The world of Wurm is alive and getting started is easy (and inexpensive)
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By Eric Majkut
The market for massively multiplayer online (MMO) games has been growing ever since the first of its kind, Ultima Online, was released in 1997. Since then the genre has seen many spectacular successes (and failures) from a wide variety of big developers, with World of Warcraft's ten million plus subscriber base currently occupying the top slot. Big name developers are responsible for the creation of most MMOs, and while many of them contain hours upon hours of excellent gameplay they also generally carry a price tag that might scare off MMO first timers. Major titles can run upwards of fifty bucks and usually come with a free month of play, but after that you're stuck with a ten-fifteen dollar a month subscription fee that not everyone is willing to pay.
Luckily, many small time developers are stepping in to provide a middle ground for the inexperienced and/or financially frugal amongst us. A wide selection of free or nearly free MMOs have cropped up over recent years, and while most lack the polish of more expensive games they sometimes manage to do things never seen in mainstream MMOs.
Wurm Online fits firmly into this category, and over the course of the past month or so I've spent time exploring a game that began with a team of just two men from Sweden. Rolf Jansson and Markus Persson initially worked on the game in their spare time, and while Markus has since moved on to other projects the game has become so successful that Rolf now works full time caring for their creation. Luckily he's also found a few volunteers to help him out along the way, and he's likely to need them with the long list of features planned for the future.
Wurm, like many other MMOs, uses a medieval-esque fantasy world as its' setting. Unlike many of those games though, you'll find no loading screens or artificial boundaries preventing you from exploring the enormous game world. Another thing you won't find are towns or dungeons created by the developers. Instead you'll find tiny hamlets, bustling villages, cobblestone roads, iron mines, workshops, merchants and many other things created instead by the players themselves, something that is nearly unheard of in any other game.
This ability for players to shape the world they live in forms the backbone of what makes Wurm so ingenious and unique. Instead of the unchanging worlds seen in nearly every other MMO, the world of Wurm constantly evolves as its' inhabitants live inside of it. Every scrap of land is capable of being dramatically reshaped by shovel wielding players, allowing for the construction of buildings or the planting of crops. Buildings, walls, gatehouses and palisades act as defenses to protect against invaders. Forests disappear as settlers cut down trees to build their homes and then grow back naturally over months of real time. Enormous stone monuments stare down over rolling hills covered in grass that sways in the breeze. Mines and tunnels are dug to search for valuable ores. Carpenters, blacksmiths, masons, and many other types of craftsmen procure raw materials and transform them into countless types of items, then travel to far off lands to barter with others in a completely player driven economy. You can even see an eclipse if you look up on the right day, or figure out which way north is by looking at the moon(s) and stars. A very recent addition has granted players the ability to build a variety of ships, ranging from tiny rowboats to huge sailing vessels that can haul valuable cargo from one port to the next. These are just a few examples of how alive the world of Wurm is, and how it manages to bring out a certain pioneering spirit that I've never seen in any other game. Staring out over a huge town is truly amazing when you realize that every plank and brick was created by other players just like yourself.
As I said before, many small developers have difficulty putting on the polish that bigger titles are known for, and Wurm Online suffers from this issue as well. Many animations are of poor quality or completely non existent, though the graphics are often very good. Sound effects are few and far between. Perhaps most frustrating is the long list of features that never seem to get any closer to completion, though the recent addition of boats has shown that things are progressing somewhat, at least.
If you're willing to overlook the occasional rough spot, you've got nothing to lose but your free time. Wurm is free to play as long as you'd like, though paid premium accounts are also available for about eight bucks a month. Getting started is pretty easy, and after heading to wurmonline.com it's just a few simple mouse clicks to get the game downloaded and installed. A free account will allow you to roam around the basic Home server as much as you'd like, and there is plenty to do without ever paying a penny. Basic accounts are limited in many ways though, most notably by restricting your skills from improving beyond a certain point. Paying subscribers suffer no restrictions and gain the ability to move to the Wild server if they so choose, a separate continent that caters to players interested in fighting tougher monsters or warring with other groups of players.
I am continually impressed by the way small game developers manage to pull off feats that bigger game makers never even seem to consider. Making an MMO with a world created entirely by the players seems like an idea that would've been capitalized on years ago, yet no mainstream online game has ever tried it on this big of a scale. Wurm Online manages to do some pretty impressive things, especially considering its' humble beginnings. The unique and wide open gameplay continues to draw in new players, making Wurm's future look bright. Let's just hope they get a little faster at checking items off of the to-do list.