AdventureQuest

AdventureQuest is a free online single player RPG developed by Artix Entertainment in 2002. The system requirements for the game are a current web browser and version 7.0 or later of Macromedia Flash Player.

The game is free of cost, but a one time upgrade grants players the Guardian or X-Guardian status, allowing them to experience certain in-game benefits and features not available to other players.

Guardians are allowed to play ArchKnight and DragonFable, two other RPGs based loosely off AdventureQuest, as well as Zardwars, which is a test game created to test multiple databases. Guardians also have a separate server which is used for testing possible changes to the game and participating in special game events open only to Guardians. Guardians have the advantage of being able to play whenever they want on AdventureQuest servers, while there are a certain, variable, amount of slots for non-paying adventurers.

As well as random encounters and quest battling, there are also events called wars. These are server-wide events that call for a certain amount of monsters to be defeated before moving on to a boss battle. If a player defeats the boss he/she may be able to claim a rare war prize. In the past players did not actually have to slay the boss to get the rare prize. The matter was resolved by implementing a system where items are now purchased in a war chest, which can be accessed only after defeating the boss monster. Weapons are the most common war rewards. They often do more damage than weapons available normally or have other advantages, such as powerful specials.

Several new war methods are being held currently, including a manually updated percentage bar, and a quest-style war where there is no waiting bar for the boss. Both of these sell the rewards in a war chest, which can be accessed after defeating the final enemy. Some wars have had a limited time to be completed for the rewards to be made available. Now, the servers can handle 2 different wars at the same time. The amount of slots can peak at around 22000 users, and can have a low of 6,000 users. Currently, it seems that the manually updated percentage bar is preferred by the staff. There is also a type of war where players can fight for one side or another and whichever side fills their quota for enemies defeated fights a boss and collects the rewards from the chest, although all players can fight the boss.

In May 2006, two wars that are two-sided like the style mentioned above have taken place. They were the Necromancer vs. Paladin war and the Werewolf vs. Vampire war. The Necromancers won the Necromancer vs. Paladin war and the Werewolves won the Werewolf vs. Vampire war.

Event

A mysterious portal had appeared in the middle of Battleon. Previously explored by Guardians and X-Guardians, it was discovered that someone from the far future was trying to change Battleon's past! The first and second parts of the war have been completed now, with the first war reward being a weather control device (generally received badly by players due to it being "weak" compared to previous rewards). The second war rewards are more weapons, like the BFG, the Overcharged BFG, Number 9, along with the previous rewards and a more powerful version of the Weather Remote. Currently characters are allowed to go out and fight in strike teams while the AQ team gets ready for Part 3.

DragonFable

This is the newest game by Artix Entertainment, entitled DragonFable. DragonFable is something of an interactive serial web comic, the storyline of which will consistently evolve over time. It has been stated that DragonFable will interact with AdventureQuest. In fact, Guardians may already access DragonFable. However, it recently came out of Beta on June 9th, 2006, and the DragonAmulet was made available for purchase. The Dragon Amulets unlock special areas, quests, powerful items and allow access to an expanding number of exclusive areas in the game. These areas contain incredibly rare and powerful weapons. As the game progresses, the amulet will unveil more secret benefits including special story side quests, the ability to speak in the language of Dragons, and your ultimate destiny of becoming a Dragon Lord. The full game is due to open to free players by October 2006.

Recent updates on the game's progress are available on the Design Notes page. It will be intertwined with the AdventureQuest storyline so that players will be able to play both games to get rewards. Even though the focus will be on DragonFable, AdventureQuest will still be updated. Unlike AdventureQuest, though, DragonFable will be a 'walk around' game, where players can walk their characters through towns and quests. However, the game has no character interaction besides NPCs. Guardians and X-Guardian have a special "Guardian Class" armor at their disposal for making the payment towards AQ. New, free players from "AdventureQuest" who want to become Guardians on "Dragonfable" have the option (along with Guardians) to buy the special "DragonAmulet," allowing players to go to special places and get rare and powerful equipment.

DragonFable will take place two to three years before AdventureQuest. All characters from AdventureQuest will appear in Dragonfable as well, with characters such as "Galanoth" and "Artix." The game will tell the origins of things such as the missing "Guardian Towers," how "Battleon" was founded, and how the "DragonSlayers" came to be. New characters will also be added, and the "Doom Weapons" and "DragonLord's" weapons will make their mark as some of the most powerful weapons in the game. However, the DragonLord's weapons will need the DragonAmulet to activate them.

Currently, characters may be created in only three classes: Warriors, Mages and Rogues. Charcters may also switch to an incomplete version of the Guardian class, and stay that way until they log out or change charcters. Additional classes, including the Dragon Lord Class, are due to be released in the future. Minor additions such as weapons and enemies are constantly being introduced, as well as new locations.

Z-Tokens

Z-Tokens are a kind of rare currency in AdventureQuest that enables players to buy various "elite" weapons, armors, shields and pets. Z-Tokens randomly appear, and can be gained by fighting monsters, or can be bought. These strange coins appear like any other coin, but have a "z" shaped in the center. They are used to buy items in the Z-Token shop, which is located in front of the Inn. All types of weaponary are avaliable in the shop. The stonger items, such as Summon Energy Dragon, Little Death, or Grim Vestige have higher price tags than normal. The prices range from 100 to 6000 Z-Tokens.

Controversy and criticism

Guardian Only Login

There is a limit on the number of free players which can play simultaneously. In the early days of AdventureQuest, the limit was fixed at 4000, but now the limit is always at least 7500, and the number of extra slots fluctuates according to time of day and server load.

Once the limit is reached, only Guardians may log in, until sufficient Adventurers log out to free up slots, or the limit increases.

New accounts get fifteen free logins to help them enjoy the game. During that time, they can bypass the limit. However, Guardians can bypass it anytime.

AdventureQuest will eventually have advertising added to its game site to allow more free players to run the game simultaneously.

Lack of in-game interaction

AdventureQuest is essentially a single-player game, and provides few means of in-game interaction between players. Some commonly requested in-game interaction features include:

• Battles between players. High level players may find the monsters too easy and wish to challenge other players.
• Item trading between players was once offered, but was taken away because staff had to do it manually, and there were too many requests.

Monotony

AdventureQuest is sometimes accused of being repetitive and boring. Almost all of the gameplay activities involve killing monsters to gain experience, and there is little else to do. Training up and leveling takes a long time, and often requires repeating tedious tasks. However, many people enjoy it because they can multitask while playing.

Lack of features

AdventureQuest is often accused of lacking basic features present in other RPGs. Artix Entertainment rebuts by reminding users that AdventureQuest has weekly updates and is ever-changing, although several other online RPG's possess those qualities as well, with most updates consisting of only new, medium level weapons being added to the game. The reason no user interaction is possible, is because it is a purely single player RPG.

X-Guardian Boost

In the Guardian information page, it says that buying the Guardian status lets one's character receive all future Guardian updates and features. However, Guardians don't have to pay for the X-Guardian boost. In X-Guardianship, there are only 4 things received that are different from normal Guardianship:

• A separate Hall of Fame list showing only X-Guardian characters.
• X-Guardians get 10% more experience from every battle, whereas normal Guardians get a normal amount of experience.
• A minimum 3 health and mana potions at login, instead of 1 (Adventurer) or 2 (Guardian) - Any potions in a character's possession over these minimum levels will carry over.
• A potion limit of 35, instead of 25(Adventurer) or 30 (Guardian)

Character Classes

There are a constantly growing amount of classes in AdventureQuest. Classes were first introduced after the Dragon War Saga, when the player slayed the legendary Fire Dragon Akriloth and was awarded with the Dragonslayer class, however this was in name only as it had no effect until the real class came out. Currently, Adventurers can only go up to Level 5 in class abilities, while Guardians and X-Guardians can go to the full 10.

Fighter

A basic warrior who practices swordplay - and then uses it. Their class abilties focus on pure melee attacks.

Rogue

A person that uses a mix of both dexterity and strength to quickly assail an opponent. Their class abilties commonly used ranged attacks.

Mage

A "rookie" magician that is good with spells and staves. Their abilties lets them cast spells based on any element.

Knight

A strong fighter who fights to defend the king (though no one knows who the king is). To become a Knight, one must be at least a level 5 Fighter. Their abilties focus on both ranged and melee attacks, making them much more useful than Fighters.

Necromancer

A magician specializing in re-animating corpses and becoming an undead themselves (a lich). To become a Necromancer, one must be at least a level 5 Wizard. Their spells focus on summoning powerful Undead creatures to attack.

Ninja

A class that, like the "rogue" class, depends on speed, dexterity & multiple attacks to defeat an enemy. Surprisingly there are no class relations with other class levels. Their is no actual abilities that Ninjas focus on, as they have at least 1 melee, ranged, and magic attack avaliable. They do, however, focus on Darkness powered Razor Fan weapons.

Paladin

A blessed knight on a journey to slay undead. To become a Paladin, one must be at least a level 5 Knight and a level 5 Mage. Their abilties focus on Melee, Magic, and Light. Their abilities gain immense power when facing Undead foes such as Zombies.

Dragon Slayer

A person who devotes their life to dragon-slaying. Their abilities are are weak on their own, as is their Armor, but they become truly deadly when facing any monster with "Dragon" in their name. Their true power is unleashed when wielding the Guardian Only weapon "Dragonblade"

• There is a glitch with this class, Charcters that defeated Alkinoth during the dragon war were awarded with the Class of dragonslay. 2 years later, when the true class was released, charcters that took the class could skip the first quest (which was different from the rest) and take the normal kind to earn the first class level. This was caused by the charcters haveing the class but no level. This was shown by the misson screen stateing the player was a level 999 dragonslayer. This glitch ended when the charcter gained a level in ANY class. This glitch has likely been resolved as there likely no charcter that still have the Dragon Slayer class from the war that are in use and have trained in a class.

Dracomancer

A person who studies under High Khan Cyrus to learn and protect the ancient knowledge of dragons. They can transform into a dragon themselves. Their abilties focus on the power of dragons, such as turning their own hand into a fiery dragon talon.

Vampire Slayer

A person who slays vampires and werewolves. Their abilties are only useful when fight Vampires, the Undead, or Werewolfs. Their weapons gain power when wielded against a certain foe.

Wizard

An advanced mage, who is extremely good with spells and magic. To become a Wizard, one must be at least a level 5 mage. Their abilities are completely magical, and are far more deadly with high Intellect.

Sub-Race

While not a true class, it is counted as one for compleation purposes. One can choose to become either a Werewolf or a Vampire. They both have separate weapons to use, and their armors have special powers. Guardians can also be a Werepyre, a combination of the two, which harnesses the power of both Werewolves and Vampires, but at the cost of not having weapons, and being a reject from werewolves, vampires, and humans. However, though werepyres are "rejects," nothing changes, except they can enter neither the Werewolf Lair nor the Vampire Castle. They are also given a stronger armor than Werewolves or Vampires.

Myths

Over the history of Adventure Quest, some myths have appeared that have spawned dozens of rumors. These are all, however, just rumors and untrue.

• During the Great Fire War, there were rumors that the Ice Katana would cost over 1 million gold and many players became extremely rich trying to save up for it.

• In the final parts of the Great Fire War, a myth circulated that if one saved the Fire Orb, instead of using it to fight the final boss, the player would be able to keep it for use as a shield.

• After Demento's death, rumors abounded to the extent that attending his funeral would let the player keep his armor.

• It is rumored the staff-only shop is located in plain view behind the door with the number 42, though staff and the more intelligent players know that the door is just a reference to the book Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. It is not surprising, seeing as the staff are big fans of the book. (Note: Certain tales of this myth involve the 42 door being opened at exactly 3:00 and 10 seconds every day, and the weapons and equipment from the Golden set.)

• A small rumor began when the Carnax wars were re-released, that beating the fully powered Carnax would allow them to buy the Carnax Fighter and the Eye of Carnax. This rumor ended when the fully powered Carnax was defeated by a small group of people, and the rewards were still the same.

• There is a rumor when you get 120 or 125 hourglasses for Death, you may buy any Rare that has been in the game from Reapers Hideout.

• A rumor about the Archmage Warlic is actually the evil Shadowmaster has been flying around the forums since part 10 of the Epic Quest was released.

Clans

The player can now join three different clans, Aerodu (air), Nautica (water), and Geoto (earth). Once you have joined one, you cannot leave and join another clan until the event is over.

There are goods and bads in all clans:

• Aerodu: High Attack, but low defence

• Nautica: High Defence, but low attack

• Geoto: Moderate Defence and Attack

Characters

The game features character customization. To edit your character's face, you must visit Warlic's Magic Shop and use the mirror. You can customize hair styles, hair color, skin color, and eye color. As a guardian you are also allowed to customize the color of your armor, and choose if you want a cape. However, this must be done with Valencia, the rare item collector. You can also change your character's name in the Hourglass Quest.

Criticisms

• Free players not being able to play because of busy servers.

• Lack of F2P updates

External links

• Adventure Quest - Main site for Adventure Quest.

• Adventure Quest Forums - Main forums for AdventureQuest.

• DragonFable - Another Flash game by Artix Entertainment.

• Undead Assault - First mini-game made by Artix Entertainment.

• Dragonfable: Firespawn - Second mini-game made by Artix Entertainment.

• AdventureQuest Poker- One of the AQ card games, third mini game made by Artix Entertainment