Stuxatte

Nice writeup. As an older MMO player, I have some fond memories of those bygone days when the themepark formula wasn't so standard in these games.

Sure, designing away all the "un-fun" stuff in an MMO isn't in and of itself a bad thing... but there's a certain charm that's been lost in the process. The vast, pixelated wastes of Asheron's Call are more compelling than all the planets of SWToR, if only because they grant that sense of being in a sizeable and unrestricted world.

Anyway, I'll try Planeshift out tonight. Get my nostalgia on for a few days.

Can you jump yet in this game? Serious question.

I'm interested in reading the full article, because the blurb doesn't make any connections between game design and game writing. It just says they have a boot camp for writers where they train them to be designers.

Unfortunately, I don't have / want a subscription to PC Gamer UK, so I guess I'll never find out exactly what Erickson means.

I can see a connection between writing and game design from the perspective of the player being guided by the story and having to make narrative choices as "gameplay."

I would therefore guess that Erickson means "writers can become mission designers." I'm not sure why you would hire or train a writer to build proxy meshes, do complex scripting, or tackle systems and UI design.

What the heck is the Jedi doing at 2:40?

Haven't played LotRO since before it went F2P, but that's a great screenshot that reminds me of how atmospheric that game is!

@Dril

Really? Well...

How many complete artifact sets do you have?

How many rare spawn achievements have you finished?

How many zone puzzles have you figured out on your own?

@tk421242

I'm not sure what the supposed link between gold farming and terrorism is, but I'm pretty sure fraudulent bank accounts are within the FBI's purview.

Ketchup Is A Vegetable.

HD-DVD Is Not Dead.

The Cake Is A Lie.

Love the game. Looking forward to this.

That said... the voice acting is killing me inside.

Wow... Ultima Martian Dreams & Savage Empire on the shelf... great games!