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The Daily Grind: Would you play a chat-free MMO?
A recent post by blogger Bhagpuss intrigued me, as he detailed his experiences playing a pseudo-MMO called The Endless Forest. In this game, every player is a deer going through an (endless) forest, exploring the wilderness and tricking out his or her beast. What interested Bhagpuss and me is that there's no chat function in the game, just various emotes that can be used to connect with other players. This made me think of the recent console sleeper hit Journey. In that game, players couldn't directly chat either, but did have a limited array of visual cues to signal intent and foster teamwork. I've read plenty of stories where players say that being denied chat actually made them feel closer to their teammates and really think about the value of human connection. Therefore, I'm putting today's discussion into the realm of the slightly absurd. Would you play a chat-free MMO? How could such a thing work over the long haul? What advantages and disadvantages would come into play? Every morning, the Massively bloggers probe the minds of their readers with deep, thought-provoking questions about that most serious of topics: massively online gaming. We crave your opinions, so grab your caffeinated beverage of choice and chime in on today's Daily Grind!
One Shots: It goes on and on
You may or may not recall a little series we ran briefly here on Massively that was called Turpstervision. Why do we bring this up? Well, imagine our surprise when we opened up our One Shots mailbox and saw the above image from a game Turspter covered long ago -- The Endless Forest! Yes indeed, it appears that Massively reader KidsNeedToSwear stumbled across this one, and has been checking it out. KNTS sent in the above screenshot along with this note: "Here's a screenshot of my fawn in The Endless Forest, talking to some of the older deer. TEF is an MMO that almost no one has heard of, and is definitely one of the most unique MMOs I've ever played. Given that there's no language, no combat, no quests, no storyline and no humans, TEF really is an aquired taste. Players are required to make up their own plot, lore and legends, and the forums are abuzz with people doing just that! Ok, it's a bit strange, but I just cant bring myself to uninstall it!" We love to see screenshots from interesting off-the-beaten-path MMOs and VWs. If you find one in your MMO travels that you'd like to tell us about, then grab a screenshot and email it to us here at oneshots AT massively DOT com. Be sure to include your name, the name of the game, and a brief description of what we're seeing. We'll post it out here for everyone to check out and give you the credit. %Gallery-85937%
The Endless Forest announces a new community website
The Endless Forest, which our very own Turpster has reviewed in his own very special way, seems to be outgrowing its community forums and website. Luckily for the dedicated members of this community, creators Michael Samyn and Auriea Harvey have developed a new-and-improved site offering players a place to post their artwork, keep diaries and keep tabs on their friends through a live map of the game.The beauty of The Endless Forest, besides its stunning surrealistic visuals, is the fact that it contains no competition or real goals. It's an online world that challenges the imagination and creativity of players by expressing themselves through upgradeable costumes and gestures instead of words. Since September of 2005, the world of TEF has grown to more than 25,000 players, and they hope through the aid of this new community website, that number will continue to rise.
