Virtual Worlds #16: Family Game Night, MMO-Style

Like many families around the world, my kin and I -- specifically, my wife and stepdaughter -- like to settle down every so often for an evening around the kitchen table, and break out a favorite board game or two. We'll play anything, from classics like Monopoly, to light-hearted team games like Cranium, to any of the rash of German strategy games like Settlers of Catan or Puerto Rico.

But after a while, it all gets a bit old. Almost every board game in existence is an inherently competitive experience, and with the cutthroat nature of games like Catan and Monopoly, we decided a few weeks ago it was time for something a little different. Something, perhaps unsurprisingly, like an evening or two spent playing a massively-multiplayer online game, as a family.

What to choose, then? We needed something that doesn't take weeks to get into, and that wasn't too difficult or frustrating. Anything with non-consensual player versus player combat was out of the question -- although PvP is all well and good, we were looking for a more introverted experience. Plus, and while this was a lower priority, we would have preferred something that didn't thrust dangling boobs or dismembered corpses into your face at every opportunity.

While World of Warcraft would have been a good choice, my 11-year-old step-daughter is a bit young for it, we felt. No doubt there are plenty of 11-year-olds playing WOW quite happily, and I'm sure she'd grasp the mechanics of the game with no problems. Rather, it's the addictive hook of WOW I'm afraid of -- she's just a little inexperienced to be tackling a game that's quite capable, if left unchecked, of mercilessly sucking away every last piece of spare time you have. Go on, ask me how I know.

So with mine and the Mrs.'s favorite MMO poison ruled out, together with most of the rest of the big league MMORPGs, what's left? After due consideration, R.O.S.E. Online was the game we chose, enthralled with its advertised promises of flying pirate ships and interplanetary adventures, and its bright, colorful Saturday morning cartoon look. Being aimed unashamedly at younger games, R.O.S.E. seemed like a great choice for a family evening of entertainment, and its modest system requirements meant it would run on everyone's PCs.

Although it might be system-friendly, R.O.S.E. Online isn't, as it happens, spectacularly accessible to humans. We spent a significant proportion of our first session trying to figure out how to form a party. (It turned out you can't until you've completed the game's first few tasks.) But we persevered, and once we had a collective handle on the interface, discovered the early game to be admirably free from frustration. Although the newbie zones were crowded, there were more than enough bad guys to go around, and soon we were all chopping up worms, snails, and so on like MMO veterans.

Part of R.O.S.E.'s initial usability issues stem, no doubt, from its Asian roots. Originally released in Korea and Japan, it doesn't have the greatest translation in the world. While the interface is a darn sight better than, say, Final Fantasy XI, if you're expecting WOW or Star Wars Galaxies-style customizable interfaces, you'll be in for a disappointment.