I think you are misreprensting and being harsh to Wurm Online. 

I really liked Wurm.  I got the past the graphics and animations or lack there of....although when I played, a while ago, it was hard to be solo.  There were not many suitable places left to build, unless you wanted to search forever.  This was on the free server.  You kind of had to join a village, clan or w/e.  I think they have added more servers since then so it's probably not the case anymore. 

It is a 'hard' game, in the sense that accomplishing the smallest goal can be rewarding.  If you are looking for a sandbox/builder MMO and don't feel like plunking down money on Xsyon, I do recommend this game.  It is free (most of it as you know) and takes literally seconds to download. 

I have been playing this game non-stop for almost a year now, it is the first game since Asheron's Call that I have really been able to get my HEART into.

If you need flashy modern graphics and special effects, or tons of polish, this is not the game for you. Yes, there are rough edges to this indie gem, and it still is not completely finished yet,  but  even unfinished it has more SOUL than any other game I've played since AC1.

If you want a true immersive sandbox, with room for both PvE and PvP crowds, there is really no other game on the market today even close to Wurm Online.

Originally posted by nkitz

.... I would steer clear of this game and find more polished mmo sandboxes out there.

...

 

What would those be?

I'd love to have an alternative, as it is though, discounting Eve which I can't seem to play more than 4 months at a time there aren't any other sandbox mmo's, everything made today is a WoW clone, I've played enough WoW, I have SWTOR now which is more of the same but it's fun while it's new, but as far as sandboxes I only have Salem to look forward to and EVE to play.

I plan to give this a try.

Thanks for the review.

I gave ti a shot years back, and while I am USUALY the last person to grype about graphics(or the lack of) and visuals, in wrum it just was too much... the figures moving around by sliding along the ground, watching combat in a text window, etc, annoyed me. I would have stuck with the game if even the very basic animations were there.

So with the new update coming and the advances you guys are finally starting to do(Took u long enough, would have thought in the 10 years between then and now, at least ONE of you would have taught yourself a little about animation by now :P)

I wish u guys the VERY best of luck and hope u can get the visuals a little closer to 7's :P About all the other points, have to agree, its a very 'intresting' world where you can affect anything you can see. I am guessing, at this time, only wurm can say it does that.

Good job so far guys, and good luck on the 'pretties' and I will give it another try in a while.

Yes this game does have most of what we sandbox people want but unfourtunately it looks like shit. There is no way I am playing a game, on my high end rig, that looks like something from 10 years ago.

Just because we like sandbox MMOs does not mean we will accept archaic visuals.

Originally posted by lalartu

I've played this in early beta and sometime after it went p2p, but to be honest, I don't see this game ever becoming any more popular any longer. 

It's been 5 years since the official release now and it hasn't really changed that much.

 

Don't get me wrong, it's a great and quite an original game, but it would never appeal to most MMO players today

Also, since the release of Minecraft, Wurm sort of fell into the abyss I think since Minecraft almost overnight success overshadowed any need for the development of Wurm. I'm sure Mohjang made more money in selling Minecraft than they have in years of trying to work on Wurm.

It appeals to a larger crowd too. Why bother building a house for days (Wurm) when it can be done in minutes (Minecraft)

It has the sandbox, but it also appeals to the less patient gamers with a short attention span. Therefore, the huge success.

Wurm on the other hand is a lot more complex, but also requires TONS more commitment and most importantly is not nearly as entertaining.

 

As for the combat, it's there and it's actually quite fun. Back in the days the Horde used to constantly attack, raid and destroy villages and there were quite a few big battles (less the special effects and the flashy animations hehe), but just in Darkfall, it took months to get to the point where you could kill anything worthy. I remember spending days trying to farm pumpkins so that I could build a training dummy, so that I could then spend weeks hitting said dummy and raise my fighting skill by like 10 points (out of a 100). 

All in all, it's a great sandbox game, but if you're anything like me, you'll just play Minecraft/Terraria when you need your sandbox fix hehe

Mojang have never had anything to do with wurm. Yes Notch did work on wurm but that was before he even created minecraft.

I have been playing wurm for the last couple of months, and I have to say you need to be a certain type of person to play it, Patience is needed. May have picked this up as I also play Eve online. And a couple other people I play with also play eve and use wurm as relaxation.

Great game, and got to say great review

Originally posted by Yamota

Yes this game does have most of what we sandbox people want but unfourtunately it looks like shit. There is no way I am playing a game, on my high end rig, that looks like something from 10 years ago.

Just because we like sandbox MMOs does not mean we will accept archaic visuals.

 

Right now I'm actually playing a game that is even 12 years old now (Asheron's Call) on my high end rig and enjoy it a lot. I don't need opulent graphics but *if* there are any high res textures already, w/o a minimum of animation ("hovering" NPCs as in wurm) it looks so pathetic, I just can't swallow that. Also the visible environment frames are an immersion killer to me (although I guess they probably might be switchable somewhere in the options).

Originally posted by kcannon







I have been playing wurm for the last couple of months, and I have to say you need to be a certain type of person to play it, Patience is needed. May have picked this up as I also play Eve online. And a couple other people I play with also play eve and use wurm as relaxation.



Great game, and got to say great review

 

It has indead several things in common with EVE, unfortunately all what I always hated in EVE: A whole *huge* time sink with loads of tiny text boxes looking like spreadsheets. Lack of patience is surely not my problem though...

Originally posted by kcannon

 

Mojang have never had anything to do with wurm.  

 Actually, Mojang was the company that originally developed Wurm.

When Notch & Rolf went separate ways, Notch got to keep the company name and went on to create Minecraft using it, and Rolf renamed his part (Wurm) to OneTwoFree then to CodeClub:

http://wurmonline.com/wiki/index.php?title=Mojang

Character models and animations are among the weakest part of the game and are scheduled for an overhaul in coming months, but much of the landscape and environment is actually rather nice if you crank up the settings (not compared to triple-AAA releases of course -- but frankly, I'll take Wurm over any pretty-face triple-AAA game on the market today.)

Personally I think the combat aspects are very weak, but then I am in for the crafting/building aspects so the weak combat doesn't bother me. It's a niche game, it won't appeal to everyone. But for myself, there is no other game on the market today that appeals to me the way this one does.

It's free to try, so up to each person to decide for themselves.

I watched a video of a "Raid" or whatever on a Red Dragon. It was the lamest thing I had ever seen, and I've seen some lame stuff...

Yeah combat is just a staring contest and requires no input really from the player other than clicking shield bash or switching stances which most are useless to use than normal mode. The game is lacking in a lot of departments and there are other terrain modification sand box mmo's out there that have better combat systems already in place. While animation would be a welcome addition after 8 years of the game being in production it is bottom of the list for a lot of people who just want to see a lot of balancing issues fixed along with bugs. People still stand on their mounts while riding around, so I guess everyone is a pro trick rider and the same goes for carts.

There are only 2-3 good boats to use and the much larger versions are useless as they go so slow and getting any number of people to make them go fast or having a gust of wind last long enough to make them viable just isn't happening. Rolf really should play his own game but as Notch once said after playing it for a few hours " This game just isn't for me" and that's coming from one of the founding developers who couldn't even stomach playing his own creation.

I would love to see a live play of Wurm done by Rolf but honestly it would only serve as a sleep aid.

Currently playing WO and EVE as they are really good.  That being said, if ya know of anything better now, please advise as I just don't see it. 

This game been out since 2006 and this is the only Staff review i can find on mmorpg Dated Jan 26th..No thank you for this game.Sound like there desperate for players.

As the author of the review mentioned, Wurm Online has given me some of the most memorable moments in my 14 years of playing MMORPGs. Sure, the graphics are weak, but once I got into the game, the way the wind moves the trees and grass, the sound of the crickets on a moonlit night, it still has a way of drawing me in.

This game isn't for everyone. It is slow as hell at times, but I can't think of another game that makes me fist pump the air after suriving an ambush by a pack of wolves like Wurm does. Everything you do, everything that happens actually MEANS something to you and your character. Others in this thread have mentioned that it's hard to survive alone. Hard, but not impossible. I was able to build a small house with a farm and a well, build a fence for protection and guard it with my life for about 3 months (as a Free Player).

My only 3 complaints are:

1. Next to no animations.

2. Zero character customization...save for if I want to sport a hang-down or not.

3. Every single action I perform needs to be twice as fast as its current duration. It is a game afterall.

It sounds like they are finally going to do something about #1 and 2, and since they likely aren't changing the speed of the game, I guess I can deal with #3.

Wurm Online has done what so few other games can claim: they have created a WORLD. I'm definitely going to give it another go when those animation and customization options go live. Shit, I may even pay for it.

Originally posted by remyburke

3. Every single action I perform needs to be twice as fast as its current duration. It is a game afterall.

 

Not sure what you mean here. Can you explain it any further with an example perhaps? Hope you're not talking about skill progression...

Originally posted by picommander

Originally posted by remyburke


3. Every single action I perform needs to be twice as fast as its current duration. It is a game afterall. 

Not sure what you mean here. Can you explain it any further with an example perhaps? Hope you're not talking about skill progression...

No, not skill progression. I was just referring to how long it takes to perform an action. For Example, nailing up boards on a house frame, or mining a tile out enough to get it to collapse. This is just my opinion of course, but they need to do a better job of balancing out the game with the simulation. In its current state, it's just a tad on too heavy on the simulation side for me.

Skill progression is definitely very slow, by design.  That's difficult for a lot of people who are used to games where you progress very fast. Wurm is definitely "old school" in that regard.

The actions themselves are also slow. Everything is on a timer, you can't just take some leather or wood, *clap your hands* and presto  you've created something elaborate. Even making nails  (one by one)  takes time. Making a fence takes time, making the planks and the shafts for the fence takes time, and chopping down the tree takes time. Making the saw and the forge to do all of that before you can even start on the fence, takes time.

Wurm is a game that takes its time.

For many, it's too frustrating for that very reason. The game will ALWAYS be too painful for them, no updates are likely to change that. For a small few, taking the time to do things, and not being able to "rush through content" or be mega powerful in days, weeks, or even months, is actually part of the appeal.  In a game where it takes so long to do anything, your focus gets OFF of gaining levels and whizzing through content, and more on the immersion and the process rather than competing for flashy achievements.  It really is a niche game that is not going to appeal to very many gamers today.  That part is not going to change just by adding animations and character customization, although those are greatly anticipated by its small loyal fanbase. That said, it is the only game out there that I can sit and enjoy  day after day, month after month. Most of the modern games out there bore me after a few days at best.  

When Skyrim came out, servers were emptier as many Wurm players took a few weeks off Wurm  because the open-world sandboxy style of Skyrim holds a lot of appeal for this crowd. Also, sometimes its nice for a while to see some drop-dead-gorgeous triple-AAA polish created with multimillion dollar budgets ^_^ It's like dessert in a fancy french restaurant after you've been chewing on smoked moose for months on end. But after a few weeks, most of them were back in Wurm again. Defeating dragons on your first day in Skyrim seemed oddly ... unappealing after a game where your first day, you were running for your life from rats. It's like a diet of candy, versus a diet of coarse bread you grew and baked yourself.  A diet of just candy gets old after a while.

Its hard to explain the appeal, but those who love Wurm, love it fiercely. The fact that the game got 5's in Aesthetics and Polish for this review, are less important to this crowd than the fact it got 9's in innovatioon and gameplay. The review was a very fair one, and if it gave off red flags for some readers, it's probably not their sort of game. But there are lots of other games out there for them. There is really only Wurm, for a few of us.

Originally posted by remyburke

Originally posted by picommander

Originally posted by remyburke


3. Every single action I perform needs to be twice as fast as its current duration. It is a game afterall. 

Not sure what you mean here. Can you explain it any further with an example perhaps? Hope you're not talking about skill progression...

No, not skill progression. I was just referring to how long it takes to perform an action. For Example, nailing up boards on a house frame, or mining a tile out enough to get it to collapse. This is just my opinion of course, but they need to do a better job of balancing out the game with the simulation. In its current state, it's just a tad on too heavy on the simulation side for me.

I can definately again. Another reason why I left was because I couldn't play this game without multi-tasking. For example, when mining, I'll cliick a iron vein, then read something on my other moniter or continue watching a movie while I waited the minute or so to finish. Its not terrible, just not for me.