MMORPG - MMOCrunch - World of Warcraft

As an MMORPG gamer I have often thought to myself how I could make one truly awesome MMORPG. Not a big surprise, I am sure you have thought the same thing at one point or another. Let’s face it, there is nobody out there who knows what you like better than you and, as such, it only makes sense that only you could make your own perfect MMORPG, right? Well if you’ve got even the brains, will power, and determination now’s your chance.

Over the last few days I have been doing a fair amount of research on a couple of programs that allow for you to build your own MMORPG. They probably aren’t the only ones out there, but they are certainly the most prominent amongst the DIY games crowd. Of course, I am speaking of none other than PlayerWorlds and Realm Crafter. Each vary in different aspects and technological know how, but each is fairly capable at building either an MORPG or MMORPG. So, let’s get on with it:

PlayerWorlds

For those of you who have little knowledge of programming and an overall plan for an MORPG that is less grand than, let’s say, World of Warcraft then PlayerWorlds is right up your alley. Designed a few years ago the system offers you a nice combination of 2d graphics with a very easy to use system of script editing. Graphics are completely modifiable, to a certain extent of graphics rendering, and the code can be influenced directly through the SadScript file. All fascinating information for people who knows what exactly that means, I am sure.

The engine is completely free to download and use, however it comes with an EULA, basically there are stipulations of use. Sporting a healthy community many games running off the PlayerWorlds engine can be found today, such as:

• Entil Night
• Light Shade Online
• Secrets of Mirage
• Chaos Saga

All of them seem to be pretty competent games in terms of how they were created, especially the Secrets of Mirage game. I am actually going to be testing that one out sometime later. Regardless, there are many more games out there to explore (a quick Google search should help) and, while they all sport the same style of graphics, they look like they could actually be fun.

Realm Crafter

This engine is not quite as easy to use as PlayerWorlds. In fact, you should really only look at this option if you have a group of dedicated volunteers ready to help you make a game. The plus side is, however, that you’ll be able to create a fully 3d world, as opposed to the 2d worlds of PlayerWorlds. Another thing to consider is that Realm Crafter is not a free program. Coming in at $100 the game engine isn’t overly expensive, but for those who don’t want to drop a dime on their MMORPG this might not be the right choice for you.

Aside from those nitpicks, Realm Crafter definitely looks to be the better of the two engines. With a “sequel” of sorts in development now, the next version is promising to include DirectX9 graphics, dynamic lighting, bloom and tone mapping, dynamic shadows, realistic water, ripples and reflections, and a customizable GUI. No word yet on the release date or the pricing, however standard Realm Crafter owners will be able to upgrade for free.

Despite being the better engine of the two I could only find one game that is live and running off the Realm Crafter engine. However, there are reportedly many games in development using it. For those who wish to see the game in action head on over to the Apocalypse Online website. The game is 100% free, and while the graphics are certainly a bit dated the actual game doesn’t actually sound that bad.

Anyways, these are the two options I can find that will probably best suit any would-be MMO developers out there, whether you are one person or a team of volunteers. While the big games may be fun and exciting, it really is the indy games that live through the community. Support your local indy MMO scene by checking out one of these fine games today.

Today I got my latest issue of PCGamer where they played over 60 different free MMOs and selected 9 as worth playing. I figured you guys could get some good use out of this list so here it is.

Crime Craft

Sort of like GTA except with more crime and less driving around. It uses the Unreal Engine 3 and isn’t set to be released until Spring of 2009, so its about a year away but it’ll be free to play.
http://www.crimecraft.com

Mythos

No suprise to see Mythos making the list. We’ve covered Mythos before, but if you’re not familiar with it it’s a Diablo2 clone, but a MMORPG instead of a regular RPG.
http://www.mythos.com

Requiem: Bloodymare

An extremely gory and bloody horror MMORPG that lives up to its name. Originally created in South Korea the game has made its way to western audiences. Currently the game is in Beta, but will be released shortly.
http://www.playrequiem.com

Dungeon Runner

A comical MMORPG that is a lot of fun to play and is free as long as you allow them to run an ad banner while you’re playing. However for only $4.99/month you have the option to remove that.
http://www.dungeonrunners.com

Sword of the New World: Granado Espada

An MMORPG with an anime look that at one point had a monthly fee but is now free to play. Sword of the New World allows you to control up to 3 characters which separates it from all the other MMOs out there.
http://swordofthenewworld.com

Holic

Currently in open beta, Holic is a MMO with a very cutsie look. What seperates this game from others is that users are able to create there own dungeouns and quests once they get far enough into the game.
http://holic.netgame.com

Shaiya: Light and Darkness

We covered Shaiya before so its no suprise to us that PC Gamer selected it as one of the best free games out there. Shaiya concentrates on long term development of your character and heavy PvP action. If you ever played Lineage, this game is right up your alley.
http://shaiya.aeriagames.com

Fiesta

Another anime inspired MMORPG from Korea, however this one suffers from horribly translated dialog. Aside from the bad translations, Kiesta is a good looking game with solid game play.
http://fiesta.outspark.com

Cabal Online

A solid fantasy MMORPG that doesn’t really make any breakthroughs, but features good gameplay, story and PvP via duels. Considering its free to play, if you’re looking for a casual free fantasy MMO, this could be the one for you.
http://www.cabalonline.com

Before I begin, let me clarify that I do not know anybody who works in the higher ups at either Realtime Worlds, or Microsoft Game Studios. This entire post in generally just pure speculation given by the recent courses of action by the two companies in the last few months.

Anyways, now that’s out of the way, lets carry on. Is there a possibility that All Points Bulletin, Realtime Worlds newest crime MMORPG, could be getting the publishing treatment from mega-corporation Microsoft? Absolutely and it really shouldn’t come as a surprise to anybody after what we have witnessed over the last few months. Allow me to explain:

I recently wrote up a post explaining Microsoft’s enigmatic history with MMORPGs. To put it short they have a vaporous history with them. However, given that the cancellation of Marvel Universe Online occurred only a couple months ago, could Microsoft and Realtime Worlds been gearing up for a partnership? Let’s take a look at it from Microsoft’s perspective. Back in 2005 they entered into a deal with Marvel and Cryptic to make an MMO based on super heroes. Exciting stuff, right? Well maybe not for Microsoft. You see Microsoft has what many people like to call “big boy” syndrome, where in, if they can’t be the biggest in whatever field they are pursuing they usually don’t bother at all. So while City of Heroes was successful it definitely wasn’t nearly the most successful, and it was unlikely a Marvel MMO would get much more successful than CoH. Enter Realtime Worlds.

Originally announcing its game, APB, in 2006 Realtime Worlds was a very small company with no releases. After securing a publishing agreement for APB with Webzen, a Korean MMO company, it later secured a publishing agreement with Microsoft for it’s single player GTA-styled crime game Crackdown, which was met with favorable reviews. Skip ahead a couple years after Crackdown has already been released and Realtime Worlds had acquired $50 million in funding for APB and “other projects”. Using some of this money they were able to re-secure the rights for APB back from Webzen. As of now, APB is without publisher…

So where does this leave us? Well if you look at what has happened, as I have explained it, there are a few noticeable connections:

1. Microsoft no longer has any commitments to dedicate money to Marvel Ultimate Universe.
2. Realtime Worlds no longer has any commitment to Webzen.
3. Both Microsoft and Realtime Worlds have a favorable relationship, where in the latter has gone on record as saying they were “heartbroken” that Microsoft did not request them to make a Crackdown 2.

Now here is where most of my speculation will come in. With the release of GTA IV coming in next week, Microsoft knows just how important the property is. It is one of the most popular games in history, maybe even more so than Halo. Because of this, exploiting an MMO in the same scheme as GTA (and created by the creator of GTA) probably hasn’t escaped Microsoft’s ever scheming eye. After all, given the right mechanics, a GTA MMO could become more popular than WoW (you heard it here first!). Not only that, but securing this game and having it be exclusive to their Xbox 360/Games for Windows platform would make a lot of sense. The PS3 has a lot of heavy hitters coming this year, and if Microsoft really wants to step up their game this is one way to do it.

So there is my speculation and evidence. I have no real proof that this is happening, but it would make some sense. Realtime Worlds still isn’t a large enough company to publish the game on their own (even with $50 million) and Microsoft desperately needs some new exciting franchises now that Halo is wrapping up. Of course, I guess SOE could publish APB as well, but we all know what happens when they do that…

I recently had the chance to interview Atanas Atanasov, CEO of Masthead Studios, about the upcoming MMORPG Earthrise. We were also able to bribe Mr. Atanasov into providing us with a new exclusive screenshot of the Eastern Gardens in Earthrise. (right pic) Your son will be returned by midnight.

For those of you not familiar with the game, Earthrise is a sci-fi MMORPG that takes places after the Third World War where society has split into many factions, but the two major ones are Continoma and Noir. Earthrise is based completely off skills so there will be no leveling here. The combat system will use dynamic targeting much like any FPS, however this is not a MMOFPS as other skills will require players to use them as they would in any other MMORPG. Earthrise will also feature PvP and territorial control points where guilds will be able to battle over certain areas in the game to extract resources and impose there own power and rules in that region.

For more information on Earthrise, check out the site play-earthrise.com

Onto the interview:

1] In your FAQ you mention that skills are never permanently foreclosed, does this mean at any time in the game I can reallocate my skill points to change my characters skill set?

Players in Earthrise can learn all skills, but they cannot reallocate skill points. The skill usage will be limited by the equipment, which means that the player has to learn the skill first, and then equip the weapon, armor and other devices that go with the skill. All abilities and tactics, which are not supported by the equipped items will be grey (not usable].

2] Staying on topic, you mention that Earthrise is entirely skill based. Given that there are two factions, how many skills will be shared and how many will be unique?

There are two main factions in Earthrise – Continoma and Noir and many smaller ones. Players can play for one of the two factions or they can choose to be neutral or criminals. All of those choices will not affect the skills they learn, which means that no matter which side you have chosen to fight for, your skills will be the same. Faction items are another story. There will be weapons and armor, which will be available only to members of a certain faction.

3] I read that there will be full looting in Earthrise? How does the looting system work? In what scenario could someone loot all my equipment?

Full looting in Earthrise will be possible, but for players who are careful or willing to spend money, it won’t be a problem. If player A kills player B, player B is resurrected at a resurrection site. If player B has insured all of his items, his former body is empty and player A has nothing to loot, but player B needs to reinsure his items, which costs money of course. If there are uninsured items in player B’s body, he will have several seconds time to pay at the resurrection site and get his items back. This decision will cost much more than a simple insurance. It is for those people who have forgotten to insure their items or are willing to take the risk and go in the wilderness with uninsured items. If player B doesn’t pay for his uninsured items or the waiting time passes, player A can loot everything which remains in player B’s corpse.

4] Considering Earthrise is set in the future, how does it handle transportation? You mention personal hovercraft’s in your FAQ, but will there be air transportation or a quicker way to travel?

Many variations of personal hovercrafts will be available in the game. There will also be teleportation points scattered across the island that will need money to operate. We are also considering some skills and items for faster transportation, but there is no final decision on that yet.

5] Since characters in Earthrise will not gain levels, how will this affect what type of armor or weapons players can use? If I pump all my skill points into weapons, will I be able to use the most powerful weapons within a few hrs of playing?

Players in Earthrise will have wide choice of weapons and armor, but their use will be limited by their character’s genetic code, or their physical attributes - Physique and Intellect. Players will be able to modify their current genetic condition anytime, and it will cost them money depending on the amount of the change itself. Small changes will have affordable costs, while turning a battlefield brute into Einstein will be a massive investment. That being said, it will not be possible to make a new character, and be immediately approached by a guild that shoves the most powerful weapon in the game into your hands and sends you on the field. That would throw the balance of the game off the scales in favor of whoever has the most money or weaponry to entice newbies. Instead, we make sure that players are able to use moderately powerful weapons after a small gaming investment, and everything else onward requires players to actually play to unlock the features of the game.

6] Will newbies be able to kill veteran players with a lucky shot or if they catch them off guards? Or will the skills learned greatly improve veteran players making it so beginners have no chance?

Absolutely! Earthrise is a PvP-centric game, and that means that players should always have a chance to score a successful kill on other players, given that they have the skill and strategy to pull it off. The way we allow that is by emphasizing a variety of options and combinations, thus tactics themselves, over power level. Players who advance their characters will not grow so powerful that newbies won’t have a chance no matter what they do; instead they will have more options. More options means better combinations, but only if the veteran player can use these combinations wisely. If they don’t, one or a couple newbies who use their limited set of abilities in a smart way have a greater opportunity of taking that veteran down.

7] You mention that players will be able to have careers that advance while offline? Is there a limit to how much a player can advance? What part will careers play in the big picture of Earthrise?

The offline advancement system has a more social approach. Players can educate and have a profession in Earthrise, which will give them social standing and constant income. The income will be significantly less compared to the one they can make during online play, but it will be enough to compensate all those people who don’t have the time to be online for hours and hours every day. The social standing of the players will allow them to gain some rewards from the factions they work for.

8] Territory control is a big part of the PvP in Earthrise allowing guilds to extract resources from the territory. However do you think there is any danger to 1 or 2 very large guilds controlling and holding most of the territories in the games?

The vast open space on the island of Enterra where territory control will take place will have hundreds of locations for building a base. The more territories the guild has the more vulnerable it will be. It will be very difficult to control such a large territory where smaller guilds will fight for their chunk of the pie and mutants will try to reconquer what was taken from them. The situation, which you mention in your question may also reflect the real world, where many empires have fallen due to tribes and smaller nations invading their borders, riots and internal problems.

9] From the screenshots I’ve seen, the game looks absolutely amazing. Will Earthrise use DX10 technology? Will there be real world physics in the game?

Yes, we are planning to implement DX10 technology and real world physics, although the physics will not be as advanced as the modern 3D shooters.

Thank you for taking the time out to answer these questions for us.

Many of you may not know it, but Microsoft has actually had their hands in quite a few MMORPG projects within the past few years. No stranger to the videogame marketplace in general, it only seemed to make sense that one of the largest providers of consoles and games would also begin to dabble in the increasingly profitable (for some!) MMO business. However, after attempting to take on three separate projects over the last five years one was sold off, and the other two were killed off and left what could only be described as a very shallow grave. I am, of course, speaking of Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Mythica, and Marvel Universe Online.

Announced back in 2002 Mythica was Microsoft’s first attempt at making an MMORPG. It was actually quite a neat sounding game at that. Based on the legends and lore of Norse mythology your character would actually be a “demi god” that was able to wipe out multiple enemies at once. Something that still hasn’t been done today. Unfortunately, just over a year in development, Microsoft was sued by Mythic Entertainment due to the name, Mythica, being to close to Mythics own name. Worries that the consumer would get confused were the primary reasons for the lawsuit. Then on May 25th of 2004, Microsoft officially canceled the title citing a competitive MMORPG environment as the main cause, although rumours still swirl today that the lawsuit was what actually cause Microsoft to call the game quits.

Microsoft’s other fantasy MMO, Vanguard, was not to be killed off but rather sold off. Beginning development in 2002, Sigil Entertainment and Microsoft entered into a partnership that had Sigil developing the game with Microsoft publishing/owning the rights to the game. However, due to Brad McQuaid’s inability to show Microsoft what they wanted on the original timeline provided they eventually began bickering about the project. Then in May 2006, Sigil acquired the name back from Microsoft, much to Microsoft’s joy, and proceeded to work on the game in their own manner  securing a publishing agreement with SOE instead of Microsoft. In the end, however, not even SOE would continue funding the game and as such it was released in a “beta” stage that has forever cursed the game to oblivion.

Finally, we have Marvel Universe Online. Perhaps Microsoft’s most ambitious MMO project to date and yet still it could not be escape it’s inevitable cancellation date. Announced back in 2005, Marvel and Microsoft, in association with Cryptic Studios (devs behind the famous City of Heroes MMO),  began work on the “next gen” super hero Marvel MMORPG. Stating that the game would cover over 60 years worth of marvel comics it really comes as little surprise that the game was canceled in less than 3 years. At this point Microsoft was already creating quite a reputation for its MMO business and after a year with no new information people already began development of this project. Like Mythica, in 2008, Microsoft canceled the project due to “an inability to compete with the current MMO marketplace.” Today most of the same work done on the Marvel MMO can be found in Champions Online, Cryptics newest super hero MMORPG.

So that pretty much wraps up Microsoft’s MMO history. They also helped in operating the Asheron’s Call games, of which one was canceled, but beyond that there really isn’t anything more to add. It’s actually quite odd that Microsoft has given up on every MMO they have personally pursued. Especially considering that every MMO seems to have been given up on as a result of Microsoft not having enough faith in the franchise for it to be successful. Sounds like somebody might need to start talking to a counselor…

For all of you that have been dying to get into the Beta, you’ll only have to wait a bit longer. On May 1st via FilePlanet.com you’ll be able to signup to open beta which is mainly to stress test and get ready for the May 20th launch. Being mainly a stress test, Funcom is limiting the content that will be available and will be limiting characters to level 13. So while you won’t be able to do any of the cool stuff, you’ll at least get a chance to see something.

I was able to get into the beta a few months ago, but I didn’t really get very far. I think I reached level 16 with my highest character, then there was a character wipe and I only replayed to around lev 6, which is where I’m now. I haven’t played in over a month, but I’m updating my client right now and will write a preview of the game soon. Its less than a month away and with open beta coming the NDA will be lifted soon if it hasn’t been lifted already.

One of the most profitable businesses in the video games industry today is not a developer, designer, publisher, or even console manufacturer. Not to say all of the aforementioned are unsuccessful, but certainly they have not yet achieved the same kind of success as this one. In today’s video gaming world, GameStop reigns supreme as the most successful video game retailer in the world.

You’d think, by looking at the store from outside, that selling the new games is where they get all their money. You’d be wrong. The main reason for GameStop’s profitability lies in its business to buy and resell used games. It’s an incredibly profitably business and one that GameStop has mastered. Unfortunately, there are still games that consumers are unable to sell: MMORPGs.

When you are done with that shiny new Xbox 360, or PS3 game what do you typically do with it? Well, if your anything like me, you start shopping around to trade it in towards your next victim purchase. This can be done with a few PC games as well (provided they don’t have any pesky online copy right protection). Unfortunately, you can’t do the same with your ever growing MMORPG collection. Due to having an account linked to the actual disc it makes it virtually impossible to sell the actual disc when you do finally get bored of the game. A shady practice by the MMO gaming industry, but one that is quite often overlooked.

So why is this even happening? After all, developers and publishers allow you to sell console games. The music industry allows you to sell your long forgotten CDs. Even the movie industry allows you to sell movies to your friends. This is all a common practice amongst out economy and it’s something that these organizations know is happening.

Well, to be honest, I can’t even begin to tell you what the motivation for each company might be. Some people claim that the CD can’t be used for another account to keep thefts in line. After all, if your account is automatically linked to the CD then selling it could cause your account to be opened up for theft. However, the whole problem would be avoided if your account was never linked in the first place. Perhaps there is a missing piece in the equation that I can’t see, but from my perspective the entire thing wreaks of greed.

Thoughts? Comments? Flames? Let’a rip!

With the somewhat recent mega-popularity of games like Grand Theft Auto, and Saint’s Row it seems like it was only an inevitability that somebody who begin to make an MMO based on these types of games. So it really came as no surprise when I found out that Crackdown developer, Realtime Worlds, was making their own GTA styled MMO called: All Point’s Bulletin. In addition to APB, however, Vogster Entertainment has come out and announced their own crime MMO called CrimeCraft. Both are promising to have fun, interactive GTA styled gameplay with thousands of friends, but there are inherent problems within that equation.

What are your top five favorite things about games like GTA or Saint’s Row? Well, if you are anything like me it pretty much goes in this order:

1. Blow stuff up
2. Cause some havoc
3. Drive around to find some neat stunts to pull off
4. Complete some heavily story driven gangster missions
5. Explore the city

Fun stuff right? Well, unfortunately, most of these things will either be near-impossible in an MMO form, or completely dumbed down to the brink of impossibility.

As of today there is no MMO out there that will allow you to destroy things with explosives, and certainly they won’t allow you to clutter up world with useless junk. In any GTA/Crackdown type of game when you go on a rampage you get to see your destruction litter the streets. It’s almost a monument to your greatness. In an MMO this type of gameplay would be near impossible for two reasons: first, everything has to run through the server so the server will want to automatically delete these things as soon as they are destroyed to free up the cache. Just like how corpses don’t stick around for too long in WoW, a smoldering car won’t stick around for too long in either of these games. Second, the developers won’t want players blocking off large sections of the city for their own personal needs. Because of this they will have measures stopping people from this type of gameplay. You can’t have one player blocking off an entire street for his/her own enjoyment. Other players will get angry and the game will lose it’s popularity.

Today’s MMOs aren’t heavily story driven, for good reason too. An MMO can’t really have a heavy story because players don’t particularly care for that style of gameplay within a world. Enemies respawn, and generally no matter how many times you kill X monster, or Y gang leader they will always come back, unlike in a single player game where if you kill something it stays dead. No matter how you look at it, GTA and Saint’s Row were both heavily story driven games. As you rise from anonymity to becoming the gang leader you have to take on a number of heavily story driven missions. Because MMOs can’t really do this, it doesn’t look like any crime MMO will feature the same type of story driven mechanics.

Finally, let me ask you this: how fast is your current MMO of choice? If you play WoW, PotBS, or even EVE Online you’ll probably note that the game is actually fairly slow. In generaly, most MMOs are very slow games. Auto Assault may have been the difference but look where it is at now. A crime MMO like GTA will have to be a very fast paced game, and I just can’t see an MMO living up to that expectation from it’s players. If the game turns out to be too slow gamers will drop it in favor of returning to their old single player GTA sandbox games.

None of these problems are impossible to take on, but they represent huge problems in the face of an emerging MMO genre. Can Realtime Worlds, or Vogster Entertainment take them on? After seeing some videos of APB in action, I can rest a little easier that they are at least on the right direction. However, those same videos also showed just how much farther they have to go. Making a crime MMORPG could just be the hardest idea to manifest into an actual game today…

Thanks for reading.

Starwars Galaxies

Probably the biggest disappointment in MMORPG history. The Starwars universe just screams MMORPG, how can you possible mess up a game like this. Well we all got the answer when the game was released on June 20, 2003. No Jedis, no space combat and boring quests. Seriously, are you sure this is based on Starwars? It would be 7 MONTHS before the first player unlocked the Jedi class and another 9 months for the first expansion, Jump to Lightspeed, allowed players to finally jump into the pilots seat of an X-wing or TIE fighter. Future changes to the combat system and a reduction of playable professions would completely lay waste to what was so far a decent game. However there is no arguing that even it you consider Starwars Galaxies a good game, it should no doubt have been one of the best MMORPG of all time.

Matrix Online

What can I say about the Matrix Online, another franchise that should feel right at home being a MMORPG. However when The Matrix Online launched it seems Agent Smith was wreaking havoc because the game was extremely buggy. Reports of crashes, random disconnects, being stuck in walls and falling through the world are just a few. Aside from the bugs the missions were painfully repetitive. Go here, find something or someone, perhaps kill them, come back. Rinse and repeat. To make things worse all the buildings looked similar and were very boring to explore. However the biggest disappoint was that you don’t actually fight the machines or agents. Seriously that’s like Starwars with no Jedis, oh wait.

Planetside

This is one game that definitely did not reach its full potential. Hundreds of players in a FPS fragging each other for territory with a crap load of weapons and vehicles to choose from, whats not to like. Unfortunately this game wouldn’t be on this list if there wasn’t anything wrong with it. Planetside’s problem was that the terrain was boring, all the bases looked the same and no one ever won. It was just a three way tug-o-war battle that would rage on forever. Future expansions added new mech vehicles that altered the games balance and not in a good way. Planetside unfortunately never recovered and is a dying game. Perhaps the upcoming Huxley or Earthrise can fulfil all our MMOFPS desires.

Dungeons & Dragons Online

For many D&D fans, this was the MMORPG they were waiting for, too bad for them it was just an average game. D&D Online concentrated on group play, the problem with that is many players that were looking to solo couldn’t and unless you were in a large guild or had a lot of online friends you would spend almost as much time looking for groups as you would playing. Lack of content and repeating quests is also a major issue. It doesn’t matter how good the dungeons look, after a dozen times your going to get bored. Speaking about dungeons I think they should have called the game Dungeons & More Dungeons Online.

According to Mike Smith, of Yahoo! Games, World of Warcraft may just be the largest corporation on the planet. Many of you, of course, are looking at that statement and quietly laughing to yourself, but does it actually hold any merit? When you look at WoW from afar you’ll notice that it shares very little with corporations. In fact, much of the article seems to point WoW in the direction as being compared to a nation, as opposed to a corporation. So where does this logic come from?

Well, as Mike states, you can actually invest in the game from a character side of things. This basically means that when you create a character on a WoW server you are actually investing time into what could become a potentially profitable margin. Look at it this way: the World of Warcraft is the largest and most successful pay to play MMORPG ever. As such there is a high demand for the game and for the game’s commodities. Even now you can go to any number of websites and buy gold with dollars, euros, or pounds. This means that the WoW gold actually has a worth value amongst regular society. So, when you are out farming for gold in the Burning Steppes you are actually earning, essentially, money. Anything that can be converted into money as as good as money after all.

However, that said, the article faulters on actually convincing me that WoW is more of a corporation than a nation. You see, in WoW, the players are more like citizens. They live in a world and pay a certain amount per month (just like citizens who pay taxes every year). Also like a nation, the WoW community makes and sells things to each other; just like the grocery store down the street, who gets it’s vegetables from farmers a hundred miles away, will sell you those same vegetables. In a corporation, the entire workforce is making/producing items to sell to an outside entity. The World of Warcraft players are not selling anything to people who don’t play. Based on these observations, you’d be hard pressed in convincing anybody that WoW is a corporation…

Regardless of what WoW actually is (corporation, nation, game), the article is still a fascinating read. I urge you to check it out and to comment back here with your own ideas and thoughts on the matter. Is it completely silly to be comparing WoW to any of these extra-bodily organizations? You tell me…

Thanks for reading!

You can check out the full article HERE.