InnoGames Gets Into Facebook with WestWars
Since 2007, Hamburg, Germany-based InnoGames has been a developer and distributor of browser-based games. Now the European company is getting into Facebook with a role-playing title, WestWars. Though we have known of this game’s existence for a while now, it only recently became open to the public, and has already moved north of 235,000 monthly active users.
In essence, WestWars is a typical text-based, mafia-style RPG, into which InnoGames has incorporated a number of interesting elements like character customization and gating mechanics. That said, there doesn’t appear to be much that holds everything together, and the app sort of feels like a collection of similarly themed features with no real unifying factor.
As with most role-playing titles, players start out as a nobody and have to work their way up to becoming the top gunslinger in the west. The means of doing so should be familiar to most Facebook veterans as users perform various menial tasks to earn experience, at the cost of energy. When that runs out, they utilize stamina (here, it is called “Duelenergy”) to battle other players.
Most of the standards features are present in WestWars. Jobs (quests) grant experience and cash, with many requiring random items to accomplish, and must to repeated numerous times to acquire 100% completion. In WestWars, there no real story element to this repetition (e.g. Mercenaries of War), but users do earn extra stat points.
This is where the first interesting mechanic comes into play. There are five stats to choose from and add points to (also earnable through leveling up): Energy, Duelenergy, Strength, Dexterity, and Intelligence. Typically speaking, most games utilize the latter three to enhance a player’s character’s ability when battling other users. However, here, they also play a role as a requirement in doing certain jobs.
Many quests will also grant equipment rewards that can be placed on your character in the usual places — boots, pants, head, etc. — and will provide a passive boost to stats. This interesting on two fronts. The first is that most games use just “attack” and “defense” as it applies to battles. Here, players get a trio of choices, with strength increasing base damage, dexterity increasing dodge percentage, and intelligence increasing critical strike chance (there is also an armor stat granted only by equipment that reduces damage). It’s not a lot, but it does allow for a very slight alteration in play style.
Beyond this, equipment can also provide boosts to energy and duelenergy, giving players a means to increase the number of jobs or duels the do each day without having to let their other stats suffer as much. What makes this interesting is that it gives WestWars a very basic pair of tiered equipment that is normally only seen in massively multiplayer titles. High energy gear would be dubbed “PvE” (player vs. environment), meaning it is good for jobs, but bad for battles, while high, say, strength gear would be PvP (player vs. player) fights, but would disallow for many jobs getting done.
It’s a bit clunky, and a good number of items have a balance between both PvE and PvP stats, but the basics of the system are still present.
As for dueling, the game allows players to challenge both non-player and player characters. Logically, the higher level the character, the more the experience and monetary reward. Of course, this means it requires more duelenergy as well. As it stands, however, there isn’t a health system (the winner appears to be whoever inflicts more damage), nor any real penalty for losing, so all it really is, is a glorified Jobs section.
As for other social elements, there is also the “Gang” mechanic. Like Mafia Wars, your gang’s size is basically a boost to your battling capabilities. However, as in games such as Castle Age, you can also appoint members to leadership positions in your gang for passive bonuses to things like experience gain or energy. Additionally, you can duel a set number of your gang members for one duelenergy and some experience once a day.
Curiously, this core social mechanic, as well as many others, are gated by level. Normally, it is only new missions/quests that are unavailable to low levels. Here, however, it’s jobs, items, the gang, dueling, and even the virtual currency store. There is also a “Character Class” option at level 15 that we haven’t reached yet, but likely, this will fall along the lines of “classes” in other text-based RPGs that either earn more money, regenerate energy faster, or regenerate stamina (duelenergy) faster.
Despite all the interesting parts to WestWars, that’s all they really feel like: parts. The game is in Beta, so hopefully it will all come together in time, but currently, there is just no unifying factor. There isn’t really a visible goal or any gratification to doing anything. In Castle Age, there was an actual story and group boss battles. In Mercenaries of War, it was gratifying to watch your squad duke it out with enemy squads. Here, there is zero story of any sort, and the battles are static images of a noonday showdown with numbers. Again though, the game is in beta, so here’s hoping it gets better.
Overall, WestWars is a game we’ve all seen before that brings a few different concepts to the table, including some basic elements from the massively multiplayer bracket. In the end though, it doesn’t matter how many features exist if they don’t feel like they actually come together to a cohesive point. In its current state, WestWars has neither a story to drive PvE oriented players, nor a visual gratification to battles for PvP oriented ones. In time, however, that is likely to change as InnoGames continues to iterate on this western gunslinger.
