What got you into playing PW first?

Rick Hunter - Sanctuary · March 2011

I've been meaning to ask this for a time, and I've checked whether there is a similar thread, but there seems to be none. So here goes the question:

What got you into playing PW for the first time? AND What keeps you playing it?

My answer:

What got me into playing PW back then when it was a couple of months old was the cleric girl in the advertisements they had back then, you know, the one with that kind of silver armor/bikini. I remember seeing her and wondering what kind of game could have such gorgeous characters, I had played some MMOs before but they all sucked so I didn't wanted to play, but then I researched a little and found out that PW had a very detailed character customization, you know, you design your character's face and physique, I had been interested in that feature for a time and had even played Second Life only for that feature (SL sucked too in my opinion) so I decided to try it and I just loved it.

What keeps me playing it is the game's sheer beauty, you constantly get breath-taking landscapes, beautiful gardens and buildings and gorgeous characters, I have grown fond of my characters precisely because they are my creation and not some elf/human/dwarf template. and finally it is the sense of accomplishment you get when you level up because of how hard it really is, as opposite to other games where you just breeze through the levels.

What about you?

Katzyn - Sanctuary · March 2011

I don't remember how my friends convinced me to start playing, but...Yeah. Friends XD Ended up duo- and trio'ing nearly everything with my two friends (one was a veno, the other was a cleric, and I started my veno), and we played like that together for a while.

And, what keeps me playing are, again, friends, though they're different now - the friends that got me started quit playing long ago. If my in-game husband quit, I'd probably follow him, tbh.

DaKillanator - Raging Tide · March 2011

my brother got me started. the sheer size and complexity of the game kept me going.
I absolutely loved how every class had it's own specializations and uniqueness.

Waterfal - Sanctuary · March 2011

ed MMO's before but they never really got my attention... The graphics weren't as nice, the characters all looked the same etc.

I used to check like.. every MMO I saw an advertisement for back then...and ended up at pwi ^^
The character customisation still amazes me, I love the landscape too. But most off all the reason I kept playing was the fact I joined an awesome faction back then ^^
I made quite some friends and even though quite some of them left a small group stayed and I still enjoy playing a lot ^^

truekossy · March 2011

Katzyn - Sanctuary wrote: »

I don't remember how my friends convinced me to start playing, but...Yeah. Friends XD Ended up duo- and trio'ing nearly everything with my two friends (one was a veno, the other was a cleric, and I started my veno), and we played like that together for a while.

And, what keeps me playing are, again, friends, though they're different now - the friends that got me started quit playing long ago. If my in-game husband quit, I'd probably follow him, tbh.

This pretty much for me as well.

L_y_n_x - Raging Tide · March 2011

I was playing offline rpg's before.. Final fantasy series mostly.. Then got a comp and started playing on another MMO I wont name way before PW (other one was out in 1997). Comp is still pretty bad, but a year ago, upgraded a bit and told myself "hey why not check if i can run a full 3d one with this ****" Seeked and found perfect world in top MMo's and tried since was free.. I mean...if i don't like, didn't cost anything to try right ? I do still a lot in arch and few other spots (the fissure) but still love it

Flickerfae - Sanctuary · March 2011

+1 to character customization and beauty

And, much to my surprise (because I'm far from a girly girl), fashions.

I, too, was always flitting around between MMOs. Usually, I'd try f2ps or free trials, but I did purchase a couple too, and always regretted it, because none of them pulled me in. I like the ability to have total control of what my character becomes. I like to define my characters' looks, and decide their progression. Half the fun of a good MMO/RPG for me is creating a unique character with his or her own personality. And not only did PWI have a character customization screen that allowed change in such minute details as upper lip shape and a full color wheel for skin, hair, and eyes... you could pick your character's outfit, too. For the first time, I could have awesome gear and have my toons look like their personalities at the same time! It was awesome! There's a reason I have 11 alts... I just love creating these characters, because each is utterly unique.

Also, pretty scenery and effects. Even on a computer with a low-end video card, this game is absolutely gorgeous. I feel like I really am escaping into an ideal world every time I log in, sheerly by virtue of how shiny everything is. b:chuckle

Dyskrasia - Heavens Tear · March 2011

I'd been complaining to a friend that I was ridiculously bored for like, a week, and finally she said "just play this game, it just came out, blah blah blah!" and so I checked it out. What caught my eye was how nice the website looked (yea... I judge books by their covers.) so I downloaded it, and found that it was pretty simple to play. I also had a friend playing with me, so that made it fun since we were both into it and kept each other going. It's kind of ridiculous looking back on it - lol. We would play for hours a day, and it still took us a month to get to 20 on our mains (venos) because we kept trying other classes, and naturally took ages because we had no idea what we were doing. haha.
As for what's kept me... it's hard to say. I just like it! xD

Maragon - Dreamweaver · March 2011

extreme boredom when I could not get a job after the stock market crashed in 08.

found this...

at the time gold was 100k, the best place to make money was TT, yellow WC spam was LF zhen at theives, forming TTx-x and high level squad running your fb 19-69 your drops (59+ your wine), 70 was considered high level, the most OP thing in the cashshop was nix, 5aps didnt exist, barbs were the preferred tank, people ran instances at level, and the biggest QQ was....well...nix

good times

Vorhs - Lost City · March 2011

I started playing after i quit with an old girlfriend, who used to take me much free time. So pratically "to fill the gaps". I choosed pwi cause the territory wars feature amazed me when i read about it and no other free mmos in that moment had such feature.

If only i knew BEFORE that the time slot for tws isnt RANDOMLY PICKED like it was said in official website but it's always at 20:00 pm in america (wich is 5 am here in italy) i would NEVER STARTED playing pwi, since the gameplay bored me since the very first times (i was used to action-reflexes-and-skill based gameplay of World of W., while pwi its all about one/bishotting)

After i discovered that tws were all at insane time for me, i started hating this game.
I hated it way more the each patch they brought up.
I hated it each damn month more.
But i got many friends as well in here, so good kind of ppl wich i never met in world of ********.
So i stayed and still played, even if the only reason why i started playing was inexistent for me.

When they brought up the tideborn expansion, i laughed to not cry..

The reason why i quit long time ago with WoW was that there were stealth classes. I hated them. Stealth is the axiom of overpower for the simple fact that it allow you to decide to fight or not to fight in prior, and also let you have always the first shot.

With tideborns, they brought assassins, wich stole BOTH my fun in pvp with stealth and my role in pve with 5aps.

Why i still played till now? Well, i dont wanna start a new random mmorpg just to find new big delusions that i had from pwi. I just bought my rank8 and have some kind of fun in pvp while i wait for guild wars 2 wich will be awesome b:pleased

Kupuntu - Sanctuary · March 2011

I started playing PW when one of my Chinese friends told me about it. I asked him if there were any English versions of it and he said there were a couple and directed me to one of the websites. It was a very unknown version and only had one server (until it was replaced by MS in 2008) but I still had fun. After MS came out, I decided to quit my level 100 BM but then my friend told me about PWI. I got my BM to mid 30s before I realized that in the end, it was still the same and that it wasn't worth going for level 100 again as endgame was still as boring as hell.

After a year or so I came back to PWI and played till this Sunday. Now I'm gone again and this time for good. Forums are still fun to read though.

Yukkuri - Heavens Tear · March 2011

A friend kept bugging me to play this game that he had found. There's no harm in trying, so I gave it a shot. While installing I saw a picture of a lion, it caught my interest. Upon character creation I noticed a tiger, getting better. Choosing preset found wolf, adsgffh SOLD. (Gimme a game that I can be a wolf and I WILL play it.)

We were a few people in college that started to play this game. I always found the combat (and this is my first mmo) to be absolutely and horribly boring. However, having fun with friends is all that mattered. Blah blah fast forward, I made great friends blah blah level up a bit of drama, some laugh stuff stuff you get the idea.

Almost everyone is gone. I really don't play anymore, just a bit of this and that. While the majority of the people that now surround me is... meh at best, there are still a few that prevent me from leaving completely.

Nowadays I get more fun experimenting in private servers than logging in and seeing "BH? TT? FF? TW!". I see these and I get nausea.

Omea - Lost City · March 2011

I used to play Dragonfable (really crappy browser-game in which you can buy a thing to get a lot of extra material, don't try it), and as I was playing I saw an ad for a FREE MMO and I thought, "meh, what the heck, can't be worse than this", so I downloaded it.
I really liked it and I was lucky enough to join before BH and all that, but after Chest of Coins, so lowest gold price for me was 200k.

Reason I keep playing; haven't found a game that looks and feels as good playing as this one, that's free. I won't even bother playing a game that costs money.
This is THE best "free"-to-play that I've found, and until something better comes out I'll stick to this.

NiightmareXz - Harshlands · March 2011

I love Baldur's Gate, but I only ever liked the two-player one, and my brother was an occassional fan of it (I think because I always chose the Elf caster and he wanted to be her xD). Playing it alone was never fun and one day I was browsing a site and i saw an ad for PWI. I never actually played an MM0 before, mainly because I associated all MM0s with WoW, which looks like a 10 year old's game with horrible graphics and a bunch of fat 30-some odd people playing it. But i was curious so I looked at the site and the graphics were pretty nice. I don't know if anyone remembers it, but the site was basically very different from what it is now, and the only available classes were Elves and Untamed. The site told the story about the Elves and Untamed being enemies, bla bla, something about PanGu creating the world... anyway, I signed up and started downloading, when I realised how long it was gonna take. I thought I'd rather not so I stopped the download and 3 months later I came back and re-downloaded it and started playing.

I haven't really enjoyed any other MM0 as much as this one, although I do go play Baldur's gate once in awhile so I don't have to do deal with KSers and Pkers, and it's fun to watch that Elf bartender girl's **** bounce around. Nothing is quite as animated as a female's **** in any RPG.

What keeps me here? Hm... I guess I'm guilty of all the time and money I spent in my characters, that I feel if I completely left the game, I would be missing out. Also, I usually get on if Kritty asks me too, but currently I'm not wanting to actually play.

Solerina - Sanctuary · March 2011

I was looking around for an MMO but nothing I tried could keep my interest for longer than a week or two. After downloading PWI, the character customisations drew me in immediately, as well as the scenery, UI and variety of cool skills all the classes could have.

After having taken a few breaks, what keeps me coming back is my friends. Most no longer play but the first friend I made in PWI two years ago just came back after a break as well, so we're having fun with the new classes. If he quit, I probably wouldn't be too far behind.

Yukkuri - Heavens Tear wrote: »

While installing I saw a picture of a lion, it caught my interest. Upon character creation I noticed a tiger, getting better. Choosing preset found wolf, adsgffh SOLD.

lol ^^

Vedovis - Lost City · March 2011

I was reading fanfiction awhile back, and saw one of the videos. I was like, "Wow, that looks amazing!" After refershing for ages to get the ad back up so I could see what game it was, I found it and started playing almost immediately. b:chuckle

mogwai · March 2011

Rick Hunter - Sanctuary wrote: »

What got you into playing PW first?

PWI was due to release at the same time as another mmo & tbh it was a toss up for me.

After seeing what direction that other mmo went i'm more than happy with my choice...simply put it was the pompous name, i actually remember clicking off of PWI page & immediately going back to it.

b:chuckle

edit: Q. What keeps me playing?

A. I have not yet PK'd enough of you ^_^

Arocus - Archosaur · March 2011

One of my real life friends played so she got me to start playing. She now plays on a different server from me, but I still play because my brother plays and I've got some really good friends in game.

The game really is amazing visually, and just exploring it is fun. I remember logging on for the first time and messing with the controls and going "WHOA I JUMP SO HIGH!"

KingCut - Harshlands · March 2011

I was younger and loved MMOs but broke lol. I wanted to find a nice MMO that was free and i found this.

What keeps me is 2 things.

1. Personalization. Its like american society. So many choices of clothing and facail features you can make your character look however you like.

2. PK Freedom. I been searching and i can't find a game like this one where you can kill whoever you like. You have to deal with the ingames social network but its so fun just having that ability. Idk how many times i seen huge wars just because how people have different views of ingame aspects.

LShattered - Heavens Tear · March 2011

I was like a lot of you people, saw the add on some random site...thought to myself, the characters look cool. So I downloaded, got obsessed with it and played a cleric to level 16. Then for some reason I uninstalled. Then a few months later, I remembered playing some game that had awesome customisation, found it again and started playing. It took me about 1-2 months to then get to level 30. Seriously, that clerics build is so screwed up...more vit then magic? and dex so i would miss less? LOL nub days

Then i filled up my character on LC, so i switched to HT. Got addicted to a BM(had my first ever PvP TW with Forgotten against Evo) first, then veno, then archer.

It was on my archer that I met probably the best faction I have ever been in. Immortal. This faction kept me playing for so so so long. Then, I got re addicted to my BM and found my second awesome faction. Heatwave. Possibly the equal best faction I have ever been in. Sadly, a lot of my friends from then have quit/rarely play.

And now? It's mostly TheEmpire that keeps me playing(or my various debts I have to pay off).

Knownase - Heavens Tear · March 2011

My friend told me to try this game, since it was free. I was never an MMO player, PWi is my first, and last MMO in my life.

The odd part is, before I got hooked on PWi, I made fun of MMO players in rl...........

GET A LIFE!
b:laugh

b:avoid

Graviora - Dreamweaver · March 2011

My cousin introduced me to the game, actually. He tried to get me to play Fiesta (hated it!) and then after a few months, he asked me to come here. I was iffy about it at first, since I was playing on Harshlands... Then I quit for a few months and got on Dreamweaver! I was hooked after that.

However, my in-game husband and I decided it was time to quit PWI and move onto a new game

_Spot_ - Lost City · March 2011

Knownase - Heavens Tear wrote: »

My friend told me to try this game, since it was free. I was never an MMO player, PWi is my first, and last MMO in my life.

The odd part is, before I got hooked on PWi, I made fun of MMO players in rl...........

GET A LIFE!
b:laugh

b:avoid

The same thing happened to me..

JanusZeal - Heavens Tear · March 2011

When I first played PWI in mid 2009 a group of RL friends had introduced me to the game, and I was immediately sucked into the fact that quests were so numerous, so diverse, and that there were large swaths of people spread out into different cities. It was highly common to bump into long chats and huge groups inside the three starter cities. In there, you could also find a partner to quest with, or maybe even a higher level to help with a boss. I remember some rather fun times trying to kill quest mobs between levels 40 and 100, a lot of that had to do with so many other players being in the area. Pretty common to run into zhen squads at seasprays, or mothrans, or rockenwolves and that area, or spiders, or pythons, or nivastoks, hell, even saw the rare goothe zhen squads. Things being so spread out is really what made the game look populated and the content seem useful.

More than just that, there was more of a sense of community and diversity in dungeons and towns people would inhabit together. That was actually a time where things were more optimistic in terms of development.

In the last year'ish, people basically spent their days in FF or afking at any location in Archosaur. I was one of those, alas, even though out of boredom I'd still check quest areas on different toons and would see no green dots.

Haven't played the expansion yet, and don't see a reason to. I already know what I'm in store for, and really what's the point of leveling yet another character in a few days to 90+ when the powers that be have ensured most of the PWI map is desolate and there's no new content developed for the people they've obviously encouraged to get to triple digit levels at instant speed, with absolutely nothing new on the horizon that looks promising.

What kept me playing it was seeing people enjoy content and seeing RL friends as well as my wife enjoy it too. Only one friend plays it anymore, and he mostly was doing other things. My wife doesn't play anymore either, even though she's quick to change her mind if she felt like it. In my case, I don't really see the point, and don't see there being any more content to enjoy. Never really played for the cash shop and e-peen so updates and sales exclusively pertaining to the boutique and not new lands/dungeons/fixes wasn't going to cut it anymore.

Kiollosis - Archosaur · March 2011

the sheer size of the game all the diff char edits we can do to make our char our own and way back then they was going to and houseing system but it never made the final grade i started back on the china server way before there was a english server when my-en came out i played there for about 4 years and now i'm hereb:victory

Ermosa - Heavens Tear · March 2011

hmm char customization kept me here in the 1st place. i usually quitted games when it was to hard to level up. like get to lvl 20 and then suddenly u need 10 times more exp to level up. here i just quit char when i get to bored and make new char. now lvling have been made even more easier. its more fun for me.

Noskrad - Heavens Tear · March 2011

DaKillanator - Raging Tide wrote: »

my brother got me started. the sheer size and complexity of the game kept me going.
I absolutely loved how every class had it's own specializations and uniqueness.

...and you still love that specializations, don't you? specially assassin's one lol

Well me, I actually didn't found this game so cool, specialy when I saw a guy ona flying sword xD. But 1 of my friends asked me sooo many times to come in this game that one day I decide to give it a try, and I fell in love witht the game as soon as I saw the assassin class, as thei're so seemed to ninjas, and that's why my 1st character in this game, and my main, is a sin.

magena · March 2011

Last MMO I had played with Phantasy Star Universe: Ambition of the Illuminus. The player population had utterly VANISHED (WTF?!) and I remember a friend telling me about her venomancer character on a Chinese MMO and how the character customization was the most detailed she had seen in ages. I was surprised to see a game with more customization that PSU had to offer. Coupled with the fact that the game looked very Chinese- themed (was going Kung- Fu at the time, so I was attracted to a lot of Chinese things), I gave the game a chance.

What made me addicted was the ability to fly. >_> I know I am a dork in that regard. I just wish PWI had PSU's/ Monster Hunter's ability to aim skills/ melee instead of just pointing and clicking. Point and click is just so brain dead.

Kharan - Harshlands · March 2011

I started playing after I ran away from a different game which was handled by a different company. Said company employees (at least the ones in charge of the aforementioned game) were probably under the influence of...something. Many things, probably. None of them beneficial.

Anyway, I heard about this game from others who were also quitting the old one.

So I registered, installed, played, and, in general, liked it. Now, I don't play often (as my character pic probably indicates), but hey, I'm lazy and I get sidetracked easily. Probably not a good excuse, though. Hehe.

Started out with a Blademaster. For a while, it was fun. Unfortunately, I tried to play it like a pole-arm ninja, that didn't go over so well. Fast-forward like six months later, I started up a Barb. I'd like to think I played the class decently. Though, as you can see, for not very long. Joined a strong guild with good leadership, got kicked due to inactivity. Honestly, I had it coming. Heh.

A year or so after that, I rejoined the game and started up a Assassin. It was a bit painful at the start, but it got fun pretty fast. Currently, it's the highest level out of all my characters, but that's not saying much. Started a Mystic a few days ago. I'm liking it so far.

So yep. That's my story. As for what keeps me playing: nothing, really. I drift from game to game. Except the ones I buy on Steam, because, you know, I paid for those. I guess I have a soft spot for this game, so I come back from time to time.

I wonder If I got off topic a bit... Oh well.

Kinjeto - Raging Tide · March 2011

I played Silk Road Online during 2006 until 2007 when the game filled up with gold botters and I had reached my goal as being the top level job of Trader so I left that and went to PW-MS run by Cubizone PTY LTD in Malaysia. I thought Cubizone would be a better caliber or company than Joymax, But I was wrong on that assumption.

I had heard about PWI but I didn't consider it. As time wore on in PW MS/PW MY the currency on the servers got worser. A GM left and that pretty much reminded me of how Silk Road Online (SRO) was run. I left in 2008 for a 4 month break and came back, lots of people had taken off to this version of Perfect World. But I stuck it out in Malaysia until I hit Rank 6 and a Level 100 Tank. By the end of 2009 the Malaysian version merged servers (cause both servers were practically -dead-) and this killed the economy it didn't solve the new problem that there were no NEW players. Cubizone created another server called Fantasia.

If anyone knows Silkroad Online, they'll know of Joymax's infamy to 'create a new server' every time it filled up with botters and all the players will try to do the legit thing and move servers cause its impossible to log in. So I saw history repeating it self.

The top guild from the 'Delphi server' took over "Utopia" and I thought, well Cubizone can't run a game, so what's the use in staying. With in-game coin being bought for 800 million per 4XX USD (from what I remember) the dominate guild of Oracle destroyed, the economy of the game falling a part at the seems, no packs in the cash shop and most of all NO CUBI (What you guys know as 'gold' or ZEN) in the Auction House. I finally said "Fark this bollocks"

During 2010 I swore off playing another version of Perfect World unless it was a good version. I went to 'other servers' to see how they were run. But I didn't consider PWI.

Then a friend said "Oh Kin you were good in MY you should come over to PWI we have people who level-up super fast but they don't know how to play their characters or the game." and I was like "Oh yeah, Ah ha" so I started here in August 2010 and here I am.

102 with Rank 8/9 and it is slightly more cost effective than the Malaysian version which is dying on its knees. 2000 USD versus 58? USD (Rank 8), which I'm very happy for. b:laugh

Anyway. Yeah, here I am. PWI which I think has more updates than PW MY and a slightly better monitored game environment.

That is my little piece of story I tell to everyone who wants to know where I've been.

The most enlightening thing about my story is a lot of it is true:

The AH part where people buy 'CUBI' not in the auction house (that is empty):
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/profile/7c/f2/7cf2e9e6994786423f19b32d9c56e93f1299018522.jpg

The Gold Spammers (Which also indicates lack of GM involvement
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/profile/7f/df/7fdfb292110cf9abf8c18220b4bb0c761299017515.jpg

The overpriced items:
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/profile/e8/79/e8792bbe7079924258fb6562a964ea621299017773.jpg

Even the fact that Cubizone don't care if you buy 'coin'
http://images-cdn.perfectworld.com/profile/3d/d3/3dd32d3f8f1b0345cd591757b3c6d7081299043144.jpg

Yes I know I've put black marks over the site. But for good reason. I'd be breaching the ToS if I was 'advertising'

P.S: Don't play on the Malaysian version. Its ****. Stay here. Trust me. ;=)

angelmunchkin · March 2011

I got started shortly after it's release in 2008. I was looking for something, an mmo, that was not only fun, but had attractive 3d graphics. I investigated several, but this one, graphically, beat out all the other F2P's. And the user interface was also superior to the others. The character creation was a huge bonus.

When I first started, it was all good, lots of fun people, the whole sh'bang. Cash shop didn't really offer any advantage items and packs were still a long ways off.

I still think it has the best graphics and most beautiful landscapes of any other F2P mmo, but it certainly is not what it used to be game-wise. The player base isn't as friendly or helpful (in general), and the introduction of various cash shop items has all but destroyed the game. The economy is totally ruined.

What got you into playing PW first?

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