Home Sick or Missing the Norm Effect

I can’t put my finger on it, Am I home sick for the way I use to play, Or am I missing the Norm effect?

Note: If you are too young to know what the Norm effect is, There was a show a long time ago called Cheers. Every time Norm walked into the bar where the show was centered. Every one would yell out Norm! in a way of greetings to him.

I have tried to get back into playing theme park MMO’s but I get so bored playing them now. I can’t find any joy in doing the same quest over and over, Nor can I find people I want to hang out with and play. It seemed so easy back then, I would be running out to do that same quest I had done 20, 30 ,40 times before (Note: I had a real bad case of altitis), And would run into other’s doing the same quest. We would group up and before you knew it we was having a blast and never even thought about how long we was taking to get the quest done. When I think back now, It seemed I played more for the fun of it, Than I did to make sure I did X amount of quest, or crafts.

Now days all I run into is people who just want to make sure they get X quest done, Or make X craft. Lord forbid if they don’t ding to the next level. I’m sure not everyone is like this but for me it seems that for the most part people don’t have time to talk or get to know you now days. They only have a few minutes in the game and they must do X amount of stuff to feel like they are getting there money’s worth.

Don’t get me wrong, It’s not lost on me that I to have changed a lot as a gamer as well. For one thing, I don’t sit in one place that long any more. This is do to how fast they make quest now, But If I really wanted to I could take a much longer time when doing the quest. I also don’t have the patience I had at one time. And the things some people use to do that I could over look back then, Is a big annoyance to me now. Meaning even when I do find that one person that wants to group up, There is a good 50/50 chance they will piss me off some how.

I also have had problems finding good guilds to join, Don’t get me wrong, I know there are some out there. But the ones I seem to join are dead for me. Not saying people are not playing. There is  a ton of people in them. They just don’t talk, They are doing their own thing. They log in do a quest or two and then log out without ever saying a thing. At the same time when people do log in no one ever says Hey to them. Back years a go, I remember logging in and having half the guild say hi or just say my name in a way to acknowledge they saw me log in. Then after logging in I would get people asking me to come out with them as they did X quest. I would do the same for other’s when they logged on. We all knew each other and enjoyed our times together. I just don’t get that feeling any more.

I don’t know if it’s because I have changed so much or if it’s the rest of you that have changed. I just know I miss the old days and hope for the best as I sit waiting for Xsyon to get better and people to start playing more.

~ Alik Steel

Xsyon: Game launch…*cough…Again

Game launch day finally was at hand, After waiting a year from when the game was to go live into Prelude. The day finally was here, And I was at work working doubles that week. Watching everything through the text of my tribe mates in our tribal website live chat. This was not reading good, Lot’s of words I don’t think I would like to type here. After hours and hours of reading that it kelp being pushed back later and later til it went live when I was driving home. Pacing back and forth as I waited for the game to download, And then the time came to log in. We was hammered with 30 minute lag, with lag spikes even higher. For hours we waged war in a horrific epic battle pitting man versus lag. We really had no chance, Lag was to strong, Lag seemed to be everywhere at once and no one could stand up to the lag. In the end we laid in a corner crying out to our mothers to console us and tell us all will be OK again. And the game came crashing down around us. We lost to many good gamers on that night. As the days and night roll on it almost felt like a bad dream. Until you walk past the field of honor and see all the grave makers of the lost loved ones that we’ll never see in-game again.

In the week we was morning our losses, That seemed to still be growing. The Dev Team worked hard to fix things as fast as the could. After a little more than a week we was going for another game launch. This time things much better. The lag was still their but no where like it was before. Yes it made thing mind numbing, Not sure frustrating covers how many of us felt. But we did what we had to do. In the middle of all this all the tribe kelp having to drop their totems for their tribal lands. Mean time you had the gaming troll’s doing everything they could to take your area before you could. Just because that’s the type of thing they do. Any way Hopi (The tribe I’m in) was able to grab our area time and time again. We are set now and building up our area. The lag is almost gone, And the real game is there to be played.

After two game launches and three totem drops, The game is now up and running as it should be, Yea there still a little lag from time to time but no more than you would expect from any game without a login queue.

Xsyon: Q&A with Jooky of Notorious Games

1) How would you like to be called? Is there any name that you wish to be known as?

Jooky is alright.

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2) How did you get the name Jooky?

It happened randomly. Many years ago when I was setting up my first email address I wanted to use my first name. That was taken so instead I chose the first thing that popped into my head that was similar to my name… for some reason that was ‘Jooky’ and it stuck.

 

A few years later those Jooky soda commercials came out which made my nickname more recognizable and funny to people.

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3) What all do you do at Notorious Games?

I am the sole designer, lead programmer, manager and primary art director. So basically I do too much!
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4) How or what made you want to make Xsyon?

Ever since I played Dungeons and Dragons as a kid and first heard of computers I imagined in the future that players would connect to a online world where some players created and lived in the world while others adventured in it and most did a little of both.

 

When Ultima Online came out I saw a glimpse of what I had imagined and I was inspired to put together the first documents for Apocalypse (the original title for Xsyon) with the help of one of my business partners back then.

 

The opportunity to finally bring this game to life came 3 ½ years ago when I was able to get enough funding to start this project. With just enough to run a small team, I knew I had to keep things simple, so Xsyon Prelude is just the beginning.
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5) Has the making of Xsyon been every thing you thought it would be?

Unfortunately, no. The biggest problem has been a struggle with programmers. For the first two years of development I primarily directed things and trusted that the code was stable and optimized thoroughly. On the surface it appeared to be so and features were getting implemented quickly. I put a lot of faith in the original team, which is necessary when working with such a small group.

 

As I announced the launch nearly a year ago we suddenly realized that what appeared to working well on the surface was riddled with problems. The original programmers were replaced and the bulk of these past 9 months has been spent in rewriting major portions of the code with a revolving set of coders. Most of the programming this year has been handled by myself and one other programmer.

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6) When I first found Xsyon back in March (2010) you was wanting the launch of the game to be small, And for it to be more like a grassroots type of game. Do you still feel the same way now?
Yes, I do. We are still planning a small official launch and a game that will respond to and evolve with the community. Xsyon Prelude is still the first step.
On the Home page of the Xsyon website it says there will be many benevolent gods, The seven seals are about to be broken, The Four Horsemen loom over the land awaiting their chance to spread destruction and chaos. It goes on to say that Devils and angels vie for control of their earthly battlefield.

7) How many gods are we talking about?

In the Prelude, the God of the Bible and gods associated with the Washoe nation.
8 ) How big of a part will the gods play in our day-to-day lives?

This will depend on the player.
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9) With Xsyon sounding something like a hybrid between fantasy and apocalypse, Will Xsyon be a magic heavy game later?

I am planning to evolve the world to be something like in Arcanum, where there is a balance of magic and technology, but keeping things primitive for a while.
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10) How far are you willing to push human technology in the game? War machines, Buildings, Agriculture.

Again, probably to the level of Arcanum. Xsyon will remain more of a fantasy then a sci-fi world, though as things progress I would like to see if different areas of the world evolve in different ways, some focused on tech, others focused on spiritual magic, both equally powerful.

A main goal with the game is to provide the tools and the setting, see what players do with them and evolve the world accordingly. We’ve already been doing that this year as the terraforming and tribe rank system and plan to do this soon with the combat system.

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11) Will Xsyon always be a seamless gaming world? Or will we see zoning(loading screens) when you start adding new lands from around the world to the game?

Eventually there will be loading screens between some areas, though the world will be divided into large seamless zones such as the current Prelude Zone.

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12) What kind of mutant animals can we expect to see?

The current in game creatures (bear, deer, coyotes, raccoons) have several mutant versions. We will be adding many creatures for launch and they will all eventually have mutant versions.
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13) With this being a game set in the apocalypse will there be zombies? And if so, Are they more animal or NPC?

Yes, zombies will arise sometime during the Prelude. They will be NPC monsters with full visible loot (armor and weapons).
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14) Will we see boats in the game at some point? And if so, How big will you make them? Could a raiding party be able to be all in the same ship?

They are planned, but a ways off. We’ll start with small rafts and canoes and then barges large enough for a small raiding party (10-20 players). Anything larger will be saved for much later when the world expands beyond the current Prelude area (the Prelude area is 40×40 km, most of which is currently covered by the deadly green mist.

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Thank you Jooky for your time and answers.

-Alik Steel

Is it TABOO to guild recruit on my blog?

Yesterday I did a post, The title was “Hopi Tribe of Xsyon, Recruitment Message“, I added one of them little things that hides a part of the post till you click Read more », I even put a disclaimer on it.

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer, That’s me Alik Steel, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Hopi tribe of Xsyon.

 

You can find the post just under this one here on my site. I thought I did a good job on this post, I never thought it would be read like a major league  gaming blogger. I’m not even in the minor leagues of blogging yet, And don’t know if I would like being read by tens of hundreds or even thousands like some may have. To be honest, I don’t have that much to say about gaming. But when I do want to say something, Well I always have my blog. In the past I have a lot of bad comments and emails telling me to stop blogging, That I was making game bloggers look bad by how bad I was. And I yelled back to all that would read me. GET BENT, I AM ALIK STEEL AND I WILL DO WHAT I WISH. Well as time has move on I don’t get that type of stuff any more, Till last night. This time it was not about how bad I spell words or How I use punctuation marks wrong. No this time it was about what I had talked about. This person told me that I should never recruit for my guild on a blog! My first thought was Damn, I didn’t know. Then it hit me, Damn straight I didn’t know, Because it’s bullshit. This is my blog, I should be able to do what ever I wish with it. OK maybe not anything I want, Not that I would want to do anything bad with it, Hell you know what I mean.

Any way, As I do feel like this is my blog, And I can do with it as I see fit, And will do so no matter what is said. Now I know what you are thinking, And yes for me if I piss my readership off I lose like 10 people. LOL Not saying I want to lose y’all, You know I love you guys and gals. But I would like to know your thoughts on this, Am I wrong and blogs, Especially the ones that has no history of guild recruiting, Be able to recruit for guilds?

-Alik Steel

Hopi Tribe of Xsyon, Recruitment Message

[EDIT: I'm no longer apart of the Tribe Hopi in the MMO Xsyon]

 

Disclaimer: The opinions expressed here are the views of the writer, That’s me Alik Steel, and do not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of the Hopi tribe of Xsyon.

Not understanding why they don’t understand (PvP)

The MMO that I am waiting for is called Xsyon and it’s going to be an open sandbox game. So this means PVP. I only have been into pvp for about a year over in EQ2. I was in two guilds that I really enjoyed. The first one was on day one that EQ2 pvp server’s went live. After the drama ripped that guild apart(I was apart of the drama). I found myself becoming apart of a podcast pvp guild. Both guilds was short-lived and after the 2nd guild dying I started thinking one of the things that took them down was the fact we was dealing with so much pvp, And people was taking things way too serious. So I went back to my carebear ways, And have enjoyed it very much. But as so many things do, My taste in what I like to do in MMO’s has changed. But it seems that the only way to play a game that has features that I like is to be apart of a MMO that is open sandbox and full of pvp.

So here is somethings that I read over at the Xsyons forums. He is talking about Darkfall.

But, yeah. That account was a beast, my bank was fuckin’ full of stuff too.

If only the core player base of that game weren’t chicken-shit pre-teens, I might have still played. Sucked spending 2 hours running around looking for PvP only to find nothing … or a group of 20+ people cause they’re scared to fight alone.

I read things like this all the time from player vs. players all the time from many sites. But this is what I don’t understand why they don’t understand. If all you like to do is pvp, And looting your victim is how you make your riches. The only way for you to make loot, Is that the victim has to make it first. And I know this may be tough to understand, But people don’t like having all their stuff taken every time they go out. And for people like me that suck at pvp(and yet I still like being in a pvp fight from time to time) will start going out with reinforcement in hopes that with numbers on our side we may be able to make our loot and make it back home without dying and having it ripped from our dead body.

Another thing that I don’t understand why they don’t understand is that when player vs players get what they want in the way that they run all people who is not into pvp as much as they are, out of the game. They get upset that there just no one left for them to kill. I really don’t understand this, So many of you tell us non-pvp players that we shouldn’t be playing if we want pvp. And when we do leave, You call us names for not staying, because now the game seems empty.

Now not all is bad when it comes to a PvP. The one thing that I love about PvP, Is that feeling that death is always right around corner. And that feeling you get when you go out to get something done and make it back home without dying. I think this maybe something that the some top end PvP players may never know. Because they win more times than not, And there is no real feeling of happiness on making it back alive. They never know the feeling of running away and winning the race for your life. There is a lot of great things that is in a pvp world, But if you never have them little wins of living, Not sure how long any non-pvp player will stick around a game like that you never find yourself with a win from time to time. And to be fair, I know there is a lot I don’t understand about what it means to be a real player vs player and the feeling that you get out of the kill, or maybe it’s the loot that gives you that warm feeling.  Is it more about showing off your skill? I just don’t know, But I would really like to know what PvP players get out of it. When I was into PvP, I was never a lone wolf, I ran in packs and was a apart of a few server wars. But that was EQ2 and it’s PvP was not like what most think of as PvP so I’m not sure if some of you will count that as PvP.

Alik Steel

Notoroius Games: Xsyon, A unique MMO

I say Xsyon is being unique about the way they are making the MMOG. But there are other’s that are doing things similar to them., But not 100%. Ok first thing that seems to be more of a niche/independent way of doing things that the AAA market has not yet started doing. And that is letting people buy the game way before it is ready to go live. Just look at minecraft and how well he is doing. Xsyon did the same thing, Maybe not with as big of a splash. But who knows how, when, or why things happen. But I am thinking the man who came up with minecraft had the same thing in mind as the man who came up with Xsyon. And that is to have a small well-built game that will make them money without dealing with the headaches the big boys deal with. I have a feeling both will fail at keeping them small. But there are other’s, And I’m not going to name names, That tried the same thing and failed. Xsyon is filled with people who left the other games that promised the world and delivered nothing but a bill to be paid.

 

Don’t worry this is not another minecraft blog, But I did want to point to it and say there are other MMO company’s trying the new ways of making money and making a great game. But this is about Xsyon and how it is blazing its own trail. From the very first day that I went to the Xsyon website I found out that this was not going to be like other MMOG’s. Beyond the fact that a lot of the game features are ground breaking(IMO). The way he is going about building the game is nothing like any thing I have ever been apart of. After you per-order for the prelude(more on that later) you can help test the game. It’s not called beta, And I am finding that it’s really not. As we do test everything, But not just for bugs. When a player comes across something that needs fixing, Are even just changed into something better. Jordi and his team listen to us and within days it seems sometimes you can see the change in the game. Not that every idea a player has is a good idea and not everything makes it into the game. This is the only game that I have seen that sees a good idea as a good idea, And not something that we can look at later.

 

In Xsyon, Like so many other MMOG’s you have the good, neutral and evil factions in the game. Here’s the catch, In every MMOG I have played, It’s what you pick at first that makes you good, neutral or evil. Many times it’s when you pick your race, class, or city that you want to start from that make you one of the three factions. No matter how you really play your toon matters. It was just something you picked. Thats not the case in Xsyon, In Xsyon it’s your actions that decide if your good, neutral or evil. If you really like doing things that most would think of as evil. Killing for no other reason, Other than to kill, or killing for the loot and stealing from people and tribes(guilds) are the ways that I know that can send you down the road of being evil. There is a faction point system to watch what you do. Unlike other MMOG’s you’re not going to be able change your faction fast. Jordi has said that he is setting something up to keep people from commenting an evil act, And then doing something good a few time to counteract the evil deed. So if you play evil, Well your going to be evil. I will be trying to be a good boy, But I have a feeling playing good, Will be much harder than the other two factions will be for me. I will not be able just go do what ever I want and remain good. That is if what ever I want will be seen an evil deed.

 

One of the unique(at lest for me) things about this game is the fact that it will have a prelude. Not sure if Wurm had a prelude or not, But this game will have some of the same feel as wurm, But with better graphics. For the prelude players we will start in a game with nothing but what is on our backs. There is no towns are NPC’s to tell us what to do are how to do it. We will start off in the woods and we the player base will build every thing from hand. And the crafting is going old school in the fact that most crafts will need help from other crafters. Meaning that it is being built with community social interaction in mind. And for me that is a big one, I have been so afraid that the social aspects of MMOing was going away as so many people seem to play by themself as other people run around trying to do the same thing they are. And before any one starts. Talking to offline or online friends about the game is not what I am talking about. I am talking about people playing games together, And not just at the same time. What Xsyon is doing will help bring the player base together, At lest I hope it will.

Knowing I was going to do this blog, I asked Jordi how the official launch day was going to go. There is no dates but it is coming soon, Here is what he had to say.

 

Message from Xsyon

“Hello Alik,

Yes, the official launch day is when we wipe all characters and the Prelude begins.

We will still be adding and improving things during the Prelude. The Prelude phase is supposed to continue changing the game based on player’s input and adding features listed in our ‘evolution’ section.

We might have the official launch date 1 or 2 weeks after the Prelude begins (this is likely) while the pre-order players set up their tribes.

You can quote me on this. That’s fine. We are really down to the wire though to get things done and the game launched.

Thanks for your blogs. They are great!

Jordi”

 

From the main site.

Evolution

Xsyon is constantly evolving. During the Prelude, characters start off as simple hunters, gatherers and scavengers. As societies will advance new features will become available to the larger, more civilized tribes and towns. These features will include:

Agriculture.

Evolved cooking. Character created recipes.

Animal breeding and pets.

Trade with tribes beyond the impenetrable mist.

Armor decoration system which can indicate achievements and status.

New weapons, armor and tools.

Religion.

 

 

 

Alik Steel

Dreamers wanted

Where I work, I have many regular customer that come in almost every day to ship out or to pick up freight. And we talk sometimes when they have to wait on a flight to come in with their freight. Today one of my regulars came in and had to wait for almost an hour. The flight her  freight was on was running way behide. As we talked, She moved the conversation to her family. She has a son that is 15 years old, And from the way it sounded she has had a lot of people filling her head with a load of crap. She was saying that she didn’t know what she needed to do with her son. All he is, Is a dreamer, And she has it in her head that the only way to make it in this world is to be a doer.

IMO When it comes to doers and dreamers, The doers have it a lot easier. For the most part, You are told what to do, And it’s your job to do it, And you get paid for it. But to be a dreamer, Your outside the box, You’re in your on little world, Dreaming of things that no one else has. The dreamer sees the world that has not happen yet. And does not get paid till his dreams come alive. Even when a dreamer comes up with a dream that could change the world, or maybe even just one person. The dreamer has to try to convince someone that his dreams can come true.

So to me a doer has it a lot easier, But the doer has nothing to do, Untill a dreamer gives them the dream. I would like to thank all the dreamers out there, For giving us doers something to do, And for making our world a fun place to live.

A special thanks to Thomas T. Goldsmith Jr. and Estle Ray Mann  for creating in 1947 the first video game to be played on some type of a cathode ray tube, and use some type of computer, It was a missile simulator type game that played on circular screen and looked a lot like the old radar screens used during World War II.

Also A.S.Douglas for creating in 1952 the first graphical game “OXO” a tic-tac-toe game.

And last but not at all the lest Nolan Bushnell and Ted Dabney for the first game released to the mass public in 1971, Pong.

Alik Steel

Advancement beyond the fun

I remember back a few years ago, How so many of us talked about how we was so fortunate to be apart of a unique business like the MMO business. Where they really listen to us, As to what we want in our games. But that was then, This is now. MMO’s have advanced to the point that for a “company” wanting to start a MMO, It will take a few million dollars just to create the basics that we are all so use to having. Granted there are smaller mmo company’s that are making it with far less money, But for a MMO to achieve the benchmark that many would call AAA(or call it top shelf MMO are even a premium MMO), It takes a long time and many people to make this happen. Back before the AAA MMO standard, It seemed like the creators had as much fun making the game as we did playing them. Not so much now, With money being the only bottom line. Yes even “back in the day” their bottom line was still money, But they seemed to have a lot more wiggle room. That flexibility seemed to help them give us more of what we wanted. Now it seems that there is nothing but dead lines and needing to make a minimal amount of money by a certain date that has hurt the industry.

To me, It seems that we are responsible for the way things are turning out. We are the ones that said we wanted this and that. We are the ones that said you must have this in your new MMO for me to play it. And for them to give us what we want, It takes large backing an that takes the wiggle room out of their hands. We have forced them to advance beyond the point that they can give us what we want now, because they are to busy giving us what we wanted back then.

Alik Steel

Xsyon, The World 12.09.2010

I wanted to do a fast little blog about the world of Xsyon. The first thing you have to know, Is that there has been a rift to another reality and the world we play in may not be the one we was born on. For prelude we start off in an area of the United States of America, Lake Tahoe area is where it will start. Later on, We will start see other areas pop up from all over the world. How we will be able to go from one place to the other is unanswered for now. Also our playing area is controlled a lot like Fallen Earth, If you have played FE you know what I am talking about. If not, Here is how they keep you in the playing area. It’s a fog, Unlike FE you can some what see this fog in Xsyon. I only see a greenish tint. But then as I have said a few times now, My little laptop does not have the specs for this game. But any way, If you go into this green fog, You will start dyeing. For me, It’s a lot better to deal with fog than to just run up to an invisible wall.

NOTE: Xsyon is not live yet, So we still don’t have every thing in-game or turned on yet.

Xsyon has four real seasons Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall. With weather effects like Rain, Hail, Sleet, and Snow, That snow will accumulate. They say that the weather conditions will affect player actions and item durability. But if that’s in-game now, I have not seen it do too much to me. But then I have not had a toon stick around for more than a few weeks at a time.

The game has a realistic sun path with shadow casting .Also a realistic moon cycle with moonlight casting. This is cool, Because if your close to the lake. It’s a lot more bright from the moon light bouncing off the lake.  Reflective and refractive rivers, lakes and waterfalls. The night sky has an accurate star map and constellations, And the clouds is said to have a volumetric and dynamic layered cloud system. I just think it looks cool.  It’s also said that we will soon see creatures react to adverse and favorable weather. Bears going into caves to hibernate in winter type of thing. Along with a lot of other stuff the terrain surface affects your movement as well. Your not going to run up that hill at top speed. Hill will slow you down, So will snow, Remember me saying that little thing about accumulating snow. Yea, That slows you down. In this world players can build roads, clear, level, raise and lower terrain. Our starting off playing field is 120 sq km, gradually expanding to a 1200 sq km area and beyond as the game goes on. If you know any thing about them, Xsyon has Speed Tree 5.1 and Speed Grass 4. Which means it looks really really good. Trees and grass move with the wind and I have not seen it yet, But trees grow back if you leave the stumps.

 

I would say that creature are part of the world so here is a little about them when it comes to the world. There is no set creature spawns or re-spawns. Animals multiply based on the current creature population. Creatures can overrun areas or be depleted. they also gravitate towards different areas based on mood and weather. There is a lot more about creatures that I could talk about, But I am wanting to try to keep this more to just Xsyon world.

Here is whats not on the brochure, Xsyon is full of mountains, streams, woods, and wild life. Lake Tahoe is huge and beautiful to just look at. I think there will be a great need for boats of some type to cross it.

Being able to manipulate almost any thing you see is freaking awesome. With the terraforming tool and with skill you can create waterways, If you build it right and connect it to a water source the water will flow into your waterway.  You can move the land to make it look the way you want it to. This will be great for planing out towns, yes there will be tribe made camps, towns, and maybe even city’s. 

When going out to hunt, It’s not like, Lets go to Point A where there is a spawn point for Creature B the way you do in most MMOG. Here there will not be any set point for any of them. The creatures have their own life and they will do whatever they do. It’s up to you to go find them. So hunting may be more like hunting, Than let’s go kill X amount of Y for quest Z.

 

All this and the game is still in beta test, There is still a ton of stuff to go in-game.

 

Alik Steel