New Dawns, Fresh Pastures, Different Shores - Chimeraland Goes Global

High on the lengthy list of topics I meant to post about last week but didn't find time for was this announcement from Pixel Soft and Proxima Beta. They're the developers and publishers, respectively, of Chimeraland, the monster-collecting-survival-building-crafting-whatever-the-hell-it-is mmorpg I was playing the hell out of at the beginning of the year.

Back then, the game was only available in several south-east Asian territories but there was no IP blocking and it was reasonably well-translated into English so I gave it a go and fell in love with it. I forget whose servers I was playing on. Singapore? The Phillipines? The ping was decent so I didn't pay a lot of attention.

A few months ago there was a beta, in Canada only, presumably testing further Westernization or localization or something. At the time, I ummed and aahed about what that might mean for my future with the game but it wasn't anything I really needed to do anything about so I didn't. I just forgot about it.

Now it's set to launch globally, which I guess means I'll have to do something after all. Even doing nothing is a choice.

Should I

a) Ignore the whole thing. I haven't played for months. It's dead to me.

b) Stay put on SEA. I have a character there, a home, everything. Sunk cost and all that.

c) Start over on a new, Western server. New paint smell, fresh start, the buzz, all the good stuff.

Don't look for a button to vote. This isn't a poll! Of course I'm going to start over.

Let's review.

Option a) Well, that's just stupid. When did I ever consider my relationship with any mmorpg "over"? As long as they keep your data and the servers stay up you can always go home again. Suck it, Thomas Wolfe!

Option b) is just a wussy variant of option a). Dude, your character's not going anywhere! Doesn't matter if you play her or not. Doesn't matter if you roll another on a new server. Get a grip!

Option c) Duh! Yeah! Why wouldn't you?

There is another factor to consider. The upcoming global release is on Steam. That really does make it a no-brainer, a slam-dunk, a racing certainty. Whatever outdated cliche you prefer.

This morning, prior to writing this post, I wishlisted Chimeraland on Steam. I also made a new account on the official Chimeraland website, using the same email address as my old one, which I'm sure won't cause me any problems at all. No, really. It won't. Trust me.

The main purpose of doing that was so I could pre-register and thereby claim my share of the "Limited Time Props" they're handing out to celebrate various registration milestones. 

The use of the word "Props" in this context doesn't give me enormous confidence in any new translations we might be getting for the Western version of the game, by the way,  but then neither does the description on the Steam page, which looks to inhabit the same uncanny verbal valley as the SEA rollout did. Suits me. I like the slightly askew phrasing of these things. Adds a little mystery and we all want some of that in our lives, don't we?

The targets for pre-registration are ambitious, to say the least. There's a progress bar that goes all the way to ten million. Good luck with  that! Currently the total stands at one and a half million, which isn't at all bad.  

It's going to be interesting to see how the game lands on Steam. As I argued at length in my many posts a few months ago, Chimeraland is a very good mmorpg. It's sprawling and scruffy but it's stuffed to bursting with interesting things to do and see. The gameplay loops are satisfying, the goals are achievable, the monetization seemed all but invisible to me. Then again, monetization is almost always all but invisible to me, given the way I play, so probably don't take my word for it.

Do take my word that it's fun, though. And also the word of several other readers and commenters who dropped in to say they'd tried it and enjoyed it. It's a particularly good fit for anyone missing the likes of Landmark or even Star Wars Galaxies, open world mmorpgs with free-build, non-instanced housing. It's not like there's a lot of competition in that area, after all.

How much time I'll get to play this time around I can't begin to guess. If it launched next week I doubt I'd find the time to do more than drop in for a quick look but if it arrives when the nights are drawing in and the weather's getting colder, I might be able to give it a solid run.

As yet, there's no release date. Somewhere around October would suit me. Whenever it is, you can bet you'll hear about it here. It's not like I kept it to myself last time...