Choose My Adventure: The joy of performing menial tasks in Project Gorgon

The problem I have with sandbox MMORPGs is the thing that most people herald as their greatest strength: their unguided nature. The ability to go where you want, do what you’re interested in doing, and explore without too many restrictions, bar the risks associated with doing so. And while I’ve cut my teeth on old stalwarts of our genre, I never really got stuck in to that kind of game very often, and by the time the themepark MMORPG came along, I was pretty much a “lost cause” to the allure.

Project Gorgon continues to be a different beast, however. Or maybe time has finally enured me to this sort of MMO experience. The point being that, even though I did follow the general guidance of the polling – that blurb at the bottom about my indecisiveness isn’t just done for laughs – I found that this time through, I was really starting to appreciate that sense of discovery.

Of course I didn’t really start out that way, as I was pretty sure that I couldn’t really push my luck outside of Serbule; the approach to that crypt and the mollywhopping I received as a result seemed to affirm that line of risk-averse thinking. The second time I went to that crypt, I did so with a bit more focus and goal orientation, remembering all of the little things this game kind of forces me to do in order to be successful, like remembering to eat food or kiting enemies bit by bit until their numbers thinned enough for me to progress. Old habits do die hard.

It ultimately led me to entering the crypt as I had supposed I needed to do, which ended up being a kind of mistake that sort of punched me for attempting. I was once again lucky enough to be in this delve at a point in time when several others were running around, so I was able to get a bit farther than I had expected, but nowhere near deep enough to find the bone meal I was primarily seeking.

As it turns out, that bone meal could be found outside of the crypt as a random drop from some interactable skeletons in the graveyard. Go figure.

Bone meal in hand, I completed the favors I was attempting to do, which were getting enough favor from one NPC to buy seeds to get another NPC, then finally getting my skinning knife reward as a result. Once again I was able to learn more skills by simply doing what I was already doing, and once I mangled a few animals, I decided to determine my next course of action. This was the point when I kind of froze and didn’t really know what that was.

Normally this would be the point when I get into a sort of analysis paralysis, but I managed to use the poll decision – stay in Serbule – as my North star, electing to wander the map to clear the fog of war and maybe get a bit more used to combat. The plan worked: I started to get a better handle on my sword rotation, I managed to get a couple of good item drops, and I also started to have waking daydreams from picking mushrooms. Somehow.

Over time, I even got confident enough to get outside of Serbule, though only tentatively when I entered Eltibule, as I was yet again beset by enemies that felt like they were near my skill levels and so I presumed I was going to push my luck if I went too far. Seeing a fae fire spider out in the field pretty much affirmed my choice here.

Instead I ended up in Serbule Hills for a little while, mostly because I had looked up where to learn the shield skill tree and had to visit someone to do it. This place ended up feeling just a bit more my speed in terms of character progress, and so I wandered around looking for where this NPC was hiding. It was here where I ran afoul of the problem with a game that doesn’t even give you any clues; one wiki said this NPC was in once place, while another said he was somewhere else, and I was following the wrong instructions initially as a result.

I suppose the urge to learn shield skills spawns from the desire to try something new. Much of Project Gorgon kind of encouraged me to try, to explore, to wander and discover, so I had hope that this new skill line would shake things up from the stalwart sword/psychology build I’d been using to this point. It kind of worked, but I’m not sure it’s all that good yet. Maybe it’ll be stronger if I keep at it.

And keeping at it really does seem to be the primary carrot to chase here. Again, a lot of my MMORPG time has been in the themepark model, so forging my own way is not terribly comfortable, but when it comes to Gorgon, the penalties for failure still seem to sting less. It actually continues to feel like a sandbox by people who know what makes sandboxes tick as opposed to studios who have lost the plot or misremember the good old days.

And I do think I want to keep discovering because there feels like there are a lot of other surfaces to scratch away. I’m curious what it’s like to be a cow or a spider. I saw a drop that suggested that there’s a lycanthropy skill. I’d like to kill bosses and get to whatever qualifies for endgame in this title, assuming there even is something like that. Maybe I’d like to craft… OK maybe not that one, actually; Gorgon still hasn’t solved MMORPG crafting.

Yet at the same time I still can’t shake the feeling that this isn’t quite the sandbox that makes me feel really at home. It’s hearkening to a sense of nostalgia I don’t own, filled with visuals that I’ve moved past, and with a gameplay loop that still ends up being way too hands-off for me to really dive in to. I’m not asking for a glowing breadcrumb trail here, but something like direction would be pretty cool. Even a cardinal direction some-freaking-times.

But these are all problems I have. Hurdles that I can’t quite clear myself and can’t really expect Project Gorgon to clear for me. And I can absolutely appreciate what this game does, why it has the fanbase it does, and why it’s so incredibly important for the game to keep its lights on. Color me still nervy and gunshy but absolutely curious in spite of that. And that’s more than most sandbox MMORPGs have managed previously.

So ends another month – nay, another year! – of Choose My Adventure. We’ll be taking a moment to look back at the journeys that were, but before that point, we’ve got to sort out where to go to start 2024 off. And I yet again have a very oddly specific need to feed with this month’s choices.

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Polling will close up once again at 1:00 p.m. EST on Friday, December 22nd, after which we’ll start off January playing on a smaller screen. I hope you’ll allow me this moment of random fancy; I know mobile games are a bad word around here, but I’m hoping we can find some gems in the dirt.

Welcome to Choose My Adventure, the column in which you join Chris each week as he journeys through mystical lands on fantastic adventures – and you get to decide his fate. Which is good because he can often be a pretty indecisive person unless he’s ordering a burger.