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| Kwari First Look |
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| Written by Harry Speller |
| Thursday, 13 December 2007 12:56 |
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Kwari combines the extremely popular first person shooter genre with the seductive lure of making real dough by playing. In development for over two years, it has finally seen the light of day after a closed Beta. The Launch Party was to celebrate what will in effect be the final game build. Plus in the words of Sam “Protagonist” Bennett, one of the Kwari Team members, it was also an "end of the NDA" party. Finally, this intriguing concept will see the light of day, most likely launching before Christmas as a free download. For those that are unaware the concept is simple, a first person shooter with real cash. You deposit money into the game, converting it into the game currency called Kwari Dollars (K$). There is one K$ for every US Dollar that you deposit. K$ are then used to purchase ammo and to also place stakes in the games played. Kwari makes it money from the ammunition sales; everything else goes into the game as jackpots and other goodies that players can earn. Once you've deposited, purchased ammo and set up your stake you can join a game. At its simplest the games is all about fragging someone. Every time you hit someone, they lose money from their stake and you gain that amount. For the games we played, the standard stake was used which was 2 cents, so every time you hit someone you gain 2 cents. Other things that costs K$ were picking up weapons and items, which then contributed to the various jackpots that were available on the map. The other intriguing aspects of Kwari are the other options to gain a positive balance on your stake. It is not just about shooting and killing opponents but there are other challenges incorporated into the matches. These included shooting crates, which may drop keys (which unlock cash jackpots) and also small cash contributions. There are also little challenges, such as the Iron Man challenge where you try and stay alive for more then two and half minutes. Then there is the Pill challenge, where a pill spawns on the map, which you pick up and try to hold till the end of the game and/or for as long as possible. The Pill jackpot is then split between the one who held it the longest and the one who held it till the end of the match. In effect it is a sort of capture the flag challenge that results in a substantial jackpot if you hold it for long enough or make it to the end of the match. Off course once you grab the Pill everyone goes after you as your location is made known to all other players. My initial impression of Kwari was that it is very much an old school death match shooter. Something along the lines of Unreal Tournament or Quake 3, complete with futuristic weaponry and jump pads. There is also no blood or gore of any kind, instead when you are hit there is a spray of coins instead. So I logged in, bypassing the dreaded security tumblers of doom where you enter portions of your password. I then set up my keyboard and mouse before buying some ammo. K$5 bought 5000 rounds. The next step was to then transfer some cash to my stake, which as per instructed was K$75. Then I joined a match. Within a few minutes was happily slugging it out and working out the intricacies of the game. When the pill spawned it became a massive slugfest as everyone chased the player with the pill. There were a variety of maps ranging from a crashed spaceship littering a futuristic metropolis to a mining complex, which added to the futuristic ambience. The maps themselves seemed to be well balanced and easy to learn. Weapons ranged from the customary pistol that you start off to more futuristic items like the Ion Gun that fired a beam of energy that was particular good at strafing to things like the Rocket Launcher. It was, I have to say, a fun two hours of gaming. Certain subtle tactics started to come into play, ranging from those who would avoid the fight and hunt for the keys that would unlock the jackpots. Being someone who hasn't played first person shooters for a while, I did see my cash stake slowly go down. Having said that in one game I did finally hold onto the Pill long enough to win about K$24, this helped to replenish my balance. So what are the negatives, well I can see that the real cash element will prove controversial. Certainly there have already been comments about it being gambling and potentially addictive to a destructive level - Although Kwari are quick to deny this. Protagonist who was the community manager was keen to say that they are being open about game elements to remove the element of chance. They are also keen to stress it is about the skills of individuals that is more important in Kwari. However, I can't help but look at some of the criticism that was levelled at Entropia Universe in terms of its gambling like qualities and the fact some people are hopelessly addicted to it. It is also pure deathmatch only, although Protagonist did say they were looking at how to incorporate some form of teamplay into Kwari. My other complaint, although a personal opinion was that it was very fast and sometimes you did feel you were hitting someone hundreds of times but they weren't dying. It’s probably just the fact my skills in first-person was a bit rusty and there were some good pro players at the event, but there were some moments of frustrations. Overall though, I do think it has a lot potential, if anything the cash aspects will prove an irresitable lure for those hoping to go pro in the gaming scene. Let’s face it, It is not going to be storyline here that’s going to entice people, rather the Player versus Player gaming and the chance to win some money. It taps into the first person shooter genre which is still very popular and so will be of interest to those who don't have the time or inclination of playing an MMO or Virtual Worlds. Certainly some of the comments from the players at the Launch Party were that they did not have time to play an MMO, yet the casual ability to join Kwari would be very appealing to them. Kwari mentioned that there is a robust skill matching system, which ensures people don't end being outgunned by more skilful players. Although there will be matches that will be a free-for-all many games will be matched on a skill basis. There will also be different stake levels, initially starting from around K$0.01 and going all the way up to the professional style games of K$1. The hope is that it will become a game that will attract professional and once they achieve a critical mass of players will start running tournaments for budding champions. For a personal viewpoint, I would probably play it. It’s a game that fills an interesting niche in the real cash economy circuit. On one side you have things like Second Life, which is all about content creation. You have MMO hybrids like Entropia Universe, which generally speaking is all about Player versus Environment. Finally Kwari gives you a Player versus Player game with the chance to play for cash, its anti-social gaming at its most exciting! Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites           |
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