makes you micro every little thing? Imagine trying to build a house! The steps and requirements for such a task are almost insurmountable! Well, let me go over another example.
You start off fresh, but instead of going it alone, you join a town that you read about on the forums. This town is welcoming and get you set up right away. They have food, water and shelter. Now that you have your basic needs fulfilled, you want to go kill things. You have to train however, but the town is set up for that too. You get some weapons from the weapons smith and train on practice dummies. You head out on hunts with other townspeople and defend the village against player enemies.
You also take up a role in the village. This could be carpentry, masonry, amour/weapon or tool smiting, farming or cooking. The list of skills is exhaustive, so you have a wide variety of choice. You take up one, a role that has yet to be filled in the town, and start grinding. Eventually you become quite proficient, your skills and creations becoming quite valuable to the village. You slowly start to feel something, something strange and uncanny, deep within the recesses of your cold, dead, cynical heart. It's the sense of being part of something, of working with others for the greater good. A sense of purpose, of belonging, of community.
You also take up a role in the village. This could be carpentry, masonry, amour/weapon or tool smiting, farming or cooking. The list of skills is exhaustive, so you have a wide variety of choice. You take up one, a role that has yet to be filled in the town, and start grinding. Eventually you become quite proficient, your skills and creations becoming quite valuable to the village. You slowly start to feel something, something strange and uncanny, deep within the recesses of your cold, dead, cynical heart. It's the sense of being part of something, of working with others for the greater good. A sense of purpose, of belonging, of community.
That is the reason why Wurm Online is worth it. You're in a world full of villages and cities, working with or against each other, using the land in any way they see fit. The game allows you to leave your mark, to change the world and to make a difference. It also makes sure you can't go at it alone. Finally, and most importantly, it makes sure you work for everything you want to accomplish.
Now, there are issues and imperfections. They list in the hundreds, if not thousands, and you can easily find them discussed and lamented in any review or forum. The question is can you look past them? If you do, then you can join those who have also in one of the most challenging and rewarding MMOs ever created.
Linkage:
Main page
http://www.wurmonline.com/
Wurm wiki - great for all sorts of info
http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_Page
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