MMORPG Editorials

There are a number of reasons why a game might achieve and maintain a level of popularity. That is to say, there is no one, single area of a game that can be focused upon that will guarantee financial success. There is an area, however, that can prevent a game from achieving financial success no matter how fantastic all other aspects of the game experience are: graphics. More specifically, graphical style and art direction, as well as the quality and variety of animations that take place in normal...

The unthinkable has happened. On July 27, 2010 SOE announced that a free to play version of EverQuest 2 was on the way. Titled EverQuest 2: Extended, the game servers will be independent from the current subscription based version of EQ2. This means players are satisfied with the current payment method won’t be disturbed. This is very important since Sony has continuously claimed opposition from its current playerbase as an excuse for not going free to play. So what made them crack? My bet is that...

What’s in a name? When it comes to most MMOs, quite a bit. People often race to new servers and new games to reserve their favorite names. Whether it’s something common and frequently sought after, or something clever, or just that same alias we’ve been using online since we were fourteen, a name in an MMORPG is a pretty meaningful thing. Some people like to pick names that fit in with the setting of the game, and seamlessly mesh with the lore. Some people like to just rip...

A Few weeks ago AeriaGames asked me to do an interview for their upcoming game Legendary Champions. Since there wasn’t too much info available out there about the game, I figured doing an interview would be an awesome way for me to learn more about the game and to share that info with MMOHut readers. Anyway, on with the interview! Omer Altay (OA): Hi, This is Omer From MMOHut.com – can you please introduce yourself and tell us your position over at Aeria Games / Legendary Champions? Aeria...

In most MMORPGs, the goal of the game is to get to maximum level as soon as humanly possible. Those of us who are the type to race ahead are in a rush to get to that all-important, defining aspect of the MMO; the end-game. The end-game is what we’ve all been waiting for. The end-game, we might tell ourselves, is the point when the game truly starts to matter. The end-game counts, while everything preceding the end-game does not. The end-game is where the money is at. The end-game is where...

Which is better? Buy to play with no monthly subscription or free to play with optional micro transactions? Both are fairly new concepts amongst PC MMORPGs. Prior to Guild Wars, buy to play was non existent. Subscription based MMOs like Dark Age of Camelot, Asherons Call and Star Wars Galaxies dominated the industry. Guild Wars from NCSoft changed that. The game touted as revolutionary, and it sort of was, at least in its business model. Guild Wars, unlike Lineage 2 and City of Heroes, was hugely...

There are plenty of reasons to play MMORPGs. They’re cost-effective entertainment, they can potentially be mentally stimulating, and most of all, they are a legitimate social activity. It’s not uncommon these days to make friends with the people you play with online, and to then make arrangements to meet them. More often than not, these meetings go great! One of my best friends (forever?) I met initially on World of Warcraft. Although she and I both moved beyond playing that game...

Traditionally, browser based MMORPGs were either text based or built using Adobe Flash or Shockwave. There are dozens of high quality browser games like RuneScape that utilize these methods, and they are still popular options. But a new platform for creating browser games has emerged. It offers developers a powerful and highly versatile all-in-one tool. That tool is Unity. After several years in development, Unity Technologies released version 1.0.1 of their software on June 2005. Since then...