Shadow Cities
September 26, 2011 11:26 AM   Subscribe

 
There is a reason I won't be playing this.

Top In-App Purchases

35 Mana Potions$4.99
7 Mana Potions$0.99
125 Mana Potions$14.99
300 Mana Potions$28.99
1500 Mana Potions$99.99


That's why.
posted by JHarris at 11:34 AM on September 26, 2011 [8 favorites]


Well, I can cross one item off my list of "Things To Do Before Other People Do Them First."
posted by michaelh at 11:34 AM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


Hmm, maybe that was a little harsh. I suppose I could have a look at it.
posted by JHarris at 11:35 AM on September 26, 2011


y u no android version
posted by LogicalDash at 11:35 AM on September 26, 2011 [5 favorites]


It's a good reason -- but buying mana isn't really necessary. It drops naturally in the game all the time. You can progress faster if you shell out the bucks, but you don't run into a wall if you don't.
posted by steambadger at 11:36 AM on September 26, 2011


y u no android version

Probably because they want to make money and they did not make Angry Birds.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 11:39 AM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


1500 Mana Potions$99.99

WHO DOES THIS
posted by griphus at 11:39 AM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


I am going to check this out.

Are those potions real money only or is there a way to get them in game. I am all for buying gold or items if there is a way to get gold or items ingame without paying. Would be neat if I could steal enemy gold, which they may have paid real money for, or earn gold by items by a gateway.

Like it or not I think we will be seeing much more nickel-and-dime ware.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:40 AM on September 26, 2011


Yeah, I was playing this all summer out on Cape Cod where I had my area's gateways largely to myself. There's a certain amount of fun to be had dominating and defending your home town, but I gave up the third or fourth time the game plopped an enemy beacon down in the middle of my shit, I guess to penalize me for playing too much, or spending too little?
posted by nicwolff at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2011


If this game allows me to make the walls of Fuddrucker's weep with blood, I will marry it.
posted by Halloween Jack at 11:42 AM on September 26, 2011 [6 favorites]


Ad: There's no need to buy potions. You can get them in-game or just wait for mana to refresh naturally over time. It's a fun game. I quit playing a few months ago because it was too buggy to play for any length of time, but if they have rev'd it since I'd go back.
posted by The Bellman at 11:43 AM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


So, I'm confused. According to one of the reviews the site links to, "you don't need to actually be in a physical location to play there." Isn't that the whole point?
posted by jbickers at 11:43 AM on September 26, 2011


I always suspected I had vast potential!
posted by Naberius at 11:44 AM on September 26, 2011


I played it for a while. The location awareness is pretty cool, especially if you commute or travel alot. But I have to say that after the novelty of the location thing wore off it got to feeling repetitive.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:47 AM on September 26, 2011


okay I've downloaded the damn thing and I'll be back with a report.
posted by The Whelk at 11:48 AM on September 26, 2011


You can move around the world by connecting with other players. So if a fight is brewing in Paris, and you know someone there...
posted by R. Mutt at 11:49 AM on September 26, 2011


I play this one casually, and have not had to purchase Mana potions for any reason. I have amassed enough Mana to purchase a bunch of gateways. I think I purchased Wasilla a while back.

You can create beacons at a certain level in the game. You can transport to the beacons of people you have friended all over the world. That way you can warp to Sweden or Italy or wherever the game is active.

There are no commercial places on the map. It is either a city (Wasilla), a park (Denali), or a school (UAF).

The game does eventually just become a big grind, as with all MMORPGs.
posted by jabberjaw at 11:50 AM on September 26, 2011


WHO DOES THIS

I would consider it. I can't spend a ridiculous amount of time in-game but I do spend a ridiculous amount of time "working" to get money so I can buy imaginary items. There isn't much difference to me spending $100 bucks to see a show or spending $100 bucks to kick some guy's ass in a game.
posted by Ad hominem at 11:51 AM on September 26, 2011


I'm not sure I like choosing an Academy based soley on who has the better design
posted by The Whelk at 11:52 AM on September 26, 2011


just as I suspected, the UWS is devoid of magic.
posted by The Whelk at 11:54 AM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


Top In-App Purchases

35 Mana Potions $4.99
7 Mana Potions $0.99


Someone got a raise for coming up with that pricing scheme.
posted by wemayfreeze at 11:54 AM on September 26, 2011 [11 favorites]


The main risk in choosing an Academy is if the other side happens to dominate where you happen to live/ work.
posted by R. Mutt at 11:55 AM on September 26, 2011


Yep, it was probably $.04 more an hour.
posted by MCMikeNamara at 11:56 AM on September 26, 2011 [2 favorites]


Eh, the Army of Darkness app also sells you gold, but you can just earn it in game. This may have a similar mechanism.
posted by cjorgensen at 11:57 AM on September 26, 2011


Honestly. Kids these days and their "virtual reality". When I was knee high to a grasshopper and we wanted to lay some random beat-down on strangers in the city, we brought tube socks filled with pennies, or axe handles, or lengths of chain. None of this iPhone crap where there's no real blood.

Yeesh.

Also, that intro video, where they show the Level 3 guy taking pride in pwning the n00b? Yeah, totally turns me off from being a casual player. Show me how this will help me make introductions to other players, to find interesting people around me, and I might consider going back to an iPhone. This?

No. If I want combat with random strangers, I'd rather take my bad self down to the bars and hang around circa closing time.
posted by straw at 11:58 AM on September 26, 2011


This is going to end with someone's hands being bitten off, isn;t it?
posted by The Whelk at 12:00 PM on September 26, 2011


Also, that intro video, where they show the Level 3 guy taking pride in pwning the n00b?

Well, to be fair, the level three guy is also a noob. It takes about half an hour to hit level five in this game.
posted by steambadger at 12:02 PM on September 26, 2011


If anybody sees "IwillfightyouIRL" on it in Brooklyn, it is me, and I will fight you, IRL.
posted by Threeway Handshake at 12:03 PM on September 26, 2011 [6 favorites]


When I was knee high to a grasshopper and we wanted to lay some random beat-down on strangers in the city, we brought tube socks filled with pennies. . .

Did you have to buy the pennies, or could you somehow earn them in game?
posted by The Bellman at 12:03 PM on September 26, 2011 [5 favorites]


I'm an architect. They're the orange ones. I totally picked it because it has a compass on it.

The animators (the green ones) held all of downtown L.A. and S.F. for a while. Not sure if they still do.

There is a no-PvP-unless-you-attack-first rule for all players level 5 and under.

Not the best networking tool. For a while there were some interesting people playing that had actual careers and were cool and mature. These days, it seems the crowd has drifted toward to less mature crowd. It's weird to see high school drama unfold. But, if you are already an online gamer, then you are used to this kind of crap.
posted by jabberjaw at 12:06 PM on September 26, 2011


I think I wandering into a huge wizarding war in central park but got out before I was hit cause I was clearly on the wrong side of this battle.

Hey isn''t it neat we live in world where that is a factual sentence.
posted by The Whelk at 12:12 PM on September 26, 2011 [7 favorites]


I don't know. Do you fight against other players? If so, I can see it easily turning into something where you have to buy mana potions to keep spamming spells to take over areas, because everyone else is doing it.
posted by JHarris at 12:12 PM on September 26, 2011


I tried it and found it kind of a dull grind. This as someone who has no problem grinding and dropping real money if there's interesting content to be had (Echobazaar, Glitch). I have yet to drop $99 on either, but put together, I'm close.
posted by juv3nal at 12:44 PM on September 26, 2011


For some reason, people are attacking me?
posted by The Whelk at 12:58 PM on September 26, 2011


Apparently my apartment is some kind of gateway.....
posted by The Whelk at 12:59 PM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


(GRANTS TOMB WILL BE MINE!)
posted by The Whelk at 12:59 PM on September 26, 2011


I'm not a game player, but a quick Google search suggests that six months of WoW is $78, vs $90 if you pay monthly. I've no idea how fast people go through "manna" or how they rationalize their decisions, but $99 for a 7 or 8 month supply of game goodness seems inline with MMORPGs. The fact that players must then parcel that out with their own willpower rather than having a fixed time to have that resource available seems like brilliant game design.
posted by straw at 1:00 PM on September 26, 2011


hmmm...this looks really interesting as a concept. 5 minutes in, and I'm kind of hoping for more than what I'm seeing so far, but it's early days yet. Is there a mefite/fight thing happening on this yet? My mage name is the same as my user if anybody wants to connect in-game (architects!)
posted by gofargogo at 1:12 PM on September 26, 2011


}} I think I wandering into a huge wizarding war in central park but got out before I was hit cause I was clearly on the wrong side of this battle.

omg my childhood spent memorizing the wizard's oath paid off I AM ON MY ORDEAL AT LAST!

brb looking for sedan-eating sentient sportscar
posted by nicebookrack at 1:44 PM on September 26, 2011


Honestly. Kids these days and their "virtual reality". When I was knee high to a grasshopper and we wanted to lay some random beat-down on strangers in the city, we brought tube socks filled with pennies, or axe handles, or lengths of chain. None of this iPhone crap where there's no real blood.

Get off my lawn you damn kids... and take your iphones with you.
posted by TheBones at 2:03 PM on September 26, 2011


This would terrify a midevil priest beyond belief.
posted by cmoj at 2:25 PM on September 26, 2011 [1 favorite]


Becoming the Witch King of Salem is proving harder than expected. Turns out Laurie Cabot has a crack team of lawyers.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 2:35 PM on September 26, 2011


I'm going to stick with conquering my neighborhood the old fashioned way; with firearms, barricades, guile, and treachery.

Sure, I'll "try" love first, because there's always a slim chance it might work, but when it fails, I want to be ready to go loud at a moments notice.

Because that guy across the street might finally finish that burning tire trebuchet and I need to be ready to respond.
posted by quin at 2:40 PM on September 26, 2011 [3 favorites]


I'm going to stick with conquering my neighborhood the old fashioned [sic] way; with firearms, barricades, guile, and treachery.

"On the slate for that night's meeting: 1) proposals for consolidation of the dying public-library system and 2) regular-basis, voluntary mine sweeps of Turtle Pond Park and surrounding wooded areas, to locate and physically deactivate, once and for all, the hundreds of claymores placed by Ed Benson during the spirited conflict between the Bensons and the Websters, who lived across the park from each other during the time of buildup and fortification, when almost everybody seemed to have barbed wire scrolled around his or her backyard, as well as maybe a sod- or tarp-covered pit laid deep with danger.

Those pits caught on. They were the rage. Everybody just had to build one."

posted by mrgrimm at 3:49 PM on September 26, 2011


7 Mana Potions $0.99

So ... pretty much like ramen noodles, then.
posted by Twang at 4:08 PM on September 26, 2011


I played this for a while a few months ago, and had to stop because I was starting to get anxious about it. (No lie.) If someone took down my beacons in my neighborhood or killed my character, I would freak out a little. I still think about it driving home, about that fucker down the street who was totally squatting on me, killing my character every time I logged in. I will TP his house on day. Because I know where he lives.

And that's why I don't play video games.

Well, that and the fact that the only other time I tried, I got tennis elbow from Katamari Damacy. In one obsessive weekend.
posted by pomegranate at 6:29 PM on September 26, 2011 [2 favorites]


I played this game for much of the summer and had a great time in spite of frequent lag/crash issues. The big battles were a lot of fun, and, map geek that I am, I loved warping all over the globe in search of Architect dominators. I had to quit because I was getting addicted, and it was starting to take me away from work and family. I still miss it, but I'm better off w/o it. Our Minnesota battle group was a fairly reasonable online community--strangely mature and supportive for a MMORPG community. The top players seemed to be on for several hours per day--I don't know how. Anyway, good times, but I had to quit it cold turkey.
posted by smrtsch at 6:54 PM on September 26, 2011


y u no android version-- LogicalDash

For an Android location-aware game that can turn a daily walk or jog into an adventure, I play Zombie, Run!
posted by eye of newt at 9:43 PM on September 26, 2011


So I played a bit last night and ambushed some green player this morning. Just WHAM WHAM WHAM and he went down. I can see what smrtsch and pomergranate are saying - the paranoia and link between real and game worlds would get to me pretty quickly. I remember how agitated I got when I found someone cheating at FourSquare to steal a mayorship (seasonal bar - yet they were checking in daily while it was closed).

I think a game like this would be fun without the competitive aspect to it. Keep the city maps and the Hidden World of Magic and spirit hunting and all that, but let players build quests and power nodes and the like instead of spending all their time in melee. Sort of a Minecraft approach, a wizarding sandbox overlaying the real world.
posted by robocop is bleeding at 5:29 AM on September 27, 2011


I had a nice walk around Chelsea one day destroying green structures. It kinda sucked that Ground Zero became a big battlefield on 9/11. I know it's only virtual, but that seemed like a kind of disrespect of the actual place at the actual time.
posted by CrazyJoel at 6:10 AM on September 27, 2011


My friends and I invented this game in a pub 3 years ago.
posted by stp123 at 7:32 AM on September 27, 2011


My friends and I invented this game in a pub 3 years ago.

Add in car combat and I invented this game in 1995.
posted by mrgrimm at 12:19 PM on September 27, 2011


My wife has been playing the crap out of this wherever she goes for weeks.
posted by spinchange at 4:28 PM on September 27, 2011


I've been playing for a few days and some level 15 player who must live/work near me keeps one-shotting me whenever I log on. Meh.
posted by The Lurkers Support Me in Email at 3:29 PM on September 29, 2011 [1 favorite]


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