Before I Try this Game

[MelloYell]

i'm not officially playing this game yet, but i am curious about it. at least one of my friends at my school are playing, and i just want to know what you all think. i've heard bad and good. can you all share some of your experiences so i can make a decision?

[nateflory]

My honest advice for a new player:
This is a slow-paced game in general. If you imagine a forum-based RPG storytelling game, it's similar (not exactly) in terms of pacing at times, where a full day can happen between "discussion replies". So be aware of that, if you find yourself wanting to login every hour to check. Also, "project tick" updates are every few hours. This was the biggest thing I had to get used to, where clicking "do this" for a project did nothing for a couple of real-life hours.

Likewise, as a newspawn character, you start naked and empty-handed, but.... just as in real-life, grabbing things from the ground like you would in most RPG games, is frowned upon. Start by saying hello, and the folks in town should offer you some basic tools, or show you where to go to make them yourself.
Don't worry about being hungry if you don't get food right away. It takes, if I recall, twenty real-life days to starve. So plenty of time to get used to the interface and figure out the basics.

Otherwise, I'd recommend forming a general idea of a character you'd want to play, and hop into the game! Keep your chatting in-character, and the actual mechanics of playing can be picked up as you go.

You'll only be allowed one or two starting characters to begin with, and the location they spawn in is random, so you may get either a really REALLY active town with lots of confusing discussion going on you popped into the middle of, or a slightly less active town. There are pros and cons to each.
You'll be able to make up to 15 characters as time passes. I would honestly concentrate on 5 initially, to get used to the game, and not spread yourself too thin.

In many of our cases, as you will probably read in the forums, once you get into it, Cantr is an awesome game/community that lets your imagination go wild. Enjoy!!

[Doug R.]

On a good day, Cantr is 10X more engaging and entertaining than the best book I've read or movie I've ever seen. On a bad day, it's boring as hell. If you're not a patient person, you might have problems with Cantr. Your town might be quiet for days, and then suddenly explode with activity. Veteran players learn to tough out the down time and embrace the activity when it happens.

Cantr is very addicting. Once you've experienced it in all it's glory, it's becomes irresistible. Bad days are hell, because us addicted folks sit in front of the computer trying to will something to happen. It's like taking a person's smokes away.

Also, you'll find that your first instinct to combat the bad days is to make more characters. Everyone does this, but I'd advise self-control: Soon you'll have more characters than you can handle on a active day (and really, if there's nothing going on in your town, odds are, there's nothing going on anywhere, so making a new character doesn't help).

Also, don't give yourself a negative experience right off by stealing off the ground, entering buildings, or insulting the other characters around you. Be polite and doors will open for your character very rapidly.

Just remember, people play this from all over the world, so it take a long time to accomplish anything, generally. Conversations can take days with a less active character.

That's about as honest an assessment as I can give. I couldn't give Cantr up, even if I wanted to.

[gejyspa]

Seems like a strange thing to ask.. It's akin to walking int o a Scrabble club and saying, "so, what do you think of Scrabble?". Umm.. we wouldn't be here if we didn't like Cantr. So how can you expect to get a report that's not a little biased?

[SekoETC]

You might get taken less seriously if you type everything in lowercase. Some players don't care but at least I do.

Other stuff has pretty much been said by nateflory and Doug. I don't think I have anything new to add at the moment.

And sure people can talk about negative experiences too, but usually people had it coming if they get a bad start. If someone punches everybody after spawning, or even one person, or steals stuff and leaves without saying a word, they're either going to get chased down and killed or asked to turn back and locked up, possibly forgotten in a jail until they die, or in the "best" case scenario simply ignored so they get to travel alone to the next location for an average of 3 days, probably without food. If you want attention from others then you need to make your character seem interesting enough to be worth interacting with. And if you don't want attention from others then you'd probably be better off playing a single-player game since Cantr is a society simulator. There are explorers and lonely travelers but they contribute little to the society, other than in the form of maps, and most of the world has already been mapped.

[Cdls]

One more thing to add:

There are NO NPC's.

The characters around you are all played by real people.

Seems like a strange thing to ask.. It's akin to walking int o a Scrabble club and saying, "so, what do you think of Scrabble?". Umm.. we wouldn't be here if we didn't like Cantr. So how can you expect to get a report that's not a little biased?

It is not a strange thing to ask at all. He asked for our experiences, and I am sure we have all had good and bad experiences while playing. Considering he is trying to get an opinion of the game, your answer certainly doesn't help to give a good one.

[MelloYell]

yes, i am assuming there is good as well as bad, so i was hoping to see which there is more of.

the responses here have been helpful, but they will probably make more sense if i do actually start playing.
i'm still undecided though and would like to see what others say.

[masterekat]

The trade off to the game being so slow (which isn't even necessarily a bad thing if you can only log on once or twice a day for a few minutes) is that you can play almost any type of character imaginable. If you have ever found yourself wishing in real life that you could "try on" different personalities for awhile, Cantr is a game where you can do just that. And there will be other players controlling characters that will have to react to the choices you've made. There is only one rule, the cardinal rule, which I'm sure you've read about on the main page. Beside that, you can pretty much do whatever you want in the game. Everything you do will have a consequence (which may or may not always be the same each time you do something), but you can still make all your own choices. I can't really think of another game that gives the player as much freedom as Cantr.

And yes there are both positive and negative experiences in the game, and I've had my share of both. But oftentimes I've found that the negative experiences are just as rewarding as the positive, as they let you release your creativity by allowing you think of interesting ways to deal with what happens to your characters.

You're right that some of this may not make sense until you actually get into the game and start doing it. So my advice to you is to jump in and try it. You can only have two characters to begin with, and it takes very little time to get started. So best case senario, you end up loving the game and find a new cost-free hobby (because Cantr is much more than just a game). Worst case, you hate the game, but you only wasted about 30 mins - 1 hr of total playing time. I'd give it at least a week of logging in once or twice a day which should only take about 5 mins at a time with two characters before I wrote it off completely. Cantr is definitely a game that takes a little while to get into and truly enjoy. I can tell you from experience, though, that the longer you play, the more you come to love it.

[nateflory]

You're right that some of this may not make sense until you actually get into the game and start doing it. So my advice to you is to jump in and try it. ... (snip) ... in once or twice a day which should only take about 5 mins at a time with two characters before I wrote it off completely. Cantr is definitely a game that takes a little while to get into and truly enjoy. I can tell you from experience, though, that the longer you play, the more you come to love it.

Agreed. I'd recommend making that first character, having him/her pop into town, and see what happend, while you read up on further replies here.

Worst case, you don't like it here and the game has another sleepy newspawn.
Best case, ... *shifty glazed-over eyes* joooiinnn uuussss......

[Snickie]

I love Cantr II. Enough said.

Okay, fine, I'll give input.

It's been a very good gaming experience for me so far (part of that is probably due to my chars all being good and not annoying enough to make other peoples' chars really irritated). I have been playing for about two months, give or take a week, and I love every moment of it, even during when one of my chars was almost killed by another simply for existing, sappy and teary love scenes, and annoying newspawns.

Like they said up there, you can be pretty much whoever you want to be in Cantr: blonde, a thief, an explorer, quirky, blind, of any sexual orientation, mute, have a funny accent, a religious person, one with the intelligence of a college professor, stupid, arrogant, and so much more! Of course, though, the major challenge is to play whatever role you choose consistently. I myself find it difficult at times (although I don't recall ever claiming to be an expert rp'er). Actually, at the moment, I'm experimenting with a roleplaying plot thing, but I can't tell you what it is until four days after it's over.

One thing you also need to remember is not to get too emotionally attached to your character, to the point where whatever your char feels is what you feel, or taking personal offense if somebody insults your char in-game or out-of-character. I mean, some emotional attachment is okay because it can help you roleplay your char's feelings more accurately, but you need to set limits for yourself.

Other than that… We're all pretty nice folks, provided you don't make us or our chars too angry (especially the Rau, though I don't know her in-character). Join us and see how you like it, and if you don't, that's okay too.

[Doug R.]

Oh, might not want to start this weekend. It's a major US holiday and lots of people travel, so it may be slower than usual (or, maybe faster, but definitely not a normal weekend).

[Snickie]

Most people here are off work this coming Monday, and I know school is out, so it should mean more people have more time to play Cantr. Unfortunately it doesn't always work out that way, though. But my chars will definitely be around (well, except for my Treefeather Island chars, but that's a completely different story).

I love holidays.

[mojomuppet]

Hey I will still be playing, and I sleep a few hours at a time...I think its easier to start when everyone doesnt come at you at once...

[Doug R.]

Meh, last labor day I came home and found one of my characters dead. NEVER travel when you're going to be asleep when you get there.

[Snickie]

Meh, last labor day I came home and found one of my characters dead. NEVER travel when you're going to be asleep when you get there.

Or, if you do travel, reduce your speed dramatically so they don't get there until after you get back.