World of Warcraft boasts the largest customer base of any online role-playing game. Many gamers new to the scene don’t see far beyond it, however. There are hundreds of other massive multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPG’s) on the internet, from all around the world, covering all genres. The largest producer of these games is South Korea, where a large portion of the population engage in gaming. One of South Korea’s newest offerings to the North American market is Goonzu Online.
Goonzu differs hugely from World of Warcraft – for starters, it’s free. Players don’t have to spend a cent to play Goonzu. They can, however, purchase a special form of in-game money that players can’t earn normally. For $10, players receive 1000 Gcoins, which can be exchanged for weapons, armor, rings, character bonuses, or chicken soup – all of which provide some benefit to the player. It is not necessary, though, to become powerful.
Players begin by choosing to either be a Western or Eastern male or female – after a fairly comprehensive tutorial phase, they are unleashed on the world, sometimes with bad results. The open-ended gameplay, which allows characters to invest their stat points (which make them stronger) any way they wish can leave some players with too much power and not enough hit points to fight enemies, or just the opposite.
Skills are also open-ended. Every level up, a character gains a skill point that can be used in conjunction with a skill book to gain new abilities or become proficient in old ones. This can be a problem, too, for characters who want to be an archer/spear fighter, or swordsman/blacksmith. With a disproportionate skill balance, the character might become to weak too be an effective fighter or an effective crafter.
Goonzu’s combat system is extremely simple and almost mindless. Left click on the enemy, wait for it to die, drink a health/magic potion as needed. It is quite similar to Diablo II, but with more automation. There are a wide, somewhat eccentric, choice of monsters to prey on, which ranges from evil raccoons and bunnies that meow when hit to vampires and pig dragon demons of doom. Quests remind the player that their task to kill those monsters is sometimes gruesome, but must be done. One character informs the player that the bunnies may be cute, but they damage crops and must be put down with extreme prejudice.
Goonzu’s crafting system is kind of unique. Players who have the skill to create an item must simply gather the material to make it, put the materials into an item creation window, and begin the process. Although this is not unusual, the next step is. Beginning the creation process brings up a mini-game. The mini-game is very similar to Bejewled, and how well the player does at the game affects the bonus that applies to the item. Item bonuses determine the additional strengths a weapon gains on creation – weapons with higher bonuses are worth more money on the market.
The game’s strongest feature is probably its community. Players can take over towns through siege warfare and then upgrade the towns with hunting grounds, merchants, crafters, stock markets, mines and so on. The leader of the town is encouraged to recruit other players to help him or her develop the town and protect it from other hopeful leaders who would take it over. People who belong to a given town bear a tag next to their name, stating their allegiance. Players can also vote for their favorite player to become Goonzu, emperor of the lands.
Game masters are quite active and do a fairly decent job at keeping the community clean of grief players. Beggars are not tolerated, nor is anti-communist propaganda spread outside towns that some players might randomly label as “red.” Like in any free game, there is a higher concentration of people who seem to be a little dull, so new players are advised to not pay attention to anyone with an “x” in their name.
As in any MMORPG, gamers are warned to avoid playing too much. Goonzu can be an extremely addictive game however one chooses to play it – as a heroic knight, a wise wizard, a skilled artisan, or a plague upon the world.