Wurm Online is a 3D MMO

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game

Massively multiplayer online role-playing game is a genre of role-playing video games in which a very large number of players interact with one another within a virtual game world....

 produced by Code Club AB in Sweden that allows players to choose between a PvP game and a non-PvP game based on different servers. Development started in 2003 by friends Markus Persson

Markus Persson

Markus Alexej Persson is a Swedish indie game developer and founder of Mojang AB. He is best known for creating the sandbox building game Minecraft.- Biography :...

 , and Rolf Jannson.

Gameplay

Everything in the game is created by players. When a new server is launched it is an empty land. All characters of the same kingdom and gender are represented with the same 3D model. All items are made from materials from the world - trees, rocks mined from tunnels, iron, steel and so forth. Wurm allows players to terraform the land, raising tiles, flattening them and lowering them using shovels.

Development

Wurm Online is developed in OpenGL

OpenGL

OpenGL is a standard specification defining a cross-language, cross-platform API for writing applications that produce 2D and 3D computer graphics. The interface consists of over 250 different function calls which can be used to draw complex three-dimensional scenes from simple primitives. OpenGL...

. Wurm Online first started in the Beta stage in 2003. The game went gold in 2006. In 2008, the main developer began publishing a blog

Blog

A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

. Originally it was founded by Rolf Jansson and Markus Persson

Markus Persson

Markus Alexej Persson is a Swedish indie game developer and founder of Mojang AB. He is best known for creating the sandbox building game Minecraft.- Biography :...

, but Markus left Wurm Online in 2007. When asked if Wurm would shut down due to his resigning, Markus said Wurm's not going anywhere.

Reception

TenTonHammer examined it in a "First Impressions" review. The distant landscapes were highlighted for their photographic quality, and the main appeal was seen in the interactivity of the world. However, overall it failed to keep the reviewer's attention, feeling that MUD

MUD

A MUD , pronounced , is a multiplayer real-time virtual world, with the term usually referring to text-based instances of these. MUDs combine elements of role-playing games, hack and slash, player versus player, interactive fiction, and online chat...

-style text-based combat has been eclipsed by modern MMORPGs.

MMORPG praised the harvesting, crafting and housing mechanics, which required patience but was found to be rewarding. The community-driven gameplay was described as unique.

Although it could be criticized for relying on text-based functions, and lacking animations, it has been popular with the PC Gamer

PC Gamer

PC Gamer is a magazine founded in Britain in 1993 devoted to PC gaming and published monthly by Future Publishing. The magazine has several regional editions, with the UK and US editions becoming the best selling PC games magazines in their respective countries...

magazine, who feature a small blog about their village.

Further reading

• Benjy Ikimi, Wurm Online Review, gamezine.co.uk, 13 Aug 2009 Sascha "Hugin" Wall, Wurm Online. Auf den Spuren der letzten Trapper, onlinewelten.com, 20 July 2008