[MUD-Dev2] Fallen Earth

[Sean Howard]

"Mike Sellers" <mike at onlinealchemy.com> wrote:
> If I'm already playing WoW, or have played it in the past, why would I
> play Fallen Earth instead?
>
> And if I played WoW and didn't like, why would I play this game?

FE isn't for WoW players. If I had to pick one, I'd say it's for fans of
SWG's crafting system (or perhaps fans of Ryzom). The post apocalyptic
feel is pretty nifty, but I think WoW players coming to the game will get
real bored, real quick.

For those of you who didn't do the open beta, FE is HEAVILY crafting
based. Literally, everything in the game is crafted. From what I saw,
there didn't seem to be a qualitative difference in items crafted (all
leather chest armors are identical), but each item is complexly made. For
instance, a black shirt is made from black dye and a white shirt. The
white shirt is made from a bunch of cotton. Cotton is harvested from
plants in the field. Unlike most games, you are able to level up all
harvesting and crafting fields equally. You can be the best at all
crafting, should you put the time in (stats and skills, however, are
purchased with a limited amount of AP - but there's no class system).

The twist is that crafting takes real time. Crafting a shirt may take two
minutes. Crafting an ATV may take a full two weeks of crafting time. You
don't have to be logged in. In fact, you can go do other stuff while the
crafting timer is going. If you sit at a crafting table, it apparently
goes faster and there are some objects which can only be crafted while
sitting at the table. So, crafting becomes meaningful by virtue of saving
time rather than artificial limitations as to what your avatar is allowed
to learn. For instance, because ATV engines take 72 hours to make, there's
a market for it with people crafting ATVs that don't want to wait or craft
every individual component.

I thought it was an interesting system, and the game reminded me a lot of
Ryzom. There are quests and the occasional dungeon, but I think this is a
game where the players are given a sandbox full of toys and left
unattended. I think the players that like that, and they do exist, will
find Fallen Earth very appetizing. My own main worry is that it will turn
out like Ryzom, which was an amazing game afflicted with developers who
basically stopped supporting it after two months and then went belly up
after a year or two.


> MMOs have their 800 pound gorilla and it is (still) WoW.  I've been amazed
> at the number of MMO pitches that have no answer for this question, and
> don't even consider it worth asking to themselves.

FE belongs in that select group of MMOs which is trying to get back to the
sandbox style of gaming that Star Wars Galaxies killed, and WoW drove the
nails in the coffin. I can't imagine anybody who is okay with WoW to even
give FE a second chance. However, I can say that it is certainly my type
of game, and were it a little less buggy, a little more polished, and I
didn't already have lifetime subs to several other MMOs, I'd be there. But
then, I thought Auto Assault was pretty cool too.

-- 
Sean Howard