Lost Pages of Taborea: Call to arms!
by Jeremy Stratton 
Jul 26th 2010 at 3:00PM
Filed under: Fantasy, Free-to-play, Runes of Magic, Lost Pages of Taborea
It's only been a few months since I started writing the Runes of Magic column, but it seems much longer than that. I love writing these guides, tips, and opinion pieces for fans of this awesome MMO, but I felt something was missing. Even after all the terrific comments and discussions from players, there seems to be many people who haven't tried RoM yet.
Seeing comments -- almost weekly -- about people saying they are going to try RoM is really cool. I am a huge fan of the game, and it's my intention to bring the fun and excitement of it to you, through my articles. I'm not hoping that I stop hearing about new players, because those comments are a small sign I've succeeded in my writings, but I do want to take the opportunity to present a "call to arms".
RoM is an amazing one-of-a-kind MMO that has captured my imagination and adventure for fun. It can be all too easy to lump this game into an already complicated world of free-to-play MMOs, and dismiss it as "more of the same". It really isn't more of the same. Let's take a look at how this MMO is different, fun, steadily growing, and branching out into the MMO community. This article should catch everyone up on the current status of the game, and how it has faired in the spotlight.
Up, up and away
I wrote an article looking back at a year of RoM. In that article, I wrote generally about what was added, changed, and fixed over the year. It grew a lot, but why? If you look back to just before Allods hit the scene, you'd see a brand new MMO that featured predominantly Western style gameplay packaged in a F2P business model. It was a very different and new type of MMO that I can't remember ever seeing before. Jumping into the world of Taborea feels more like you're playing Warhammer, Lord of the Rings Online, or World of Warcraft, than any previous F2P like Aika and its brethren. Unless you start looking at different business models, RoM was the first of its kind and perhaps Allods is the only other one that currently shares a similarity in play style.
Knowing you can get a full-featured experience from a game that you can download and play for free is a great reason to try it, but not the only reason. Runewaker put terrific features into RoM that not only improve standard gameplay elements like daily quest drops, a tracking system, and a world search function, but add incredibly fun new features you can't find anywhere else. Couple that with the size and frequency of updates added to RoM, and you'll never finish or get bored.
RoM's steady climb in popularity is starting to remind me of EVE Online. Both these games are steadily chugging ahead and gaining new players that make for impressive bar graphs. At last count, there were 28 servers for RoM. Following the previous year's trend, there's a good chance that RoM will be adding many more updates and servers in the coming years.
There's a really good sign that RoM's game world is going to continue to grow with totally new content and zones as well. Runewaker has not only been working on making RoM larger, but they've been growing the company as well. It's a great indication that the speed at which the updates are released will not slow down, and the game will not plateau and stagnate.
Branching out
Frogster is a German publisher that has made efforts to maintain a presence not only in Europe, but the United States as well. Various convention visits, public interviews, and many giveaways have worked well to reinforce a growing out-of-game community that pushes RoM further into the spotlight every day.
Frogster is also going to be present at GamesCom 2010,complete with the world's top RoM guilds playing through live raids and speed runs. It's really a terrific community outreach that reminds me of past Sony Online Entertainment and Blizzard events.
Not to beat a dead bunga, but RoM now has its first fiction novel written in German. I asked the author if it was being translated into English and received the reply that he'd pass along my question and it was his wish that it be translated as well.
Frogster has been dishing out computers, peripherals, figurines, and an assortment of merchandise to other companies and players alike. There are constant giveaways, free item codes, and contests to be a part of. The main website will always keep you up-to-date on these events. Most of these prizes are very nice high-end computers or cutting edge peripherals with original RoM artwork, making for much more than an average prize.
The game is just plain fun
Well, really the game is not "just" fun, or "plain", but it's fun. RoM has these wonderful features that keep me interested in playing without fixating on a progress bar or worrying about building a character wrong. Over at WoW.com, Chase Christian had written about how WoW rogues had players worrying more about DPS and less about simply making a fun build. I think RoM does a great job of providing freedom in how you want to build a character, and having a separate way of maximizing stengths. There are so many amazing spells and skills you can take as you level-up, that add fun variety to fit your play style without overtly hurting your character. On the other side of this coin is the gear that can be insanely modded to strengthen and improve your character however you see fit. The game seems to cater so well to how you want to play, and that feeling of freedom adds to fun no matter what your play style is.
Conclusion
Well, what can I really say. It's a rather simple premise this week: You should be playing this MMO! RoM has seen nothing but tremendous success since it launched, and it has been growing rapidly in size ever since.
I can't really comment too much on the inner workings of Frogster's deal with TERA, because I don't have their offices bugged... yet. I do know that a friend and I have played just about every F2P and subscribtion-based MMO that's been released over many years. My personal experience has been up and down with Frogster's support, but it's also been pretty much the same way with many companies both large and small. There are so many factors that my computer affects, where I download, and the company's work hours and man-power, that it's very hard to judge a company by one incident. Besides, all you'll be doing is missing out on one of the best MMOs currently released.
I'd also like to remind you that Massively TV is up and running. There's a good chance you'll see me playing RoM in the near future, so keep an eye out for it. You can also find Rubi playing Dungeons and Dragons Online, and much more soon.
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
Tempes Magus said on 3:09PM 7-26-2010
Hmm, I may have to look into this game.
I wouldn't mind winning a contest for a high end computer either. ;)
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Deadalon said on 3:14PM 7-26-2010
There is no doubt that ROM is one of the greates MMOs on the market today. It offers good quality content that is beeing added to regularly. Many P2P games are offering alot less, trying to create some kind of "balance" and killing the game progress at the same time. Frogster focuses on balance too, but not to the same degree as for example WAR that hasn't released new content for 2 years.
The only thing that I have against ROM - is the sound. It seems like all F2P games are cutting some corners by making games that have terrible combat sounds. I personally can't stand playing games that remind me of playing keyboard - rather than fighting mobs in a MMO... And sadly ROM is one of the games where random key on a keyboard has been used to create combat sounds.
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Daemodand said on 4:09PM 7-26-2010
I tried RoM but ultimately didn't stick with it due to the lack of factions/races to choose from.
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Heart1lly said on 5:54PM 7-26-2010
I just started playing RoM about a week ago. While it isn't the best MMO I've played, my budget dictates that I curb my video gaming a bit...so F2P it is. I've been enjoying RoM quite a bit, and I find myself logging on for large chunks at a time, which is something that hasn't happened in a P2P MMO in a while.
Is it the best MMO I have played? No, but I do think it's very fun and I enjoy reading these articles on Massively.
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Disataste said on 5:35PM 7-26-2010
What an extremely one sided article. I'll start by saying I haven't played ROM since the Savage Lands were added. You know the zone that brought ROM up to asian grinder levels....
Anyways I'm not sure we are talking about the same game. You don't mention the Cash Shop that is required to be able to accomplish higher instances, item modification that gives HUGE advantages to those that pay money especially in PvP, broken PvP system, a PvP death system that allows your items to drop unless sealed with a cash shop/daily quest item, poorly balanced classes/class combos, gear grinding, Daily Quests being tedious and near required to save real money, etc. Even the content that is constantly released is a way for players to get New gear and then have to spend more money modding it out.
I want to see your paragraph about needing to spend either a bunch of money or hours upon hours to make T7 stones for your weapons.
As you start the game it is a new and interesting experience but soon it is completely ruined by the exponential upgrades and cash shop. Everything in the game is designed to force you into buying cash shop items and it truly ruins the game. The dual class system goes from being fun to being a huge hassle and more grindy.
Overall it is on the WoW, WAR, LOTR, level BUT with the amount of money you will continually pour into the game you might as well just get those games. Best I can say to ANYONE thinking of playing the game, Read the ROM forums. You will soon get an idea of the money involved in playing this game.
P.S. The 28 server thing is trickery. Most of those servers are regional for their language and not indicative of the game doing well and needing more servers. The PvP servers are quite dead, last I heard on a good night Grimdal has 15 people on!
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Deadalon said on 5:58PM 7-26-2010
The diffrence between games like WOW, LOTRO and WAR compared to ROM, is the fact that you CAN play ROM at any time without paying. You might have splashed money at some point in the game but you can STILL log on and play, or chat with your friends even if you havn't payed in 2-3 months. Yes... thats the diffrence. And thats probably the main reason why alot of ppl are turning to F2P rather than paying to an access to their characters.
All games need money to run. ROM is no diffrent. But you are not locked out of the game if you dont pay - and neither are you charged for the expansions...
Tempes Magus said on 6:44PM 7-26-2010
Exactly Deadalon.
I'm also much more likely to spend money on a game if I get something tangible in return and am not forced.
I'll gladly buy a few things to support the game and get some items in return.
I definitely like how Guild Wars does it where I pay for the boxes to support the developer. They get to keep working and get paid for their hard work directly while we get to enjoy lower costs compared to P2P games.
Tempes Magus said on 6:52PM 7-26-2010
28 servers is 28 servers despite whatever stipulations.
They wouldn't have that many if they didn't need that many especially with much of the world being bilingual.
If you doubt numbers when it comes to F2P games how can you believe the numbers quoted by P2P games? Both are meant to gain publicity so you can't trust either if you can't trust one.
It's human nature. If you can't trust one person that you barely know then you can't trust another given the same circumstances.
You can't tell if something is the exception to the rule or the rule itself.
kevin cormier said on 11:12AM 7-29-2010
I couldn't have stated this any better. Playing ROM is like a new girlfriend at the beginning. Romantic and fun, but then the nagging starts (spend money on this and that). Also, try tanking in ROM and you will need more cash shop items than most others just so you can hold aggro.
David said on 6:52PM 7-26-2010
It's fun until you realize that you need to level your character TWICE (once per each class in dual-class system) to get a well-rounded character. Not having a well-developed secondary class is a handicap, leveling twice is a chore. Damned if you do, damned if you don't. I dropped this game very quickly.
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Tempes Magus said on 6:54PM 7-26-2010
Some would find that entertaining and even fun.
It's not really any different than starting an alt, but instead you are on the same character making them better.
It's just a matter of taste which is why you didn't like it.
Dianoga said on 9:45PM 7-26-2010
The game itself needs quite a bit of work as well when it comes to how the game actually runs. Top notch computers that can run all the latest games with all the fancy visual stuff on are crippled when playing RoM. In some instances people's frame rate goes down to only a few frames per second. There is an addon that gets rid of all of the spells visual effects which apparently helps some but why should people have to do that? RoM's graphics are not the best in the world and shouldn't run as crappy as it does. There are lots of other F2P MMO's that look waaay better than RoM does and run a hundred times better. There are people that don't play the game just because it runs so crappy.
Yea RoM is good at pushing out new content but they don't seem to want to fix what's already there either.
Anyways I liked playing RoM but got tired of things like the above mentioned.
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Tempes Magus said on 10:01PM 7-26-2010
I wouldn't say the infinite fps limit on WoW is any better.
My computer paid the price until I found out the command to set the maximum fps to something a lot more realistic.
Even the supposed "triple A" P2P mmos have their issues.
Tersion said on 10:28PM 7-26-2010
Very one sided.
Where was the fact their game killed GUILDS on the servers but continuted to dump content and promote diamond selling without any offical words on fixing the guilds? Where is part where you mention Events are like russian roulette, they break ALL the time and that means 90-100 minute waits between them while the next zones over work fine for a couple days and then they die until reset, better yet you might never get any reward at all because they way they hand it out makes African Aid look like a well run system? Quests are easily exploitable *cough*goldeneggs*cough* and generally buggy all round. Oh yeah, hope you like dying because you will for no apparent reason. Hell, on Artmies we have Paig who dies all the time to the game but we dont care because its a good omen that the game will actually give us rewards for doing Events.
Oh do you like nice gear? Grind them dailies for months to get enough transmutation charges to make a nice item or if you are lucky just create a dozen alts to do it unless you want to fork out a crapload of cash. Say you want a nice axe, you need to tier it with at least a Tier 7 mana stones. You have two options a) Spend a million gold to buy just 1 Tier 7 mana stone and then spend more millions to buy 2 more or B) Grind enough charges, the number of charges needed? In the HUNDREDS. Thats right to get a decent endgame weapon you need to grind months and months of charges for ONE ITEM, not you gotta do that for EVERYTHING you wear.
Best part though is everything is pretty much BIND ON PICKUP and that means that nice item you picked up? Sorry best you turn it into a manastone unless you want to pay $$$$ to unbind it to sell for gold.
The second class system though is brillant.
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Jeremy Stratton said on 10:55PM 7-26-2010
I'm sorry to hear that, but if you're at a point where you dislike something more than you like it, it might be a good time to start shopping around for other MMOs.
MR.GRIM said on 10:54PM 7-26-2010
I play mmo's to be part of the high level content. I am strongly inclined to make my character the best it can be, with the best gear I can get, solely for the purpose of being able to run the most difficult content available with groups of people.
I also strongly dislike repetition. I realize that repetition is a part of MMO's today, but I have limits. My final straw with WoW came with the release of ICC, and realizing that I would have to run the same heroic dungeons I had been running for one and a half years, every day to get the badges to buy the gear to remain at top tier raiding status.
After playing RoM for a week, I took a good hard look at exactly how much I would need to spend in the cash shop to be able to raid top tier and I was SHOCKED. I also realized that to level my character up properly, I would have to do every thing twice. $$$$$$ + ZZZZZZZZ made it not the game for me.
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Jeremy Stratton said on 11:33PM 7-26-2010
I wrote a guide -- and there are guides on the RoM forums too -- for cheap gear modding.
Another important thing is the game isn't so linear with its economy. I have purchased very nice pre-modded gear from guild mates at reasonable gold prices that probably were very expensive if someone tried to mod them from scratch.
Many items are being mixed almost seamlessly into the economy through the game's very open policy of allowing diamond-to-gold trading.
I would explore some of the more creative and round-about ways of making money and getting nicely modded gear.
I would also add that because of the insane modding, it is harder to see the line between getting gear that is good enough, and gear that is actually min/maxed to be overpowered. It is only my opinion, but I have a knight/priest with 12k HP and 11k physical defense that most people laugh at. Yet, those same stats allow me to solo quests through a zone as hard as Savage Lands, and when I add grouping with guild mates, it just gets easier.
Higher levels do push you into group play more. Try group questing and raiding more, to see if you like it. Also, guilds can be a great source to get a hold of gear you would otherwise be pumping diamonds and work into.
Jeremy Stratton said on 10:56PM 7-26-2010
My intention for the article was a "You should play this game" premise, with -- hopefully -- an ample amount of information.
It's less an informative piece on how the game runs, and more about the entire scope of the game and how it has faired as a game and brand over the last year.
I hoped it would come across as why you should play, with information -- and links to further information -- in an honest, unabashed tone, free of slandering any other game or company.
I feel it's a good piece, and that kind of excitement can be a good thing, as long as it's not overused.
You probably won't see many more of these types of articles in the future, but I felt this one time was warranted.
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mwilliams said on 8:31AM 7-27-2010
Jeremy,
I do hope to see more articles like this in the future. I think it wakes some of us up to try something that maybe we wouldn't have. And I really like these articles where you highlight the parts of the game that have captured you. There is a lot of negativity on this site by commenter's. I just hope is doesn't deter you. I think the majority of us appreciate these types of posts from someone that actually plays the game. And i think some can easily forget that it isn't your job to down a certain company or beat up on every game mechanic that isn't great. You are giving a review of what has peaked your interest. Is any game perfect? NO. If they are looking for that, they will never find it. Keep up the good work!
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Pingles said on 11:33AM 7-27-2010
I quit RoM a year or so ago and have been pretty vocal on this site about how it didn't "grab" me.
But I started up again just to get my toon to level 20 for the ongoing sweepstakes and it has now certainly "grabbed" me. I am having a blast.
I think I had hit a dead space with very few quests and uninteresting mobs/locales but now that I have gotten past that I am now looking forward to hopping back in whenever I get time to play.
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