I have thoroughly enjoyed this game over the last 24 hours. I have enjoyed gaining dp, doing missions, going through portals, and laying mines; but after a few hours I'm finding that the game comes to a dead end.

What was so great in the beginning was growth. Growing dp, ability to use items, and the number of items I can use. But after a bit there isn't any point to it all. What can I do with a ton of dp besides give it away? What benefit do I get from laying mines? There is no reward system other than gaining levels, and what's the point of that?

I say this because I want to keep playing but don't see much point. My suggestion is to reward people more for success like mining, better rewards for good portals and missions. And then provide bigger things to spend dp on.

The game is set up around mindless leveling: new domains for more dp, and maybe a good mission to generate a few extra dp. But if the system was set up to reward constructive and creative actions more than mindless leveling, the game would promote continual input, instead of dragging into weariness.

So in conclusion, the game should be upgraded from a social network with extra gadgets, to a gadget-internet-search-interactive game with real rewards.

but...you get more DP if you have better missions. and it's fun to smack people around with mines.

the community interaction is reward enough. for me, anyway. i dunno what to tell you. obviously i think it's fun enough as it is to have been here for seven months.

"Mindless leveling" will describe pretty much any online multiplayer game...and actually, now there are incentives for leveling--there's a new tool now at level 7 for vigilantes (watchdogs) and the upgrades you get with pings can only be used by level X association as well.

Also, you do get a benefit for making good missions--how much DP you make off a mission is based off of how high people rate it. You can make the same argument for abundant portals as well, since the higher it's rated the more likely people are to take it.

The ability to upgrade tools using pings rather than DP I think changes the game to an even more social focus - you have to interact more to do more. In any online game there's going to be a lot of pure slogging to get levels or accumulate whatever the local wealth is, but I think PMOG is doing a nice job (active tense, as I expect things will keep evolving) with varying things and making the levels at least somewhat meaningful (gotta have them to use certain tools!).

Also, the more people come up with creative uses for the tools and nifty things to do with the medium, the more interesting it is. PMOG, like most online games, is what you make of it, and there's a lot of room to make of it whatever you like.

Anywho, that's my three cents. I encourage you to poke around a little bit, think of ways to make missions that are very interactive, be creative with your portals and crates - how about a scavenger hunt! :)

The fun of PMOG definitely come from the Social aspect. Its fun to make threads, organizing events, setting up clubs, and just posting. And now we have built in chat, so you can weave yourself even deeper into PMOG. And by any means, do not think that this is all PMOG is going to be. We are in beta, and get updates every few weeks. And we get new tools a lot recently, too. When you see the big beta sing come off the logo, you will know this is all PMOG has to offer. Sorry if I sounded mean. :P

There is a - not so secret - faction of players that would like to see PMOG be more interactive with more rewards... And the Makers have made some amazing strides lately to make PMOG better.

But PMOG is more of a passive, background 'game' that delights with short, playful interruptions that remind you that you are part of a bigger community called PMOG.

stay tuned. it's fun

We have the badge system which seems like some sort of award for tool use, website visited. Even though we cannot do anything with the badge, but it's cool to have.

And yeah, the community here is also great too.

A good deal of the fun is to be had in the forum games, many of which involve using tools. But ultimately, remember what PMOG stands for. PASSIVELY multiplayer online game. It's not meant to be a super active game with a lot of goals, quests, tasks, etc.

dav2 come ambling in strumming Chin Chiminee