by Will Hindmarch | Apr 3, 2008 | Fantasy, MMOs, Musing, RPGs, Video Games
Click any image in this article for a larger version.LOTRO is rated “T for Teen” on account of tobacco and alcohol use (also violence), but the purpose of having your character drink alcohol or smoke tobacco is questionable; they have no meaningful affect...
by Will Hindmarch | Mar 11, 2008 | MMOs, Musing, RPGs, Story, Video Games
When we first started playing LOTRO at the White Wolf office, via a free trial, a lot of us thought (or feared) that the unavoidable public conditions of an MMO would ruin any sense of real immersion into a setting that intended to take itself seriously. We joked...
by Will Hindmarch | Feb 28, 2008 | MMOs, Musing, RPGs
An hour spent playing a paper-RPG is not equivalent to an hour spent playing an MMORPG. How many of one is equal to how many of the other? How many paper-RPG sessions constitute playing “a lot?” How many hours with an MMORPG does it take to constitute...
by Will Hindmarch | Feb 28, 2008 | MMOs, Musing, RPGs
An hour spent playing a paper-RPG is not equivalent to an hour spent playing an MMORPG. How many of one is equal to how many of the other? How many paper-RPG sessions constitute playing “a lot?” How many hours with an MMORPG does it take to constitute...
by Will Hindmarch | Feb 5, 2008 | MMOs, RPGs, Video Games, Writing
A new article of mine, “Confusion on Infinite (Virtual) Worlds,” went live today with the excellent Escapist Magazine: More than 500 people are roleplaying in the expanded universe of The Office by writing in-character reviews at the travel site...
by Will Hindmarch | Jan 15, 2008 | MMOs, Musing, RPGs
This World of Warcraft player is attempting to get Noor, his pacifistic gnome, through the game without killing anything. This is a crazily fascinating experiment, to be sure, and a demonstration of the gameplay flexibility inherent in an MMO like WoW. The...
