A thrilling trend I'm starting to see in popular new games is a mash-up of multiplayer combat with virtual world gameplay, where customizing your avatar, crafting your home, raising/caring for pets, and casually hanging out with friends and exploring the world together is just as emphasized as the face-shooty aspects.
Once Human is among the latest examples, and it comes across like a zany mash-up of Fortnite and Palia, the cozy MMO. I'm even tempted to coin a new subgenre name for it: Cozy Crafting Combat World.
Sparkle and Gogo, who largely spend their virtual world gameplay socializing/creating content around Second Life, are now fans of Once Human. So much so, they created a channel of their Second Life Cafe Discord devoted to Once Human, and even have an affiliate code for the game: This one right here.
"I am trying to earn points for a snow globe," Sparkle explains, laughing. "I am giving a gun for people to use in their as well, they also get gifts.
"I'm not a gamer at all," Gogo allows, "I've only played Second Life for the past two decades. So what I found interesting about [Once Human] is that it's fairly easy, soft grinding, but there are lots of rewards too. And you can play with friends, that's important to me. I hate playing games by myself."
"You can play solo but as you progress it encourages people to work collaboratively," Sparkle adds. "Everyone gets different specializations and contributes resources to the group. Or you can sell or trade with other players for in game currency."
More on the virtual world/cozy aspects of Once Human:
Character / Avatar creation
Gogo: "Character customization is so good in this game, custom clothing, hair, faces, bodies, etc, some are earned in game and some are paid." Above, the first character option is free, the other two are purchasable.
Sparkle: "I will say the paid cosmetics in game make SL look cheap. They do give a lot free but the premium outfits, and decor packs can be a bit spendy. I hate the loot crate system they have, those are ridiculously expensive. The detail and quality is beautiful though."
Home / base building
Sparkle: "You can build houses in game. I have seen some amazing, creative builds. I will say the building tools are clunky and can be frustrating at times. There is farming, cooking, animal taming and breeding was just added"
"[Building] is fun but it lacks a good set of tools to build, It does not have the arrows system and ease of SL. You can take a house blueprint and use that as a way to start. It also has a 3D model of things you build when you save a blue print. A blueprint saves your building and will rebuild it for you if you move your base. [You get] building blocks and put them together similar to prims but the sections are prebuilt.
"You can pick an area on the map and pretty much build a city. Everyone's house is their own but we have a compound with a shared area where people will share resources with each other.
"We have something called special deviants [above] that we capture the help in your territory or with combat. The paperdoll helps repair your base and brings you things she finds. I have a deviant that is a nutcracker soldier that defends my territory, a tin robot that goes and brings me metal ores."
Gogo: "A little animal that's your bitch basically. Got a beaver logging for me."
Creating Community in Once Human
Sparkle: "They have Hives and Warbands. A hive is 8 people, then a Warband is made up from several hives working together. Your community can be as many as would like to work together. Warband has a member space for up to 50 players." Communicating is via text and voice chat.
Advice for virtual world gamers:
Sparkle: "Don't get overwhelmed by the complexity, take time to really explore and enjoy the scenery, there are a lot of hidden places. Learning what weapon style is important so explore the different styles before committing to your first weapon and armor build It is a great community, with so much to do.
"I played Palia for a year, which is adorable and I enjoy for something relaxing, but Once Human is deeply complicated, it challenges you mentally which I enjoy as well."
As a gamer, I'm more of a solo player kind of guy, but I'm seriously tempted to become Once Human. I definitely hope we see more virtual worlds move in this direction, combining combat with open-ended socialization in a space where everyone feels they have a place for playing together.
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Well, this game looks interesting! I see there is combat involved? Is it more PVE or PVP-oriented? I thought cozy MMOs did not have combat.
Posted by: Elle Couerblanc | Saturday, October 05, 2024 at 02:35 PM
@Elle You can play PVE or PVP. This isn't a cozy MMO, it has some combat elements, but on PVE you can pretty much avoid most of the combat and just play however you want. I focus on foraging, farming, hunting, etc. Sometimes I kill some zombies, but I don't love it!
Posted by: Gogo | Monday, October 07, 2024 at 11:21 AM