Ever since my days as the "#1 Warhammer Online fan", I've tried to stay away from official media sources for games. It's not that they fool me, its that they no longer feel like they are directed towards me. I have moved towards relying on bloggers who I follow on a regular basis. Bloggers who may get a bit too excited about games at times, but consistently put down solid information as though they are talking to a group of friends.

Keen and Graev and friends are busy at work putting together some information on Allods Online:

There are so few places to find quality info about the game that I figured a thread with interesting tidbits of info could go a long way. Feel free to post any information you find that you feel would be interesting and informative for people wanting to learn more about Allods Online.

I commend them for the effort, as Allods Online is starting to pique my interest (I just received a closed beta key via MMOCrunch).

The following Allods tidbit has me drooling:

At lvl 23 you WILL(no exceptions if you wanna lvl) be sent to Holy Lands. In Holy Lands you get to quest with the opposing faction and most quests involve killing their soldiers/players or taking over strategic points or sabotaging their stuff.

One of the first places you will be sent to is Spider Hill.

Atop the hill is a place of power that gives you a 10min buff if you stand on it. Thats ofc is a good thing to have. On either side of the hill are Liga and Imperia camps.

Let me tell you something. When I got to that Hill….I had the most fun I have ever had in the game. PvPing with Imperia was wicked fun.

Alas, it didnt last too long. After about an hour of awesome combat a lvl 40 Imperia Mage came over and ruined everything(that [I Am A Potty Mouth]!).

But in conclusion: Yes you will be sent to a place where you quest and PvP at same time.

This sounds like a really neat idea. Generally PvP has been introduced to MMOG players with on/off switches, rarely with motivation or consistency. World of Warcraft has PvE vs PvP servers and then instanced battlegrounds. Warhammer Online throws players at each other from the get go, but in zones full of NOTHING or an instanced scenario.

Whats outlined above for Allods Online seems to be a much more natural progression (albeit forced) into the PvP conflict. Also, the free-2-play aspect of the game could play into this as those that pay up could possibly have a huge edge in PvP.

I'm very interested to get going in Allods Online come December 1st.