Legends of Zork Goes Live

TinBromide writes "The developers over at Jolt Online Gaming have released Legends of Zork to the general public. It's a free, browser-based, adventure game based on the world of Zork. You play as a Traveling Salesman, recently laid off from FrobozzCo. You start off in a clearing, where a white house has a boarded up door. From there, you can do what you like. Explore the world, fight other salesmen in PVP, or try out your Darkvision Goggles in the dark — just try not to get eaten by a grue." It's free in that you're given 30 Action Points each day, which are consumed by moving about and fighting. Their business model is that if you want more Action Points, you can purchase more.

Actually seems kinda fun

[shinmai]

Plays easy, doesn't require flash or other plugins, and everything actually is sort of "Zorky".

Most browser-based games have perks for paying players, and being able to buy action points isn't really the worst I've seen. It doesn't overly imbalance the gameplay, at least in my opinion.

Only time will tell how this really fans out, but I'm in positive spirits. (Between this and Battlefield Heroes I'm going to be spending even more time at my browser in the future :D)

New Business model

[mac1235]

Kingdom of Loathing anyone?

Re:Actually seems kinda fun

[montyzooooma]

I played until level 3 or 4, basically a days worth of action points and really don't see the appeal. RPS did a reasonably in depth rant here:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2009/04/02/grue-some-zork-remake-live-horrible/#more-9807

Eaten by a Burma Grue

[stainless-steel-vash]

Out of torches in the dark you are likely to be eaten by a grue there is no chance of save betcha wish yuo had Burma Shave!

Summary of the game

[uigrad_2000]

All you need to know is here:

• The game is text-based, with static images of monsters to show what you are currently fighting.
• There are no dungeons to learn. Your only options for moving is "step forward to fight a new monster" or "retreat to your home".
• The main focus of the game is the leader board, which can be sorted by total XP or total gold.
• Each day, you receive 30 more action points.
• Action points let you fight monsters and level up. One Action point is needed per battle.
• More action points can be bought with Coconuts. The best rate is +200 action points for 10 coconuts.
• Coconuts can also be used for buying armor. The best rate for buying coconuts is 60 coconuts per $20.

In conclusion, if your friend spends $20, in one day, then you'll need to play 40 days to catch up with him. The rankings really just show which players have spent the most money.

I've been playing since the first slashdot story about this [slashdot.org], and I think it's pretty well done, when the server isn't crashing. The need to pay real money to be competitive is really a shame. Everyone who tries it should know this going in.

Game Comparisons

[PegamooseG]

First off... I enjoy various kinds of text games from the early Infocom games, to the King's Quests, to the Monkey Islands, and event a Zork or two. Yes, Legends of Zork took elements from the world of Zork, but it lacks challenge. In the text games, I like trying everything under the sun to try to get that one step further in the game, even if that meant starting over a million times. It was part of the challenge, part of the fun. This... I found very frustrating. It's like the game is so incredibly dumbed down that it's like a slightly interactive advertisement for something I don't want to buy into.

Games like Kingdom of Loathing [kingdomofloathing.com] and Twilight Heroes [twilighthereoes.com], are what lit a fire under me to create my own, Urban Legions [urbanlegions.net].

Kingdom of Loathing is incredible. Since the day I stumbled upon it via Wikipedia (looking up "Trifids" of all things), I have been hooked and play it practically every day since. I love the sense of humor. I love collecting all the crazy items. After ascending about 8+ times, the quests are getting a little tedious. But, they add new content, which makes me want to play it even more. I haven't even broken into the Hobopolis or PvP sides of the game, and it's kept me entertained for 2.5+ years.

Twilight Heroes... I played for a while. Then, I got stuck on one of the quests. After a while, it got repetitive and I dropped it (mostly). I go back every once in a while. It's not a bad game. It's as easy to pick up as KoL. It's got a good sense of humor, and I've enjoyed playing it. Yet, it lacks something (for me, at least) to want to keep playing it. Maybe they've found that certain something that I lacked, and maybe I should pick it up again.

Urban Legions... Why did I create this game? Because I told my friend about KoL, how much fun it was, and we both agreed it was something we should try doing ourselves. During the creation of the game, we broke away from several traditions, but kept various elements we enjoy from playing other games. One of the things we broke away from is character creation. All characters start the same except for their names. You enter a name and an alias, and you're off and running. Stats? We limit it to Brains and Brawn. I mean seriously... How often do you roll for Constitution while playing D&D? We also wanted the game to play differently. The world is very much open ended. There is an over-arching plot that we continuously add to, but there are various side quests along the way. We are light years behind KoL in the amount of content, but of what we already have, we are already building a community of people who play on a regular basis and crave more (By the way... We love you guys and gals!). Like the others, KoL, TH, and LoZ, we provide a few turns per day with the options to subscribe for more turns per day or to buy a big block of turns that you can slowly whittle away. Sure, he and I would love to make enough money from this to one day quit our day jobs and focus solely on this and a few other projects up our sleeves, but the enjoyment we have of creating something that we are most proud of and trying to constantly out-do ourselves is also so incredibly rewarding.

So, back to Legends of Zork... As I said, I enjoy playing these kinds of game, if not for seeing "what not to do". One of the first things that irked me is the combat. I can't control what my character does in regards to combat, so why even go through the motions of creating a character? The next thing that bugged me... I went to my inventory to see what I thought I gained, but didn't. To get back into the game, the only way I could figure out was to go back to the map and into the location I was just at. This took another couple of action points to do. Seriously?! It takes an action point if I want to view my character and click ONE LOCATION on the map?! Are you fbleeping serious?! That ri