Haven & Hearth

Haven & Hearth is a Java-based MMORPG, with much of the in-game world inspired by Germanic mythology. Its most notable features are its persistent world featuring little to no natural resource regeneration, its permanent death feature, and its focus on player interactions such as villages trading and negotiations. It also features a fairly unorthodox leveling system: Players earn Learning Points (LP) for almost every action, which are then spent to purchase or upgrade skills. As of the new system since World 5 though, players only get LP when "discovering" a new item by creating or foraging it for the first time, and when studying curiosities, also called "curios" by players. These can be found or crafted and placed in the player's study box in order to gain LP after a set amount of time. The amount of LP and time it takes differs with the object.

Although the game is technically in an alpha state, it features a fairly sizable playerbase and many large in-game communities of players (known as hearthlings).


 * Annoying Arrows: Sort of. Slings and bows are generally the best way to deal with wildlife, but it takes a lot of work to take out even a fox without a high Marksmanship skill. Of course, actually getting the LP to raise the skill is a royal pain...
 * Commonplace Rare: Metal is extremely valuable, and can be found underground. The only way to get underground is via a cave entrance (rare and often claimed) or a mine hole (extremely expensive to construct). Not only that, but mining is dangerous, and takes a high Strength and Mining level to get anything good from it.
 * Sausages are extremely valuable food, but can only be made by sausage machines, which require costly skills and...metal. This also applies to everything else that needs metal, such as brick walls.
 * Everything's Worse with Bears: Bears are not kind. They're the toughest wild creatures in the game, will attack any players nearby regardless of aggro, can outrun most hearthlings, and will attack you when you're down and kill you.
 * Defeat Means Friendship: You tame animals by, effectively, beating the crap out of them.
 * Fridge Logic: Why does a wooden palisade wall held together by ropes need leather to construct?
 * Shout-Out: The description of the Ranger skill references Walker, Texas Ranger.
 * The description of the Jewelry skill is likewise a reference to The Lord of the Rings.
 * When you learn a skill, The Legend of Zelda Item Get theme is played
 * Suffer the Slings: Slings are ranged weapon of choice for most players, due to the extremely high LP investments needed to properly use a bow.
 * Super Drowning Skills: By default, you can't swim. This is for your own safety; rivers are the only things in this game worse than bears.
 * You Have Researched Breathing: Several of the higher-end skills include Rage (attacking other players), Trespassing (entering claimed territory), Theft, Vandalism (interacting with objects on claimed land) and Murder (killing other players). Justified with the perma-death system; the only players able to perform crimes are the ones who have everything to lose by being hunted down and revenge-killed by rangers.
 * They Changed It, Now It Sucks: The change in how LP is earned from world 4 to 5 has been...controversial to say the least.