Silkroad Online

Silkroad Online (SRO) is a free-to-play massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) available by download from the internet. SRO can be played without [Page 634]paying a subscription or download fee, although users may also buy accounts that allow them to jump lines at busy times on each server and enter the game without waiting.

The game blends historical events—the progression along the Silk Route during the 7th century b.c.E.—with traditional elements of a fantasy roleplaying games—players may use magic, and kill a variety of fantasy creatures. Costuming also reflects a fantastic genre, although there is a clear influence from historical genres such as the Renaissance.

The use of history throughout the game is interesting, although it might more plausibly be reinterpreted as the reinterpretation of various mythologies from around the world. Players begin the game in either Chang'an in China, or Constantinople in Central Europe. Characters, races, and monsters are all based on the people and creatures (mythical or otherwise) that travelers might meet between these two areas. Fantasy is thus blended with history; European characters can invoke the might of Zeus and Apollo, whereas the Islamic nations use lamp elves (genies) and take clear inspiration from The Arabian Nights stories. Interestingly, the use of Islamic symbolism within the game has suffered little censure—a clear example of how games often subvert traditional cultural norms by expressing issues or events that would be considered taboo in more mainstream cultural production.

At level 20, players are able to take on one of three roles—merchant, thief, or hunter. This tripartite system is interdependent, working to form a triangular PvP (player versus player) system (although players can, of course, fight each other irrespective of class) in the same mode as Rock Paper Scissors. Players receive a level for each class, as well as an overall character level. Once at level 20, players can also participate in a central aspect of the game—caravanning, transporting supplies between towns. Each class has a specific role to play, and successful caravanning garners high rewards. Picking careful trade routes, avoiding thieves, and paying hunters for protection recreates a simplistic version of the issues faced by travelers in the 7th century.

As with many MMORPGs, SRO suffers a real problem with goldsellers and botting—accounts that are often run by multiple users, which gather gold and materials inside the game and sell them from exterior sites to players. Goldsellers use exploits; write code that performs scripted tasks that harvest items, gold, or experience/skill points; or employ people to play intensively so that in-game profits can be sold off externally. As a result, SRO performs frequent culls of botters, and lists of the banned account names are published on the message boards.

However, players report that the bots quickly return and at present the situation appears more a stalemate than a victory. One possible reason for this is the necessity of grinding within the game. Grinding is the legitimate gathering of experience or gold by repeatedly killing monsters or performing a given task. Games that rely on grinding tend to have high economies, where much coin is needed to trade on the auction houses and where prices often become inflated as a result. The desire to quickly circumvent this by buying gold from an exterior site is therefore exacerbated.

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