Udo's Techblog

The State of Online Gaming



Current online RPGs are statically created, they are designed and guided by a human hand all the way. GMs and game designers create "zones", "spawn points" and scripted events to build the game world. Furthermore, most game worlds are devided into servers that are running copies of the same, static world. The main focus these days is on fancy 3D and cloning of superficial features of successful games like Everquest and Asheron's Call.





My main grope with online worlds comes mainly from the limitations of simulations as they are done today. Online games are still very much designed like single player first person shooters, and because multiplayer features require some additional heavy restrictions on the world design, most games count on player-to-player interaction to build a successful game - to make up for features the simulation does not provide by itself.