In today’s MMORPG world most people belong to a guild. It makes sense, after all, these games are primarily made so you don’t have to be alone anymore when completing quests and running errands. Nobody wants to be alone, right?

Now with all these guilds and MMORPGs being made, there has been an influx of guild websites, or guildsites, springing up across the intertubes. Primarily, these websites are being made via free guildsite hosters such as GuildPortal (above) and Guildsites.com for the sole purpose of giving the members of said guilds an area on the web where they can access information about their raids, members, forums, etc without actually having to log into the game. A brilliant idea, in theory, but is it actually a useful feature?

Personally, I have been in quite a few guilds over about 7 different MMORPGs, and while a lot of them had guildsites for our guild, I never used them. As far as my knowledge went, most people inside my guilds didn’t use them either. Its not that it was inconvenient to use, or that it wasn’t helpful, it’s just when I was surfing the internet, why go to a site to find out about my guild when I can just s easily log in. Perhaps it is mainly used for people while they are at work? You tell me.

There has always been a lot of competition between the eastern world and western world ever since the great Opium Wars in the 1800s. It takes place in our culture, technology, and, now, our MMORPGs. It has always stricken me as odd that our world has been divided into this us vs. them mentality and even now as we play our World of Warcrafts and Lineages we can’t help but get sucked into the eternal debate all over again. So which side is right?

If you were to take a look at our current MMORPG gaming scheme right now you’d notice there are already a vast amount of differences in not only how eastern and western MMORPGs play, but also how they are managed. Eastern MMOs tend to be more focused on a leveling scheme that makes you hunt monsters for extended periods of time, where as western MMOs tend to be more quest oriented where, instead of “grinding”, you complete this quest and that quest for the bulk of your experience. In addition to these play-styles, you will also find a good majority of eastern MMOs to be free and contain an “item shop” where players can pay to give their avatars some extra pizzazz, although a notable exclusion to this rule would be the Lineage series of games which charges $14.99 per month to play. Western MMOs tend to be completely pay2play. In fact the only western MMOs I can think of that differ from this rule are, arguably, not real MMORPGs, such as, Hellgate: London and Guild Wars. These are stark contrasts that usually carry over into forum debates about which is better, but really, why all the hassle? Here are some prime examples of eastern and western MMORPGs:

Eastern:

1. Lineage 2
2. Sword of the New World: Grenado Espada
3. Mu Online
4. RF Online
5. Archlord

Western:

1. World of Warcraft
2. Dark Age of Camelot
3. Tabula Rasa
4. Lord of the Rings Online
5. Everquest 2

MMORPGs are, for better or worse, yet another battleground for the east vs. west debate, and it will continue to be until the whole world finally gets over itself and just learns to stop caring about it. Amongst cars, policies, art, films, animations, and consumer electronics there now sits MMORPGs, the latest victim in a long drawn out battle.

Lately, as I have been giving new MMORPGs, specifically new ones, a try I have started to notice something. People are becoming more and more hostile towards new people (newbies) than ever before. Now I’m not saying that this is a large majority of any of the MMORPG communities out there, and I am sure there are people who help out newbies in their spare time, but there always seems to be that small vocal minority who, when asked for advice, seems to become overly hostile and very degrading. It’s almost shocking.

Unfortunately, while they are a problem, the bigger problem is the passiveness of the other players around. While in WoW one time, I zoned into the Barrens to find about 3 people harrassing this one newbie simply because he couldn’t find an NPC for his quest. Nobody, not one person, had decided to help him or even try to stop the 3 players berrating him with insults. It’s enough to drive a person from the game.

My main point is: when nobody stands up to these types of players they get the notion that it is alright to continue doing so. MMORPGs are communities and while in that community we all have to live with each other. So, by you not telling these types of players to “sod off” you are passively telling them it’s ok for them to represent your community like that. New people need help, they always will. So, if you will, help them out or, at the very least, protect them from any volitile players out there. Remember, today’s newbie could be tomorrow’s guildmate you are running quests with.

I’ve decide to write about this controversial topic, because I do not believe that powerleveling is as bad as may MMORPG gamers say. In fact, I bet that almost every single MMO player has powerleveled to some extent at one time or another. So why are so many people up in arms about it? Lets find out.

To start of, lets answer the most obvious question. Why do gamers power level? The short answer is that the player wants to get his character to the max level ASAP. But why? I mean, isn’t the main part of the game and fun playing your character to reach that max level (if the game has one)? Yes and no. For me when ever I’m playing a new MMORPG I want to explore everything and do everything, but there comes a time when I want to start a new character and I do not want to play the whole game over, however this depends on the game. There are games where I don’t mind playing through 2 or 3 times to try out different characters, however there are other games where I would rather stop playing than have to go though again, most recent example is LOTRO.

Not all gamers consider starting from scratch fun, in fact there are so many gamers that consider it not fun that there are million dollar business setup to help players get through the boring parts of the game. Before you start steaming at how power levelers ruin the game, lets take a step back. Consider this, a gamer has been playing a MMORPG for a full year now. They have played through the game twice with 2 separate characters however they have yet to find one they really enjoy or they just want to try them all. Now the gamer has gone through the entire story line twice, has done all the quests at LEAST twice and grinded there way to 2 maxed out characters. Are you saying this user has to completely go through the game again, from scratch? Why? So that there aren’t a ton of maxed out characters flooding the server? So that your maxed out character is that much more important? I don’t think either is a valid argument.

Many gamers will tell you that the real game doesn’t start until you reach that top level. You can participate in tough raids, battle it out in PvP or go after those epic items. Having more top level characters would only enhance the game in my option. Why does a user have to go through the mind numbing, repetitive grind of leveling up, again and again? Would it be such a bad idea if developers added a feature where once you have reached the top level, you get an option to start another character and have them maxed out instantly? I don’t think so. This gives the player an opportunity to try out all the characters without spending another 100 hrs leveling up each one.

The fact is that many players actively power level regardless of what deterrents developers add in the game. Whether they have friends, guild mates or use a service to do it for them, power leveling has been around since the first MMORPG. What needs to change is that developers need to stop fighting it and embrace it. I’d be still playing LOTRO if I could start a new character without having to play the game again. The sad fact about some MMORPGs is that if you take away the level grinding there is no game. If you reach that top level and find there isn’t much to do in the game, you might start a new character. However if you allow gamers to create maxed out character instantly after playing through once, developers might find themselves with huge problems. Whoops, we forgot to add a game after the level grind.

I think developers really need to concentrate on game play and less on how long they can keep you grinding.