PLAY the Awesome Drakensang Online, AVOID the Official Forum (UPDATED and RESOLVED)

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Hello, Gerry Alanguilan here.

Thanks to Jonas for a guest post at this awesome blog about this awesome game. I want to relate to you all how I discovered it.

Last December I got fed up waiting for Diablo 3 and I started looking around for any free Diablo type games I can download and play. It didn't even have to be free.

All it had to be was awesome and I was willing to pay for it, much like I did for Torchlight.

"Drakenang-Online" came up in one of my searches on Google and I decided to try it. It turns out, you didn't have to download anything. All you had to do was create an account, create a character, and you can play right there and then. It was a browser game but it was a more sophisticated browser game than I was used to playing. I thought it was incredible that such quality of graphics and ease of play can be achieved in a browser game.

Drakenang had all the familiar elements of what made Diablo 2 so enjoyable. I was immediately able to play without much problem. The learning curve was gently sloping and before I knew it, I had already spent half a day playing it.

Since Drakenang was (and still is) in open beta, the developers are still continuing to develop and refine the game, adding new quests, features, skills, maps, etc. There are still a few bugs here and there but there's not much in a way that would ruin your playing on a significant level.

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Although the game is free, there are features of the game that you can enjoy as a paid customer. You can gain better armor and better abilities much quicker if you pay for it. You can still get those things for free but it will take you a long time collecting the in-game currency through combat to get them. As in a very long time. If you don't have that kind of patience, you're compelled to make your playing easier and more convenient by paying for it. And believe me the game will make you want to pay for it.

Although I have forked out money myself upon reaching later levels, I will only pay as much money as I would have paid for a game like Diablo.

Currently, in spite of the bugs and other things I mentioned, Drakensang-Online is one of the best games of it's kind I've played.

Just a word of warning: AVOID THE OFFICIAL FORUM AT ALL COSTS!

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I joined the forum in an effort to connect with other players and be helpful in terms of helping developers find out the bugs in the game and what other things I can offer in terms of an open beta player.

It's just unfortunate that the forum seems to be run like a fascist state where the most innocent of infractions can get you banned.

I got banned for a few days for spamming/advertising. And what was I advertising? I posted a link to this blog...a blog that celebrates Drakensang-Online. If you feel that's ridiculous, well, it certainly is. Participating in the forum is enough to kill your enthusiasm for the game itself, so I strongly suggest you avoid it like the plague.

It's too bad that an awesome game like this would have such a nasty thorn as its official forum. It's just so unfortunately bad. You will know which forum it is when you go to the Drakensang site and click on "Community".

That's it. Play the game, enjoy it, but if you want to keep enjoying it don't ruin your fun by going to the forum.

You were warned.

March 16, 2012 UPDATE!

The forum community manager got in touch with me to get to the bottom of the situation. I explained in much more detail what had occurred. His response was extraordinary in that he apologized and that policies will actually be changed in the forum due to what happened.

I feel better about the situation and now I feel much better about playing the game, so much so I actually spent some money to buy some stuff in game! I'm still considering if I will actually come back to the forum as I'm perfectly happy posting my opinions on this blog. Let's just see!

Thanks to Tim for getting in touch and straightening things out and thanks to Drakensang-Online for being such an awesome game.