Well, I'm still not burnt out from Wow yet, but I am enjoying Luminary on the side, so I wouldn't say it's a Wow burn out thing.

I'm still in the very early stages, but I'm really having fun, and the fact that you can find any information you want about drops and mobs from inside the game is just a godsend.

Now all I need to do is figure out how to use magic. :)
 

I for one am enjoying the game, I like that it's abit different, and the in depth non combat game is something I particularly like, the crafting and stock market is quite interesting...

There does seem like a lot going on in the screen to start with.. but am getting the hang of it

Although the downside is because it's not a very linear game it's harder to work out what to focus on and what area to specialize in..
 

Luminary has some very nice aspects, especially the crafting game. The fact that monsters only drop materials and no finished goods helps a lot in making crafting interesting. The minigame sucks however, but at least it's not mandatory. It's not a bad idea, but the implementation is rather unappealing.

I'm not so fond of the combat system, because killing hundreds of mobs while only watching your health bar and popping potions makes for a very obvious grind.

The graphics need some getting used to. 2D just looks outdated, and the anime style is not exactly my cup of tea.

I need to play a bit more before making a final judgement. The upcoming microtransaction system is also something that needs to be evaluated before making a decision. Not that I'm fundamentally opposed to this method of earning money, but Free Realms was a very bad example with its blatant nature.

So all in all, thanks for recommending the game, because it really is worth a try.
 

After playing it for 10h, it really looks like Atlantica Online with a 2d anime skin on top. Even some sound effects are the same, and all the crafting and community features are implemented in the same way.

I would recomend you give Atlantica Online a try, almost you like in Luminary is there, and the combat is really fun.
 

* almost everything you like in Luminary is there. Sorry.
 

Luminary is certainly different from WoW.

Crafting is more interesting than WoW, and the in-game information list is very useful. They really need more than just one type pf mini-game, though.

Combat is painfully boring. Even WoW combat has the interesting choices of rotations and cooldowns. In Luminary, it's a deadly combo of Boring Task (watching your health meter) with Negative Reward (xp loss upon death).

A lot of mechanics are not explained well in game. For example, how to mount a horse and the effects of him eating from your pack. Or how to summon a monster.

At the beginning of the game at least, the lack of item variety feels limiting. At level X, I can upgrade all of my Bronze stuff to Bone stuff. It feels very homogeneous.

I do look forward to an endgame which is less about raiding and more about social dynamics (voting in a mayor or other town leaders).
 

I like the game enough to write a post on it:

http://www.greentextonblack.com/2009/05/things-i-like-luminary/

Quick Summary:
The game is relaxing. I can choose my level of involvement, ie I can jump into the government game, or stay a simple harvester/market seller.
Combat is just right and provide the appropriate incentives for its game design. IE combat is simple enough to participate in while providing a base framework for the end goal of making money/crafting, while not being the focus of the game design.
 

My husband and I have been enjoying trying out Luminary, especially after reading your posts about it.

It is very different from WoW, so it makes it a nice complimentary game for me (not leaving one for the other, but enjoy splitting time between both).

Likes:-Game Info database for items, mobs, locations, etc.
-The player dependent market and economy.
-Specialization and not all crafters will have everything
-Simple combat
-Personal stores
-Teleportation
-Manufacturing requests

Dislikes:-Only 1 mini-game for improving craftmanship
-Screen easily becomes cluttered and affects navigation
-HP bar watching in combat
-Not able to type in search items on the market (at least, I haven't been able to.. only in game info)
-Can't send an item in the mail WITH a message
-Mentor list changes and doesn't appear to include all available mentors (I'm struggling with changing to a new person that I know is a mentor, but never is on the list when I try to change it)

~Syrana
 

Hi Tobold,

the game is relaxing, and thats enough for me.
I agree that fighting mechanic is little boring, bu finally i can talk to my wife while keeping only one eye on screen (yes, im old and slow).
See you all in game :)
 

I work in game QA, and the fact that Luminary made it to open beta with such obviously shoddy localization like "Congratulation to reach lv 2" makes me doubt I'll spend very much longer on this game. I just want to fix EVERYTHING. It drives me nuts. That and the graphics... I'm usually not too picky about graphics, but what is that, 256 colors?

Of course, I'm trying out Atlantica Online too, but I'm not too hopeful it'll be better, since the "Downloder" was asking me where I'd like to install BitTorrent.

I wasn't too impressed with Free Realms either. I think it's back to the Jade Dynasty closed beta for me.
 

Luminary might be in Beta for Aria Games but it's hardly a new game.

And if you're turned off by shoddy localization, Atlantica Online will give you fits. But I was able to overcome that prejudice to give the game an honest try and I tend to rate localisation very highly.

Speaking of localisation, I'd just like to applaud another Korean company's efforts: NCSoft. From what I saw of Aion Online's English client, the localisation is better than many native English MMO's.
 

I gave it about 2 or 3 hours.

I like the depth of the economy a lot. The player driven aspect of it is great... I like the 'orders' system, etc.

Combat, though, is killing this game for me. It's just such a blatant grind. It's really more of a resource gathering mini-game (drink your potions at the right time!) than combat, in the normal MMO sense.

And yeah, thank god Tobold told me how to shut off the crafting mini-game! Wow is that awful!

I'm probably done playing, but that's too bad. I think Luminary has some great ideas. The in game info is awesome. The deep player driven economy is amazing. The social aspects are very tight. I probably would have stayed if there was something more fun for combat.