World Of Warcraft: New Column by Majin

Massive Multiplayer Online Waiting Game
by Ryan Sheppard

Massive Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games have been becoming more and more popular in the past few years. They are growing into a much broader group of games that more people are going to start getting into. But what makes a MMORPG worth it, and when will one thats really worth the time come along?

Why play a MMORPG instead of something else? A grand world to play in where everyone online is there, somewhere. The same exact map isn't scatter over hundreds of servers, and that same area isn't being reset every game. Even things as common as economy can come into play in new ways that weren't there before. One of the great games by Blizzard was Diablo 2. It was not a MMO game, just a online RPG. It did however shed a light on how economies work in fictitious worlds. As the game first came to be, people starting finding the special items. These items were often so great that everyone wanted them. The idea of advancing your players skill was the base of the game. These rare items did that. Unlike other RPGs where these had to be fairly common and accessible, they could be truly rare, and still seen, in a game with the large number of players seen in Diablo 2. With this supply and demand for items, a true economy rose up. People traded what they had for what they wanted. Things actually had values that most people would quickly learn. This part of the game inspired further play to get these items and made the game great. While an economy like this still applies to MMORPG's, due to a persistent set up items among a group of players; a persistent world will bring out other concepts from real life.

The tactics and gameplay that would then form, can only do so if the game is at its base fun. The newest MMORPG's are making great worlds for people to play in, but rarely a game base to let the world fill up and turn into the unique world it has the chance to. Even the most classic gameplay can sell a game; and become a good hit in stores; but unless it offers something unique to the market, we will just have another costly MMORPG to get bored with. Practically making each new game a simple expansion pack. Star Wars Galaxy was going to be a new hit, as it was much different than any other MMORPG to date, but as rumors spread from beta testers the games prospects seem to be fairly dull. A good game most likely, but the new game to really pull people in? Unlikely.

The big question for most people though, is cash. These MMO Games are going to start costing a lot of money. With online fee's to pay for almost any MMOG you are going to see smaller base of players. A game that costs three or more times the cost of other games, to play for just one year, is going to be avoided by most. The one way games are going to get past this is making a unique game inside a massive world. The MMO area has been proven to be a great aspect of any game, but to make it a worthwhile game, there has to be more. An upcoming MMOFPS, Planetside, shows this quite well. A great game combined with a great world. But worth the cost? For many it will be yes, but I simply don't like how its going. A fun game but nothing rewarding comes out of it. They took a large part of skill out of the game, and left the massive world there but not for much of anything. You can have some pretty neat battles, but the game comes down to simply being organized. Having a good group of players to coordinate with is fun, but not what many people would agree to pay this high price for. It will be a hit no matter what, not to the scale many are looking for though.

A great MMORPG that is worth the cost is going to come, the only question is when. High hopes still hold for World of Warcraft. It adds many aspects into the game, massive world, wonderful RPG elements that you know will be there, classic story and characters, and the quality of a constantly updated game, but at Blizzard standards. High hopes.

A persistent world of human players brings out the best in the world. With MMO games, you have a great world of events, unscripted, always changing, with every type of hero and moron available on a daily basis. MMO world is affected by not only you, or a computer, but other people. Affected in ways that last far longer than other games could hope. Some fool comes into your game and finishes a boss or blocks your path, oh no, make a new game. Same fool does that in a MMO game, you have to deal with it. The world is ever changing by real people. As soon as one comes up that is worth the cost and fun as can be, the face of gaming shall change for many years as the people come in by the thousands.