As with any new game, the first step was to check the website . The website is very simple, clear and easy to navigate.
The main page is very simple and aims to be clear without being overwhelmed. It has links to other screenshots, wiki,forums and sign up.

For those interested in checking things before or while you are reading this introductory review, here are some links for your pleasure:

http://www.bushtarion.com/fp_screens.php

http://www.bushtarion.com/wiki/

After checking the website, it was time to register.



As shown on the above screenshot and similar to other games, the registration is straight forward and succeeds in getting the players in game quickly. Sometimes games make it too complicate to register and often simple is better.
In this case, the devs have made it easy to register and connect.
One small note though, and it is really not a bad thing. Once one registers, the game creates a pass and sends it to the email address one used. Like I said, this is really not a bad thing.

Once the password has been received, time to login.
Upon login, the player sees a complex screen with many, many options. Personally, although I am a veteran of many games, I felt overwhelmed and had no idea what to do. Luckily, the devs thought about that and they have a full tutorial guiding your first step and explaining what to do.



As one can see from the above screenshot, a tutorial guides every step. When I write every step, I mean it. For example, on the above screenshot it says to go to maintenance. Well on the maintenance screen, another tutorial window was waiting for me, guiding my steps. I find this innovative and to be honest, the first time I see such an interactive tutorial within a browser game. Although such a game is not my usual cup of tea, the interactive tutorial provided by Bushtarion helped my progress and understanding of the game.

Now onto the game community.
From what I saw, Bushtarion uses IRC live chat and forums for community interaction. The forums are using the Vbulletin software and seem well organized



The forums are active. At the time of this writing, the forums boasted having a max of 219 players online at the same time, with the date of this accomplishment being August 13 2009. Obviously such a number is not a good way to judge how many people actually play the game, however it gives an idea of the level of commitment of the community. In addition, in looking at forums, one can see each board being active. This in turn shows me that a player posting for help is bound to get a response quickly.

Overall I found this game well thought out and developed. Such a game may not be the cup of tea of everyone, however, in my opinion, it is a must try game. Try it and see for yourself.

I am grading Bushtarion

5 .

As an introductory review, I do not pretend to have played the entire game, I don't pretend to know all about the game, nor do I pretend to have discovered and/or learned everything about the game.
As with all introductory reviews, this review is done from the point of view of a player discovering the game for the first time.

As with all my introductory reviews, I am looking at this game as a brand new player, which I am.
As such, the first item I checked is the website:



The first thing that jumped to me was how clean is the main page. As shown on the above screenshot, the page is well organized and provides access to different pages which might interest a potential player.
One also notices the fact that BBzone is boasting a translation in 5 languages (more like 4, since from what I gathered, the game is coming from Lithuania). The languages used are English, Italian, French, Russian. One language that seems to be missing is German, but hopefully this is something they are working on.
I haven't obviously tested the game in any other language other than English, so I am unable to make a judgment on whether their translation is correct or not.
The next item one notices are all the links on the left hand side. Those links provide potential new players lots of information. I suggest taking a look at the Screenshots and Help pages.
I especially suggest taking a close look (read) at the Help section.
The help section is very detailed and provides much useful information to a potential or current player. Personally I think it is almost too much information and found it quite overwhelming, and maybe a solution would be to create a tutorial during which the player unlocks progressively the help section.

After checking the help section and other information, it was time to register.



As seen above, the registration is straight forward, requesting name, email, pass, team name. It also takes the time to state that only 1 team is allowed per account. For a sports game, this is very important as it is allows a more fair gaming.
The registration was painless, however one needs to wait about 24 hours before one's team is activated and one is able to login. Personally I dont see this as a problem, although some players may prefer the direct email activation.

Following the account activation, one logins and sees the following



The above is the main screen one sees upon login.
In the middle section, one can read the news about the game and the club. On the right hand side a poll and list of new players/clubs. And on the left hand side, we have the full game menu with links to the club finances, tactics, training, staff and so forth.
Generally speaking this set up has nothing innovative. Straight forward and simple to use, however I find it quite boring to see the same setup of the screen.

And now onto the gameplay. Similar to other sports games(Hattrick, ItsaGoal,BuzzerBeater), one manages his team by going to the appropriate screen and updating that screen info. As an example, lets take the tactics screen:



On this screen, the club owner (in this case, me) can select the line up for a specific match, the position of each player and the tactics. Overall as shown above, it is straight forward and simple to use. Each of the options is clear, simple to understand and simple to use.
What is seen on the tactics page can be seen on all the game pages, and this makes the game quite easy and friendly, although one wouldnt give Basketball Zone any innovation award.

In all of this, one could think the game to be perfect or close to perfect, however I will beg to disagree. Personally I found one major problem with the game: the way it lists the week/day of the season.
As shown above, the game shows:

Season: 14, Week: 7, Day: 4 (46)

Obviously the season shows which season is in progress and the week, which week. Where the problem begins is with the day and the number in parentheses. I spent quite a few days looking for an explanation. It may be me,but didn't find anything in the help section either, so at the end I posted the question on forums and here is what I got as response:

3rd day of the 7th week of the season = 45th day of the season.

Personally I find this quite confusing and not clearly explained at all. As a matter of fact, personally I would rather have this information more simply put and/or at least have an explanation within the help menu.
Although a small issue, I find such an issue very important and I hope the developers will correct that in the near future.

Contrary to other games, the community activity/communication is based on forums. As far as I could tell, Basketball Zone doesn't have a live chat or anything similar. Every communication is based in the forums.
Forums are well organized and from what I have seen, the community(players, admins, moderators) are very active. To give you an idea, I posted a few questions about the game, and someone responded almost immediately.
From reading forums, I can also say that this game can be played by any player, of any age. I didn't see any adult language, any inappropriate discussions. So young players of any age could play this game.

Overall, I found Basketball Zone a well thought out game and even though it is still in Beta, I found it already pleasant to be involved with.
As mentioned above, I do however see a few problems:

-no German translation
-a boring control setup. Well,let me rephrase. Not boring, but much too similar to other sports games
-day of the week and day of season not clear enough, and info about it not found.

Based on the above problems, based on the beta status of the game, I grade BasketballZone

3.5

BasketballZone is rated

For this review of a Players Corner game, the chosen one is The Kingdom of Loathing.

So what is Kingdom of Loathing?
To quote the official website, Kingdom of Loathing is a free to play, comical RPG.

As a new player, the first place I obviously visited was the website.
I found the website well designed, providing all the needed information to a new player. Besides the usual login/register screen, one also finds links to forums, a KoL radio, and a merchandise store



Compared to other browser games, one could argue that the KoL main site is a bit boring/ bare, however I think the site accomplishes its main goal, which is to provide information and get visitors in game

The next step was to check the game features, and as expected, they were clearly described



After checking the features, it was time to create an account. The account creation was painless and similar to other games, the info requested is email, pass, gender, character name and character class.



After receiving the activation email, one is set to enter the world of KoL.

The main game screen is simple and provides the needed information to a player.



As shown above, the main game screen is divided in 4 sections:

-section 1 provides links to character information such as inventory, skills, quests and other relevant information
-section 2 contains the character stats(health, mp, current adventure, funds)
-section 3, contains the world map. For those familiar with the Mafia games and other browser games, the controls should be familiar. A player clicks on one of the 4 available locations to begin an adventure.
-section 4 contains game announcements, news and the chat

For those interested in modifying their game experience (what the game screen shows and other options), by going to the Account screen, one will find options to satisfy the most critical of players.



As shown above, one can change almost anything, from the color of the name in chat, to profanity level, anything can be modified.

As one enters KoL, a player is not immediately given access to the chat system. To get access to the chat system, one needs to first past the Altar of Literacy test, which contains understanding of the policies and completion of phrases.
Following the completion of this test, access to the chat is given.And this brings me to the community (chat, forums and players).

As I have written many times, community in a game is very important, and it is especially important for new players. As written above, I went into this game as a new player, having no idea what to expect. And so when I got access to the chat, I had no idea what were the controls like.
The chat system presented in KoL comes in two versions( new and old). The new one is the one that appears automatically.
I initially attempted to use the old chat system, but it seems it doesn't work very well at all. Because I couldn't find a way to return to the new version and no player answered my question about this, I had to log out and re-login.
And obviously the new version works way better, providing a help screen when typing "/?". When on the chat help screen, one is also able to access other help screens concerning the game.
This is great because sometimes it might be quicker and more efficient to look for the answer yourself. And obviously one can also look and/or ask for help on the KoL forums.

When one enters the chat, the initial channel is the Newbie channel. Now I am not sure if it is just me or if I got in game at the wrong time, but the channel didn't seem at all for Newbies. I initially greeted everyone and then asked my first question about channels and other things. I had to ask 4-5 times to get an answer. In the meantime, players in the channel were talking about their day and what not. What makes it even more weird, if I may say so, is that the game boasts a "normal" channel. Now as a new player my expectation is that the Newbie channel is kept clear of clutter to be able to answer new players questions, but it seems the KoL community has a different take on the Newbie channel. From the little I was able to gather by talking to available players at the time of my playing, they consider the Newbie channel a full social channel, while also supposedly answering newbie questions.
The problem I see is that the new newbie channel is way too cluttered and scrolling goes by way too fast to be able to catch questions. Then again, if one goes to the "Normal" channel, one finds it dead.No one talking.
But as I wrote above, the problem I see is that the channel is too cluttered and new players questions can get lost in the chatter. Which means that a player has to ask multiple times a question.

The forums of KoL are well organized and from what I noticed quite active. The "help" board is very active and is probably the best way to get help if needed.
One can find the KoL forums at http://forums.kingdomofloathing.com
As one can see, the KoL forums require a separate registration, which is fine.

The only problem I see with the registration is this random question about the game. A new player interested in checking and posting on forums before trying the game, will not have any ideas about the answers and may simply move on to another game.
This is a bit dangerous I think, but so far it seems to be working for KoL.

The forums software used is Vbulletin, which is one of the paid forum softwares available.

The KoL players overall seem nice. The minimum age of players seems to be around 10. That means that the game is playable by even young gamers, which is great. It also seems the community is international, with players from the US, UK and other countries.
In addition, KoL boasts a high number of players online. At the time of this writing, I saw up to 209 players online

One of the players actually sent me the link to an old KoL poll dating as far back as 2006 which provides details about the community. Although quite old and probably not accurate enough, that poll gives an overall idea of the type of community one might encounter in game. The poll can be found at http://www.brandybuck.com/fnord/survey/survey_results.html
As one can see from the the poll, the majority of the community comes from the US (65%) followed by the UK (10%).
As I said, I am sure the above poll is outdated by now, however it should give a pretty good idea of the type of community one can encounter in KoL.

Finally, let me finish with the browsers. The game works generally speaking with all browsers, however the game boasts full optimization with IE and Firefox. By optimized, I mean that the most advanced features such as Right Click Menu and others are available by using IE and Firefox.
The documentation indicates that such features and other advanced features are working with the following browsers:

* Internet Explorer 6.0 for Windows
* Firefox 1.0.x and 1.5
* Mozilla 6+
* Netscape 7.2+
* Safari 2.0.x
* Camino 2.0+

In addition I tested the game with Chrome and Opera.
I can confirm that the game is fully working with Chrome, however for whatever reason, the Opera browser is not fully supported. That is a bit disappointing to me and I hope this will be corrected in the near future.

Overall,my beginning experience with Kingdom of Loathing was good and again based on my experience, I found this game entertaining and well developed.
As a new player,my concerns remain the clutter of the Newbie channel and as an avid Opera user, the lack of full optimization with Opera.
However due to the community activity, well developed and thought out game I give Kingdom of Loathing the grade of

4.5

I rate Kingdom of Loathing

Lands of Hope is a multiplayer browser based game created by Decius( Daniel Paull) and launched on July 29 2005.
Before I begin with the game review,I would like to precise a few things:

1. I am myself an active player in Lands of Hope
2. Given the complexity and the number of features available in the game, I do plan on writing a number of reviews, so as to cover the full game.

Now that the above is out of the way, I would like to start by providing you with links where you can read more about what the game is about:

Official About
Tutorial Estate walkthrough
History . This is the history of the game in character.
Game World

As written above, the game was officially launched in 2005 and since that time, Lands of Hope has been in constant development. Daniel Paull who is the owner and main coder for the game is always working on features, on fixing bugs and other things. All of it to improve the game.
In addition to his presence, the game benefits from a team of volunteers who deal with moderating the chat/forums to graphics and what not.
For a full list of the staff, please go here

In part 1 of this review, as is my habit, I am looking at the game as a brand new player,discovering the game for the first time, and playing the game for the first time.
Future reviews of Lands of Hope will deal in details with the professions, items, monsters, quests, expansions and other interesting items.

And so as a new player, I went over to the official site of Lands of Hope . As a browser game, the specs are pretty simple and straight forward:

-any of the following browsers( Internet Explorer, Chrome, Opera , Netscape, Firefox or Safari)
-internet connection.

Please note that some versions of the Opera browser are not compatible with the game.

In addition of the above browsers, the game provides a game client which can be found here .
Personally I recommend the use of the provided game client. The game client provides in my opinion the best experience.

And now onto the signup page. The signup page requests the usual information:

account name
referrer(if referred by another player)
password
email address

In addition to the above, there is a disclaimer stating that:

” Payment of a one time fee is required to advance above level 100 (payment is optional).”

So what does the above means?well it simply means that although the game is free to play, to access content past level 100, a player needs to pay a small one time fee(if I recall, the fee is $15). That fee is optional and no one is forced to pay it. However as written above, advancing past level 100 is possible only after paying that small fee.

Once the account is created, the player ends up on the character creation screen



Here are the steps to create a new character:

-click on the “New Character” button
-select a profession

Profession choices are Fighter, Archer, Caster, Animator, Healer and more. For details about the professions, please go here

-choose character name
-choose character sex (male/female)
-read and accept the Terms of Service
-accept the server chosen for the character

Originally the game came with two servers, however since 2005 , it was decided to close one of the servers and as such, a player doesnt have the choice as to which server to play in.

Once the character has been created, I entered the game where I saw this



As you can see, the game screen is divided in 5 sections(from left to right):

-section 1 is where is the map, along with the coordinates for the character current location
-section 2 is the main text window where one reads discussions with NPCs,quests and so forth
-next to it is section 3, which on the screenshot above is displaying the “Getting Started” . However that screen can also display your in game inbox, the list of your characters and more.
-below that, on the far left is the status window, which displays the actions taken in game, combat results and other in game communications.
-and finally next to it is the in game chat screen.

On the right side of your screen you can see the section “Getting Started” . This section provides guides and tutorials toward one’s first steps in the game. For example, one of the tutorials available is describing the game interface, while another talks about equipment.
In addition to this screen, a new player also gets a private message from the owner of the game(see screenshot below), welcoming the player and providing explanations to help a new player.



After getting used to the game interface, one begins to play by completing tutorial quests. Those tutorial quests teach a player about the game functions, such as talking, killing (mainly chickens, mice , wolf, cows and other monsters) and also begin to introduce the story.
The character is being moved to different locations by either clicking on the map, either by typing coordinates where the character needs to go.
While learning about the game’s basics, a character can also begin to learn skills such as blacksmith, farming, lumberjack.

As quests are being completed, the character obviously gains new levels/stats. After achieving level 5, the story of the game comes in play with the Baron quest. The Baron quest basically says that a “stranger just paid” for your character’s freedom from the Baron. Upon completion of this quest, the character is transfered to the main game world, in the realm of Knotwood Valley.

As in any other game, the community is also important. Since the launch of Lands of Hope, the game has seen the creation of 74849 accounts, with an average of about 15 new accounts created daily and a player can find anywhere between 10 and 50 players logged in at any one time.
But dont let the above numbers fool you. The game community is great, very helpful to new players and easy to communicate with. Besides the game chat, the community also communicates on the game forums . Well organized, those forums are a fun way to communicate and get to know the players.

Now are the above active numbers great?absolutely not. And if you talk to other players, I am sure they will tell you how much they would like to see new players come in and more player connected at the same time.
And there is one thing to keep in mind. Although generally speaking, a game promotion falls ultimately to the game owner/dev, at the end of the day, it is also up to the community and each player to advertise the game and attracts more players.

To end part 1 of my Lands of Hope review, I would like to recommend to all of you to try this game and give it a fair shot. Such game may not be everyone’s cup of tea, however unless you try, you wont know for sure.
Based on my experience, I also think this game is very good for beginner online players.

Disclaimer
I dont pretend to have played the entire game, I dont pretend to know all about the game, nor do I pretend to have discovered and/or learned everything about the game.
As with all introductory reviews, this review is done from the point of view of a player discovering the game for the first time.

For this review, the chosen game is Alien Adoption Agency http://www.alienaa.com
So what is Alien Adoption Agency?
The simple answer is that the game is a browser game with cute alien characters.



On the the home page, one can find links to a tour of the game, which shows what the game is about with cartoon like pictures. The pictures are well done and it is great to see such a tour of the game.
In addition to the tour, one can also find links for billing, term of service and other pertinent information.
Now I am sure some of you may wonder what is this about billing. Well, the game provides extra features to subscribers. Those features range from no ads, to voice chat.
Please note that I havent tested any of the subscription features for the simple reason that as per policy, I dont subscribe to any games I review.
Overall I found the main page well designed and thought out.

The sign up process is straight forward and what one can expect



As shown on the above screenshot, to sign up, a player needs to choose a name, character color, gender and fill out the usually needed information (name,email,password). As expected, pretty straight forward and simple.
Upon finishing the signup process, the player begins the game tutorial.

When entering the game, you are greeted by a character named Bree, who is saying to be a guide in training.



He/she will then guide on your first steps explaining the game screen, credits and other information. During the tutorial one also learns about the character stats (see the screenshot below)



At this point in time, it is worth mentioning that until the short tutorial is completed, further access to the game( House,Battle and such) wont be possible. When the tutorial is finally completed, one accesses the main game screen.



For those familiar with the Mafia type games, the screen above should look familiar,however this is as far as the similarities between Alien Adoption Agency and the Mafia type games go. Alien links and options are well developed with each of the town location providing lots of options. As one example of how well developed the game is, I will take the Merchant's Guild screen



Similar to the Merchant Guild page, all screens(locations) within the game are well developed and provide entertainment.
Personally I am familiar with the Mafia type games and honestly when I first saw the main screen, I was expecting more or less a boring game. However I was pleasantly surprised with the entertainment each of the locations within the game provides.

Before I go further, I would like to mention two very important features of this game:

-mobile compatibility
-game friendly for visually impaired gamers.

In this day and age of smartphones, Androids and other phone devices, it is great to see a game being compatible with mobile devices. I did log using the mobile interface and found the mobile interface easy and straightforward to use.



It is also great to see a game which is friendly to visually impaired gamers. For more details about this feature, please go to http://www.alienaa.com/blind.html

The skills are numerous and a player can find many ways to develop its character. A player can learn skills by going to Campus Prime, which is basically the game "university", where a player can attempt to register for classes.
I say attempt, cause it seems like there are specific requirements to be able to "attend" the Campus Prime. I am not exactly sure what are the requirements for admission as I wasnt able to find them yet, and so when you go to the Admissions office, you should be sent to the Study Hall, where you can learn skills such as religion, mining and more.



While on Campus Prime, one can also find the Wildcat Memorial Library which contains all available info about the game items,weapons and more



And now comes the part about the community.
The first major point for the game is that contrary to other games, players are not restricted to specific channels based on levels. Although I do understand games who restrict access, I find that a bit limiting. And so I was pleased to see that Alien is not restricting chat access.
From what I gathered the average age of players is 14 and up and I found the community generally friendly and helpful on both chat rooms and forums.
The chat is divided in 5 rooms: Game Help, Town Hall, Guild Chatroom, Trading and The Beleaguered Pony.
Forums are divided appropriately as well, with sections about the game, entertainment and other subjects.
Guilds are also very active and generally friendly. As a new player one will get lots of guild invites (one can choose not to receive invites in the Preferences options). To give you an idea, within 1-2 days, I had about 5-6 guild invites.
For those wondering what guilds do in game and what those guilds can do for a player, based on the community responses, a guild provides help with credits, weapons, armor and basically a friendly in game community.
In addition, to the above, there is at least one location restricted to guild members only and that location is the Echoplane which from my point of view could be said to be the equivalent of guild pvp.

Where I am beginning to see problems is the fact that there is quite a bit of adult discussions(sex and such) going on in both chat and forums. Personally, I have no problems with that, however some players (especially young) and especially parents may have problems with such discussions.
I also believe that for a game to allow such discussions is opening the door to problems with parents and players who don't find those type of discussions attractive/interesting.

Now to be fair to the developers, they have provided very good guidelines concerning pictures posting ( look at http://www.alienaa.com/law/behavior.html and at http://www.alienaa.com/law/ ),however I couldnt find such specific guidelines for the chat and forums.


Please do keep in mind that the above is based on my experience and individual experiences may vary


Overall,my experience with Alien Adoption Agency was very good and again based on my experience, I found this game entertaining and well thought out. And to be honest, I am very much tempted to give this game a grade of 5, however due to the adult discussions I mentioned above and because I feel more could be done to inform new players about the potential of adult conversations, I give Alien Adoption Agency the grade of

4.5

Alien Adoption Agency is rated