Wednesday 20 March 2013

Deers in a Forest

One of the stranger "experimental" MMO's (if you can call it that) I've checked recently (thanks to Bhagpuss) is The Eternal Forest and man... there is some trippy stuff going on over there. For starters there is only one "wrapped" map of the forest itself (hence it is endless), and everyone is some sort of deer with a humanish face, Hayao Miyazaki style. There is no chat option, only action abilities like bowing, jumping, nodding, laughing etc. none of which are labelled and are just depicted by painted pictogram options. Some actions only appear at certain parts of the forest, like drink at a lake or pray at some statues. You can also experience the forest solo but it's far more interesting with other deer online.


Nice yet creepy at the same time?
 
My first foray had me appear as a fawn and while experimenting with my bleat noise drew the attention of some big shadowy and masked awesome stag thing. No one is named, instead everyone is identified by unique sigils. I am "Half-moon Tear" or something like that. Sounds cool in portugese though: "Meia Lua Rasgar". Maybe just "Rasgar" for short. Don't quite remember the dark one's sigil, but his coat and mask seemed pretty unique. Very strange communicating through actions only too but it works. I met a few other deer, cast funky spells at each other (most with ridiculous results) and then wandered the forest with my shadow as he showed me the ropes.

Apart from no chatting there is no combat in the forest, no crafting, just interaction and exploration which is... unique? My favourite skill is to "listen" as you can detect the number and direction of other players in the forest (i saw around maybe 10 other sigils), as well as other locations nearby. Anywho after a bit of socializing, exploration, and spell casting (non violent obviously) I decided to log out after my shadow did. It was an interesting first foray into the forest, and strangely - I don't think it will be my last.

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