Last Week on Massively: WoW-related stories
by Michael Zenke 
Feb 10th 2009 at 9:00AM
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The World outside Warcraft Blizzard's fantasy title World of Warcraft is everywhere these days, perhaps the only title to really pierce the veil between MMOs and mainstream media. For some massively multiplayer online gamers, WoW is the end-all be-all of titles out there. Can over 11 million people be wrong? |
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Is World of Warcraft a religion? Just when you thought you had heard it all, MMO gamers are now being called religious zealots. According to Theo Zijderveld, a grad student at the University of Colorado, gamers who experience online worlds "like World of Warcraft and Second Life" are doing so to transcend their physical bodies and "realize a new identity in cyberspace". |
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Scott Jennings puts a cap on the whole "Fixing MMOs" thing Tom Chick pointed out five things that are broken with MMOs (interesting because he doesn't really like MMOs). Scott Jennings responded by saying not all MMOs are WoW. Tim Dean then supported Tom's original statements, offering ten ways to fix MMOs. |
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WAR population numbers revealed, but what do they mean? When Mythic Entertainment released Warhammer Online on September 18, 2008, it quickly became the fastest selling MMORPG ever. A month after release, they announced WAR had registered 750,000 players and people were buzzing that it may actually make a noticeable dent in World of Warcraft's armor. But as the expression goes: good things usually don't last. |
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Official Champions DevBlog: Design Director Bill Roper on Storytelling If you're interested in following the insights straight from the team make sure to follow our very own Champions Developer blogger, who will be doing the honors of posting your bi-weekly dose of DevBlog goodness. |
Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, News items, Features
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
snowleopard233 Feb 10th 2009 9:15AM
How are the last two articles wow related?
AyaJulia Feb 10th 2009 1:21PM
You guys linked the "is WoW a religion" post on last week's Massively post -AND- in its own special article right here on WI.
Jyotai Feb 10th 2009 3:18PM
Guild Wars has the solution to aggro:
Body Blocking. If I stand here, you can't. And it that's the only way to get over there, you can't go there. But if you shove me, I will slide away if I'm not resisting (afk) or don't have walls on my side.
Its officially not a true MMO, but other than a subscription fee it has every feature of an MMO... and now many MMOs don't have that... so... whatever...
Anyway, this massive, multiplayer, online game, has no aggro system. The melee toons have to blody block to keep mobs off of the ranged toons.
I've spent years playing monks in Guild Wars. That's the nearly no armor, no useful weapon, healing class. And the mob AI is designed to 'geek the healer first and hardest.'
We pull, and everything runs straight for me.
And suddenly the melee guys get in the way, make a wall, trip the archers, silence the casters, and so on... and... I live, get off my heals, and we continue.
Its kind of like when I play a cleric in table top DnD... :)
The "DM" in Guild Wars plays mean, but the game gives the characters the tools to fight back. We can block, the combat maps have obstructions we can hide behind, or use to form body walls, we can trip, disarm, silence, and so on...
But, so can the mobs. :)
Jyotai Feb 10th 2009 3:19PM
Um... that was related to the capping MMOs thing, but I guess it doesn't make sense here. No delete or edit button though.