Living Online - The MMORPG (part one)

Now there is a big buzz for online gaming currently with the market going ape over the success of World of Warcraft. Since I play WOW (as it is shorthanded) I think I’ll give you all a little peak into what it is to play a Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game (MMORPG).

There has been internet gaming since the First Bulletin Boards appeared as a pre-cursor to ‘Internet’ most of these games were text based MUSHs or MUDs. These had evolved from the early Adventure games where you would load up the computer (from a Cassette drive) and start a game like this:

You are in a Dark Dungeon – Slime drips from the walls

There are exits NORTH and SOUTH

There is a BROKEN SKELETON here

What do you want to do?

(to which you would Type) LOOK SKELETON

It is Holding A KEY

What do you want to do?

(to which you would Type) GET KEY

You pick up the Key

What do you want to do?

(to which you would Type) GO NORTH

You are in a Dungeon Cell – There is the Faint Smell of rat Droppings

There is an exit SOUTH

What do you want to do?

You get the picture?

Well a MUSH or MUD was just this with many people playing at once – the computer kept track of where players were within the game and they could interact, text style.

With the Renaissance of the internet in the early 2000 as faster internet connections and streamlined information sending processes, online gaming can be sped up or quite complex.

Online games like Counterstrike allowed people to pit themselves against each other in a Terrorist / Counter-terrorist hostage situation and its simplicity allowed for the game to develop quite a following.

The Fantasy Genre has quite a following online and games that use that framework were probably the obvious subject matter for an MMORPG. Until now the most popular has been Ultima Online or Everquest. These games gave a graphical punch though following the same basic principals of MUSHs and MUDs, a Game that allows players to quest in a fantasy world populated by other players working together or against each other using their online alter-ego

The game company Blizzard joined the ranks of the online gaming community with the introduction of Warcraft 2, which was played across the Blizzards dedicated ‘Battlenet’ server. Warcraft 2 itself is a RTS or real-time strategy game where players controlled warbands of troops against other players in head to head battles to the death. With the success of games such as Everquest Blizzard decided to look into the MMORPG format.

I’ll give you a little bit of meat on the warcraft Universe so you don’t get confused when I start babbling about all the different Things. Part of the Fun of any RPG is the Story so bear with me here

The world of Azeroth is a stock standard Tolkienesque fantasy realm with knights, sorcerers, castles and kingdoms. In its timeline 30 years ago a mad wizard breached the fabric between worlds and let the Orc Horde, corrupted troops of the demonic Burning Legion invade. Over that 30 years the orcs and humans have clashed and warred, strategically moving across the continent of Azeroth gaining allies and establishing kingdoms.

This has been played out in the Warcraft realtime strategy game and provides a wealth of back-story cumulating in Warcraft III.

About 7 years ago a leader rose amongst the Orcs and helped them throw off dominion of the Burning Legion. The Burning Legion (a little pissed) sent a plague across the northern kingdom of Loerderon and killed almost the entire population and then proceeded to raise them as the undead Scourge.

The Orcs, Humans, Elves and Dwarves fled in all directions as the scourge decimated all life in its path. The Orcs took a fleet of ships and eventually landed in the undiscovered continent of Kalimdor and set up a new kingdom.

Eventually all the races were forced together to destroy the might of the Burning Legion at the end of Warcraft III.

So Setting up the World of Warcraft. We enter the game 6 years after that final battle and the races have all returned to their respective corners to lick their wounds – but old prejudices die hard and conflict drive the World of Warcraft.

Now to the Game itself

First thing you will find is you are given a log-in screen – you have to create a server account with Blizzard before you can use the game. This account currently costs about AU$20 a month with 24/7 access (which is good when you consider that a movie is $15 for about 90mins worth of entertainment) The other thing to consider in terms of that money is that you have already bought the game (Currently $50 at Electronics Boutique) and that there are currently 7 million other subscribers. A lot of money is being thrown around. Once logged in you are given a list of Realm (server) types depending on your playing style

PVP or Player Versus Player – is set up for exactly that – players are in constant conflict (except in safe zones) and are at the mercy of the might of other players.

PVE or Player versus Environment is aimed for those people less into the Conflict side of things and are more about pitting themselves against the game – PVP exists within this game but it is switch-able, on and off, so you choose when to be vulnerable to other players.

RP or Role-Playing is similar in framework to PVE but the focus is on the interaction. Players chat within the game as though their characters were interacting (as opposed to players talking to each other) for instance Mike who is playing the knight ‘Ellesly’  would speak as he figures Ellesly would – rather than “Hey Guys lets head out and beat up some Orcs” it would sound more like “Well Friends, the orcs on our border are causing much havoc of late, let us ride out and give them a whipping.” RP tends to be more story and social driven but these elements are driven by the players not the game itself

There is a fourth Realm type RP/PVP which is basically to PVP what RP is to PVE.

Each realm is a Copy of the World of Warcraft universe. Players can interact with only other players in their specific realm. Other realms are kept separate and distinct.

Once you have chosen a realm (and therefore a play style) you are loaded into the game where you create your character (also called an Avatar or Toon.) characters are extremely customisable.

There are two ‘sides’ you can take, Alliance or Horde. There are 8 races (Species) – the four races forming the alliance are Human, Night-elf, Gnome and Dwarf and the four Horde races are Orcs, Trolls, Tauren and Undead. All the races have a unique look and style as well as unique in-game abilities. For example Trolls are a physical race they have bonuses to Strength and Agility which adjusts skills and feats within the game, they also regenerate Damage faster than other races due to their constitution.

From there you choose a Class – One of Warrior, Hunter, Mage, Priest, Druid, Paladin, Shaman, Rogue or Warlock - each with a unique combination of Weapon craft, Sorcery and Special Abilities. For instance – Hunters have a Focus on ranged combat so get bonuses to Bow and Gun skills and a few Spells that enhance these abilities. Hunters also gain the ability to tame many of the wild animals within the game and can use this pet to help them out – the pet can be trained in many ways and you can use them to help you get out of sticky situations. Bears, Wolves Velociraptors are only 3 of a score of pet types to choose from. Once you have a Race and Class you can customise the look of your character to something your like – colour of skin, hair length/style, features (beards or jewellery) and the features of the characters face.

From there you give your character a unique name and save the character.

All elements of the character are saved on the realm server – so if you wiped your PC or played on a friends PC as long as you remember your password and login you will be able to play with your character.

Once you have a character you can log in to the Game itself.

Phew. Lets take a breather and cover the rest tomorrow