What the average gamer has come to expect from the world of MMOs (massively multiplayer online games) has definitely taken a turn in the lat few years. Before recently, the term would evoke memories of losing my high school boyfriend to the endlessly expanding space of Everquest or to South Park’s commentary on the obsessive nature of World of Warcraft (as we now know, you cannot kill that which has no life). The image of the all consuming MMO might need to step aside, however, and make way for a new era of far less stressful and time consuming online interactions. With the rise of smart phones and tablets, there is a whole new group of casual gamers with less intense online games to match. One such game (actually, the term social experience might be more appropriate in this case) is The Endless Forest.
Usually, I prefer to review games that have just been release but in this case, I’ve made an exception. The Endless Forest has been in existence since 2005 but they have just released the latest version in January so I wanted to give it a shot. The team at Tale of Tales, (designers Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn are credited with most of the work) have spent these years developing The Endless Forest into a rich experience with an active online community. Much of the game is focused on your interactions with the other avatars in the environment so I am glad to have encountered it after The Endless Forest became established with a core group of participants.
At its base, The Endless Forest is an MMO that places you in the hooves of a young stag avatar whose only purpose is to explore the world around him and interact with other participants. The stakes are low in the forest since there are no goals or enemies, which free you up to run around every inch of the developed space at your own pace. The Endless Forest makes it a little easier on you, however, by using markers on the side of the screen to direct you to landmarks. The system is much like finding a dungeon in Skyrim, so if you’re in a hurry, you have the option to move a little quicker to the big locations.
Described previously as a “moving painting,” the ascetic of the environments in The Endless Forest plays a key role in the overall experience. The game centers around exploring this beautifully detailed forest and figuring out what plants and structures your stag avatar can interact with and use. Most of these interactions will result in a change of appearance for your avatar (you can make the antlers super crazy which is fun) from the color of its pelt to a different face mask. By selecting what water to drink or what plants to eat, you can create a stag that is truly all your own.
Your interaction with your fellow participants is pretty unique for an MMO. There are no chat options and no goals so you must simply communicate through gestures, ranging from a genital bow to an aggressive charging stance. Once you’ve encountered another stag (which are easily identified by a floating emblems over their head), you can make friends through this series of pantomime and run through the forest together. You can also change the experience of other players in a more enduring way by bestowing some forest magic upon them to alter the appearance of their stag avatar.
Another interesting aspect is the ABIOGENESIS feature that has been installed by the creators. With this feature, the designers of the game can change anything in real time, such as suddenly making a rainbow spring from the ground or allowing rocks to fall out of the sky. This intriguing feature has been used by Auriea Harvey and Michaël Samyn to create both random events and planned performances (which you can find out about on their website). As graphic designers, they have admitted to a fascination with real time events and have implemented them flawlessly into The Endless Forest.
As with all things, there is a downside to game play. You begin the game as a small fawn instead of the young, male deer you will see already inhabiting the forest. The fawn stage of your avatar is supposed to give you a low stakes way to explore before becoming fully involved in the game but with a game who’s stakes are already as low as the can be (there really is no danger anywhere in the forest), this seems unnecessary. It’s tolerable at first and even fun to prance around as a tiny fawn but it can become aggravating once you realizing you’ll be waiting 30 days to become a full stag with the ability to retain the appearance forest magic gives you. There is no way to accelerate the process and no reason for it to take so long, making this waiting period completely useless.
With the implementation of real time events and an ascetic that reflects a forest I would definitely like to go camping in, I am excited to see where this project goes in the future. Right now it’s a fun little game for short stints of forest prancing but the involved community leads me to believe it could become quite a lot bigger then it is now. Besides the 30 day waiting period, The Endless Forest is a nice relaxing way to interact with other people on the internet that still has a lot of potential to grow and expand in new and creative ways.
For updates on in game performances and to download the latest version of The Endless Forest, visit their website at http://www.tale-of-tales.com/TheEndlessForest/.
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