There’s was an interesting discussion a few days back in the MMORPG.com forums called why death penalty?”, and it started quite a long discussion regarding what death and the death penalties in RPGs are meant to do.

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While Resident Evil: 4 is not a new game by any stretch of the imagination, it’s recent release for the Nintendo Wii has stirred up fans and newcomers alike, putting it at the top of sales charts everywhere its opening weekend. We got hold of a copy, sat down and played it, and were just as amazed as everyone else at how good this game is after 2 years.

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As one of the most anticipated games of the year (if not the most anticipated in the realm of massively-multiplayer online games), there is a veil of mist surrounding exactly what it is that Age of Conan: Hyborian Adventures consists of. Is it an MMORPG? What makes it different from the big players in the field right now? Is it going to be full of little kids, or can we expect a more mature audience given the subject matter?

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With the recent explosion of new MMO’s that has occured in the last few years, the trends in the genre have certainly gone through changes. One of these fluctuations, although maybe not quite as obviously, has been the way in which these titles handle subscription fees; whether it be a controversially hefty one, or a […]

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These ideas (or rather, these suggestions) were not meant to be retrofitted into any of the games that are out there right now. They’re meant to be addressed by game designers for future games, and it looks like some game designers have already considered something like this to a degree.

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Here is where I get to talk about what fantasy means in general, and what role-playing means in particular. The main question in the quoted post revolves around whether or not there needs to be an explicit declaration of the environment and background of where the game takes place in order for a player to feel comfortable playing a given fantasy-type character.

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Virtual money, just like real-life currency, can be explained using extremely rudimentary economic concepts. The model of a market, of supply and demand shocks, of counterfeit, etc. There are several things missing from today’s role-playing environments that any real, sustainable, thriving economy would have in the real world though, and this takes away from the day-to-day reality of the game itself.

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With an amazing list of games on his record, developer Tetsuya Nomura of Square Enix has certainly come to be a driving force in their productions. Having started there in 1990, with so much history, the games he has produced have certainly changed. So we can only wonder: What will his next project be like?
Having […]

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Sony, which overtook Nintendo as the world’s biggest console maker after PlayStation 2’s introduction in 2000, suffered production delays and slow sales at its latest player. Wii’s lower price and a wand-like controller that players swing like a sword or tennis racquet helped Nintendo widen its sales lead over the PlayStation 3 in Japan last month.

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In a time where making a pc game without online capabilities is suicide, having a generous pool of out-of-house testers is an invaluable asset to a company. Any gaming company with enough skill in marketing to create the slightest amount of internet buzz about their upcoming game is sure to have more than enough hands to make quick work of the network and non-ai testable features of the game. For a given game beta, who knows how many will apply? Certainly more than are needed. The real question is: who gets to play, and who gets the shaft?

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