Sorry for the entire and almost complete lack of posts this week… family stuff. Guess I should have called it the “WEEKLY Blogroll”….
What makes an MMORPG an RPG? Nowadays, EVERYTHING seems to be called an RPG. First person shooters like Call of Duty 4 are suddenly RPGs because they include levels (and, arguably, classes as well). So is that it? Is any game with leveling now automatically a Role Playing Game? Zubon of Kill Ten Rats wonders if that’s all there is. Psychochild responds by taking a look back at the origins of the term in pen-and-paper gaming. These days, I tend to regard games that don’t force you into certain paths as more of an RPG that on-rails MMOs like WoW. Zubon has a point when he says Second Life is more of an RPG than most games that claim the title.
Kendricke of Clockwork Gamer looks deep into the folding cash money guild support brings to MMOs and wonders why more games don’t have strong guild support? Wizard101 devs, take note.
Rumor has it that 38 Studios, developers of the secretive Copernicus MMO, is looking for a few more tens of millions of dollars to finish development, a rumor the studio vehemently denies. Nonetheless, Genda looks at the perils of investing in a new business in a highly competitive field and wishes the guys well.
When Tesh hits the space bar in Wizard101, his wizard hops a little bit. This has no effect on gameplay, which is turn-based, not twitch-based. Did KingsIsle add hopping just because MMO players expect hitting the space bar to do something based on experience in other games? Tesh wonders if adding pointless features purely to make WoW-players comfortable makes any business sense.
Speaking of Wizard101, where’s our Harry Potter MMO? Time’s running out, guys! After the final two movies come out, nobody will care any more.
Lots of people are still raw about the EQ2 thing from last week. Quick summary: EQ2 is not WoW, lots of people don’t like the EQ2 character models, and the various newbie experiences need to all be equally rewarding, but otherwise, it’s still a competitive, deep, triple-A title with many unique features. Does that cover it?
Twitter was set ablaze with the news that there would be a MMO set in the world of tween vampire epic Twilight. Xav de Matos of Joystiq wrote “Twilight MMO to stop female interest in reality, threaten human race.” It appears, though, that the human race is safe — it’s only a student project. Keep making babies, folks.
Champions Online launches in about a month, and Syp over at Bio Break is cautiously excited about the game. Will it have enough innovative features to make up for the quest hub/kill ten rats gameplay? It just might!
LaTale, the new 2D action/combo-oriented MMO from Aeria Games has just entered Open Beta. It’s a pretty fun (and sometimes funny) timewaster; I’ll have more on it once I’ve played it a bit more.
And lastly, Openedge1 hates crafting. Just thought you’d want to know.
