Roma Victor
I just signed up for the Roma Victor open beta – which, according to the website, truly is “open” so I hope to get my pass within a few days. RV is, thank God, NOT a fantasy MMORPG but based on the ancient Roman empire and the devs have apparently tried their best to make it as true as possible to the real world of that day. I am a bit of a history freak and have always been fascinated by ancient history, which made RV attractive to me.
What is also VERY different is exactly how real the game is, at least according to the devs. For instance:
1) Crafting: “flax can be grown, carefully harvested, left in a muddy retting pit to rot, taken out and dried, heckled into tow fibres with a comb, spun into twine at the distaff and then woven into a linen sheet at a loom. Grain can be milled into flour, which can be mixed with saltwater to form a basic dough, which when left out will go sour. Mix the sour dough with some fresh dough and bake it in an oven to make some bread.”
2) Environment: “There’s a realistic day and night cycle that actually tracks the real celestial locations of the sun and moon according to the exact (in-game) time and day, longitude and latitude - of course adjusted back to the second century calendar!”
3) Skills: “as in real life, your skills and personal statistics decay. This means that without practise your character’s ability in a given skill will worsen. If, for example, as a newbie you spent a lot of time developing your archery skills but then moved on to focus on your farming you’d find that your archery decreased over time.”
4) Armor: “Furs, hides, plant-fibre textiles, metals and alloys can all be crafted into wearable items and this natural diversity yields substantial variation in character appearances.”
5) Wounds from ba
ttle: “In combat characters can sustain both wounds and injuries. Wounds decrease your character’s six Attributes (Muscle, Vision, Agility, Dexterity, Intuition and Stamina), which can have a significant effect on the character’s skills and activities. Wounds heal slowly over time although the healing process can be greatly hastened with the right medical treatment.”
6) Music: “A broad range of authentic ancient musical instruments have been painstakingly brought back to life, each with their own unique set of notes. Player musicians can learn songs, play together and entertain the masses in full 3D sound.”
7) Food: “Although nowhere near as dire as such consequences can be in real life, those players interested in maintaining efficient character development will definitely want to keep their characters well fed. Different types of foods can have very subtle effects, but the most noticeable effects will come from alcohol, stale food and poisons.”
You get the idea. I figure that this may become to cumbersome to play because it sounds like it might require very active management (similar to The Sims – which I have never gotten into but am aware of how addictive it can be from friends).
Two other things to note: First, there is no monthly fee to this one, which is nice. Second, you can actually spend real life $ to acquire better items in game. Now this last part is a little dangerous here. I have never ever been the type to go to Ebay to buy items for MMORPG characters. However with this set-up, the temptation may be stronger, and I think a lot of what one ends up doing will depend on the degree to which this aspect of the game evolves.
I am hoping that this deep of an MMORPG will attract mature players, which I like (particularly after slogging away with 15 yr olds in “Guild Wars” and “World of Warcraft” for so many months).
Anyway, the beta is free of course so if I don’t like it, I won’t buy it. D & D is around the corner, which is another one I’m looking forward to.
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