3 Days in LostArk

 

Yonsei UIC iiD

2015198015

Hyungjun Cho

 

What is LostArk?

LostArk is a quarter-view MMORPG developed by Smilegate RPG. It has a reputation of a well-made Korean online RPG played by a variety of users. Players can create their own character, set their class, customize the appearance, and choose the equipment and skills to their own taste while following through the journey to find the ‘lost ark’ that will be the key to saving the world.

 

Why did I choose LostArk?

From January 2021, Korean gaming industry is going through a chain of fever due to the misguided management of the game companies. Users have been resenting at the irresponsible and lax policies set by certain game companies, which often deceived the users. However, heartfelt sayings by Kangseon Keum, the chief project director of LostArk, has touched a lot of users who were fed up with lousy attitude of other game companies, resulting in the increased attention and number of players for the game. I, too, was moved by his words and many compliments from other users, thus chose this game for my game experience.

 

My Character

<Appearance>

I chose a ‘jumping character’ (starting from level 900 instead of 1) of the class ‘Striker,’ who uses oriental martial arts to take down enemies. I customized the character’s appearance to somewhat resemble those cliché athletic characters in school-life comics - a young, short-haired boy with a cool look. The ‘striker’ class is categorized as a damage dealer – a character with high damage skills and weak defensive abilities.

<’Striker’ class gameplay>

 

The world of LostArk

<Youtube Playlist about
the story of LostARK>

Since LostArk is not a sandbox style game, but rather a MMORPG, story is very essential to immerse the users into the game world and motivate them to empathize to their characters. Therefore, LostArk has a vast amount of story, almost comparable to that of a short novel. The most famous Youtube video series that explains the story of LostArk goes as long as 9 hours. 

With my best effort to summarize the story to the shortest, there was light and darkness from which the world as we know it was created. The creator, Lupeon created an omnipotent, overpowering material called the ‘Ark,’ and ‘guardians’ who protected it. But from the darkness, a chaos was born, striving for the almighty power of Ark they could never acquire. Thus, wars between the two worlds occurred over time, devastating the universe. Ark was split into 7 Arks and were hidden by the guardians all over the world. I, the protagonist, is the chosen hero to retrieve all LOST ARKs and save the world from the final war that is lurking to break out.

 

Interaction

Interaction with the game world is categorized into 4 formats. You can either interact with NPCs through expression, NPC’s one-way dialogue, an interactive dialogue with selectable dialogue options, and in-game cutscenes. Interaction with other players is mostly through chat, but there are also online communities that players constantly exchange information with.

<Expression>

<NPC's One-way dialogue>

<Interactive dialogue with selectable options>

<In-game cutscene>

<Chatting with users>

<Online user community>

Conclusion

My past 3 days experience with LostArk has been very immersive. There were various ways for me and my character to interact with the world and other users, with fascinating graphic and visuals to drag me deeper into the game world. The story too was very attractive and I believe I have only started to grow on this game.