It’s not secret that I play Nexus Wars despite my hatred of the MMORPG genre. This is a bit of a problem as I absolutely can not stand 3D fantasy role playing games set in generic settings of perpetual turmoil, but have become fairly addicted to action points based roll playing games with massive player vs. player fighting. This is the second game in the same genre that I’ve basically fallen head over heels for. The problem is that while the community and the creator of Urban Dead destroyed any urge for me to continue playing after I had maxed out a character, everything that Urban Dead got wrong, Nexus Wars seems to be getting right.
In fact, the game is so good, that even though I get to play with three characters for free, I’m even considering donating money to get more characters to play. I’ve already got three characters going at the same time. I’ve got two Neutral characters, a Myrmidon and a Sorcerer, as well as an evil character about to get to his second tier skill sets. Each of these characters has diverging skill sets, different abilities, and will play differently from each other. That’s what makes the game so much better than Urban Dead. The longer people play, the more unique a character can get. No character can learn all the skills, which always defeats the point of investing time in a character. If everyone ends up the same, why try to be special?
The strange thing is, the game boils down the MMORPG mechanic to it’s basics. There is crafting. There is combat. There is movement. Instead of the movement of a 3D avatar in a game world populated by fellow players, all of this is limited by a certain number of action points and is communicated by text. These action points are limited by the time not spent playing the game, as they accumulate over time. No in game action will allow you to acquire them faster, so it’s about spending them wisely. While most MMORPGs are about wasting as much time as possible, where time played is the most determining factor of a character’s power, Nexus Wars pushes the effective use of time. You can level the hard way, or you can grab skills that compliment each other and are useful later on that keep you leveling smoothly.
Excuse me while I get all geeky about good this game is:
Right now, I’m in a faction with all of my character. These allow me bonus points for attacks and defense, meaning they are a benefit to me. I also can keep my character at their stronghold, which keeps my character relatively safer than on the street. This saves me action points, because death has a penalty. The longer I keep my characters alive, the stronger I become, thus helping me level faster. There are also raids, which lets me get experience by exploiting the actions of others as they fight with other groups. I benefit the group by using one of my characters skills of "infusion" which allows me to use magic points to augment our groups strength by claiming parts of the territory surrounding our stronghold. This causes tension and battles with other groups. We also protect our faction standard, which gives us honor. By holding other factional standards, your faction’s honor grows, also giving greater strength and also allowing you to level faster.
It’s still a grind. It’s still a huge time sink. However, it’s free. It’s fun. It’s creative. It’s new. It’s interesting. The game mechanics are really well thought out. It gives me something to do for twenty minutes a day without worrying about monthly fees. Also, there is a limiting mechanic of action points. Once I use up my points, I can’t play until they recharge again. That means it’s self-limiting. You can only play it so much each day, so the most dangerous part of the MMORPG genre, the addiction, isn’t nearly as dangerous. While the game does keep me occupied through the day for short periods of time, it’s not the all consuming time sink that has me in front of the computer all day. I think this is the reason I don’t feel as bad playing this style of games.
