First Impressions: Eternal Lands

For as long as I can stand it, I'm going to commit the next batch of First Impressions to free Mac MMOs, a list of which I found on the Apple Geeks forums (thanks, DarkChronic!). We start the fun with Eternal Lands, which is very much a homebrew effort, meaning that no one's getting paid for developing this game. In fact, the home site makes a point of welcoming volunteer help and encouraging donations. Having said that, I will say that I'm impressed by what's there, even if it's not something I'll be spending any more time playing.

Why won't I be going back to Eternal Lands? Call me spoiled, but even free MMOs have to compete with mindshare, and it's difficult to 'dumb down' expectation of graphical quality and user interface sophistication. I'm going to be as gentle as I can be here, given that this is a for-the-love-of-the-game effort, but some snarkiness may sneak through. Remember, kids, this is not a guide, this is not an in-depth look. It's a post about how the first hour or so of a game strikes me, with no preconceptions or foreknowledge. Pray for Mojo.

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Let's start with what you see right up there, a screenshot of the character creation/customization process. As you can see, you've got the option of 1 of 3 classic RPG choices, Human, Elf, or Dwarf. There are 3 more choices (Gnome, and the exotic-sounding Orchan and Draegoni, which I know from the website refer to half-orc, half-humans and half-dragon, half-humans), but they're unavailable to the non-paying user. It's not entirely clear what benefits each race might confer, but that just leaves me free to choose what I prefer. In this case, an Elf. A Drow, to be precise. Note that your Appearance choices are pretty limiting, so don't worry too much about that right off.

Here we are in the starting area (click on the pictures for larger versions). I'm looking appropriately bohemian, as befits a member of the Drow race. A couple of things to notice here: First, look at that guy to my right -- nice armor, huh? And yet, he appears to be carrying a thighbone as his weapon. I guess defense really is more important than offense. Second, there's a Wraith in front of me. The Wraith, actually. More about him in a second. Third, while this all may look nice, none of it animates except for the water, and that with only a scrolling texture map. However, there are some nice ambient sounds here -- birdsong, the susurrus of the surf, the comforting murmur of crowds -- all appreciable by proximity. If you wander away from one, it fades, to be replaced by whatever else you approach. This actually really helps the illusion of inhabiting a world even more than visuals can, because sounds have a way of connecting directly with both memory and imagination in ways that images don't.

Back to The Wraith: He offers a variety of value-adds to your character, well in advance of your knowledge of what any of them might mean. Perks? Nexuses? Clicking on each choice does give you a brief summary, but with no understanding of what might be important, it's best to leave The Wraith alone for now. He'll always be there, what with, you know, being dead and all.

Let's take a look at Ye Olde Inventory. A bunch of boxes. This is a perfect time to mention that the entirety of the Eternal Lands experience bears the feel of a tabletop Dungeons and Dragons game, right down to the boxes that you would have to check and fill in to create your character. Look there, in the lower right-hand corner: a Load stat! Encumbrance is in play! I've always thought the added consideration of weight into gameplay was a nuisance, but some people are sticklers for it.

In fact, here's another example of what I mean. Look at all those stats! Seeing this in any other game might make me excited about seeing cool animations of all these different activities, but at this stage of my experience with EL, I already suspect I know everything about it already. In fact, I'm playing it coy with you, O Constant Reader, because I know what's coming, having played all this before, but with the magic of narrative, I'll continue to tease you with the non-excitement!

Look at all that knowledge. Hydrogenium smelting! Iron Cuisses! Or just get your degree in Refrigerator Repair!

Continuing on, here's the map of the starting area. The upper right is the location of The Wraith and Tutorial NPC (which he goes out of his way to tell you is his real name). Notice the lower left corner, with its little anchor symbol. That's the dock, which you'll use to travel to the next area, where the fun REALLY ... never quite materializes.

Oh, also, notice in the map above, just north of middle, the campfire icon with the 'Beam' caption below it. I saw a lot of avatars hanging out there, and I know for a fact that 'Beam me up' is a concept that happens in this game. I don't know for sure that the campfire is a teleportation location, but isn't it nice to think of materializing directly on top of a blazing bonfire?

Here's Tutorial NPC, son of Ma and Pa NPC, giving my the first of 3 tutorial quests. These quests are meant to help me navigate EL, but I got so bored by the end of the second one, I gave up on them entirely and just started attacking things. This first one is the traveling quest, where I'm meant to go to all the bars in the next area, touch the counter, and return. Yeah, that's a good use of my time. I'm not bringing anything back with me, except my memories of putting my finger onto a sticky countertop. I'm not gaining any experience by doing this, either. So why even do it? You can go really far by doing things Your Way, but some things are by now de rigeur in MMOs, and in this category reside concepts like 'combining quests with something valuable'. This first tutorial quest, ostensibly, is meant to confer a working knowledge of how to travel through the world, but at the end of it, all I really understood was that clicking on a point to travel to it is measurably not better than WASD controls.

However, there's a corollary to this, which is: clicking on a map to travel to that location not only is awesome, but also something that all MMOs need to implement. And look in the dialog (monologue?) box above: you can type '#beam me up' if you really get lost! What happens then? Tutorial doesn't say! You probably end up in the campfire, which is a hilarious fate that all noobs endure to the amusement of established users. That's why they all hang out near the Beam.

Finally, notice that ol' NPC looks like Orlando Bloom in his portrait there, but looks like a dyspeptic Liam Neeson in his 3D form. Reality is harsh.

Here's a gathering of weary travelers just off the road, having fought many battles, accomplished many mighty deeds, consorted with the gods themselves ... or they're just a bunch of dirty hippy cosplayers waiting for the E to take effect and Matt to show up with the bongos. Sorry, I live in San Francisco, where I see more of that sort of thing than anyone ever should.

Here's one of those bars I was talking about. Here, everyone knows your name. Mostly because it's floating above your head, but their policy is 'If we don't call you by name, your next ale is free', so at least they're trying. Actually, I was glad to have arrived when I did, because they hadn't opened yet, so I was able to touch a relatively-swill-and-vomit-free countertop. And then the saucy barmaid gave me the eye, and all was right with the world.

That's some really reflective water. This is water that has never been visited by the depredations of the fluoride program, likely due to the fact that Fluoride Smelting has not yet been invented. Incidentally, Anna there to the left was emoting happiness because I was naked as I passed her. Naked, with boots, which is hotter. The lamp is obscuring this, but trust me: I'm fantastic.

I don't want to imply that EL is a world without mystery and wonder. Witness the magical shaft of light to the left! Matter transference beam? Annihilation ray? Visual hallucination brought on by one too many touches to filthy bar countertops? We may never know.

While other MMOs debate the merits of player residences, EL takes the bold step of implementing it right at launch. Well, Beta launch. Okay, no launch at all, but you get what I mean. And these are not your ordinary houses either, no siree! How many trees do you know that have permanently-locked, hyperdimensional vortical expansion spells imbued into them? With leaded-glass windows, no less!

Okay, you can tell I've lost the thread of this post, 'cause now I'm just showing you guys pictures of me wandering and checking out the wildlife. I love wolves, so I'm glad to see them represented here. However, the appearance above this wolf's head of stats means that at some point I'm going to have to fight it, and that's something I'd rather not do. I've got a post coming up about this very thing; watch for it! Until then, watch that wolfie -- he's adorable.

Okay, we've jumped ahead to the next tutorial: Harvesting. My goal here was to collect flowers from all over the continent, at locations provided by Tutorial NPC as map coordinates. This was handy -- I just summoned the map and as my cursor moved over it, the coordinates are displayed in a corner. The unfortunate thing is that I wasn't paying strict attention to the parameters of the quest. Apparently I only needed a few flowers at each location. Instead, for the first 5 or so locations, I loaded up until my encumbrance told me I couldn't carry any more, and then I trekked all the way over to Raven, the Storage agent. Person. Thing. This meant sometimes trudging from near the top of one map, down to the dock way over on the other side of the map, going to a different map, and trudging over to Raven, then repeating the entire process for the next type of flower. Walking, not running, because there is no running in EL. Everyone's too polite.

By the way, that's not me saying 'har har' in the picture above; it's not that fun. That's the shortcut for 'harvesting: +8 points experience accrued'. And it's a good thing that indicator's there, because otherwise you wouldn't know anything was happening. No animation for harvesting. Not even kneeling down. Negative 10 points for House Eternal!

So, I gave up on the tutorial quests and decided to jump right into combat. I can't even remember what the next quest was. I just said 'no thanks' to Tut' NPC, and walked away, trying to ignore the sobbing behind me. Instead, I went out and started kicking the first bunny I saw, as the picture above illustrates. And don't even start in with accusations of cruelty; that rabbit had a knife!

Seriously, though, attacking rabbits to level up? And not even monster rabbits at that, but cute fluffy bunnies. I wandered around looking for something with more hit points to attack, and the next thing I found, at 15 hp, was a beaver. Yes. Sure, they have those fearsome teeth, and their ... Tails of Whacking ... let's just move on.

And in the end, what does bagging a bunny get you? Some meat, some fur, and a bone. Where was that bone hiding? It looks like a femur. Rabbits don't have bones that big! But that does explain why that guy I saw earlier was walking around with one. He'd probably just come from freeing some Flopsy's soul and was toting its bone around as proof of his victory. Sure, why not?

It was at this point I finally just logged off. I'm sorry, I know there are a lot of players out there who love this game; I saw a metric on their site that said 'Most users ever online was 867' followed by the date and time. That's definitely respectable, especially for a game of this type, with the support that it has. I'm not trying to disparage the work that went into this. But I am definitely spoiled by the polish and technology that went into the larger MMOs, and I can't go backward. I salute you, Eternal Lands. May your server never fail, and your game continue to grow. Just keep those beavers away from me.