Recent reviews by Wood

Most of the negative reviews are because of bugs which have now been fixed. The rules could be explained better, but after one solo game, you'll have them figured out then can start enjoying the different rule set.

I like the game. I was hoping to invest many hours and develop my plot of land to something spectacular. But the game unfortunately follows the Free to Play formula all too well.

First you need to pay for premium to play the game. Yes, you can play up to skill level 20 for free, but I ran into that limit after only a few days. So I bought a package deal and got premium plus a bit of silver..... warning bells.

Yes, you can pay real money for an online currency that becomes necessary to play the game for most people. You need a deed, and a deed has a silver payment due each month, and you can buy silver. Pay to Win.

Personally I was going to continue to play and let my deed, which I bought with the bit of silver I got from the package expire. I was out in the boonies, and really did not have a way to make silver so the choice was either to let the deed expire or start paying real money in addition to the premium cost. OK, I'll do without the deed.... nope.

I was starting animal breeding, and I had a cow, a few bulls and a calf I found wandering. A great start for an eventual herd to give me milk, leather and meat. Or so I thought. I bred the cow. It took some work to convince the animals to "get it on", but I was excited to finally see my herd pregnant. One problem. My deed was minimal size, and my pastures were outside of the deed.

Next day I signed on and my cow was dead from complications of a miscarriage. ??? I checked Wurmpedia and found that outside of a deed, animals will frequently have miscarriages. What does a piece of paper have to do with breeding? Essentially after asking around, I found out it is essentially impossible to do Animal Husbandry off of a deed. More investigation and I found that trying to survive without a deed has many many disadvantages.

So like most pay to play games, this was a pay to win model. You needed not only to pay for premium, which I would have gladly done, but also pay for silver to keep your deed going (and expand it to cover a reasonable territory). So the hidden cost of free to play games rears its ugly head.

People may comment that you can make enough silver in the game to pay for your deed, and I'm sure this is true for some people. If I would have joined a town near the spawn point, and followed instructions of more knowledgeable players, I might never have needed to pay anything after my first deed payment. However, I preferred to leave civilization and figure out the game on my own terms. It would have taken me years to figure out everything I'm sure, and I would have had fun doing it. But to play that way, I need to pay more. No thanks.