Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Games (August 3rd, 2005)
Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games continue to grow in popularity, partially due to the increase in broadband availability and the increased complexity of the worlds available to explore. Jenn takes a look at what’s out now, what’s fun, what’s free, and what’s up with services like IGE. (13:00)
NOTICE: These almost as old as dirt OpenAlpha episodes have the original show notes below meaning plenty — if not all — of the links have been broken thanks to the decay of time and souls. Be warned!
Files: WMV (60MB)| H.264 (29MB) | MP4 (57MB) | M4V (57MB)
The MMORPGs covered in this episode were just a small subsection of what’s out there right now. Also, when looking for MMO reviews online, it’s always important to note when it was written since the game experience is usually changing. People that play Ultima Online today are exploring a vastly different world from the one that launched. Even with more recent titles, there are often expansion packs released and other tweaks made over time.
Be sure to check the official sites for more info on character classes and game mechanics and take advantage of the free trials, if available.
Games Covered in OpenAlpha Episode 2
EverQuest II
World of Warcraft (Leeroy Jenkins)
Final Fantasy XI
Guild Wars – no monthly fee
City of Heroes
Anarchy Online – free until 2006
Star Wars Galaxies
City of Villains – coming soon
Auto Assault – coming soon
Priston Tale – free until level 39
Dofus – open beta
Handy Dandy (brief) MMO Glossary
MMORPG = Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game
PvP = Player vs. Player
PvE = Player vs. Environment
Patch = a blessing and a curse. Some bugs may be fixed or content added, but it probably broke something somewhere else.
GMs = people with way cooler armor than you
FedEx Quest = messenger quest. Take a usually
worthless (un-sellable) item far away to someone who actually cares
about it, but not enough to properly reimburse you for your trouble
ding (followed by “gratz”) = you might promise yourself that you’d never type this into global chat. You’d be lying. Why shouldn’t the whole world know you gained a level?
Min/Maxer = a player more concerned with ‘winning’ than having any fun
Nerf = usually follows a patch. Something that was
once strong, by accident or design, is now as harmless as a Nerf arrow.
The fact that ranger characters seem to get nerfed frequently is just afunny coincidence