Gaming Signal: Duel!

Duel!

If you haven't already seen the crazy-popular web-based game Duels, I recommend you go check it out at www.duels.com. That is, if it is up. It's been so popular that the site has been hammered into submission thanks to Diggs and a link from Techcrunch. Oh well, when it is up and running it's an interesting little web-based game.

What is interesting about it is that the game feels like this rich, detailed fantasy RPG in that it has character attributes, a skills tree to pick from as you level, a full set of inventory and a huge database of items (weapons and armor) to choose from. But the catch is, not a whole lot of this seems to matter when it comes to the actual dueling itself. The combat occurs all server-side, and you just get to see the outcome. New weapons have an immediate and obvious impact, but changes to skill, attributes, and armor aren't as obvious. And there is something sort of odd about challenging somebody and seeing the outcome as a matter of a change in your won-loss record before actually watching the duel itself. I understand why this happens, but I think it removes some of the fun.

Update: Several of us here at GSignal have characters.
JP - Whompster
Tim - Knukelz
Scott - Crooth