Ten Ton Hamster

Emerald Island is an MMO with painted, storybook like graphics, so I couldn't wait to sign up and play. The website looks pretty simple but once I signed on, I could see that there was actually plenty of beautiful detail in the game. As soon as you sign in you get to make your character. You can choose between a few different types of cute little animals, but you have a lot of freedom to customize. There aren't too many options for customizing your character when you first sign in but that's what makes the game exciting. When you earn coins you can go to different shops and buy more parts to make your character unique, they even have a body made of fire! I wanted to stick to cute and cuddly though so I made an orange cat with a green dress.

As soon as I talked to the Captain in Bloomtown, he filled me in on the story. He explained that the whole town needs to team up with Tamino, the town hero, and save Emerald Island from the ravaging Pirates. He gave me a quest that won me some coins and after a while I learned that all the captains had quests for me, with awesome prizes at the end. That's not the only way to earn coins though, after I started exploring the beautiful island I found more and more minigames. My favorite was a fishing game, but there was also a fun learning game that helped me brush up on my spelling. An NPC told me that once the game is officially launched, there will be even more games to discover!

After I earned some money I went to the real estate office where an NPC helped me buy a bigger house with some land on a cliff. The NPC's also explained that in order to defeat the Pirates we have to protect the island and restore it by replenishing the landscape. This is how they explained it:

"Each player plants seeds and cultivates gardens to replenish a vibrant landscape that hangs in jeopardy. Collaboration is fundamental as the game community bands together toward a common goal."

I loved that there was finally a different kind of MMO that wasn't about fighting and blowing things up but it was actually about restoring the land and joining together as a community. So I was instantly motivated! I went straight to the Greenhouse and bought a wide range of seeds and planted them at home. Even though the game is simple right now, I found myself thinking about it long after I logged off. Thinking about, my cat, my little house on the hill, my plants, and everyone in the Emerald Island community.

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