Silk Road

[Cantousent]

Well, I've just downloaded and installed another game. It's called Silk Road. I'm playing this one inbetween my NWN2 runs. One of our own, Ghengisken, has urged me to give it a try. He insists it's a great game, mostly because it is free FREE FREE. I'm not convinced, as yet. Part of my problem is that I have very little time to play computer games these days and MMORPGs are a grind. The only one I've been able to play for any extended periof of time is City of Heroes/Villains. Even then, I don't play that any more.

 

The pluses:

 

*The female character models look good. Let's face it, if I'm going to play a game, I want to look at something aesthetically pleasing.

 

*It's free, so I don't have to pull out the credit card just to see how it plays and whether I like it.

 

*If I choose to spend money, it will be to get cool ingame items like the pet that grabs loot for me.

 

*I know folks who play already.

 

*It installs easy.

 

*It looks good for a free program.

 

The minuses:

 

*When I am exhausted from all the crap I'm doing these days, how much fun can I get out of the game?

 

*If I do get hooked, it will be a huge time sink.

 

*It's yet one more remote program accessing my computer.

 

At any rate, anyone else play this?

[Darque]

And the important info: What's the game about? "

[Cantousent]

Sorry, it's a RPG set in a Japanese/Chinese hybrid setting. You fight giants and monsters and some such. You can set up shops to sell stuff and whatnot. The typical fantasy MMORPG only in an Asian setting. The servers, if I'm not mistaken, are set in Korea. That would SOUTH Korea to you.

[Hell Kitty]

someone ban this bot pls

[alanschu]

There's no smiley face.

 

Therefore, it's impossible that it's a bot.

[Cantousent]

Please do not spam my thread. It was already half spam by the end of the first post, and I'd like to see if we can get something interesting from the other half. :Cant's non smiley face smiley icon:

 

Also, if I were a bot, I'd've included a link to Silkroad Online.

 

http://www.silkroadonline.net/

[Pop]

Looks pretty cool. But I'd be interested in seeing what the game dynamic is, because there's supposedly some difference between older-school MMOs like Everquest or Anarchy Online and things like WoW and Guild Wars. Too bad I don't have the time to figure it out personally.

 

How popular is this? What kind of membership tally does it boast? It certainly looks to be popular with bots Maybe that amount of banning is normal, or sub-normal, but it looks like a lot.

[Hell Kitty]

Please do not spam my thread.  It was already half spam by the end of the first post, and I'd like to see if we can get something interesting from the other half.  :Cant's non smiley face smiley icon:

 

Also, if I were a bot, I'd've included a link to Silkroad Online.

 

http://www.silkroadonline.net/

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Or you would have said some like "people of forums.obsidianent.com have you tried Silkroad Online?"

 

Anyway, I've noticed a hell of a lot of banner ads for free MMO's on numerous websites lately, but the fact that they're free always seems like a negative rather than a positive. Like there must be something wrong with them if they're not charging. Heh.

[Wistrik]

My experience with 'free' online games (Diablo 1 & 2) is that they attract the dregs of society who prefer to ruin your fun much more than contribute to it. Greedy, self-serving people also make up the majority of the population. That said, it's possible to find a decent group to game with, but you're limited to passworded games if you don't want to be harrassed by idiots. Frankly, I'm totally burned out with the online experience and am in no rush to re-enter the fray. It's singleplayer all the way, for the forseeable future.

[astr0creep]

Well I downloaded and installed Silkroad and the server is "being inspected or undergoing updates" which sucks cuz the screencaps look nice and I wanted to try it this afternoon at work since they're keeping some of us in the office while all the unionized workers(over 200 of them) are heading home for the holidays at noon and I wanted revenge...

 

 

By the way, since when does a bot have a MODERATOR tag under their avatar?

Edited December 22, 2006 by astr0creep

[Hurlshort]

My experience with 'free' online games (Diablo 1 & 2) is that they attract the dregs of society who prefer to ruin your fun much more than contribute to it. Greedy, self-serving people also make up the majority of the population. That said, it's possible to find a decent group to game with, but you're limited to passworded games if you don't want to be harrassed by idiots. Frankly, I'm totally burned out with the online experience and am in no rush to re-enter the fray. It's singleplayer all the way, for the forseeable future.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Diablo is not a free online game. You pay $50 for the product. That helps to guarantee the quality of the product, even if the player base is terrible. I'm not sure about Silk Road, but I'm usually disappointed by free games. Of course, I compare them to WoW, and that's a bad idea.

[alanschu]

I wouldn't say a game like WoW wasn't filled with much of the "dregs of society" either.

 

Anyone who's seen Barrens chat can attest to this.

[Cantousent]

Oh, the game isn't so bad. It's really all about whether you have friends who play, which is true for all these MMORPGs on the market.

 

The graphics really aren't so bad. In fact, I was quite impressed that the game sports the graphics it does.

 

I have to say that you have a lot of griefers in the game... more than CoH/V.

 

The pathfinding literally made me laugh. I had to go places in right angles to get around a wall. I could stand a foot from the end of the wall and run in place against it while clicking on the other side of the wall. I had to click one foot away, click one foot to cross the plane, and then click the one foot from where I was standing on the other side of the wall. That's not pathfinding.

 

The force and weapon systems aren't so bad. You have sword, spear, and bow weapons available, and I presume each has an advantage and a drawback. For force, you have four choices: lightning, fire, force, and cold. I've been using cold so far, which slows the enemy. I also use a sword, which allows me to use a sword/cold combo move. Do I suggest this game to others? It's free. Give it a shot if you like. ...But it lacks the polish of the higher end games.

[Hurlshort]

I wouldn't say a game like WoW wasn't filled with much of the "dregs of society" either.

 

Anyone who's seen Barrens chat can attest to this.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

The only communities I've found that didn't have a good chunk of lamers are closed ones on NWN. The great thing is that in most of these games, turning off general chat is not that difficult. Cantousent is right about the fact that the people you play with make the game. I played Lineage 2 for awhile simply because I had a good guild, even though the game had lost its magic for me.

[Wistrik]

My experience with 'free' online games (Diablo 1 & 2) is that they attract the dregs of society who prefer to ruin your fun much more than contribute to it. Greedy, self-serving people also make up the majority of the population. That said, it's possible to find a decent group to game with, but you're limited to passworded games if you don't want to be harrassed by idiots. Frankly, I'm totally burned out with the online experience and am in no rush to re-enter the fray. It's singleplayer all the way, for the forseeable future.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Diablo is not a free online game. You pay $50 for the product.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Diablo/2 runs in either singleplayer or multiplayer mode, with essentially the same content either way. When I said 'free', I was referring to the free Battle.net online game service one can play Diablo/2 on. Because it was free, anyone and their dog could play there, and pretty much behave however they wanted, which was usually bad. Not that troublemakers don't play paid online games, but in their case its costing them money every month.

[Zellsillusion]

I played my share of silkroad, great for a "free" game but not for extended play.

 

The first 10-15 hours of the game are great. It has great graphics even on low end machines and it has a variety of quests and character choices. Also as an east-asian history major I found the setting of the silkroad interesting albeit amusing. The biggest apparent flaw is the translation, I think they used a computer translator. To make matters worse since its a Korean game discussing Chinese terms you get some very amusing transliteration

 

Overall though, its good at first. The problem comes when you get farther into the game. What starts as kill 20 wolves or bring back 15 bandit swords becomes 50, then 100, then 600 (I do not joke). Never have I seen as bad a grind as when I had a quest to collect 600 items that dropped every 3rd monster.

 

In addition, while the game is free it is sponsored by an online market. Not suprisingly the game is geared so that eventually, you have to start buying. From experience boosters to 1000+ potion packs after level 15-20 you really need to start investing cash or be prepared for very, very, painful leveling.

 

So it is an interesting concept, decent design, but I'd warn against getting too sucked in.

[Cantousent]

Well, I took the plunge and installed WoW. Fun so far. Silk Road wasn't too bad, but I'm afraid I'd get bored long before the whole "purchase or pay" dilemma.

[Darque]

Wow? Looking for a major time sink are we?

[Hurlshort]

Wow? Looking for a major time sink are we?

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

I gotta say, out of all the MMO's I've played, WoW feels the least like a time sink. That's probably because it's catered towards the casual gamer, and you can actually achieve something in an hour or so. But I've never made it to level 60, in fact my highest toon is 54. This isn't because I haven't put the time in, it's rather that I avoid any type of grinding whatsoever. Basically if I don't have an interesting quest to motivate me, I don't fight it.

 

I'm also not the kind of guy that needs to have top of the line gear. My biggest goal is to look cool, and that really doesn't require a ton of time raiding. Enjoying MMO's is all about your mindset, and the people you play with.

[Cantousent]

That's been my experience. I'm the most hardcore gamer of my set. I play with my brother in law, my brother, my sister in law, and a family friend. I'm in it for the fun, not the bragging rights.

[kirottu]

That