[SGS] [Random] After 2 Weeks in China, Back to SanGuoSha Online ._.

It’s been about 2 weeks since arriving in China, and I’ve almost attempted playing all the games I can think of using the internet connection here. Well, the Great Firewall of China is pretty amazing. It blocks many vital sites that were once so important to us, and makes playing International games laggy as hell. Dota 2 is unplayable, but Hearthstone works fine I guess. As for other online games, let’s forget about them D: This made me try out some of the local online games produced by the likes of Tencent, but I must say, though they may have amazing potential, their production and polish just doesn’t meet the expectations.

Just when I thought I would be starved from some simple (I came here to study after all…), quality gaming action, I recalled the legendary SanGuoSha 三国杀 Online which I played a few years ago in Sg. Back then, creating an account was hard since you need local Chinese handphone number and identity number, which is a real pain to get. Now, it’s much easier, partly cos I have a local number already, and somehow you don’t need an ID anymore? Either that or you can search for one to use through a search engine pretty easily.

The online version works just like the board (card) game version, and it does have many advantages over the latter. Firstly, the online player base is huge!! Meaning you usually do not have to wait for even a minute to start playing a game after you log on. Secondly, since you play through the system, rules are fixed and time will not be wasted arguing whose understanding of a rule is right or wrong. Thirdly, you can leave the room once you die, and not have to sit around waiting for the whole game to end just because others are still playing with that set of cards ._. And if you do want to play with your friends online along with other random players, you can 😀

The disadvantage is that you need to pay to unlock expansion sets. It’s not like you get the board game version’s expansion sets for free… but getting the hard copy for good beats paying for virtual stuff tied to an account, which can easily be lost (forgotten/stolen/hacked). And if a group of friends wants to play the expansion together, they each have to unlock it D: which will cost a BOMB. In all, the online version is a very useful tool to learn the basics of the game and to practise using each of the MANY heroes, while also being extremely entertaining and addictive 😛

Lobby screen, displaying rooms and the very useful Quick Join button.

The system tracks your battle records for each role, and even notes which heroes you use most/best!

Quest window.

Waiting for players to enter the room. Here you can use items obtained from quests to lock hero choices according to roles you draw.

In game action. Players take turn playing in an anti-clockwise rotation. Remember: Pay even more attention when it’s not your turn!

HAHAHAHAHA! Of course I would have purchased the board game version nonetheless ._. In one fell swoop, I bought the Collectors’ Edition Metal Box version which includes all versions so far, nicely packed and laminated.

It basically shows me unwrapping the treasure when I received the parcel just as I was about to leave the house :DDD And many thanks to Babapp and Jeslin for adding flavor to the vid ❤