“This is a place that exists with or without you. Trivial areas, one’s that exist only for their own sake and nothing else, give a game world a sense of permanence, of magnitude. There was nothing to do but explore the environment: grass and rocks and trees and sunlight pushing its way through the leaves. Instead I ran through the forest, climbed a mountain, and soared across a chasm to an island. The area still has lanterns and trails segmented by ancient arches, even a couple NPC’s fishing near a campfire.

And I find that to be a fascinating notion, even if it wasn’t intentional on the part of the developer. And what did I discover?Ī beautiful nothing, a large area with no purpose: no quests, no mobs, nothing to motivate a player's presence except for the environment itself. So I wuxia-skipped my away across the map at breakneck speed.

I had to find out what was there I had to leave the intended trail: “I took the one less traveled by, And that has made all the difference.”

There’s an entire forest and mountain range sitting just outside the quest area. I like to call them icebreaker quests-as of this writing.īut I opened my map and became curious. The orientation tasks players with completing some mindless quests in and around a small city: oppress the plant rebellion and make sure table three has their hot tamales. It’s orientation that pens all the noobs together so no one gets lost or overwhelmed before they understand how to play. You start off your grindfest on a tutorial island, introducing the game’s mechanics. Let me explain step by step how I had such a… realization. So I run up against mountains, climb behind Ironforge, and run as far across the ocean as I can, until I’m teleported or a megalodon swallows me whole.īut Revelation Online surprised me-gave me an epiphany that I would have brushed off as trivial before. Some primal urge churns deep within my belly to challenge the environment. Whenever I play an MMORPG I push against the boundaries of the game’s world, find out just where the invisible walls are or where the developers don't want me to go.

Revelation online worth playing 2024