Vagabond's Quest

We've all played RPG's... Come on, admit it. Anyone who's ever picked up a Nintendo controller has most likely played some version of Zelda, or Final Fantasy. But there comes a time when those platform games aren't enough, and you start craving interaction, someone to show off your level 99 character with all the best equipment to.

That's where online games come into the picture. For those of us who don't have the money to pay for a monthly fee game such as Everquest, Ultima Online, Asheron's Call and the like, we turn to other, simpler games.

One of these that I've found in my many hours of useless net surfing was Vagabond's Quest. Simple, text-based, multiple-user online RPG. Pure fun.

There's not a whole lot of character development, not a whole lot of puzzles, not a whole lot of any of the things that make those commercial games so popular. What makes VQ so fun to me is that it's just a basic, normal game. It doesn't have any of the useless frills where you have to teach your character how to cook.

You just pick a class, a race and hop into the Dungeon of Despair to kill some monsters. When you get tired of the simple hack and slash in there, you move over to the VQ arena and test your character against others in a deathmatch. Nothing's lost, but a lot is gained; experience, gold, and an arena record. Unlimited character advancement, along with multiple dungeon levels, and several different levels of difficulty in the arena insure that you'll always have a challenge.

One of the better features of the arena is that in between all of the fights (displayed in text) it also counts as somewhat of a chatroom, allowing you to talk to the other people in there. A lot of the characters in the first few arena difficulties aren't exactly very helpful. It's alot more effective to just stick to the Dungeon until your character advances enough to hit the Master category. Even there you'll find a bunch of idiots, but that's to be expected. It's the internet. Once you hit Grand Master though, things change. Most people actually respect one another, and are quick to answer any questions a lesser informed player may have. It's the best environment to be in.

All in all, If you're looking for a simple game you can play in your spare time, those 15 minutes before school/work or whatever you do, check out Vagabond's Quest... You'll most likely like what you find.