Some massively multiplayer games have voice overs (recordings of real people speaking game dialogue) for their non-player characters. Some are good, some are bad, some are just meh. In some games, virtually everything is voiced, from the random NPC on the corner to the kings and queens of the world. In others, only the important things are voiced, such as cinematics or NPCs particularly relevant to a game’s story. Is this wasted time, money, and effort on the part of game companies, or does it add enough to a game that it should be pursued? Continue Reading »

One of the unintended consequences of player ownership in an MMO, especially in a PvP MMO, is that GMs have a hard time being unbiased. In a game like Darkfall, where control of limited territory is the name of the game, any GM who plays the game is going to be hard pressed to remain impartial. If their city is under siege and an attacker petitions because he’s stuck, how fast will the GM help this stuck player take their town? Continue Reading »

Curt Schilling, the big man here at 38 Studios, has officially retired from baseball. Congratulations on an amazing career in baseball, and welcome to your full-time career as a game creator. He’s made 38 an incredible place to work even with baseball ever-present in his mind. Now that he’s dedicated fully to his family and the company, I can’t wait to see what happens!

EverQuest, arguably the most influential MMO in history, launched 10 years ago on March 16th, 1999. It took me a few weeks to leave Ultima Online and try this terrible, crappy, 3D game that required me to purchase a Matrox Mystique to play. And I found my second love. The game had a soul, and even though I couldn’t rampantly prey upon other players, I enjoyed the world and discovered my unflinching love for the Bard class. No game has matched the flavor and depth of EQ ever since. Well… not yet. Happy belated birthday, EverQuest.

The long queue times are a product of three main problems. One can be fixed with money, and the other two with a little creativity. Because the queue times suck, people stay in the game and go AFK instead of logging out. Because people stay in the game instead of logging out, the queue times suck. It’s self-fulfilling. Plus, people often go AFK and macro using an external program or simply use in-game mechanics (like auto-running into a wall to train Run) to advance while AFK. But these problems can be fixed! Continue Reading »