Yesterday, I received an invite to SocioTown’s beta test. SocioTown is a web based 3D Massively Multiplayer Online Social Game (MMOSG) developed by Outside The Box Software and since it’s web-based, it means that you play SocioTown in your browser. There is no client to download and install. The game uses Adobe Shockwave Player which are already available in most browsers and, besides, you can always download and install the player, if your browser doesn’t have it, which is very small.

After going through the character creation process which was very simple, I logged in and found my character in jail. I find it weird for a game like this to have newbies start in jail. While in jail, I had a series of conversation with some NPCs that eventually led to having my character named, my password set and my e-mail confirmed. After that my character was set free. It was just a case of mistaken identity.

Outside, I received an e-mail from my character’s sponsor. A sponsor is like an NPC assigned to assist you inside SocioTown. In the e-mail, he said that I needed to see him and he also gave instructions on how to find him. Finding the location was not that hard but what is really annoying is the way you control or move your character. It’s point-and-click but the screen does not always shows you the correct viewing angle. I still have to discover if there is another way of moving around SocioTown but if there are none then the unpredictable camera movement will definitely need a lot of getting use to.

At my sponsor’s place, he gave my character further instructions and information on how to play SocioTown. Basically, it’s about meeting new people, building a network of friends, and improving your relationship with each other.

Other aspects of the game which I think are also important are completing missions and doing jobs. My first mission was given to me by my character’s sponsor which involves sending a message to another NPC and lying to another NPC. LOL! When I completed the mission, something surprising happened, my character LEVELED UP! It went from Level 1 to Level 2. I really did not expect that because I did not see any indication that my character was gaining experience.

Okay, gaining a level kinda got me excited so I tried to get a new mission but, unfortunately, my character can only do one mission a day. That sucked because now, I have nothing to do. I tried getting a job in one of the shops but my level was too low to even get an interview with the shop owner. I also tried to increase my speed by running around but that didn’t get me anywhere at all. LOL!

Finally, I decided to end my first session of SocioTown. I wasn’t able to do any socializing in the few minutes I stayed in SocioTown because of the fact that I was not able to meet any human players at all although I did meet a few NPCs (Non Player Characters) but I don’t think they count. Besides, I’d rather socialize with human players than non-human players. LOL!

For me, SocioTown is different, it’s not Second Life and it’s not your everyday MMORPG but I am quite sure that it’s a game, different but it’s still a game. I’m sure that there are more things to discover in SocioTown and I’ll try to discover them as I continue with my exploration of this brand new world. If you want to try it out yourself then sign-up for testing and also visit SocioTown’s website to learn more about it.

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