Meridian 59 Offers Free Trial

Psychochild writes "I'm the owner of the online RPG Meridian 59. We've been working hard on updating the game since relaunching it in 2002, rewriting the rendering engine to take advantage of 3D hardware acceleration, adding modern features like mouselook and rebindable keys, fixing bugs, and adding new content. We're currently offering a free trial of Meridian 59 for those interested in learning more about the game and the independent developers now running it."

Comments

Re:Hardly dead, Troll

[Psychochild]

Eh, good a place as any to give comments. Allow me to respond....

I realize graphics aren't the main course but an upgrade sure would help catch a new user's eye.

Funny enough, we did give the game a pretty major upgrade. Take a look at these screenshots and you'll see what the game was like before the most recent upgrade. It's an improvement, but we know we're not going to compete in terms of eye candy with the other games coming out. We did the rendering engine update in order to not look quite so hopelessly outdated.

But, honestly, we've focused on making the game fun to play. M59 might not be better than sex, but it is a quite fun game to play. And, if a game isn't fun what's the point? Good graphics doesn't make up for a boring game.

I was disappointed by the character creation... in the sense that I had no idea whether I was going to create a useless character, a limited character, an uber character...

A novel complaint. I, on the other hand, personally hate class-based systems because they are too restrictive. Perhaps you're too battered down by other games where it's easy to make a lame character. We've worked to make the current M59 system into something you can really make nearly any type of character with without much fear of making a "gimp" character. Decide what you want to do and learn it! The only thing I don't particularly like about M59's system is that you have to pick your stats at character creation and they're relatively inflexible. Unfortunately, that was a design decision made before I started working on the game. After learning the system (which is what the trial is for, right?), it's easy to make a wide variety of characters. Make a character that fits your playstyle and ability, instead of making a character that is pigeonholed into a specific role.

The one thing that did catch me was that nearly as soon as I logged on, an admin offered his assistance (he could tell I was new... maybe the way I kept strafing left and right or bumping into doors game me away?). I didn't meet many people, but the people I did meet were very friendly and helpful.

We've been making sure people feel welcomed into the game. The server's only been up a few days, and we're trying to get the word out best we can, but things will be thin the first few days. But, I enjoy talking to players so I'll often greet newbies on the regular servers as well.

One thing to keep in mind is that M59 focuses a lot more on a smaller, tighter community. You'll get to know most of the people that play on your server, and you'll know many people by reputation. This is really a cool aspect of the game that often gets lost in other "massive" games. I like being known for my actions, even though it makes it harder for me to play an "unknown" mortal character. :)

Anyway, the server will be around for a month. It's a fun game if you give it a chance. It's not initially pretty and we aren't a clone of other games, so often people overlook the game. But, if you give it a real chance, you might find something you've been missing.

Have fun,