by
Cody “Micajah” Bye, Managing Editor
For many North American and European gamers, the typical fantasy
setting often involves lush forests, various races of sizes and shapes,
and the temptations of untold treasures. Even if a the creators of a
fantasy world attempt to be novel, everything seems to fall back to
J.R.R. Tolkien’s style of fantasy and the ancient myths and
legends that were infused into the lands of Europe. The concept of a
dragon or a wizard is so commonplace in today’s modern
culture Western culture that we don’t even bat an eye. Games
and novels set in these environments litter store shelves, and
it’s almost impossible to find a piece of work in the fantasy
genre that doesn’t fall back to those age-old roots.
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Silkroad Online is a
historically based MMORPG.
A similar sort of situation seems to be the case in many parts of Asia
where the stories of the Ancient Chinese dynasties have become the
stuff of legends and myth that many fantasy worlds are based around.
However, the stories and legends of the Ancient Chinese dynasties are
also slowly beginning to make their way to Western audiences, many in
the form of massively multiplayer online games. It’s not
entirely clear whether North American and European audiences enjoy this
version of fantasy more than the typical Tolkien styles, but it
can’t be denied that many Western gamers have latched onto
these new free to play games.
Recently, I was given a guided tour of one of these historically
influenced MMOGs, Silkroad
Online, and was pleasantly surprised by what the game had
to offer. Although the hour and a half tour given by Silkroad
Online’s marketing assistant Jae Ghim was nowhere near long
enough to provide a full review of the title, there was certainly
enough time to gather an initial impression and list the number of
mechanics that were interesting and unique to this Ancient Chinese MMOG.
Starting the game was a fairly hassle-free experience compared to some
free to play MMOGs. Silkroad
Online is available for download in numerous locations
(including FilePlanet
and the official
website) and the client booted right up on my computer. The
file isn’t incredibly large (just under a gigabyte) and a
minimal bit of patching was required before the game was ready for the
first pass. As per my instructions from the fine folks at TriplePoint
Public Relations, I logged in to my trial account and began my journey
in SRO.
Character creation in SRO is an interesting experience. Although the
customization aspects are fairly limited compared to games developed in
North America or Europe, the selection system is fairly straightforward
and allows for quick entry into the game. The player’s simply
pick from the two different races, European or Chinese, and then plunge
into the game world. “The game is based on the actual Silk
Road along which Ancient China traded with the Europeans and Middle
Eastern countries,” Ghim said. “Chinese characters
are free to use any combination of skills that they want, but the
European characters in the game are actually class-based where players
are limited on their skills depending upon which classes they
choose.”
To make my decision easy, I picked a Chinese character and outfitted
him with a set of archery-based skills and simply jumpged into the
game. At first, I was a bit taken aback by the sheer number of people
that popped onto my screen when the first city came into view. There
were hundreds of them! Although a large number of the individuals using
the chat window were gold spammers (a fairly common problem in free to
play games), there were still at least twenty to thirty visible player
characters moving around at any one time, dueling or talking with the
vendors in the area. From a community standpoint, I found it incredibly
interesting to see a large population of players on a free to play
game, but I also found it incredibly unnerving that so many gold
spammers were also involved with the gameplay.
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Hundreds of players
were filling up the square in Hotan.
However, after my initial run around, I called in at the appointed time
to talk with Ghim, my tour guide for my travels through
style="font-style: italic;">Silkroad
Online. As he gathered our party together, I found that I
was receiving
a large number of invites from the players in the area. In fact, I was
invited to party so many times that I had a hard time determining which
invitation was coming from Ghim and which was from a random player!
After a bit of confusion, we sorted this out and began our tour.
The first stop on our journey was the very busy town of Hotan. Like any
of the major epicenters in the more well known North American titles,
Hotan was bustling with activity. Players raced from NPC to NPC, trying
to find better equipment and learning their way around the city. In the
square, hundreds of players had erected their own item sale stalls,
which other players could browse through and find the equipment they
wanted. This seemed to serve as the auction house style of selling seen
on other MMORPGs, but it made for a very busy looking central square
area with hundreds of players hawking wares at the same time.
“Most of the players you see here are in
“stalling” mode, which means they’re
basically trying to sell their unnecessary equipment to other
players,” Ghim said. “You can go into any of the
stalls and check out what they’re selling. If you like it and
it’s for the right price, you can purchase it from
them.”
Upon weaving my way through Hotan, I asked Ghim if this was the only
town in Silkroad Online.
To me, it seemed crowded enough to be the one
major town in the entire game, but I was incorrect in my assumption.
“There are five main towns in
style="font-style: italic;">Silkroad Online,”
Ghim said. “And they range from the low levels all the way up
to our level cap of 80. Hotan is the high level area.”
Once we had explored the area around Hotan, we decided to have a bit of
fun by trying out some PvP. By donning a specific type of cape, you
inherently make your character viable for PvP encounters. Putting on
the cape, I quickly asked Ghim if dying during this sort of PvP combat
would incur any sort of penalty against me. According to the developer,
my deaths – at least in this mode –
wouldn’t result in any sort of loss. It was “for
fun” PvP rather than the competitive style you see in other
games.
“It’s really just to test your skills out and see
if any character is stronger than your character,” he said.
And let’s just say that my character wasn’t the
strongest in the world. As an bow-wielder, my damage was decent enough,
but if someone got into hand-to-hand combat with me, I didn’t
last long at all. After several deaths, I returned back to my party,
laughing while they attempted to fend off my attackers.
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Being a trader means
riding around on a large pack animal, like a rhino!
After finishing up the PvP mode, Ghim we headed towards the nearest
town and initiated our next portion of the guided tour: Job Mode. Now
this is sort of a misnomer, because the jobs are really part of a much
larger system that focuses on moving trade caravans from one city
– or part of the map – to another section. By
completing these trade routes, players can earn job experience and an
amount of money equivalent to the amount of cargo that he had on board
his convoy animal.
In Silkroad Online
there are three jobs: the trader, the hunter, and
thief. Each player can choose one of these jobs at level
twenty, and each of the jobs has a different goal when dealing with
convoys. Traders are the primary goods hauler; they drive the pack
animals and take the tradable goods from one NPC area to another.
Hunters can become part of a convoy and serve a protector role. Any
hunters that complete a trade route with a trader earn a portion of the
job experience and money received from the trade goods. Thieves aim to
interrupt convoy progression and finish the convoy themselves with the
goods that they pick up off the massacred traders and hunters.
In reality, it’s a fairly simple system, but with player
characters as the main proponents of this equation, it becomes very
complex as the gamers attempt to get through areas unscathed by
building up large convoys and defending themselves against large groups
of marauding thieves.
However, even if you play the game during off-peak hours, you
won’t be safe. When you travel a down a trade route with a
convoy, NPCs spawn at certain intervals in your progression, attempting
to disrupt your convoy and leave your goods for others to pick up. If
you’re attacked by player characters during one of these
spawn points, you could have a massive fight on your hands.
Although we were playing during off-peak hours, the system actually
turned out to be an incredibly fun experience. Since I was taking the
tour, I wanted to see the trade route cranked up to its full difficulty
level. So I loaded my animal with goods (which increases your
difficulty depending on the amount of goods you’re carrying)
and set off down the road. Almost immediately we were besieged by a
huge group of NPC thieves that were out to get my goods. I charged my
rhino down the road as fast as it would run, and we narrowly escaped
the encounter. In the end, we reached our destination, but it took us
nearly an hour to do so and wasn’t an easy trip by any
measure of the word. Frankly, I could see players participating in
convoys indefinitely as it serves as both a group and PvP function all
in one swoop.
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You can buy
experience boosting items in SRO.
Finally, as a free to play game, it seemed important to inquire with
Ghim about Silkroad
Online’s method of generating revenue in
the game. “We use an item mall to generate our cash
flow,” he said. “All the items in our item mall are
used to play the game more efficiently and conveniently. We
don’t sell any gear or weapons, but we do sell experience
boosting items. We don’t want to upset the balance of the
game.”
While I’m not convinced that selling experience bonuses to
players is the best revenue model for an MMORPG, I can’t help
but remain fond of the short jaunt I had through
style="font-style: italic;">Silkroad Online.
With
the Job Mode, I found that a relative non-PvPer could still have an
enjoyable time engaging in PvP due to the simple desire to see the
trade goods to safety. It was an impressive function, and I honestly
would like to see it used in other games on the market.
If you’re interested in more of my feelings on
style="font-style: italic;">Silkroad
Online, make sure you continue to check back in with Ten
Ton Hammer as
we get more time with the game and publish a full review of the title.
Until then, keep your Internet browser locked on Ten Ton Hammer!
play Silkroad Online?
How was your experience? href="http://forums.tentonhammer.com/showthread.php?p=216384#post216384">Let
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