You’ve created characters to play in MMOs, but have you ever actually wanted to be a permanent part of one? Tom Purdue over at The Friendly Necromancer finally got to live out his dream of being a part of Wizard101 — as a smack-talking bear.
“Now ya gotta understand,” he wrote. “For seven years, I had been bugging TJ, Mike, and anybody else in the creative and sound teams to find a way to put me in the game. I think I even begged for it to happen a couple times on KI Live. In fact, when the Avalon expansion was released, I actually tried my hand at auditioning for a vocal part, but I didn’t make the cut. So this was a pretty big deal for me.”
Diary of a Guild Leader: WoW Classic raiding
“Raiding in World of Warcraft was originally the hardest form of content to complete. Getting 40 people to work together and perform the steps necessary to kill a raid boss was a huge challenge 15 years ago. Going back to WoW Classic today is much different. Players that have played MMOs know what is expected of them. You have less people deviating from the plan because they know in general that if they follow instructions, the boss will die and loot will drop.”
24 Hours In: What’s in the box?
“As I near the end of my 24 hours in Neverwinter I feel like I should write a post about one of the more controversial aspects of this game – lockboxes. Cryptic gets a lot of criticism for its monetization, in Neverwinter and its other MMOs, but is it deserved? Speaking at least for Neverwinter, I don’t think it is.”
“Some MMORPGs have some pretty wonderful or memorable items that you can use to give your character a temporary benefit or bonus. Some of the items on my World of Warcraft account are to precious to me to ever discard even if they’re functionally useless. Items like the Everlasting Underspore Frond is such a cherished item, even if it ceased to be useful after the Wrath of the Lich King era due to stat inflation since. Such trinkets have nostalgia value to them if nothing else.”
Where the Monsters Are: Remembering a friend of Middle-earth
“This article is not about my friend’s death but about how I remember his life. I have lived away from this group of friends for a long time, and much of my interaction with them is through online gaming. To some extent it still is, though we play less and less these days. And similarly, when I play LOTRO, as cheesy as it sounds, I remember my departed friend.”
Why I Game: Tapas all the things
“And the same ‘what’s the point?’ argument could be made for single player games as well. Does any progress or learning in a game matter? Is it just about the journey and the experience? One could also have a journey and probably -multiple- experiences in a multiplayer game too.”
Contains Moderate Peril: MMO etiquette
“Use public chat channels for the purposes they were created for. I.e., restrict trade inquiries to trade channels, for example. And remember players have usually logged into an MMO to play the game and not listen to your ‘armchair views’ of identity politics, the Eucharist and its theological implications, and Etruscan pottery. Confine your bloviations on the contentious to private channels.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
