Sword of the New World: The Best Free MMORPG?

As I’ve made clear in the past, I’ve tried an awful lot of MMORPGs, both free and subscriber only (Perfect World, Rappelz, Tales of Pirates, Rohan, Dofus, World of Warcraft, Cabal and probably some others I can’t remember). In most cases though, the free to play ones don’t stay on my computer very long, sometimes even for less time than it took me to download the installer. So, it was with a degree of trepidation that I spent somewhere in the region of twelve hours downloading, installing and patching an MMO called Sword of the New World.

I have to admit though, despite the long wait, I’m pleasantly surprised. SotNW definitely stands up with the best of free to play MMOs and perhaps even some of the pay to play ones too. Here’s a more detailed look at what I thought of the game.

1. System specs: My laptop is two years old now and wasn’t top of the range when it was new, so whether games will actually run is a big issue for me. To my surprise though, Sword of the New World runs beautifully and not even on the lowest graphics settings. So far it’s been smooth and lag free, which is definitely a bonus.
2. The look of the game: I’ll be the first to admit that I have a real fixation with pretty things. To this end, I love games that look good. SotNW really stands up here. It looks gorgeous, from the detailed landscapes and textures to the brilliantly OTT character costumes. Despite the fictitious world, the game as a whole has a ‘baroque’, historical feel to it, rather than the fantasy setting of many online games.
3. Playability: This is one area where Sword of the New World is slightly let down. On the plus side, it has the interesting feature of being able to play up to three characters at once. Unfortunately, managing these three characters in areas so heavy with monsters that you can quickly became swamped is not always easy. There are also so many keyboard shortcuts that it’s almost easier not to bother learning them at all. Add to that the ‘not entirely obvious how it works’ systems of stances and skills and the game can be a bit overwhelming for the new player. I’m still not convinced I’ve got the hang of everything yet, but I’m getting there. Overall, it’s a complicated but likely rewarding system, particularly at higher levels.
4. Other observations: One thing the game does have going for it is the more-or-less perfect English in character dialogue boxes. There are a few typos (particularly in NPC names) but overall the dialogue is readable and gives a sense that the game might actually have a bit of a story to it (this is a far cry from a lot of free MMOs I’ve played, in which the text has been translated into English, often from Korean, but very poorly).

So, overall impressions: Sword of the New World is an interesting and very good-looking MMORPG, offering a different set of attractions from many of its competitors, particularly in the ability to play more than one character at once. I’ve yet to see much of the social side of the game, as the starting areas seem to be fairly quiet. However, I’m likely to keep playing and try to get to some of the busier areas, as the game runs beautifully, looks fantastic and has so far proved to be pretty enjoyable.

Does Sword of the New World have the potential to be an alternative to other MMORPGs, even ones which require a subscription? Probably not, as the playing style it offers is somewhat different to traditional games of this type. However, if you’re fed up of badly-translated, bland-looking and boring to play MMOs, Sword of the New World might be one to try.

Back To Work On The Novel

After a few days off to re-evaluate where my latest novel was going, I’ve managed to come up with some answers. I’m now a lot clearer about some important character motivations and world rules, so it’s time to press on with racking up the word count.

Admittedly, if I’d planned ahead with this novel, as I usually do, I wouldn’t have had this problem. Still, it’s been nice to just let the story lead me where it will for once, without any existing ideas about what I wanted to include (except for the final two or three scenes).

So, back to work on the novel and less time for blogging, which is the way I like it. If I’m writing less here, it usually means I’m writing more fiction and that’s always a good thing.

When Questioning Your Writing Can Be A Good Thing

If you’ve been reading this blog lately, you’ll probably have read some mention of the latest novel I’m working on. Without giving too much away, it features magic and mythical creatures and I’m coming up to the halfway point. Halfway is a pretty important milestone. In theory, I should know my characters, world and plot pretty well by now. In theory.

I’ve realised over the last couple of days that the reason I’m struggling to motivate myself to write is because I’m uncertain about where the story is going next. Part of this is down to a lack of planning in the early stages of the writing process, but I’ll admit that I’ve rather enjoyed letting the story take me where it will, instead of studiously plotting the whole thing out before I began. Additionally, I’ve read a couple of interesting articles recently, both of which have covered topics I’m writing about and both of which have made me question how I want my created world to function.

So, I’m left with a great deal of uncertainty and I’m not writing much as a consequence. It sounds terrible, but I’ve come to the conclusion that this indecision may save the book. Finally, I’ve been made to sit back and really think about the dynamics of my story and world. It’s something I’ve been putting off, but it’s also something I really need to do in order to improve the novel. Whilst I could leave this until the editing stage, I’m finding that stopping to look at what I’ve done so far and to really think about how events in the story are going to pan out – and about how the mechanics of my fantasy world affect this – is actually giving me much more confidence in my ability to finish the book.

Sometimes, it seems, questioning where you’re going with a novel or story can actually make you stop, take a look around and work out how to make the remainder of that story as good as it can possibly be.