Dofus

Not to be confused with Doofus (disambiguation).

Dofus
Developer(s)	Ankama Games
Platform(s)	Flash
Release date(s)	FR September 2004 [1] INT September 2005 [2]
Latest release	2.4.0 / September 27, 2011
Genre(s)	Fantasy MMORPG
Mode(s)	Multiplayer
Rating(s)	PEGI: 12+
Media/distribution	Download

Dofus is a Flash based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) developed and published by Ankama Games,^[3] a French computer game manufacturer. Originally released solely in French, it has since been translated into many other languages. It is primarily a Pay to Play game, though it still offers a limited amount of free content. Its success has led to the marketing of spin-off products, such as books, art, comics and a movie which is planned for release in 2013. It has also led to the development of two continuations: Dofus Arena, released at the beginning of 2006, which is an alternative "tournament" version of Dofus; and Wakfu, a continuation of Dofus, which is currently in the process of beta testing. The game has attracted over 11 million players worldwide ^[4] and is especially well known in France.^[5]

Gameplay

Dofus takes place in 'The World of Twelve', named so because there are 12 gods which inhabit it. Players control a 2D avatar belonging to one of the character classes in a 3rd person view.

As with most other massively multiplayer online role-playing games, players gain levels by obtaining experience. Experience can be gained by defeating monsters and completing quests. With each level, players gain 5 characteristic points, 1 spell point and 5 life points: which can be used to improve the characteristics of a player and upgrade their spells. As a character's level advances, new spells and equipment becomes available. Players receive a special 'aura' when they reach level 100, and gain a different aura at 200. The maximum level a player can achieve is 200. Players may also decide to take up professions and frequently band together to undertake dungeons. Many also become part of guilds, letting them interact with others more easily.

Characters classes

There are fourteen current character classes in Dofus. Each class has a unique set of spells that other classes can not obtain (although some spells are shared with creatures living in Dofus).

Ecaflip's Coin 

Ecaflips have a cat-like appearance and are the gambler class - with their main theme being chance or luck. They have attacks and buffs that can be either beneficial or harmful, depending on random chance, and are seen as the versatile attacker. Weapon specialty: swords. Reading Ecaflip backwards gives "pilface", a play on the French phrase "pile ou face", which means "heads or tails".

Sadida's Shoe 

A race of tree people that are the invoker class and offensive ranged attacker. Their spells orientate around nature and various voodoo dolls - therefore acting as a secondary summoner in Dofus. They also have a handful of AoE spells and crowd control measures making them a versatile offensive ranged attacker. Weapon speciality: staffs. Their name spelled backwards is Adidas, which given that the class is Sadida's "Shoe", makes sense.

Eniripsa's Hands 

Eniripsas have a fairy / pixie appearance that differ depending on the gender of the character. They are the healer or clerics of Dofus with a range of healing and buff spells. They are also the only class with a weapon speciality in wands. Their name comes from Aspirin, as Eniripsa is "aspirine" (the French spelling) backwards.

Osamodas's Whip 

Osamodas are the summoner classes and have a human appearance with horns and a tail. They are able to summon various AI monsters to fight alongside them - however the AI of these monsters deter many from selecting this class. They also share many cleric-type spells making them a secondary healer. Due to their many summons, they are balanced supporters with a weapon speciality in hammers. The class name spelled backward is "sadomaso", which is a joke on the fact that their class name contains "whip", and they use a whip in one of their skills.

Iop's Heart 

Iops form the warrior/paladin high-damage-dealing class. They have an elf-like appearance but with no pupil in their eyes. They are the specialist class in Dofus for close combat attackers. Weapon speciality: swords. -- Their name comes from "yop", which like the classes Sram and Feca, was one of the most commonly consumed snacks of the developers.

Enutrof's Fingers 

Enutrofs are depicted as elderly humans and are known as the treasure hunter class - around which their spells and abilities revolve. Enutrofs have a higher probability of obtaining rare drops when fighting against monsters in Dofus. They are seen as the multi-purpose ranged supporter class and are the only class with a weapon speciality in shovels. Enutrof is "fortune" spelled backwards.

Cra's Range 

Cras are the elf-like archer class in Dofus making them a specialist long ranged attacker. Many of their spells are linked to the bow and range. Unsurprisingly, they are the only class with a weapon speciality in bows, but maybe some will use daggers. The name spelled backward is "arc", which means "bow".

Sram's Shadow 

Srams form the assassin/thief character class in Dofus with their appearance differing depending on the gender of the character. Their playing style is said to be more tactical than the other classes - being the only class that lay a variety of hidden traps on the ground and can render themselves invisible to get into close range. As a result - they are evasive close combat attacker with unique weapon speciality in daggers. -- The developers of Dofus enjoyed the snack the MARS Bar, and Sram spelled backwards is Mars.

Feca's Shield 

Fecas have a human appearance and form the defensive spellcaster class. They are seen as defensive supporters and/or resistant tanks - with spells involving increasing ally resistance to attacks and laying a variety of (spell) glyphs which AoE damage or effects. Weapon speciality: staffs. Their name comes from the French word "café", which is the developers' main beverage

Xelor's Sandglass 

Xelors are the specialist denial and crowd control class with their spells focused upon restricting the moves of opponents. However they do have a number of ranged attacks and are therefore seen as the evasive ranged attacker. They have a mummy-like appearance and a weapon speciality in hammers. Xelor spelled backwards is Rolex, a brand of watch, which only makes sense given the fact that they are time wizards.

Sacrier's Blood 

Sacriers Berserkers and the primary tanks in Dofus. Their spells concentrate around receiving damage to do damage & protecting allies in a tanking role. Their appearance is similar to that of zombies. They are the only class that does not have a weapon speciality.

Pandawa's Flask

Pandawas are a P2P restricted class - meaning only subscribers have access to this class. As their names suggest, they have a panda-like appearance. Their spells are focus upon making an opponent weaker to attacks and two different states reliant on drinking alcohol. With their wide variety of spells, they are seen as the multi-purpose balanced close combat fighter. They are the only class with a speciality in Axes.

Rogue Ruse

Rogues are a bomber class. They utilise a special branch of spells known as bombs, most of their spells being, or revolving around, them. They are the first class to not have a god, their powers stemming from their bombs instead. They have a weapon speciality in swords.

Masqueraider Mask

The latest class to be added to the game. Masqueraiders revolve around three unique masks, which grant them different abilities depending upon which is worn, allowing them to go from offensive to defensive, to a more balanced approach in fights. They also have a wide range of spells. Their preferred weapon is the staff.

Combat

While the game takes place in real-time, combat in Dofus is conducted more like a turn based strategy game – where each player takes it in turns to make a series of moves and attacks within a time limit. As such, when a player attacks monsters – they are transported to a 'copy map' where the fighting takes place. Once a fight begins, no other players may join that fight.

Players use a series of spells (which are unique to that character class) to, amongst other effects, attack, heal, buff or drain one's Action Points (AP) or Movement Points (MP). All actions done in combat (by both players and monsters) consumes an amount of AP and all movement consumes MP. In combat if a character loses all of their health points (HP) they're rendered dead.

Spells

Each character receives 20 class spells as it progresses from level 1 to 100. A special, 21st spell can be obtained in the relevant class temple. A 22nd can be acquired at level 200 which allows the caster to invoke a dopple of their class.

A number of spells are not restricted to a specific class: weapons' masteries, some elementary spells (Cawwot, Striking, Leek Pie, Moon Hammer, Perfidious Boomerang, Release), Soul Capture, summoning of arachnee and the mount taming spell. These can either be bought in the document sellrooms of Bonta or Brakmar, be exchanged against some resources with specific NPCs, or sometimes looted from certain monsters.

Professions

Characters in Dofus can learn up to three professions.^[6] There is a special type of profession called a specialization that can be obtained after a player gains enough experience in certain professions; specialisations (up to 3) do not count toward the normal 3-profession limit.

Collecting professions involve players going out into the wilderness and collecting natural resources, such as certain wood and flowers. These can be later made into breads and such that restore health. They may also be sold as many of them are needed as quests items.

Crafting professions involve the player piecing collected resources together to make a vast array of different items.

Specialisations (or Magus) Crafting of equipment can be "specialised". Once a player reaches level 65 in one of these (jeweller, shoemaker, tailor, weapon smith, or carver), he can visit Hel Munster in the Treechnid Forest to start the quest to become a magus in that profession (for instance a shoemaker can only become a shoemagus). A magus adds runes to an object of the corresponding profession (a shoemagus can only add runes to a shoe or belt), so as to modify the characteristics of the object.

Each profession range from level 1 to 100 (but F2P players are restricted to a max level of 30). All profession requires a special tool to be performed. Experience is gained in each profession by gathering the resources of that profession and/or by crafting items, depending on the type. As a player's collecting profession gains levels, they can collect new types of resources and obtain resources quickly. When a crafting profession levels, the player can create more powerful items and create them with a higher success rate, meaning that crafting will fail less often.

There are also pseudo-professions, who are not listed in the profession slot: pet trainer and mount trainer.

Quests

Dofus offers quests, which can help players gain experience and kamas amongst other rewards. However, the quests system is limited, with the amount of quests getting lower as a player levels up, though there are a handful of quests which, when completed, offer great rewards.

Alignments

The alignment system makes it possible to participate in the eternal war between the cities of Bonta (City of Angels) and Brakmar (City of Demons). It makes it possible for characters to benefit from certain advantages: such as the ability to wear a shield, access to exclusive areas and the resources within. A territorial conquest system allows most areas throughout the world to be controlled by one alignment. Players from the current alignment of the area can benefit from increased drops and experience in that area. The bonuses are determined by which alignment has the most areas, the one with the most gaining less. Bounties may be placed by a special NPC against a player of an opposing alignment. Players can use the bounty system to find and kill targets, which gives them a hefty reward of experience points.

On a limited number of servers, a third alignment is present. The Mercenary alignment, which is an exclusively roleplaying alignment and has the ability to carry out contracts assigned by other players. This last alignment is governed by players and not by NPC characters.

Guilds

Players have the opportunity to form guilds. This makes it possible for the members to speak with each other, coordinate events, place Perceptors and mark houses and Dragoturkey Paddocks with their guild insignia. A perceptor is a special NPC that is created by a member of a guild, to have an opportunity to obtain the spoils of a fight every time a fight is completed on its map.

Each guild can place a limited number of perceptors. The perceptor acts as a tax collector and has the ability to collect items from fights that occur on the same map - therefore effectively claiming ownership for the guild. Another player may attack this perceptor - to either remove it so their guild can claim ownership or to steal the items collected by the perceptor.

Dungeons

As with many other MMORPGs, Dofus has a range of dungeons, special areas where players progress in a linear fashion by defeating the mob of monsters found in each room. They usually finish with a unique boss monster at the end, and sometimes a special reward for defeating it.

Challenges

Dofus has many challenges that can enhance gameplay. A challenge is a special task assigned to players at the start of a fight against a group of monsters. They encourage players to fight in a special way, such as only moving one square a turn, or only being allowed to use certain attacks throughout the fight. If a team completes a challenge, their experience and drops at the end of a fight are amplified.

Economy

The currency used in Dofus is called "Kamas" (k).

There are three cities that contain a marketplace (Bonta, Brakmar, and Astrub), where people can buy and sell goods and equipment (for a fee - paid when the item is displayed for sale). The kamas from these sales deposit directly into the player's bank account.

Alternatively, Pay-to-play (p2p) characters can enter 'merchant' mode when they wish to disconnect and sell items directly from their inventory. These kamas are deposited directly into the character's wallet.

Players can also sell items to NPCs, but the prices are very cheap and are usually able to sell for more in the markets (depending on the item).

Whilst in real life "1K" means 1000, in Dofus it means 1 Kama. To sell something for 1000 Kamas, for example, one says "1KK". 1000000 Kamas, or a million Kamas, is shortened as "1MK".

Subscription

Since its release, Dofus has seen more than 25 million accounts created, including 90% of the subscribers from its release and distributed at least 41 servers. Dofus has roughly 500,000 active subscribers.^[7]

Dofus caters for a range of languages, each language group is called a community. There are servers designed to cater to the French-speaking community, the International community, the United Kingdom and Irish communities, the Spanish-speaking community, the German community, the Italian community, the Dutch community, and the Portuguese-speaking community.

Accounts are separated into two categories, Free-to-Play and Pay-to-Play. The game includes a zone accessible to Free-to-Play accounts. Free accounts have access to the new player zone of Incarnam and access to the city of Astrub and most of its outlying areas. This makes it possible for a new player to enjoy seemingly full game play, unbounded by time restrictions. Access to the entire world of Dofus—including access to other cities, participating in factional Player vs. Player battles and being able to raise profession levels above 30—requires a monthly fee, with discounts given for longer term subscriptions.^[8]

Methods to pay for an account include: Paypal, a credit card, Pay by Cash, Audiotel phone codes and gift codes. Subscriptions to Dofus cannot be set up for recurring billing, so players must go through the payment process each time they wish to extend a Pay-to-Play account.

Abuse

In October 2008, Dofus moderators warned of several scams targeting Dofus players. These include scams conducted within the game, scams conducted through outside websites, and scams exploiting vulnerabilities particular to Dofus, such as the inability to change the amount of in-game currency in a trade window from a nonzero number back to zero. ^[9]

As of December 2008, game administrators have banned as many as 1,850,000 bots per month, subsequently noting a 30% increase in the price of in-game currency offered by unauthorized websites.^[10]

Critical reception

Dofus has received international gaming awards including the Bytten Ernie Award for Best Graphics And Concept Art in 2007 ^[11] and the Audience Award at the Independent Game Festival in 2006.^[12]

• Best game and Public Choice at the Flash festival in France in May 2004.
• Game of the month by the Edge Magazine in July 2005.
• Best game and Public Choice at Flashforward Film Festival of Seattle in February 2006.
• Public Choice at the Independent Games Festival (IGF) of San Jose in March 2006.

References

1. ^ "Ankama Games :: Portail des Jeux Ankama" (in French). http://www.ankama-games.com/fr/the-games/DOFUS/. Retrieved 22 November 1999. 
2. ^ "Ankama Games :: Ankama games portal". http://www.ankama-games.com/en/the-games/DOFUS/. Retrieved 22 November 2009. 
3. ^ Ankama Games official website about Dofus
4. ^ Ankama celebrates ten million Dofus players | Game Development|News by Develop|
5. ^ "Latest French Avant Garde: Games" in Wired News
6. ^ http://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg-game/characters/iop
7. ^ http://www.worldsinmotion.biz/2009/10/interview_ankama_talks_dofus_a.php
8. ^ http://www.dofus.com/en/mmorpg/pay
9. ^ "Common Scams and How to Avoid Them". 23 October 2008. http://forum.dofus.com/en/general-discussion-f2/common-scams-and-how-to-avoid-them-t66820.html. Retrieved 5 August 2009. 
10. ^ "Update against bots". 1 December 2008. http://devblog.dofus.com/en/posts/32-update-against-bots.html. Retrieved 5 August 2009. 
11. ^ Bytten Ernie Awards
12. ^ Ankama Studio press release

External links

• Dofus - Official Dofus website
• Dofus Wikia - A Wikia site devoted to Dofus
• Dofus Guildopedia - A Wikia site for guilds on Dofus