Worst MMO Ever? - Wurm Online

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Ultra-slow wiki-requiring Medieval Minecraft. 'Nuff said.

Wurm Online is one of the earliest Sandbox MMO's, created by Notch, the guy who went on to make Minecraft. it's extremely deep, but incredibly obtuse to actually get into.

Thanks to the Patreon supporters and Twitch subs who keep the channel going!

[WurmOnlineOfficial]

Thank you for the review, Josh! I felt it was very fair and honest. I know many of us on the development team have watched it, and it's already sparking discussions on what we can do better. In particular, I feel we could do a much better job conveying crafting and other gameplay elements to a new player. The points raised are too numerous to list here, but the "adventure line" and changing some of the design choices of old ring loud and clear.

- Keenan, Product Manager

[thomasgarza]

Insanely accurate. When I was younger I tried to shoot a bow and realized I didn't have any arrows to nocte, I proceeded to hurl my bow at the target and did moderate damage....to my bow.

[jairusstrunk]

They listened to you by the way. Added a crafting window so you don't have to activate and right click things.
Added a repeat action button.
And a bunch of other QOL stuff this year.

[B-...]

Wurm Online: "Ever dream of singlehandedly building your own log cabin in real life? Well now you can build one in Wurm Online nearly TWICE as quickly!"

[Woolie]

Notch made this, went "okay... now what if I do the exact OPPOSITE?", then became one of the most-successful developers of all time

[dimwarlock]

"The chat is interesting, they are talking about horse breeding, thankfully, that's on the game"
That really got me.

[BloodyDrongo]

I've played Wurm for 17yrs now at this point since the Beta days. (I'm 30 now).

This was a great review and I sincerely appreciate the fact that Wurm is far from perfect that Josh managed to identify Wurm's redeeming qualities for it's VERY niche audience. There is no doubt Wurm is a exercise in masochism with tedious gameplay, bloated mechanics, uninvolved combat, clunky UI and just...AWFUL tutorial. BUT *if* you can get past that there is a game that is very relaxing and incomparably satisfying.

One thing that isn't really talked about in the review which I think is worth mentioning is that a LOT of the game including the mechanics, art, music etc has all be done by volunteers out of love and passion in the last decade and a half. Each one giving to Wurm their own vision of what they should think the game *should* be. This is what creates the the mishmash of weird systems and gameplay that at times is at odds with other parts of the game.

Wurm has never really achieved a level of success that has allowed it to have the investment it needed to create a "complete" game. Instead it's been just barely clinging to life desperately trying to keep moving forward. But there is no question that this is a game that nearly two DECADES old and it shows, but the fact it's survived for so long is a testament to the community and the few redeeming qualities the game has.

Thanks Josh for giving Wurm a fair shot and a really well articulated and entertaining review.

[RariettyC]

I love how this video emulated a typical sandbox MMO experience, where you start off with plans to build big things and then eventually it becomes a homeless medieval fantasy hero dating sim where your main goal is to kiss another player

[BinkyYT]

The part about wurm that made my jaw drop and immediately hooked me was the fact that every building and road you see was built by players, and when you see how long it takes to build a small house I just had so much respect and wanted to leave my own mark.

[CarthagoMike]

_"This is the epic tale of one man's attempt to build a shed and punch a wolf in the face"_ sounds like the start of an actually interesting story.
You really have a good way with words Josh.

[MadamePianissima]

Seeing the name "Josh Strife Hayes" or some variation of it in an MMO must be like seeing a plague doctor during the Black Death

[onikoneko]

One of my first experiences with Wurm was discovering not only do you *not* have to deactivate the shovel when cutting down a tree, but you actually get an achievement for cutting down a tree with a shovel.

[bruceluiz]

Playing Wurm as a free-player is what I call "Medieval Beggar Simulator": chop some tress, piss of the owner of a nearby plot because them were waiting for the tress to become old (which yields more and better quality logs), get gifted a cow and rope to lead your beggar-cart somewhere to piss off from said plot owner, get ya cow killed by a mountain lion, and die for a Forest Spider or Troll.
Also, if there is still a Colossus Statue ontop of a mountain, near the southern starting town of the Steam PVE server (Cadence), know that it was made by me! PepinoOGrande! If you do archeology on it, you will see that the name FITS!
Edit: happened when the server opened on Steam, so 1 year ago, is probably dead! RIP my F2P Guard Tower and Colossus Statue

[SignalSeven]

Can we talk about how this obscure MMO from 2006 still apparently has dedicated players in 2022? There are games that came out in 2021 that don't have this much of a dedicated player base.

[cargasm]

This brings back some memories. I played this game way back in the day. It had a functional tutorial back then not sure why its gone now. I Started out in a small community I think it was called "the orphanage". The lady that owned it would give you access to your own little shack on her property. It even had a small fenced in yard for gardening. There was community space for mining and crafting. It was a good way to learn the game. Then I set out to build my own castle. Found a large area in a prime spot that was once owned by someone but has since been abandoned, nothing left but a flattened area, a small boat and the start of a mine. on one of the main roads, right on the water, and not far from the initial spawn. A neighbor with 99 carpentry helped me plan out the largest possible castle. I made and sold bricks for in game currency to buy the land and membership. After many many months I had terraced tree gardens, stone gate houses, horses, Bison, ships with a cave in a mountain I could park them in. and a 3/4 built 3 story castle. Then it started getting bad. I had to play hours everyday to maintain my decaying structures, sell products to afford the monthly membership and property fees. at that point it wasn't a game it was a job. I was over worked and under paid. all my progress stopped. I started not being able to keep up. Walls were breaking. animals were dyeing. My farm was full of dead plants. My food was spoiled. I ran out of money. Everything began decaying even faster as it wasn't protected property anymore. I took a break. Logged back in to find my character in a small wooden shack, but it wasn't mine. the land belonged to someone else now. and I was trapped inside.

[BFlorry]

When I hopped into the game while still in high school, my friend told me that he'd secured us a place near a helpful couple who're willing to get us up to speed and guide us along the way. We got coordinates on a player-generated map and off we went. This was pure orienteering without a compass (then they were not part of the beginning equipment) and I remember dying once along the way. When we reached the place, it was about 2h later and the couple guided us to a shack they'd built for us. They brought us a furnace, gave us food and a few tools and so we started building things. I became the carpenter out of us two, and in the end was ONLY a carpenter, because you need carpentry for nearly everything, so you have constant work. As my carpentry levels increased, I could also expand the house. My friend would take on blacksmithing, mining and farming and he took care of small orders for me. We'd adventure the neighboring areas and find new and exciting people. Usually when a new friend would join the game, I'd give them a PNG of a map with a good route to follow. Sometimes they'd get there fine and sometimes we'd have to find them along the way. Once it was me who got lost trying to find my way to my friend. I was wandering in the woods until I found a player name in the local chat. I asked them for directions, they told me to stay still and wait for him. There came the chadest of all chads in Wurm: A player, dressed in green, riding a bear. They guided me to a road that would lead me home, gave me food and water, and wished me well.

In the following years I'd pick up on shipbuilding and build a few of the biggest ships of the game. One ship would take me maybe 3-5 weeks to build because of my low skill, but I loved it all the way. We'd have grand adventures, buy exotic stuff from faraway lands and even move to a new server with all of our belongings in the massive ship. We once had a small war with 4chan's /v/ who had a village right next to ours. The war was mostly held by arranging fart emote raids around their houses and then disappearing into the woods.

Ah, I wish I still had the same kind of summer vacations as I had as a kid. The community was the thing. Everyone wants to help and are the best people of the whole internet. Also, did you know that the community has arranged dozens of massive canal digging operations where they'd have tens of people digging up landmass between two oceans? The operations have been greatly documented and can probably still be found in the wikis. They'd also build lighthouses that are regular houses with a fire demon trapped inside. That's creativity and dedication that I wish my games would have at one point in the future.

[ZorotheGallade]

The garish colors are the product of another mechanic in wurm: dye making. The opacity of a dye is directly correlated to its quality, and the quality of produced items are the average of the quality of the ingredients used, and if your skill is lower than that it gets either capped or averaged by it (depending on the action: most raw materials are capped). This means that the best dye makers can make high quality dyes, which will color items a pure, ultra bright shade of color. Meaning displaying such garishly colored items is kind of a status symbol, since you're either a good enough alchemist/dye maker to mix such a high quality dye or are influential enough to acquire such a dye.

[OGSnoberry]

I want to point out that Notch left the Wurm Online team SUPER EARLY into its development and left Rolf to do pretty much everything by himself.

[GC_Rallo]

If Otherland is what happens when artists make a MMO, Wurm Online is what happens when engineers make a MMO.

[Fezdani]

I used to play this with my husband back in the day, we spent a lot of time on it. Had our settlements side by side. The forums had a volunteer area if anyone wanted to help with the game, I remember making the sheep and chicken/rooster/chick skins. I think they are still being used today! My little contribution.