Editorials

Jim Moreno's column returns today with "What Level Is Your RP?", his latest in a reoccuring column that looks at the plight of sometimes lost section of the MMORPG community: role-players.

Roleplaying guilds, kinships, and clans very often label themselves as being either light, medium, or heavy RP, but what exactly does that mean? What are the differences between these three level of RP? Well, I am here to make an attempt at answering, or at least providing some helpful insight into, that very question.

Read it after the jump.

This fortnight we go through 'Age of Conan' Game Director, Gaute Godager's "state of the game" report with a fine-tooth comb:

"At the end of the day someone has to say, 'This was a much better idea on paper than in the game. Let us focus on what is there - for the good of the whole game.'"

Yes, cuts are going to hurt players, but if we're doing so for the sake of maintaining a vision, then Gaute tells us that we must cut, cut, cut away, but in all honesty this is no real cause for major concern.

In this edition of Steinhauer's Opinion, Jonathan tells us about the idea of "The Close Combat Archer". This is part one of a new sub-block of articles from him on this subject.

When we play an MMO, much like when we read a book or watch a movie, we expect a certain suspension of disbelief. Goblins and dragons cease to be mythical, and we don't scoff at the idea of a wizard calling firebolts from the heavens. We rarely even wonder how so many forests can support such large populations of bears, wolves, and other carnivorous creatures nor why such animals don't avoid humans but rather charge in with teeth bared. Nor do we question why an enemy village is devoid of any common folk like farmers, craftsmen, or children. And, of course, we never doubt the practicality of the close combat archer.

Read it all after the click.

After having come back from Oslo, Norway, and settled back into "life, the norm", I'm as enthusiastic as I ever was about 'Age of Conan':

"Now we are on the final stretch, with the goal plain in sight."

This fortnight, we learn that the "Rome wasn't built in a day" philosophy also applies to game development.

This week's "Community Column" from Sean Bulger looks at the concept of pre-made player factions in games and how they enhance or effect community.

In light of the current 'political season', so to speak, I would like to take a look at one area of gameplay in MMOs that truly does have a strong impact on player communities: Player factions. Now, when I speak of something like factions, I do not specifically refer to guilds. Rather, factions are groups of players within a game that are, generally speaking, opposed to each other, and/or have some sort of conflict or even more political relations with each other. They are also often encouraged by gameplay.

Many games see aspects of factions such as these within them. Dark Age of Camlot, World of WarCraft, EverQuest 2, Final Fantasy XI, PlanetSide, and even games such as EVE Online and ShadowBane have various types of factions that players can join and/or create.

Read more after the jump.

Jonathan Steinhauer looks more deeply into the phenomenon of level based games in "Breaking the Level Barrier, Part 2". This follows his piece two weeks ago where he first examined this topic.

That's not to say that step learning doesn't exist. But it is generally found in activities were you either can or can't do a thing. For example, in the quest to fly, the Wright Brothers didn't gradually fly. The first time occurred in a single instant and once that was achieved, they could repeat the feat (although I would argue that the gaining of knowledge that enabled flight was still slope-learning). Some growth in life tends to be a blend, such as studying mathematics. The gaining of knowledge and skill in math occurs on a learning curve, but there are "steps" along the way, such as basic addition and subtraction, Trigonometry, and Calculus.

Read more after the leap.

Sean Bulger's community management driven column this week is called "Emergent Gaming". He looks at the upcoming trends in gaming and how that relates back to the community.

This could appear in several different forms, one of which is known as emergent gameplay. Emergent gameplay has been a popular phrase lately. Effectively, it is players doing something with a game that the game wasn't actually designed for. Races in MMOs, creating pictures with gold in Lineage 2, or using grenades to launch vehicles or players in the air in spectacular ways in FPSs, are all prime examples of this.

In fact, there are some games out there, and in the works, that are built entirely upon the principle of emergent gaming. They aim to give players tools, as opposed to game systems, with which they can create their own gameplay.

Read more after the jump.

Jim Moreno gets back into the groove in 2008 with his latest column: Roleplayers Set S.A.I.L.! This is an acronym for "speech, actions, interactions and look", which are to him four main traits roleplayers focus on. Every other Monday, Moreno brings us a new column where he focuses in on issues that are important to roleplayers.

Taking a good look at my fellow roleplayers in the four MMORPGs I play, and across many other RPGs I've played, I see a vast number of ways we display our RP talents, way too many to count. Yet, I think these methods may all be categorized under four main traits that we focus on - speech, actions, interactions, and look - and are very easily remembered with the acronym SAIL.

Read more after the leap.

In his latest article, community columnist Sean Bulger looks at "The Site Beyond the Game". This community management focused column looks at official sites, how different games do it and what else is out there.

Every game has an official site for various reasons. The official site of a game is either an important hub of information and activity or it is simply a marketing page trying to draw players in. Or sometimes it is both, like how Sony Online Entertainment sets up their websites - the main page being a flash page used to draw players in, while also retaining forums and the Players websites.

Read it all after the leap.

I'll bet that you, the Mitra's Method faithful, are dying to read on and find out what I have learned about 'Age of Conan' and its progress through the beta stage.

"...This was an opportunity to see the groundwork of this game; the developers hard at work making this game what it is set out to be on May 20, 2008."

Today, it's information about the game itself with a plethora of information to come over the next coming days also.

Jonathan Steinhauer's bi-weekly Monday column looks at the "level barrier" in its latest edition. Within, he examines the very concept of levels that most MMOs embrace and what's wrong with them.

Looking more into levels within games, we find that their use a broad statement of experience demands a certain rigidness of focus. Only a few rare exceptions (such as Neverwinter Nights where an adventurer can have more than one character class) allow for greater flexibility of experience. But if you were to twist character levels and actually measure real life experience, would it be absurd to find a man that is a Level 25 computer programmer, a Level 30 husband, a Level 10 bowler, and a Level 42 chef? Not at all.

Read more after the leap.

What began as a year in review editorial, morphed into an analysis of the evidence 2007 gave us that the subscription model was on its way out in North America and Europe. In this article, I look at the historic evidence and where things might head in 2008 and beyond.

All the evidence suggests that World of Warcraft is not the harbinger of an expanded marketplace, but an aberration, a lightning strike at the right moment. Among Western audiences - as it was among Eastern audiences years ago - the subscription based MMORPG is at best on life support and more than likely on its way out the door.

The one-two punch of WoW and Guild Wars in 2004 has delivered a significant blow to the prospects of any company that has the audacity to charge their subscribers a monthly fee. Guild Wars showed that a high quality experience can be free and WoW redefined what people expect for that $14.95 a month.

Read more after the click.

In his latest column, Jonathan Steinhauer continues his look at what he calls "The Killing Experience". He began two weeks ago in part one and today looks at more recent examples of this trend. It's all about RPGs and how they use killing as the primary form of advancement, or experience.

A second, much more recent, example is with Bethesda's Elder Scrolls series, particularly Oblivion. In this game which follows the standard RPG model, there is no experience gain from killing. In fact, there is no experience at all. Instead, character growth is built on an array of skills specific to a particular class. As those skills are used over an over again, proficiency grows. Once there are ten threshold increases in the class skills, a new level is gained. At that point health, stamina, magicka, and prime stats also improve.

Read more after the click.

None of us can predict the future, so why do we waste our time guessing about things that might come?

"We have this uncanny ability to break-down every single word Funcom utter and jump very quickly to our own conclusions. There's a soothsayer in every single one of us, it seems."

This fortnight the question is asked, "Is this our way of dealing with the wait?" and an opportunity for you to get your questions answered by Funcom in the weeks to come.

In Sean Bulger's latest column, he looks at the idea of competition between players as part of building an MMO community. Every other Wednesday, Bulger chimes in with a new community focused column here on WarCry.

One of the most controversial topics you'll run into with online game development - but certainly far from the only one - is competition between players. The very idea of Player versus Player (PvP) content can scare off a number of players and make plenty more question the potential community of any game with it. It would seem that a fairly large amount of MMOers believe that PvP is detrimental to their enjoyment of the game, that it draws in a fairly bad crowd, and it hurts the community for a game. Between the PvP severs of most games and the popularity of primarily PvE games and PvE content, tends to showcase this mindset.

Read more after the leap.