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[Interview] Wurm Online: Rolf Jansson - The Gone Gold Interview
SBFord
Former Associate EditorMember LegendaryPosts: 33,129
Wurm Online has been a labor of love since its inception in 2003. We managed to catch up to Code Club CEO Rolf Jansson to talk about Wurm Online and all that's happened in the intervening years. See what he's got to say and then leave us your thoughts in the comments.
MMORPG: It's been a long time since the inception of Wurm way back in 2003. How have your current goals for the game changed since that initial push for the sandbox?
Rolf Jansson: Initially I'd say "not a lot" but let me think a bit. We've surely added features and systems I didn't conceive at the time like meditation and the Epic missions, although some sort of Epic endgame was always in the plans. In general, I think we're pretty much where we aimed at after all these years. We've achieved a lot of what was our "dream list" of features, a lot of which I see in other sandbox mmo discussions here. Things like skillbased systems, "player run" economy, no instancing, free housing, alternatives to run-of-the-mill quest systems etc.
Read more of Bill Murphy's Wurm Online: The 'Gone Gold' Interview.
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Comments
I've played this game for about a year now and I've enjoyed it immensily. It is a refreshing change of pace if you are looking for one.
I'd highly recommend it to players who enjoy the pace and feel of old classic mmorpg's, as well as players that have wanted to find the ultimate fantasy building and crafting mmorpg. It's a skill based virtual world where community is encouraged, neighbours are friendly, and the prevalent economy is completely player driven.
I am so glad and happy for Rolf and his team. To create a game like his and persevere to the point where they can go GOLD after 6 years of hard work, Congratulations to them! They are no Sony, MSFT, or Blizzard, this is a defeinately a huge accomplishment and I wish them success with this game and that they can continue production of it for the years to come.
They definately have a great game on their hands, I have played for 1 month and I feel at home in the game. I feel a true genuine sense of ownership of my land and how I want to develope it.
The community and people are insanley respectful and helpful. Everyone knows each other, you know your neighbors, they know you. Keeping a clean name is ideal for when you need help with anything in this game.
Good job Rolf, and I hope many of you try this game out.
Do not give up at first, once you get past the learning curve, and start building items, you will feel so confident and a sense of accomplishment that you will be proud to be a member of the Wurm community!
My name in game is ArkAngel, on the Independance server.
Hope to see you all in game!
I tried this a couplemonths ago and it was frustrating as a new player....I played about 10-12 hours and never could find any land to build on....All the land that was open wouldn't allow you to build, and all the other land was deeded by other players..... Whenver I'd askk if anyone knew of any land in chat they just say things like "oh theres tons" yet no one would ever say where it was...Next time someone is going to try a game like this at least make it so players have a chance to get their own piece of land.
Hmm, this does partially depend on which server you are playing on but the people who have been playing for quite some time and who have run around the respective servers do get a sense of where there is land available. The forum does provide player made maps that list some of the deeds. As well as being handy in helping figure out where you are it gives you a little bit of an idea where there is heavy concentration of deeded land. Being someone who has run around a fair portion of the Indy server I can tell you that there is vast swathes of empty land. It really depends what you are looking for. Do you prefer forest, mountain, shore? How far away do you want to be from neighbors, trade hubs, water, hunting grounds, natural resources, ect. Most of the area around each spawn point for the server will be staked out. Pick a direction N,S,E,W and just keep running that way. There are fairly extensive road networks for the older servers.
The forum is an excellent place to find villages who are taking in new members. http://forum.wurmonline.com/
Wander the wiki and you will be able to find answers to a fair number of questions. http://www.wurmpedia.com/
For anyone who is looking/considering joining. I suggest you try it. It is a game unlike any other and one of 2-3 in the past few years I've been able to get hooked on.
I'll probably be checking up on this site for a bit so if anyone has any questions feel free to leave em and I'll see if I can help answer any questions.
From what I understand (because I tried to play it myself today) you cannot register currently and the servers are down. So I'm guessing the going gold is like an expansion?
I think you can register after the update is ready.
For those wishing to try this game and wonder if a free player will be at a disadvantage, Let me tell you, I have been playing Wurm for 5+ years now and have watched it grow. Wurm is my home away from home, and though I move around a lot in game, I never leave the game itself.
Simply find a nice spot of un-deeded land and make a shack, fence off some land, grow some crops. You can play and enjoy your time there without paying anything, and can even earn in-game silvers to pay for premium time by working for others.
Wurm is a game like none other, trust me, I looked and tried a lot of other games, and no other setting compares to the sandbox Rolf and his team has put together. Its because its not some huge company run by corperate greed that they can stick to their vision. The financial backers to this game are us, the premium players who have aided Wurm's development over the years.
You have to understand Wurm isn't a game for the instant gratification crowd. It takes time to do anything, like in real life, that's why I akin the world to my home away from home. You don't need to grind to max level like so many games, because the game has no classes, no levels. Don't think of Wurm as a game, think of it as a virtual home.
See you there, I am Meridius in Wurm.
If you aren't actively part of the solution, you have no right to complain about anything.
I am so going to give this game a honest try. I have always liked it, but didn't want to invest time in it. Now with a fresh server and many other feature, it is a PERFECT time to start!
One of the latest Twitter updates: "Our team has decided that it’s better to skip giving out ETA’s since everyone just gets upset when we miss them. Wurm will be released when the current issues are resolved. We will give some notice at that time. Please wish us luck!"
See you in game tonight or tomorrow!
Meridius, is there any way I can chat with you in the game, or maybe me and my girlfriend can play with you?
I can say without a word of a lie, this is the best MMORPG I've played and one of the few to truly take on the challenge of simulating an entire world.
Can't wait to get back in game and have a nosey around.
Congrats Rolf!
The free-to-play restriction is that all skills are capped at 20 (max is 100), and you cannot own land. There are also some other restrictions due to the skill cap of 20, like riding a horse, or commanding a large cart (although you are allowed to sail around in a rowboat).
You are, however, allowed to terraform the land, mine, build things like wood houses and fences, and craft. It's enough to give you guys a good sense of whether the game fits your playstyle.
The population is large enough that there is always somebody to talk to and people to meet, but at the same time, if you are wanting to be in the middle of nowhere and become a hermit, you can do that too. If you are wanting to get a sense of the community, my recommendation would be to join a village that accepts beginner players. They are usually really good at teaching you about the game and expidite the learning curve. Then when you guys feel comfortable, you can venture off and find a spot of your own.
As mentioned above you will hit a skill cap of 20 out of 100. It is relatively cheap to play. 10 euros (about 13$) for 2 months. Or you can hire yourself out and buy referals (20 days of game time & 1 hour of sb usually 6-7 silver) or 1 month of game time 10s. Better deal to buy referals if you can. I would suggest running around for a bit and trying things out. If you like the game I'd suggest going premium so that you will be able to go past the 20 skill cap.
For some skills yes. But you'll need to raise each skill individually (although some skills raise together like digging and shovel skills), and there's about 133 different ones.
Some things like carp you will hit fairly quickly. Other skills such as toy making you probably won't even touch. I would imagine if you play for a week semi casually you'll start to hit 20 in a couple.
Joined 2004 - I can't believe I've been a MMORPG.com member for 20 years! Get off my lawn!
i tried this game out myself for a couple of days and i just gave up on it , it just isnt fun to me to grind out single skills painfully slow. I ended up instead playing Xyson as its the same exact concept but better graphics and better skill sets at least for my tastes. You guys should warn others about how long it takes to get your skills up to even do one single thing like make a cart or a boat or even cutting a tree and building a fire.
This game is a great concept though and if you enjoy the single item piece by piece crafting than you will love this game . I just find xyson to be much better though it has serious issues to.
I will agree with you that the graphics in wurm are not near as good as Xyson. I have played both. But Wurm is so much more indepth and also has a much longer life than Xyson. Xyson will someday i do belive be as good as wurm now. But by then wurm will have improved even more.
I have played wurm off and on since 2003 and i also would like to congradulate Rolf and his team.
played M59,UO,lineage,EQ,Daoc,Entropia,SWG,Horizons,Lineage2.EQ2,Vangaurd,Irth online, DarkFall,Star Trek
and many others that did not make the cut or i just plain forgetting about.
"Who's that guy? Please, don't build near my perimeter" This is what i think everytime i see a random guy stay in my local chat for more than 1 minute in Wurm Online. This kind of mindset is quite stressful to me. But still, Wurm is an awesome sandbox mmo.
imo, the biggest turn-off for new players is the UI not the animation.