TenTonHammer.com - Taking MMO Gamers to the Next Level!

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.

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.

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 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 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.

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.

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 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 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!

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