21.11.05 The Endless Forest, alienating mmorpg.
The latest Tale of tales's group project is incredibly brave, compared the typical market-driven multiplayer games, stucked on hackneyed schemes or proposed as technological substitute for the lack of social dimension in everyday life. The Endless Forest is a small MMORPG placed in an enchanted light's wood. The players play the role of young deers and they are free to hang around old cemetery ruins, to run after each other in the glades, whiff each other and emit calls. There's no verbal communication implemented for the players. If the traditional virtual worlds can be considered as chat evolutions, The Endless Forest seem to assume a clear counter-trend, bordering on the zero degree of interaction. The game evolution will be determined by the community's hint and the cultural foundations' funds. The virtual forest will be an environment in progress, constantly transformed by the author's interventions. While we wait the project to grow to a more shaped form, we can immerge in an idillic scenario where the anxiety of communicating can be put aside, in order to enjoy a magic and alienating experience.
Paolo Pedercini