I downloaded a less-popular MMORPG called FungWan Online, to continue my quest in search of a good "hang-out" MMORPG. After playing for about 2 hours, there's a few very obvious things that I noticed about this game.

1. It's very lonely. I dunno if it's just a bad time (conflict of time zones), or there really just aren't any low-level people anymore or what. I seem to be playing on the English server, though. Probably everybody is on the Malaysian server. Like I said, it's not so popular. It's probably marketed better in Malaysia.

2. The graphics are oldschool. By today's standards when it comes to 3D games, this game doesn't look stunning at all. I'd say it would've looked cool about 10 years ago. But that's not a very big issue really. I mean, who cares about graphics if the game is fun anyway, right? Also, this way, even a low-end machine can run very smoothly.

3. The server lags. It's odd, but even if they seem to be very considerate for dial-up users and users on low-end machines, the server really just lags. It's most obvious when trying to attack a monster or pick up items. It takes a while for the game to register that you'd actually done anything.

4. The game plays like a 3D MUD. MUD as in Multi-User Dungeon, you know those oldschool text-based network/online RPGs. I've been playing on MUDs for years and years, so I know what I'm talking about. This game has text explanations for everything that happens, it seems. For example, how much damage you do, and whether you miss or not, they're all displayed and logged into the system screen. Usually they'll just tell you what items and how much exp you got. This thing tells you even when you're getting ready to attack, and which monster/NPC you've selected.

5. The game obviously revolves around PVP. They have various PVP modes and events. This is good, but...

6. It seems that getting to a high enough level to be of any use in PVP takes a long, long time. It took me about half an hour to get from level 2 to level 3.

7. Related to how it plays like a MUD, I like how you can customize your character's growth. There are trade skills and other support skills that don't really help in battle, and you can choose which to develop and when. Stats are straightforward and easy to distribute. And if you don't like it, you can reset your stats via NPC (you may have to pay or do a quest or something; never tried).

All in all, my rating of this game so far is about 2/5. Lag and loneliness weigh a lot here. I bet this game would've been way more fun if you had a bunch of people in a party. I'll play it a bit more to a higher level before I completely discard it.


In other news, I learned how to do front flip suicides. :D I haven't tried it without a matress yet, but I think I can do it. About my manga, I'm going through my final character design phase, where I'm drawing all the main characters. After this, I'll start writing the manga itself.