The Online Gamer Diary tells the tale of the online gamer and the online games he encounters on his travels. RPGDot wishes you lots of fun with this diary. Feel free to comment, ask questions or suggest new topics on this diary via RPGFool or mail us.

This time we feature:

A newbie at Redmoon
Redmoon is an online game from Korean developer JCEntertainment, which is currently in the beta test phase in the USA. This beta test is open for everyone who wants to participate. Redmoon is a hack&slash type of game with anime style characters and takes place in a world spanning past, present and future. It has both fantasy and science fiction style environments where you can use your magic, weapons and martial art skills. There is a background story behind all of this, in which one of the characters is to save the world, but it's a bit thin and it's also strange as you can select to be this character from the start, which means that there are a lot of world saviours running around. If you want to learn more about it then the Redmooon website at www.redmoon-online.com is a good place to start. I will now go on with how things started.

The Beginning
To start the beta test I needed to download an installation program from the Redmoon website. There is only one file but it's a big one with a size of almost 190MB. It is only valid and free for the duration of the beta test, so if you hurry you might still be able to try Redmoon out. Luckily I'm on cable so the download did not take too long and some 20 minutes later I was able to install the game and get things started.

The first thing to do is to create a new character. You can make a selection out of 9 predefined characters. Each of the characters have their own pros and cons. Some can use weapons and some are better suited for magic and martial arts. The characters actually have a background story and a relation to each other but it's not that visible in the game. They can better be looked at as base classes to start with.

After selecting the one I wanted (I selected Azlar) and giving him the name 'Myrthos' and some hair an clothing colours (red) I was ready to rock.

Beginners Arena
Before the actual action starts I was lead to the beginners arena where I had the chance to learn the interface and tried to kick some ass… The interface is not so difficult, I just click where I want to go and when an opponent is in range the arrow changes into a spear. As I did not have any weapons this means it happens when the monsters are very close to me. However in the beginners arena one can not die so I took my time to learn it all. When I thought I knew enough, it was time to move onward.

The Streets
There I was in a modern aged city where everybody was either walking, running or fighting. So I thought why don't I join the club. Soon I was able to make my own fight and my first kill. Hah! That was easy and fun. On to the next gangster who looked exactly the same in his strange black clothing. Yeah gimme more… Wait, what's that… a half dressed hooligan. Down with you. Die! Die!… Oops, what was that?

Why am I lying on the ground and is my blood leaving my body? He this guy only took one swing at me and now I'm dead? After clicking I woke up in the hospital with half of my experience points removed. That's the penalty for getting yourself killed, I guess. Nah, this can't be that difficult I must have made a mistake, let's find another one. I stay away from the hooligans this time however. Ahhh there is another one sneaking on me, a robber…. Wow, three seconds later I was back in the hospital. That was quick!

Some strategy
We can't have none of this dying every time. It's time for some strategy now. So I started trying some stuff out and looked at how the other players did it. Soon I found out that I wasn't using my magical skills properly. In fact I was hardly using them. I have two of them, the first being a 'Psychic Shock' lowering the HP of the creatures and the second was a special skill, which lowered the HP of my opponent a lot! However the last one was only usable after I was fighting a while. Guess I need to build up some adrenaline for that one first J.

So I experienced with them a bit but still got killed because my HP dropped too fast. Well I'll save you the details but it boils down to the fact that I needed food and drinks in my quick slots. These are slots that can be used with a CTRL-key combination. Food for the HP and drinks for my MP (needed for magic). So after I figured all of that ou,t life started smiling at me again and I was finally getting somewhere. Ofcourse I could have reached this point sooner by reading the documentation, but in this way it's more fun.

When I reached level 4 I was going for the hooligans again. From a distance I weakened him first with my psychic shock, walked back and threw another one at him. This went on a bit until I felt comfortable to get close enough for the final kill. Hey! What's that? There comes this idiot from out of nowhere and kills my hooligan with one blow and then he is gone again. Bloody hell! Do you know how much effort this costs me? Unfortunately this happens frequently in online games, people stealing your kill and the HP of course. There is nothing to do about it, but stop complaining, *Sigh*.

Things to do
There is enough to see in Redmoon, even though I have not yet travelled that far. The graphics look very nice and there are plenty of things to do. Like in any RPG you can trade the stuff you find and there is money lying around everywhere. There are shops, banks and NPCs on the street willing to trade with me. Besides that there are also several players who are willing to trade with you. Unfortunately I'm not that high a level character yet to be able to use any of this stuff, such as protective armor, so this is kind of pointless for the moment.

In Redmoon you can create a group or become part of a group and together roam the areas of Redmoon. The earned experience points are then nicely divided over the group members. Although I had offerings to join a group, this is not what I want to do at the moment, I'm more of a loner.

I can also talk to others, chat and mail to them. I don't have the faintest idea yet who in Redmoon I would be sending a mail, but if I ever do it's nice to know I can. There is also an arena in which you can battle other players without consequences, but I guess my low level character is a too easy target for them so I never tried that out.

And when I ever level up to a 200+ character then I can create my own army. Hehe, with the rate I'm going I'll be an old man before I reach that. Yeah I like online gaming but I simply can't find the time to put into this in order to be able to level up that fast.

I'm having a great time in Redmoon at the moment. I don't know if it can keep my attention for a long period of time, but I'll let you know how it worked out in a later edition of this diary. So if you ever meet someone in Redmoon named Myrthos and he is wearing a red coat be nice to me, as I'm only a low level kind of guy.

Have fun!