Cool upcoming free MMO - Perfect WOrld

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

So I got a job last week doing QA for the North American version of a Chinese MMO called Perfect World (www.perfectworld.com). And... Well, it's actually pretty fun. Free download, no monthly fee... There's a massive list of items to buy though. It's a bit grindy, but overall I'm enjoying it, and it blows the hell out of all the other free games out there. My boss isn't sure when the planned release date is, but the closed beta starts in about a month and he says most people who sign up will probably get in.

[The Damned]

SPAAAAMMM!

So, it's like the fifteen other free MMORPGs that are out there? What's to make it stand out from the rest of them?

[Archaon]

So, it's like the fifteen other free MMORPGs that are out there? What's to make it stand out from the rest of them?

Massive overabundance of fanservice, by the look of it.

Seriously. Two attractive, young, skimpily dressed women in come-hither poses right there as soon as you open the page. And take a look at what you get when you click the "Community" tab. That's sheer desperation.

It looks extremely limited, though. Only six classes? And each race is confined to only two to choose from? Some of them are male/female only too, by the look of it.

God almighty. Sooner or later, MMORPGs won't even bother including classes. You'll just have a bunch of races to play as that all fit a certain archetype. HAY GUYZ EVERY SINGLE ELF IN THE WORLD IS AN ARCHER. ISN'T THIS FUN.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Well, the graphics and scope are certainly better than any other free MMO I've played. Classes are a little limited, true, but I didn't find that to be too much of a detraction.

[The Damned]

That flash movie at the front page just about stalled my system. There's something odd about that page. I just found a couple apps running in the Task Manager that I don't recognize. I'm not sure, but I think something got past my firewall and tried to run on my system. That sort of scares me. I just updated my stuff, too.

People might want to be careful going to that page.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

I'll bring up your concerns with my boss, but I honestly suspect it's unrelated.

EDIT: Forgot to mention it earlier, but the character customization options are extremely broad.

[The Damned]

This might explain a lot about the problems I had with the site: this laptop runs Vista.

My XP system is fine with it.

Here's the thing I don't get with these games. They're free to play and you just download them for nothing. How do the comapnies that make then operate then? There's no fees or anything, so how do they stay in business?

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

In this case, it's through a large list of various in-game items (different mounts, inventory extensions, etc.) that are available for actual purchase.

I haven't fiddled around with them yet, and there are only ten of us here so I don't know how much of an effect they have on the game, but I'm still having fun without them.

[Hawkwing]

This might explain a lot about the problems I had with the site: this laptop runs Vista.

My XP system is fine with it.

Here's the thing I don't get with these games. They're free to play and you just download them for nothing. How do the comapnies that make then operate then? There's no fees or anything, so how do they stay in business?

He said there's a Chinese version. Maybe they charge them?

[Thylacine]

I'll bring up your concerns with my boss, but I honestly suspect it's unrelated.

EDIT: Forgot to mention it earlier, but the character customization options are extremely broad....In what way?

I played 9Dragons for a while, and I have to say that graphics aren't a huge thing. It was a beautiful game, but I didn't have a whole lot of control over my character's appearance. That and it being grind-tacular (no crafting, just martial arts) made it an easy game to walk away from. I had virtually no attachment to my character.

So, I have three questions that could tell me all I need to know about the customization.

1. Pre-set faces or faces where individual elements (i.e. eyes, nose, mouth, etc.) can be chosen? Are there eight manly faces (one of which is scarred) to express our snowflake-like individuality?
2. Can we choose skin color? Not just black or white, but shades of purple and green for the "I like playing a demon" people that I don't sit next to on buses.
3. How many "equippable elements" are available to us (i.e. feet, torso, arms, etc.)? Can we wear boots and suits from different armor sets or do we have the armor "leotard" and self-crafted jewelry to adorn said leotard?

The answers that imply lack of choice are what the standard is for free RPGs. People who want their own characters made custom-fit for them play Guild Wars or WoW. Which camp is more fitting for this game?

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to run a virus scan...

[JH Sounds]

Cool upcoming free MMO - Perfect WOrld

Is the uppercase "O" intentional?

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Heh, nope, but I can't change it. Oh well.

As far as customization, there's a good screenshot on the Philippine site that shows it off quite well:
http://perfectworld.levelupgames.ph/images/community/downloads/screenshots/FaceLegolas_1024.jpg

[eternal Zero]

This is quite old news to me. I played Perfect World more than half a year ago. It's decent. Nothing too special but flying and the acrobatics you can do are amusing.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

It's been out in Asia and the Philippines for a little while now, but from what I understand neither of those clients can be played outside their respective IP ranges.

We're also doing a whole new translation for the North American version (localization is where most of our bugs are from), which should fix most of the Engrish problems (and if the translation we're starting from is any indication, it's pretty bad Engrish).

[eternal Zero]

No one of the servers was IP compatible with the US. I want to say it was Malaysia like it always is.

[kitty]

So US players have to wait until the closed beta to test this out? Or am I missing something here?

EDIT: Nevermind, I figured out that the registration page isn't open yet. I was confused because there were Asian clients out there. Got my closed beta key from mmosite.com. This game actually has me kinda excited. Hopefully it won't tear me away from Guild Wars too much.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

No one of the servers was IP compatible with the US. I want to say it was Malaysia like it always is.
Probably Malaysia, yeah. What was the the translation like on that one, by the way? Or was it in Mandarin?

[eternal Zero]

No, one of the servers was IP compatible with the US. I want to say it was Malaysia like it always is.

Fixed. Notice the comma. I have played this game. It's nothing outside of your typical grind. The only motivation I had moving forward was I wanted my hot elf chick to have really sweet looking "Zero-style" (ala Bahamut Zero) wings.

[atmuh]

lets play maple story guys I LOVE MAPLE STORY

[kitty]

lets play maple story guys I LOVE MAPLE STORY

Seriously, if you have nothing worthwhile to contribute then don't post.

Anyway, is anyone else here planning on playing this when it comes out? Or at least giving it a try? Despite the posts saying it's grindy, I'm willing to try it since it's completely free.

[Schwaltzvald]

Seriously, if you have nothing worthwhile to contribute then don't post.

Anyway, is anyone else here planning on playing this when it comes out? Or at least giving it a try? Despite the posts saying it's grindy, I'm willing to try it since it's completely free.

So long as it's not overtly complicated to register like it is now with gunbound and seemingly other "free" games from NIC, I may give it a whirl. However chances are I'll be sticking with EVE Online as my current mmo I play on and off.

[ILLiterate]

I'll probably give this a try since WoW got old again after like a month, Guild Wars I'm not going back to and well I just need a MMO or Diablo like game to kill time in the summer

[Thylacine]

It doesn't sound like my cup of tea, but I'll keep it in mind if I get bored with Mabinogi.

Face structuring reminds me of Second Life, which is a good thing. Legolas looks like he's got a bad wig on, but this looks passable. Yeah, definitely on my consideration list.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

There's a forum now: http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/

That's probably the best place to ask questions, since there are a bunch of posters who play on the Malaysian client.

[kitty]

Already created an account and assigned my beta key when the registration opened up. Hopefully all my excitement won't be for nothing.

[DarkeSword]

Here's what I want to know:

Is it an MMO like all other MMOs where you just grind monsters, or is it an actual game that you play? Am I rewarded for playing-skill instead of time-spent-playing?

MMOs are always attractive to me because they're free and they usually have some nice art direction and graphics, but they're inevitably not-fun because I basically end up grinding monsters with auto-attack. I don't really like standing there watching my character attack a monster and occasionally throwing a spell in. :(

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Well, I'm not sure if you'd consider normal PvE fighting skill-based (it's fairly similar to WoW's, only you generally use a lot more skills and a lot fewer auto-attacks), but endgame PvP consists of massive-scale guild vs. guild battles for control of whole areas of the world map. I haven't tried it out yet, but from the videos and such I've seen it might be the sort of thing you're looking for.

[Darth Lime]

The one thing I don't like about free mmo's are bots that camp monster areas and rape the loot and exp that the real players are trying to get.

I highly doubt this "Perfect World" will be anything but.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Unfortunately, that sort of thing is impossible to include in the scope of QA, but hopefully our GMs will take care of it better than most other free MMOs.

[kitty]

The one thing I don't like about free mmo's are bots that camp monster areas and rape the loot and exp that the real players are trying to get.

I highly doubt this "Perfect World" will be anything but.

Most of those bots are run by Chinese farmers but every region that has a licensed version of this game is IP blocked. No Chinese, no Malaysians, no Japanese, no Philippines, and whatever else I forgot. True, some bots do run from inside the US, but since the levels are so high, and I bet most of the best loot is probably going to be in instances, it shouldn't be too much of a problem.

By the way, I'll be starting a casual guild where it'll be more like a community of friends rather than of gamers, if anyone's interested you're free to join up. =)

@DarkeSword: I don't really find any MMO being on a mostly skill-based measurement, except Guild Wars because of it's limit on 8 skills in the skillbar. On the other hand, I find that PvP and raid aspects such as those found in WoW do require more skill/thought than just running around killing stuff, though most people will bitch at you for having shitty equipment. Like what Zeratul said, you can't really measure that until you get into the game.

EDIT: And does anyone really like that music in the teaser video on the front page? Someone should remix it >_>

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

As Falchion39 said (and I only just confirmed (http://pwi-forum.perfectworld.com/showthread.php?t=1071) this myself), it appears that all the countries that already have their own versions of the game (such as China, Malaysia, and the Philippines) are being IP blocked from this version. That should cut down on botting considerably.

[Braxter]

God almighty. Sooner or later, MMORPGs won't even bother including classes. You'll just have a bunch of races to play as that all fit a certain archetype. HAY GUYZ EVERY SINGLE ELF IN THE WORLD IS AN ARCHER. ISN'T THIS FUN.

Hi Guys, I joined this forum just to answer some of your questions regarding PW. First of, I been loving this games since I played it more than 2 months now. I am by from the Philippines so I play on our local server there. I have a lvl 63 Human Mage. I think the only difference between PW.MY and PW.PH is the former had more of the latest stuffs. But the "Engrish" you talked about are both present. Luckily, there are some websites that offer "Walkthoughs" and mob locations if you ever get stuck.

Just some details:

Inroduction on Characters:
3 Character types with 2 Classes for each. Human have Warrior and Mage Class; Winged Elf Type have Priest and Archer; Beast Type have WareBeast(Tanker) and WareFox(Tamer). Beast Type are gender locked but the others have both female and male selection.

On Equipments:
Each character can wear Helm, Armor, Pants, Armlet, Cape, Boots and some necklaces and rings as long as the char satisfies the items stat requirement. 3 types of equipes: Heavy, Light and Mystics). Only few weapons (Holy weapons, etc) are locked on a certain class, hence an Archers can yield a bow or a sword or an Axe or a fist as long as he satisfies the STR and DEX requirement for it.

On Leveling:
In PW, Doing quest can give you tons of XP in the beginning so it is very fast to level up to 40 but becomes slow aafterwards. As to date our local GMs have fixed the bot and jump hack problems before they spread big time, so no worries on those kind of people there. Quest can range to killing x number of monsters to just doing errands or meeting some NPC. At certain levels, there are some quests that are repeatable each day so that helps a lot in leveling.
At every 10 levels, you get an instance quest (cave quest) where you need to party up with higher level char to kill the boss, the higher levels can get the same XP as you do on that quest so usually they are willing to help.

On Crafting:
There are craft leveling for Forging weapons, armors, herbs and necklaces. You can try to get some very good items using craft, if you don't like the craft's result, you can always sell it to NPC, other players or put it on the auction.

On Pets:
Quite standard on othe MMORPG. Some pets are huge but only the WareFox can use pets for battle, for other classes, it's just for show. Included here are the mountable pets which does not actually fight but just take you faster to different locations of the map.

Skills:
I'd say there are enough skills here and quite good graphics specially on the higher level skills. Anyway to learn skills, you have to go to a certain NPC for your class (Master NPC) and each skill have esteem(ranking) and level requirement and cost some yuan (in game money) plus soul points (skill points). Awesome AOEs for most char on level 60 and up.

PVP:
I think this is also one of the differences between PH and MY. At level 30, you can do PK and you can be PKed but in PH server, you can still choose not to engage on PKs by not enabling the PK mode. In this case, you just engage in proper Duel and not be hit behind your back.
So I highly recommend this game. I am also planning to play the NA version hopefully this is no IP Ban for Asia here. I'm excited to play on a different community this time.

By the way, this is really a free MMORPG. The company just earns money if you buy some stuffs in the Item Mall. But still the prices are not that high compared to others. Of course this will be dependent on the server.

Cheers!

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Arise, my thread... I GIVE YOU LIFE!

Just wanted to let you know that Closed Beta started on Tuesday. Open Beta will begin on the 2nd. Characters get wiped at the end of Closed Beta, but Open Beta will continue directly into the "official release" without any loss of progress.

[kitty]

Been playing since Tuesday night. I'm at level 21 right now and just started a little guild. Right now the story is kinda lacking, it only seems to be getting into it after level 20. 1-20 is a little grindy with all the killing quests, but the monsters are easier to kill when compared to WoW.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

The game just went live.

[kitty]

I think that with reducing the servers to only one PvP and one PvE and with open beta players the game has drastically been reduced in quality. The number of killing quests is now more annoying than ever because everyone else is killing them. Squading, while it helps to alleviate the situation, doesn't solve it. There's much to be done with this game before it's out of beta.

[Mr.Roboto]

I think I came sum up this game in two words.

Shit sucks.

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

I think that with reducing the servers to only one PvP and one PvE and with open beta players the game has drastically been reduced in quality. The number of killing quests is now more annoying than ever because everyone else is killing them. Squading, while it helps to alleviate the situation, doesn't solve it. There's much to be done with this game before it's out of beta.Unfortunately, that's one thing that we weren't able to test particularly well. With only ten people on the test server (when we started; we're down to five QA people now), there was never any real competition for mobs between us. I think the best thing you can probably do is send a friendly e-mail with your concerns to customerservice@perfectworldinc.com and we'll pass them on to the developers. I can't promise they'll listen, but it's the best way to get your thoughts to us.

I think I came sum up this game in two words.
Shit sucks.*shrug* Doesn't bother me that you don't like the game (unless you think the translation sucks... I'd have to break your kneecaps if that were the case). Everyone likes different things, after all.


On a slightly different note, the QA period ended and my contract didn't get extended, so I'm no longer on the project. :(

[kitty]

I got a lot of my friends to play it. It's definitely no WoW, but then again I'm not paying $15 a month with a $30 initial cost. I just wish the cash shop wasn't so expensive, but then again, you guys need to make money. And lots of people are willing to pay 10 cents a message to post in World Chat.

[Nick Hyral]

I started playing this the other day.. not a bad little game.. As mentioned before.. fighting system is similar to WoW, has a few WoW like things going for it.. If any of you have played Ragnarok Online, the PvP siege system is similar to War of Emperium.. just a larger scale. There is alot going for it I must say, the co-ord system and helper to locate an npc (which the quests giving said co-ords to begin with is a handy tool) and being able to "search" out npcs for quests is groovy. The music is nice and the graphics aren't half bad.. only problem I've had thus far.. "find and kill 10 wolfings" 3 hours later.. I found one.. rofl. Overall not a bad little game to give a try. Definately easy enough to pick up to play for a little while. So who all here actually plays it? We could get some names thrown around and get some friend list action going maybe?

[Dark_T_Zeratul]

Obviously, I'm in the game. I just can't tell you who I am. :)

[kitty]

Name's Yzak in-game.

[Nick Hyral]

Riesa ingame.. I'm not doing so hot.. only level 12 right now.. but coming along. Go go Blademaster.

[kitty]

Oh, I'm on the Lost City server by the way.

[Kiro Dragoon]

I played Perfect World... It is interesting, but for some reason I lost interest in it... I usualy stick to second life.