Experience Points: Living In a Living World

Each week, Chris "Syeric" Coke gives his unfiltered thoughts on the MMO industry. Taking on the news and hottest topics, Chris brings his extensive experience as a player and blogger to bear in Experience Points. This week he looks at Guild Wars 2 and what it means to really offer a living world in an MMORPG.

There was a time in the not-so-distant past when “MMORPG” was synonymous with Virtual World. Players approached these games as they would a looming mountain; mysterious silhouettes growing larger with each passing footstep, things that existed before and would exist after and promised adventure deep in its hidden recesses. But somewhere along the line that mountain shrank. MMOs became slaves to their own accessibility, cannibalizing the very intrigue that catapulted them to success. The virtual world faded before cardboard sets and theme park rides. ArenaNet wants to change that. Its goal is, as Chris Whiteside explained, to push Guild Wars 2 as close to a living, breathing world as any MMO has yet come. I’m not sure that’s possible.

Lord British Seeks New Worlds to Conquer - Again

I spoke with Richard Garriott, the creator of immortal games such as Ultima and Ultima Online, and the more recent Tabula Rasa, recently and he pointed me to the website of his new startup venture, Portalarium (www.portalarium.com). Along with four of his buddies from Origin and NCSoft he has started this new studio to bring "Premium Games to the Social Web". He stated that it will be as much as a year before we see the first solid product of this collaboration, although some parts of it are slated to be "out there" by the end of this year. Lord British has made his mark several times over by re-inventing gaming. I can only assume that this adventure will be no different. This is a company to keep an eye on.