Features

In this installment, Jonathan Steinhauer looks at the last MMO class archetypes, the Healer, and why this role at least is solidly developed.

Our colleagues over at Allakhazam have a two-part interview up with Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's Live Producer Destin Bales. It's a pretty good read, so head on over and check it out!

With Warhammer Online: Age of Reckoning's first major content update set to go live today, members of the WAR team found some time in their busy schedules to speak with WarCry Editor John Funk about Patch 1.1 and the goodies inside it - new live events, an overhauled open-world RvR system, and of course the addition of two previously cut careers.

Crafting remains one of the most tedious aspects of MMOs. For most players, trade skills are a nice addition to the gaming experience but we'd rather not quit our adventuring "day job" for long hours at a time to keep up on crafting. Trade skills are generally time consuming, tedious, and devoid of player skill when they should be enjoyable, not just for the rewards they offer at the end of the hard work, but because the hard work is fun in and of itself.

When Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, wrote "The road goes ever ever on," MMOs took him at his word. A large part of online gaming consists of traveling from one point to another, but when it takes so much time to get anywhere, frustration mounts. If I'm picking up a book or alt-tabbing to web surf or check e-mail instead of playing the game, there is something wrong with the dynamics.

Character stories area told in MMOs so frequently we often don't even recognize them for what they are. They will exist whether there are active world stories or not. Such tales survive even if they are completely ignored by the devs. But as with all things in gaming, with proper attention character stories can be made stronger.

While advances in world story are promising in the arena of PvP, the other aspects of MMOs have suffered neglect. If "the pen is mightier than the sword" then why are players only able to use swords? The answer is that the devs won't let go of the pen.

Allen 'Delsyn' Rausch of GameSpy sits down with Josh Drescher, Associate Producer of Warhammer Online in this latest interview. The interview topics include: server queues, class balance, and stealing from Games Workshop.

Get the full scoop here.

MMO worlds are stagnant. They have cardboard cutout monsters and NPCs that stand in their assigned space. Players knock the monsters down like a fantastical shooting range, but after a few minutes, the pulleys whir, the monsters stand up, and the world reverts to its static state. On a micro level where thousands of players are sharing the same game space, this is to be expected. The problem is that it also exists at a macro level and constantly echoes in the background, "This world is not real... this world is not real..."

After a hiatus for PAX, Jonathan Steinhauer's column returns with a new series on the Elements of the Game. First, though, is an in depth comparison of WoW and LOTRO and what it means for the Future of MMOs.