Review: PMOG, the Passively Multiplayer Online Game

Tired of spending countless hours raiding and clicking to level up your Paladin? Wish you could gain powers and abilities while checking your email and going through your RSS feeds? Then do I have the game for you.

PMOG- the Passively Multiplayer Online Game– is designed to be the game you play while going about your normal web surfing. Installation is easy: you sign up for an account on their site, then install a Firefox extension (you are using Firefox, right?) that places a tool bar on the bottom of your browser.

The toolbar tells you some basic stats about you, along with the items that mostly drive the game. The items do various things to the sites you visit, and give a little pop-up option to other players who happen to visit the same site. This is the decidedly non-passive part of the game, and the reason I haven’t installed the toolbar at work. The primary items you can encounter while browsing are:

• Portals. These simply pop up and, if you choose to take it, you’ll be transported (via some jerky-swirly animation) to another site that someone has decided to connect for some reason.
• Mines. These take away some of your points, unless you have armor equipped. (And I have yet to find a reason not to leave my armor equipped all the time.) I suppose this is the closest the game comes to PvPing.
• Crates. These are full of other items and points, if you choose to loot them.
• Missions. Missions take you from site to site, sort of like a guided tour of a few places that have been designated via the Lamppost items. Completing a mission takes you through different sites, and so you get more points.

All of the items interact with these in some way. As mentioned, armor protects you from mines, “St. Nicks” foil another user’s attempt to place a mine, and lamp-posts create missions.

So what do you do in PMOG? From what I can tell, there’s not much more to it than what I’ve already explained. In order to level up, you have to use the items that create encounters for other players. You also have to acquire enough points (called data points in the game.) What do these levels get you? I haven’t really figured that out either, other than for the sheer joy of gaining levels. Using certain items more often than others places you in a faction, which divide you into the forces of Order and Chaos. What does that mean? I haven’t figured that out either. You also gain badges for completing specific long term tasks, and that at least seems to carry some prestige.

There’s also some social networking stuff you’d expect from a game like this: forums, the ability to view other’s profiles and see what missions they’ve taken and create, ability to add acquaintances/allies/enemies. I was initially intrigued to see that the PMOG had presences on various other social networking sites, but it’s unclear what you’re supposed to do with them or if that helps you in the game.

That leads me to my biggest disappointment with the game. I first read about the project two years ago, both on BoingBoing and on Gibberish, and was amazed at some of the possibilities there. I expected treasure hunt/scavenger hunt style stuff that you could engage in by exploring the internet, following clues and trails, and so on. I also expected the specific sites you visit to change how your character operates. Instead, the missions just walk you through from place to place with some commentary that is often just “here’s another site I enjoy!” (Some others, of course, are better written.)

Additionally, the missions often crap out on me. You go to the next one, and then the new site doesn’t pop up, leaving you with an incomplete mission (and no way to resume except reload and hope it comes up.) There’s no hunting or searching… in fact, you don’t even have to read the site, just click “Next” on the toolbar.

I’ve run into a few other technical issues too, mostly involving windows that pop up smaller than a standard window. That seems to be when I get a system message that totally destroys my ability to use the new window- not even closing it and trying again gets rid of the message. You can turn the window on and off, but you have to remember that there’s a difference between hiding the toolbar and actually turning it off.

Overall, PMOG is an interesting way to discover new sites, and to acquire ephemeral points towards leveling for, apparently, the raw prospect of leveling. In a way it resembles StumbleUpon and Digg moreso than a game: a way to discover sites and draw others to those sites. My first thought after learning about PMOG was to use it to market my own site, which I’m sure others will do too.

While I still enjoy using it at home and the occasional messages that come up, I can’t help but feel that there’s a wasted opportunity with the game to add in extras and more levels. Heck, for all I know, there are extra levels, but they aren’t apparent to a casual user such as myself. And if this isn’t a game targeting casual gamers, what is?

If you want to join, drop a comment here and I can send you an invite (to get some extra points.) And if you’re already a member, add me as an acquaintance.