The Importance of a Good GUI

This past weekend, Steam launched their Free-To-Play service for several games. I picked up three MMOs that I hadn't played before at all. Since then, I've played Champions Online, Forsaken Worlds and Spiral Knights.

Of them all, I still prefer my UI in WoW on a patch day with all of my addons enabled. Yes, they're that bad. Well, almost that bad.

Creating an MMO (Part 1)

This will probably end up being a multi-part series so I'll preemptively call it part one. So a good MMORPG has lots of critical bits, and it is important to not miss any while designing the game. You want the game to sell, either as a subscription game or as free-to-play, and the model you choose shapes the way the game is designed.

Some of the qualities a good MMO has are:

1. An engaging story
2. Quality PvE encounters from level 1 to the cap.
3. An achievable end game
4. Balanced PvP throughout the game
5. Replayability
6. A rewards system for those who have done 'everything'
7. And probably a lot more.