So it has come to our attention that Unreal World does not have an English-language Wikipedia page, and Sami put out the suggestion that we make one as a community. I think that is an awesome idea! I'll start out, and I am hoping that others can add to it, make it really great, and then we can publish it!
Feel free to copy/paste what I wrote, edit it, put the edited version back here, etc. until it really pays homage to this great game!
NOTE: I have been editing this on and off, inspired by how much awesome this game has and the small blurb on Sami's official website. Good portions of the following were stolen [I mean borrowed] from Dark Art and Vandigeth's fantastic descriptions in the thread that Erkka linked to in the post below. But plagiarizing is what Wikipepdia is all about, right?
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UnReal WorldUnReal World is a rougelike sandbox game with a focus on survival. Set in a realistic Finland in the late Iron Age, the player controls a single character attempting to live in the harsh environment. Unlike most RPGs, UnReal World has no set quests to go on or specific actions one must perform. Gameplay is entirely open-ended, and there are many ways to play the game. It has been in development for over two decades, and continues to be actively improved and updated. A free shareware trial version is available at
http://www.jmp.fi/~smaarane/urw.htmlCharacter CreationAt the beginning of each game the player can choose to be a tribe member of one of ten fictional cultures, each with different skillsets based on their main activity: some are fishermen, others hunters, traders, or farmers. This choice will contribute to the balance of skills that the player starts out with. For example, those who live on the coast are better fisherman than most, while those who live next to aggressive raiders are more inclined in combat skills. Then the world is randomly generated and a starting location is chosen. After a character is created, the player can choose between tutorials or other starting scenarios and be placed next to a village or on your own as a runaway slave.
The Game WorldThe game world is created anew with each game, and is littered with features one would expect from an untamed wild: forests, mountains, villages, rivers, caves, and pastures can be found throughout the large countryside. The human cultures occupy their own part of the land, and are distinguished by how their towns are set up, what the villagers will trade, the different products that are sold in those towns, and in some cases the types of weapons associated with those cultures.
GameplayGameplay is focused on interacting with the natural world and the animals and people that inhabit it. Items such as food, clothes or armor, weapons, building materials, tools, and herbs are important, because they will aid in the player's ability to survive various situations or maladies. Thus, resource management is essential because the player must eat, drink, sleep (preferably in a sheltered area), and keep warm and safe to survive. There is no set way to go about this, however; one can be a hermit fisherman, lone woodsman, traveling merchant, villager, farmer, or even a murderous town-raider to survive in UnReal World.
Players are not leveled up in the traditional sense of an RPG, in that there are no classes, skillpoints, or perks. Rather, the entire repertoire of actions is open to any player, regardless of skill level, as there is no restrictions on what player should or shouldn’t do. The success or failure of an action (whether it be skinning a hide, fishing, building a fire, climbing a tree, or attacking with a spear) is determined by one's skill in that particular area. Skills themselves are categories such as cookery or trapping that govern a broad set of actions that a player can perform, ranging from basic shamanic rituals, to making clothes, weapons, or a log cottage. As the player performs these actions, he or she will gain more experience in them and become more proficient in the given skill. All of these skills will in some way contribute to the player's success or failure to survive throughout the game.
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General comments:I never really know here how much detail I should go into vs. how much should be left for the player to discover. I think that I really left out the combat and crafting system, but I don't really know how to approach describing them the proper way.
Also, I tried very hard to just give the facts and just describe what the game is without my invariable bias, and I probably failed. Of course I want to get people interested in the game, but this is Wikipedia here and we can't be too sales-persony or preachy.
What we need:Screencaps! It's always nice to have ones that are different from the ones on the webpage, so people who go there run into new things.
People who have been playing the game longer than I have! Who can write! Please add to or cut out things out of my preliminary draft. I really want this entry to live up to the greatness of UnReal World.
Thanks for taking the time to read this all and (hopefully!) contribute.
