You So Cute, I Puke.

[Signe]

This one is supposed to be suitable for the kiddes. 

DANGER!  PASTELS!

Seriously, unless you're a girly girl or a kiddie kid, don't look.

[Soln]

man o man.  I'm glad I don't care what the kids are up to these days.

[rk47]

couldn't even identify that item they placed next to the title. I had to *THINK*  very hard.



is that a...fish that swallowed a chest? 

[Falconeer]

"Played by 70 million people around the world Casual Action MMORPG: Scions of Fate!!"



... 

[Hoax]

It sucks, I think I covered this somewhere.  Its a RO clone, with the worst kind of newbie game (hit one button for 10 levels).  The world and the characters are bland as shit and they didn't even get the whole "anime" feel right.  Seriously this game is trash, bot to 20 on SRO and do yourself a favor.  At least in SRO it looks not quite as terrible (more of Lineage art style) and more importantly the pvp makes some degree of sense.

[Signe]

Seventy million people can't be wrong!  SEVENTY MILLION!!!   

[Etro]

Seventy million people can't be wrong!  SEVENTY MILLION!!!   

and thats only in beta...

[Calantus]

I think it's amazing that after 70 million people they only have 797 beta keys left, and it is going down as I type this. Clearly it is fate that there should still be time for me to grab a beta key if I hurry.

[Raph]

It's known as Yulgang in China, where it's one of the top games, and more popular than WoW.

[SpaceDrake]

It's known as Yulgang in China, where it's one of the top games, and more popular than WoW.

But... how? What on earth does it offer? Did it just beat WoW to market?

[Triforcer]

This one is supposed to be suitable for the kiddes. 

DANGER!  PASTELS!

Seriously, unless you're a girly girl or a kiddie kid, don't look.

More games need "deadly but beautiful combat skills".  Why can't decapitation and summoning beings of unimaginable horror involve more jpop dancing?

[pxib]

But... how? What on earth does it offer? Did it just beat WoW to market?

A comic game experience for your five senses.
There are two types of people in the world. People that know Scions of Fate and people that don't.

People from ages 10 all the way to 30 have been entranced by Scions of Fate. From its journey as comic to online MMORPG, Scions of Fate has always combined the mystical world of martial arts with comic art and light, airy humor. Scions of Fate is a game that people of all ages and walks of life can enjoy.

The cute characters, the beautiful pastel-tone character pics, the diverse range of emoticons, the deadly but beautiful combat skills, all contribute to the Scions of Fate game experience. Even more precious are the communal experiences that players share together as they’re battling monsters, growing together like a family.

The scope of this original work is complex, yet light and entertaining. From the conflict between The Order and Chaos, to the blossoming romance that takes place in the midst of this world, all the elements of the story mesh together to form a very unique and emotional journey for all players.

If you’re ready for a new, richer online gaming experience, let’s log-in to the game.

ALL FIVE SENSES! What does World of Warcraft offer you to smell and taste? All ages... up to 30!  Conflict, romance, complexity! Grow together like a family: Battling monsters! What's not to like?

Since Scions of Fate received the 2005 Game of the Year Award and the Presidential award, Scions of Fate is a game that is now poised to become a worldwide phenomenon.

In China, Taiwan, and Thailand, Scions of Fate has received many ovations and has now become a community that has members all throughout the countries. While bringing the joy of martial arts and garnering more fame in Asia has been a goal of Scions of Fate since the beginning, it is now time for the whole world to experience the world of Scions of Fate.

As the 21st century archetype for OSMU (One Source Multi Use) content, Scions of Fate will become a global name.

AWARD WINNING! OSMU OSMU OSMU!

Bow before our Asian overlords.

[Strazos]

Rang, Rang.

[Hoax]

You know, somebody who is actually Korean told me he didn't think Rang Rang meant anything at all.

[Strazos]

It doesn't. It's just a slur for crazy Asian farmers.

[rk47]

i think it's chinese word for 'get away'

[pxib]

Check this out:



That's the most realistic depiction of a crafter I've ever seen. The gaunt face and sleepless eye, the hunched back, the forced smile. You can tell he's poured hours of his life into reagents, money, and rare equipment only to see it all destroyed by the simple cruelty of a random number generator. I've registered my key, downloaded the client, and am all ready to give this gaming sensation a try as soon as the beta starts tomorrow morning.

This is going to rock.

[Special J]

I thought that look came from the revelation that after the hours you've poured into your craft, you can make crap that not even a twink would want.

[Roac]

Check this out:

A game that specifically caters itself to players who entertain themselves by slaving away hours over a virtual mindless industry, in a region dominated by real mindless industry.  There is something very ugly in that, but I'll leave it to someone else to verbalize.

[tazelbain]

Signe, if you don't like it, why do you attempt to burden us with it?

[Signe]

It wasn't me.  I didn't do it.  No, really.   

[Calantus]

Nike should do away with paying their factory workers and just level up the factory after X shoes are made, where the value of X grows exponentially every level. They'd need to zap them every time they messed up though, to keep the feeling real.

[Nonentity]

The sword is a horse! Why are you people not seeing this?

EDIT:

Keys Remaining: 0

WE ARE OUT OF BETA KEYS!

DAMN YOU BURNING CRUSADE

[Trippy]

It's known as Yulgang in China, where it's one of the top games, and more popular than WoW.

But... how? What on earth does it offer? Did it just beat WoW to market?

WoW is pay to play while Yulgang is free to play with RMT so it's an apples to oranges comparison though I'm still suspicious about Raph's claim that it's more popular. Yulgang has many more registered accounts in China than WoW does but the numbers I've seen of peak concurrency rates puts it well below WoW in China so it really depends on how you want to define "more popular". The thing about the China online gaming market is that the players tend to "en masse" try out whatever the latest free online game so there's always a huge spike in registered accounts and number of concurrent users at the beginning and then the number of concurrent users drops precipitously once the next new "shiney" comes out.

[pxib]

Oh my. It's awful. It's absolutely awful.

In this beta test we're all playing characters of 70 (out of, I think, 90), so I don't even have to grind... which is fortune because I can't grind. My character is completely incapable of soloing any creature that is ten levels lower than himself without "meditating" for two minutes or so afterwards. Ten levels. I pick that artbitrary distinction not because I get experience for them, but because that's the least powerful thing I can fight and have any chance of looting it. Maybe I need a group...?

All of the skills are identical.

I can't stress this enough. They have different names, different animations, different "chi" requirements and do different amounts of damage. Other than that they are just attacks. Strategy seems to consist of "vent chi at the monster until you run out or it dies". If it dies, meditate for two minutes. There is -NOTHING ELSE- to the game.

Well, you don't -have- to meditate. You can drink as many potions to raise your chi or health as you wish at any time. Zero cooldown. Glug glug glug. Potions cost an obscene amount of money, but I started with 10,000,000 gold for the beta.

At level 70 you can buy a pet. They also have "skills" and special potions. It's your little animal henchman who's hard to control.

The quest translations look like they were run through some sort of online translation service... if the english text doesn't fit in the space that the Korean did, you don't get to read the whole thing. Sometimes your objective has been translated as one thing in the quest text and another in the real world. We're in the beta, I imagine these relatively simple problems will be fixed.

The rest of the gamebreaking mountain of suck will likely remain.

I think it's popular because it's meant to be played socially. Obviously soloing is nearly impossible... and any character you type go directly to the chat window. Every single command requires holding control, using the mouse, or the function keys. These are not configurable. That said, it's been carefully designed such that nothing you have to do to make your character act will ever interrupt what you've been typing. I like this! It's a social game, so chatting with people is easy.

Caring enough to play at all is hard.

[Signe]

Good Grief, pxib!  I'm sorry!  I never intended for anyone to actually PLAY these games I post!  I thought we could just, like, you know, talk about stuff.

[Nonentity]

Good Grief, pxib!  I'm sorry!  I never intended for anyone to actually PLAY these games I post!  I thought we could just, like, you know, talk about stuff.

Oh. Well, uh, that kind of puts us in a spot here, now doesn't it?

Hm.

Do you like green tea?

[pxib]

Mmm, green tea.

Don't worry, Signe... it was my own fault for wondering if the unique art style and polished web design meant that this game had more to offer than all the other identical products trickling across the Pacific. Sadly they were just signals that even less attention than usual had been devoted to gameplay and world design. I keep imagining one will reveal itself as a gem... but I'm starting to think uniqueness is neither the goal of the game designers nor of much interest to their fans. Reading the beta forums leads me to imagine a bunch of middle school kids, the sort who populated Runequest, looking for somewhere new to waste their free time. They play to minimize effort and maximize efficiency, care more about graphics than depth, and they chat constantly about which classes to try, which loot to seek, and which other games players might enjoy. So who am I to complain? They're the target audience, and they're obviously enjoying themselves.

Even I can see the good about Scions of Fate:

- It's free.
- These games are identical, so it's never hard to figure out how to play.
- The player graphics and animations are adorable.
- Every aspect of the control scheme is designed to make chat the default activity.

That's all the kids want, so that's all the game delivers.

[Hoax]

Its true the few gem'ish games coming from Korea get ignored and spurned for being too hard or some other bullshit.  While games like SoF garner a mass of fanbois over at places like onrpg.com

[Signe]

I love green tea.  If you buy them in bags they are also very nice to put on sore eyes.  Like what happens if you play these sorts of games.

I'm glad no one has died yet from my careless posting of my happy happy glorious pastel vomit games.   I worry about that.

[Lantyssa]

Causing this sort of pain and suffering and you call yourself a nurse?  For shame.

[Nonentity]

I love green tea.  If you buy them in bags they are also very nice to put on sore eyes.  Like what happens if you play these sorts of games.

I'm glad no one has died yet from my careless posting of my happy happy glorious pastel vomit games.   I worry about that.

There's no way of telling whether we've killed any lurkers are not.

You MONSTER.

[Signe]

What you don't know won't hurt me.