Recently, Perfect World Entertainment announced that Forsaken World will be launching on the 9th of March (today!). As you may know, the Lore Hound crew has been checking the game out for some time, and you can see for yourself what we think of it so far. By the looks of it, we got at least a couple of you interested in checking this title out. For those of you who want more of an insider look at the game, we bring you an interview with Clifton Chu, Product Manager of Forsaken World. Today, we get some more details on the game and its features, Twong gets his question answered and we find out whether those damn Vampires really don’t sparkle.

For those that haven’t been following our coverage of Forsaken World, can you give us a quick synopsis of the MMORPG (in three or so sentences)?

Forsaken World is Perfect World Entertainment’s first game built from the ground up with the western audience in mind. Players can look forward to a darker, fantasy driven game with Dwarves that are more steam punk than drunk, Vampires that don’t sparkle and Stonemen, living, breathing forces of nature.

The beta phase has been pegged as the main reason to the early launch. What made you decide to launch two weeks ahead of schedule?

This has been our largest and longest closed beta to date and thanks to our active closed beta community, we were able to finish localization and polishing the game ahead of schedule. Given that Forsaken World has been our most anticipated game to date, we figured; why not launch two weeks ahead of schedule if the game is ready?

What kind of feedback has been the most unexpected or interesting?

We’re very fortunate to have such a dedicated and loyal fan base where they will try a new game and give feedback on not only what’s wrong, but how to fix it. One of the features that wasn’t originally planned for launch, but was requested by our players was the addition of the auction house. The auction house system was suggested by our players, and the developers were able to integrate that feature for closed beta testing as well as for launch.

Did anything that community members mentioned cause a major change or rethinking?

There’s always room for improvement in games and with MMOs, it’s more of a service than end product where we are constantly tweaking and improving features based on player feedback. Since Forsaken World was built with the western audience in mind, one thing that we weren’t expecting was the positive feedback we received from our Asian players who really liked some of the features that we implemented, and this is something we’ll keep in mind across all of our games. Continue Reading

Glowing swords mean epic.

Before that headline gets me in trouble I’d like to qualify it. No, come back up here. Stay away from the comments section until I’ve had my say, please.

This article is not claiming that Forsaken World is better than WoW, or even vice versa. Or throwing fresh fuel on the always charring embers of F2P vs. subscription business model holy war. This article is simply stating intriguing features that Perfect World Entertainment has implemented in its upcoming F2P MMORPG (which “releases” tomorrow, March 9, 2011). All but the last two have been personally experienced. Some are innovative, some are no-brainers and some are quality-of-life additions. All deserve to be heralded.

• Inventory management – Sick of having your quest items mixed in with normal items? Or vendor trash displacing your carefully organized gear sets? PWE devised the clever notion to give players the ability to sort or search their inventory out of the box. No addons required.
• Search for an NPC – The map in Forsaken World is busy, hitting players with an overwhelming amount of information. To clear out the riff-raff, simply search for any NPC. I’d like the feature to be restricted to “discovered” NPCs – either personally, or being told their whereabouts – but I’ll settle for the capability given.
• New Player Experience – Ronix wrote a fantastic post on the opening experience. Read it. It should cause a lot more than 30% of players to progress past level 10.
• Encyclopedia/Achievement System – You’ve spent hours, neigh, days, weeks, perhaps even months in an MMORPG. Don’t you want to know exactly what you’ve accomplished?  Forsaken World will allow players to revisit their adventures by reading through a personal encyclopedia. The avatar history was pretty wonky in Closed Beta – entries not loading – but the idea is a good implementation of WAR’s best feature, and beats the hell out of a collection of meaningless points, but it has those too. Continue Reading

Earlier this week, iTZKooPA mentioned the ‘carrot-on-a-stick’ approach regularly emphasized in Forsaken World. Today, I’d like to delve deeper into this aspect of Perfect World Entertainment’s upcoming title and show you that these systems go deeper than you could have imagined.

Right from the get-go, the game offers a mixture of comfort and gentle encouragement in order to ease players into the initial experience. Upon your log-in, you receive a few shinies to keep you excited and give you that warm fuzzy feeling of being welcome in this new world. They include things like health and mana potions that have infinite use but expire after a week, bag extensions, identification scrolls, and various buffs. The mysterious box that sits in your inventory is not simply a gift dispenser, but also a tool for players to get acquainted with various game mechanics. Along with identification scrolls and food that temporarily increases your stats, it frequently gives out introductions to game features relevant to your current level.

The constant stream of presents is timed at certain intervals to avoid an overdose, but also to keep you wanting more. The reward mechanic is nothing new, but Forsaken World does it better than competitors by making these presents actually useful to your gaming experience. Moreover, they also serve the purpose of introducing and getting you accustomed to the idea of having a vast amount of convenience items at your disposal from the beginning. That way, once you go past the new player experience and get into the meat of the game, the idea of having (buying) various shinies will not seem like an unusual one. This doesn’t mean that higher level players don’t get rewards though, quite the opposite.

Every player has the option to pray when the in-game constellation changes (part of the Zodiac System mentioned earlier). The first four prayers have a chance to give you additional experience and items. There is also a journal that neatly organizes your progression in each game zone and frequently awards achievement points that you can get through exploration and questing. In addition, being a member of a guild will net you a daily reward in the form of experience scrolls and several types of in-game currency.

This sort of encouragement goes beyond mere rewards and can be seen in the fabric of Forsaken World itself. Each significant layer of activity and content in the game has some sort of a meaningful system attached to it in order to encourage and lead players on. Examples of these systems are everywhere. Certain interval levels are accompanied by a pop-up box that aims to introduce players to additional content that has become available. It’s not just a simple Help menu though, as it teaches you about the quests available for your level range, what monsters to kill, what jobs you can learn, as well as where to farm money and equipment. It also allows you to set reminders and see what events are currently on. In addition to all of this, you get a hefty Encyclopedia that is reachable from the main menu once you acquire it. It acts as an in-game wiki of sorts and allows you to search through its contents using keywords.

Everything in the game is designed to make the process of chasing that carrot as unobtrusive as possible. Systems like a quest tracker that allows your character to travel to key locations on auto-pilot, as well as a detailed map of the surroundings, allow you to easily navigate around the world with a couple of clicks and make sure that the time spent in Forsaken World flows quickly and without you even noticing.

When it comes down to it, there are basically two types of MMO-players. Those who view their time spent in-game simply as a source of entertainment and a fun experience, and those who are drawn to the promise of a living world that they can influence and be a part of. Forsaken World is a prime example of the former, and a well-crafted one at that. By not being afraid to admit its themepark roots, the game manages to improve the old formula and have multiple hook points that will leave players coming back for more.

World of Warcraft is often compared to crack, a substance that gets you addicted almost immediately upon consumption and has severe withdrawal issues. Forsaken World, on the other hand, is more akin to refined heroin, something that gets you attached to it over a period of time, without you even noticing. Wait, this isn’t a blog about drugs? Son of a…

Welcome back to the second half of our preview series covering Forsaken World – the latest title from Perfect World Entertainment. In part 1, I promised to talk about some additional features of the game that might catch your interest. Once again, please keep in mind that a good portion of this information has not been officially confirmed by PWE, yet.

Zodiac System
Upon creating your character, the game will ask you to pick a Zodiac sign. Your choice may affect some of the rewards that you get in-game, your character’s luck and other aspects of gameplay. Rumours say that participating in the Zodiac system will also play a role in the progression of your server. How exactly this will be carried out is still unknown.

PvP with a twist
Forsaken World gives players access to PvP from level 30. Adding an interesting twist to this common feature is the Soul System. Any player, while fighting, can activate the Awaken Wrath skill that will greatly increase their fighting power, but will also leave them more vulnerable to opponents. While in this mode, there is a chance that characters will drop Soul Orbs when hit with a direct attack. Whoever picks up enough of these orbs will experience a big rise in power and will have an easier time kicking ass.

Hopefully, this mode will increase the importance of tactical maneuvers and control over the battlefield in the standard PvP fare.

Monsters have bigger brains
Another notable feature in Forsaken World is the increased attention of devs to the AI of various monsters inhabiting the world. Perfect World Entertainment has even invited two professors from Princeton University to help design this system. The aim was to make fights more challenging for players by allowing mobs to react to different situations, actively use skills and debuffs, as well as heal each other. Whether the developers have succeeded in their attempt has yet to be seen.

More than 10 secondary occupations Continue Reading