I’ve been playing Champions Online a bit lately, partly because I’ve felt a bigger need to get my MMO fix and partly because I have a Lifetime subscription. One of the things that I find particularly about the game is how they do instanced zones.Continue readingSeamless Instanced Worlds
I recently found out that Tabula Rasa was going to be shutting its doors after just one year on the market. In addition to this, Richard Garriott, whom largely is thought of as one of the major pioneers in MMORPG design, is leaving NCSoft as well. While this isn’t entirely surprising, the move is still rather amazing to me and quite sad to see it come to this.Continue readingGoodbye Tabula Rasa
I read a recent blog post somewhere recently (sorry I don’t remember where) that talked about the original vision of what MMOs were intended to be and the disappointment of where they are now. At heart of this dilemma are the constant need to do mind-numbing quests, the staticness of the world, and the never-ending…Continue readingOld School Rules for New School Views
Thinking back on Ultima Online this last Monday (as small a thought as that was in that particular article), made me want to reminisce with the game. Many call it the first MMO, but really it wasn’t, there were many before it. Certainly it went much bigger than others before it, being the first to…Continue readingThoughts on Ultima Online
One thing about any new Campaign Setting is that you really need to find a hook for it. By this I mean you need to find something about the world that hasn’t really been done fore, that distinguishes it from the others and makes it fun. You can’t just turn out yet another generic world…Continue readingFinding a Hook