[Review] The Missing Ink: A Quirky, Story-Based MMO

SBFord

The Missing Ink is not your run of the mill MMO. It's an often goofy parody of an MMO and appears to be a lot of fun. We've been playing in the realms of The Missing Ink and have a lot to say in our latest review. Read on before letting us know what you think in the comments.

The basic premise is that the world’s stories are under siege by the inklings, who are destroying those stories by stealing the ink from them. You work at the Ministry of Defending Stories, is to adventure through the narrative, stop the inkling horde and take back the ink. It’s your first day on the job. TMI combines both standard RPG questing with sandbox construction and comes in two flavours: Browser and Download.

Read more of Lisa Jonte's The Missing Ink: A Quirky, Story-Based MMO.

necrostein

Its easy to be charmed by the aesthetic.  i played for a number of months (4 is the actual number) off and on as a break from regular MMOs while i was going through a little burn out.  It has a place, and its a great way for me to sit my youngest daughter down at the computer and let her tell me where to go and what to do...  im secretly training her for global conquest... the older one just read enders game, so she is on to me... 

its child-like, but not childish... if that makes sense.  with NPCs named things like Stan Dandyliver... whats not to love???

i wish,,, i wish ... i wish that Wurm or even Salem woud have adopted this same aesthetic. or...TMI (you think they chose that acroinym at random?) would fully adopt those titles sandbox-ness, that would be epic.

 

its fun, but i cannot imagine that the population here will do anything but tear it apart for what it isnt.

 

im hoping this one really does succeed. 

p.s. i would volunteer to voice over some of the sound effects.. Pa-Toinnnggggg anyone? (go ahead, say it, its the sound of an empty bowstring being released )

 

 

 

 

koboldfodder

Sorry.  All your characters start off as purple, blob loking things....and guess how you can upgrade their looks!  Yup, the cash shop.

 

This game deserves everything that will happen to it.

WellzyC

 

*Story based MMO*

 

So sick of scripted MMOs. they are so awful, and should not be called mmos.

 

 

Sorry for being negative. But im losing patients with "so called" mmo devs. Linear scripted content does not an MMO make.

fascism

Originally posted by WellzyC

 

*Story based MMO*

 

So sick of scripted MMOs. they are so awful, and should not be called mmos.

 

 

Sorry for being negative. But im losing patients with "so called" mmo devs. Linear scripted content does not an MMO make.

its literally story based, like you go inside books.

WellzyC

I see,

 

 

Guess that’s just shows how impatient I have become with the issue of linear mmos, I digress.

Theocritus

Originally posted by WellzyC

 

*Story based MMO*

 

So sick of scripted MMOs. they are so awful, and should not be called mmos.

 

 

Sorry for being negative. But im losing patients with "so called" mmo devs. Linear scripted content does not an MMO make.

 Agree...STory needs to be a very minor part fo the MMO....The influence of single player games is becoming way too strong in MMOs.....Most of the ones I tried in 2012 didn't even feel like MMOs at all.

eddieg50

the good part is story, the bad part sounds like everything else

TMI-Gordo

Hey everyone,

I'm Gordo from The Missing Ink.  Thanks for your feedback, I think it's a really fair review and picks up on what we're doing well but also covers where we could be doing better.  We're still in Beta for a while yet.  The launch feature set is almost finished and then we're onto adding a load of new content.

Currently there are only side quests in place and we know they're not that entertaining for players.  The main story arc is being worked on right now and it will be ready for launch which we hope will be in Q3 this year but most likely Q4.  The quest system and story arc will be something a little different to the typical systems you'll see in a traditional MMO.

Just to pick up on the Avatars, as it mentions in the review you do get a good choice of apprentice avatars.  See in this video about avatar creation/customisation: - http://www.missing-ink.com/video?v=2

You also unlock new avatars as you progress through the story worlds and you'll get avatar drops in the game.  We sell a selection of avatars in the cash shop, there are some branded avatars and also TMI avatars that tend to be a little bit silly.  We are also offering custom avatars via our Kickstarter campaign, so you can get your very own avatar designed by our artists.

We hope the iPad and Android tab versions of TMI will have a big impact, it will be one of the first cross-platform MMO's where you can play in one game world on all devices.  

We also hope the player made virtual worlds (Blurbs) will help add longevity to the game.  We're working on more building features and allowing players to add interactive content, meaning they can build their own dungeons and mini games on their Blurbs and then invite friends to the slaughter.

Thanks again for your comments and I hope you do go check out The Missing Ink, did I mention it's FREE..?

-Gordo-

Cypruska

Originally posted by necrostein

Its easy to be charmed by the aesthetic.  i played for a number of months (4 is the actual number) off and on as a break from regular MMOs while i was going through a little burn out.  It has a place, and its a great way for me to sit my youngest daughter down at the computer and let her tell me where to go and what to do...  im secretly training her for global conquest... the older one just read enders game, so she is on to me... 

its child-like, but not childish... if that makes sense.  with NPCs named things like Stan Dandyliver... whats not to love???

i wish,,, i wish ... i wish that Wurm or even Salem woud have adopted this same aesthetic. or...TMI (you think they chose that acroinym at random?) would fully adopt those titles sandbox-ness, that would be epic.



 

its fun, but i cannot imagine that the population here will do anything but tear it apart for what it isnt.



 

im hoping this one really does succeed. 

p.s. i would volunteer to voice over some of the sound effects.. Pa-Toinnnggggg anyone? (go ahead, say it, its the sound of an empty bowstring being released )

 

 

 

 

So.................... the game is child-like, but not childish?