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What Is an MMORPG?

The acronym MMORPG stands for "Massively Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Game." They usually come in the form of a web browser or client based games in which you are required to download and install third party software. They are a place where people can interact with others within a virtual world and come in many different forms. MMORPGs are currently one of the highest grossing markets in the video game industry (World of Warcraft alone has grossed over $1 billion in 2013 [1]) and many developers are looking to get themselves involved with it.

The rise in the popularity of MMORPG highly contributes to the interest it brings to young adolescents in particular. As the name suggests, it is essentially a Role-Playing Game in which participants are allowed to create their own character in which to explore a new world. Human beings are creative and curious in nature and this might help explain the huge popularity of RPGs. The ability to be free from the real world and have the freedom to explore a new world without restriction might just be what the players are looking for in its core. Games such as Minecraft shows us that creativity and freedom can allow for magnificent things to occur. It shows just how high the potential of human creativity can go.

MMORPGs are one of the ways that new media fosters creativity. For example, the game Clash of Clans. Class of Clans involves building a village with different aspects such a mine, walls, and a barracks to build an army. Creativity in this sense can be community of gamers that collaborate in the same video game to build a virtual game or character. As the game progresses you can upgrade your virtual village and eventually join a clan to have wars with other clans. The aspect of upgrading and building your army is crucial in this game and every player can have their individual preferences. There is no single way to build your village or army. In addition, you can communicate with players all around the places. This element allows for full creativity.

Terminology in MMORPGs

MMORPGs, as virtual worlds with extensive, specific in-game actions, have led to a developing micro-social language and acronyms that describe behaviors, concepts, and objects within gaming context. [2]

AFK: Away from keyboard; usually used when a player takes a break from the game to do something else.

AOE: Area of Effect; used to describe an attack that affects an area around the enemy and has a specific radius.

Aggro: A term that refers to the AI-controlled enemy reacting to a player in an aggressive manner; either for approaching it or by doing a specific action such as restoring health.

CC Crowd Control. This refers to any abilities or skills that helps deal with controlling crowds. This includes stuns, paralysis, cripple, exhaust, sleep and various other statuses.

DOT: Damage over time: an effect that is caused by an attack to slowly deplete health.

DPS: Damage per second.

OP: Over Powered. Often used to characterize one player that are too strong and cannot die with just one player, often this type of player pays a lot of money to the game.

Mage: A player/character with a purpose of performing magic spells

F2P: Free to play. Refers to players who do not have to pay to play. Or it can refer to the game itself in that the game does not have to be purchased.

P2P: Pay to play. Refers to players who have to pay to play, this type of games allows the moderator to have a more control over their players as they have the will to ban them if they do something that's not allowed in the game, this gives the fear to player of loosing their account and buying another game.

P2W: Pay to Win. Often this term is used in free to play games, in order for player to become stronger in the game they have to pay a ton of money inside the game to achieve such strength, and in order for them to beat other players they will have to continue to put money in the game. In most cases this is something we would like to avoid in the game.

GG: Good Game: commonly said at the end of a match to indicate that the game was enjoyable.

GG no re: Good Game no reply/rematch: usually stated at the end of a match or game and is somewhat disrespectful. Said when the player destroys the other opponent.

Grinding: A method used by players to level up or to acquire an item; refers to the action of continually fighting the same mob again and again.

Kiting: The action of fighting an enemy while remaining out of attack range; usually used by long ranged characters with lower health or defense.

LAG: Slow connection to the server. Either the server for the game played is about under maintenance or the user's internet connection has decreased that causes the game to slow down with delays.

LF>Leech Looking for Leech. Leech refers to the act of helping others train and gain experience while they don't do anything. This does not apply to all MMORPGS.

LFP: Looking for party; used when players want to group up with other players within their vicinity.

LEEEEROYYYYYYYY JENKINSSSSSSSS: A term that refers to comedically rushing into a situation unprepared and potentially losing rather quickly.

NPC: Non-player character; controlled/programmed by the game.

PvP: Player versus player, allowing for individually controlled characters to fight against each other rather than against an AI.

GVG: Guild versus Guild. In most MMORPG, Guild versus Guild is one of the feature of the game, this is almost the end game of any MMORPG, most players grind and level up to be able to participate in this event, this event allows two or more guild to fight over a territory such as tower. Guild who successfully conquered the territory has a reward, which motivates player to improve their gear and continue the grind.

Vending: Another great feature of any MMORPG is the ability to Vend in the game, this allows them to have economy inside the game, this can be achieve by farming gears of all classes and sell them to other players who needs them.

PvE: Player versus enemy or player versus environment; a term for fighting AI controlled opponents.

BRB: Be right back

DDOS attack: Denial of service, a individual is hacking the players internet and causing it to slow down.

Noob: A player that is new to the game and/or unskilled at the game, and usually a subject of ridicule.

Newbie: A novice who has just begun the game.

Tank: A player/character that is going to absorb damage from enemy; usually have a lot of health/defense/magic(elemental resistance).

Leash: Aiding someone in taking an objective.

Scammers: This term is very similar in real life, when we say scammer in the game, it is often referred to people who take advantage of the item they have, one example is when player got a rare item and try to sell it outside the game via paypal, first the scammer will ask the player to send the money over and trade the item later, in this case the scammer will not trade the item back to the buyer. The sad reality is that the moderators of the game cannot do anything since the transaction occurred outside the game.

WP: Well Played: also commonly said after game with GG. Ex. GG WP (Good Game, Well Played)

Front Line: Usually a group of Tanks trying to prevent enemies from reaching the damage dealers in the back.

Support: A character that assist their team (Usually a healer or a character that can increase the stats of a team).

Buff: Increasing the power of something.

Nerf: Decreasing the power of something.

Popular MMORPGs

Vindictus

Vindictus: Mabinogi Heroes

Plot

The prequel to Mabinogi, Vindictus's storyline is also based on Irish mythology. Legend says that when the humans finally wipe out the monstrous Fomors, the goddess Morrighan will descend and lead them to a paradise called Erinn. After several centuries of strife, however, the people are beginning to doubt if the legend is actually true. As a member of the Crimson Blades, a group of town mercenaries who fiercely defend one of the few human settlements against Fomorian invasions, the player, also known as the Rookie, is entangled in not only a deadly battle with the Fomors but also a tangled political battle within human society. [3]

Season 1

The player arrives in Colhen and quickly joins the mercenary group Crimson Blades. Their first mission involves defending the town Oracle, Tieve, from her unsuccessful attempt at calming down the town's guardian, a Giant White Spider who has been tainted by Fomorian magic. After completing this task, the player returns to the mercenary group, only to walk into an ongoing power struggle between the leader of the Crimson Blades and the commander of the Royal Army force currently based in Colhen. Acting on behalf of both of them, the Rookie begins to investigate different locations under Fomorian control to discover what they are plotting. Along the way, the Rookie steadily ascends the ranks until they are invited to Rocheste, the base of the Royal Army and the Pontiff's Court. This good fortune is immediately reversed when the Rookie and his/her companions find out that the Pontiff's Court has been working with Fomorians to sabotage the summoning of Morrighan and entering Erinn, sacrificing many human lives and settlements to do so. If Erinn is real, the Pontiff's Court will ultimately lose their control and power, so they conspired to get rid of the Goddess's Oracle. The Fomorians also reveal that they have their own prophecy; kill all the humans and resurrect the God of Fomors. Upon discovering these hidden truth, the Rookie and Keaghan, Tieve's childhood friend/lover and Commander of the Royal Army, are immediately labeled traitors to be killed on sight. Keaghan, desperate to save Tieve, is tricked into becoming the God of Fomors, Cichol, while Tieve transforms into Morrighan. Everyone's memories are wiped at the end of season 1, erasing the existence of Keaghan and Tieve and reverting the Rookie back to his/her former beginning at Colhen as a newly recruited mercenary.

Gameplay

Unlike most MMORPGs, Vindictus's gameplay revolves around timing and skill by utilizing a reaction-based fighting system. While hotkey-triggered actions such as drinking health potions are still integrated into battle, Vindictus focuses combat on combos rather than blindly pressing a number to activate a particular attack. Each character has his/her own unique battle system and capabilities, allowing players to not only choose the character that best fits his/her play style but also customize their experience.

Characters in Vindictus are genderlocked and come with an initial background that ultimately has no actual impact on the game's storyline. Currently, there are ten available character classes to choose from. Each character has two weapons that radically change the character's fighting style and role within a party; for example, Evie the mage can swap between using a staff as a support character or a scythe as a more DPS-oriented character.

In later stages of the game, Transformations become available at level 40. As part of a quest, the player can choose to become either a Paladin or a Dark Knight. Either selection results in a special transformation during gameplay for 2 minutes, once an hour. The activation causes the player to turn into their chosen Transformation, granting them huge boosts in all stats as a kind of "power" mode. Transformations can also be leveled up to a second stage, granting the player more actions to use during those two minutes.

Classes/Characters

Vindictus Character Concept Art

Lann: Male warrior who wields dual blades or dual spears. He specializes in being the DPS (damage per second) of the party. Excellent for a dodge-based playing style, since he has no other way of nullifying incoming attacks. He starts off with light armor but can upgrade to medium and heavy later on.

Evie: Female magician who switches between either staff or scythe. She utilizes a variety of spells for burst damage when in staff mode to attack enemies and heal party members, providing main support. Scythe mode provides higher DPS but removes her ability to heal. Her dodge varies between the two modes: staff Evies can use a exploding dodge known as Flying Sparrow or a Mana Crystal form that provides limited invulnerability while draining MP. Scythe Evies have a dodge called Blink, which has some invulnerability frames and can teleport the player a short distance. She primarily uses Light and Medium armor.

Fiona: Female tank who uses a small/large shield and sword/hammer. She focuses on counterattacks and is relatively sturdy in combat. Hammer mode provides more damage but reduces speed, while large shield provides more defense but less counterattack ability. She uses Heavy armor.

Karok: Male tank character who uses unarmed combat in conjunction with a Battle Pillar or Hand Cestus. He is currently the slowest character, but more than makes up for it in damage and his ability to grapple bosses. He has a very limited ability to dodge, so regenerative talents help him reduce any damage taken.

Kai: Male archer who switches between two bow modes and later on a crossbow. He has a unique dodge that allows him to set markers within a given space, allowing him to teleport back to the marker if needed.

Vella: Female warrior who wields dual swords with a backhand grip or chain blades. While retaining some of Lann's dodging capabilities, Vella focuses on speedy counterattacking. Chain Blades limit her counterattacks but allow her to fight from a distance and tie up enemies.

Hurk: Male tank who uses a Greatsword. He can counterattack, and use powerful yet slow combos to defeat enemies.

Lynn: Female fighter who uses a spear and glaive. She has a quick dodge and the ability to rack up damage on enemies with her marking talent.

Arisha: Female spellsword character who uses a focus crystal and a blade. Unlike other characters, she has an additional bar along with Stamina that allows her to activate a special power mode for higher damage. She does not have healing abilities like Evie, but is significantly faster and has invulnerability frames built into most of her evasion skills. She has some talents that allow for crowd control.

Sylas: Male mage character who uses a phantom dagger. Sylas is very fast and utilizes shards that generate around him to deal damage or defend him from incoming attacks. He has some support skills that make him invaluable to a party lacking Evie.

Delia: Delia is a female knight mercenary. Her attacks and movements are slow but elegant, enough to destroy enemies around her with a single blow.

Miri: Miri is a female mercenary whose blood flow with a powerful dragon. Despite the desire to live a normal life, encountering her weapon, the Dragonspine, showed her the life on the battlefield as a human and dragon mix.

Grimden: Grimden is a deadly assassin. As the only one able to wield the Katamadhar, a special one-handed sword, he is able to move around freely and nimbly while dealing high amounts of damage.

Eira: Eira is the new upcoming playing character. She is a female mercenary that wields two guns infused with alchemy as her weapons.

Ark:Survival Evolved

Ark PIC.jpg

Ark: Survival Evolved is a one-time-payment, progressing through DLC, MMORPG/Survival/Action type game.

Gameplay

You begin your journey in Ark by spawning as a naked/inexperienced, lacking any equipment human. The goal is to learn how to survive among both herbivore and carnivore dinosaurs. The player can hunt, harvest resources, gather, grow crops, research technologies, craft necessary items and more. As the player progresses, skill points are assigned to improve certain abilities. Players can build shelters or bases, starting from small, the structures can become kilometers long and tall. That is easier said than done; that's why many players team up and create small or massive tribes, some which can dominate whole servers. Another important and cool feature is the ability to tame dinosaurs and use them. Players can ride, fly, swim, farm, and fight using the tamed dinosaurs. As long as the player has one female and one male of the same species, breeding and making small dinosaur babies is then possible. [4]

Execution

Ark:Survival Evolved as of right now, represents a pretty stable and overall well-executed game. It had a long beta and alpha stages, where a lot of bugs were reported and a lot of people complained. Even for a few months after the initial release in August 2017, a lot of players were still complaining, as the game was quite buggy and poorly tied together. As time went by, the creators made gigabytes worth of improvements. Currently, Ark conveys a beautiful visuals, graphically it is constantly improving. The systems of taming, farming, tribe, and general gameplay, are quite well balanced as well. Overall, the game is quite engaging and encourages teamwork! Since the release, Ark stands constantly in the top 10 games played, based on player count. [5]

Dragon Nest

Dragon Nest

Plot

The Goddess Althea, creator of the land of Alteria (Verathea in the NA version, Lagendia in the SEA version), is poisoned by her evil sister Vestinel. The poison can only be cured using an antidote made using the source of the poison itself, Vestinel's magic grail, which has disappeared somewhere within Alteria. The players play as heroes that must travel the land fighting evil dragons in order to find power stones that enable them to communicate with the sleeping goddess in order to find the grail, wake her and save the world. [6]

Gameplay

Developed by South Korean game developer, Eyedentity Games, Dragon Nest has been dubbed the world's fastest action MMORPG by Nexon. Dragon Nest features a non-targeting combat system that puts the player in complete control of their character’s movements emphasizing quick reflexes and mastery over your skills and abilities. Players can choose from one of eleven unique classes ranging from classic archetypes of Warriors, Archers, Mages, and clerics but also new innovative ones such as the Lancea, Kali, and Machina. These 11 classes each have various routes of specializations leading to a total of 52 possibilities with varying skills and abilities. Players can participate in a unique PvP system that encourages skill as gear and equipment are nullified setting each class and player on an equal playing field. This leads to more skillful lower level characters defeating high level characters with skill alone. [7] In addition, in this game, players are to enter dungeons and complete the objectives that are given to them usually to defeat all monsters within the dungeon leading up to a boss as the end. After the boss is defeated, the player can choose between a set of boxes and that would be the reward for completing the dungeon. Players in this game are encouraged to join other player because the dungeons at later stages can be difficult for a player to "solo" or do it themselves.

Eyedentity Games

As of August 2017, Dragon Nest has been transferred over to Eyedentity Games. Nexon no longer saw the game as profitable as the game's player base was on a continuous decline. Eyedentity Games signed a contract with Nexon to receive the publishing rights of Dragon Nest in 2017. Following this, an announcement made in game was made informing players that Dragon Nest will be temporarily shut down for 6 months in order to facilitate the transfer safely and properly. Players were also given the option to transfer all the progress they currently have onto Eyedentity Games' server database in order to preserve their progress. In addition, Eyedentity Games hosted an in-game event to celebrate the re-launching of Dragon Nest for both new and veteran players. [8]

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Star Wars: The Old Republic

Plot

This story takes place in the Star Wars Legends fictional universe shortly after the establishment of a tenuous peace between the re-emergent Sith Empire and the Galactic Republic, 300 years after the events of the Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic games, and more than 3,500 years before the events in the Star Wars films.

The Jedi are held responsible for the success of the Sith during the devastating 28-year-long Great Galactic War (which led to the Treaty of Coruscant prior to the "cold war"), and thus choose to relocate from Coruscant to Tython, where the Jedi Order had initially been founded, to seek guidance from the Force. The Sith control Korriban, where they have re-established a Sith Academy.The game's "Return" cinematic trailer depicts the events where Korriban is re-conquered by the Sith.

During these events, a smuggler named Nico Okarr is being led to his prison cell in a jail orbiting Korriban by a Jedi, Satele Shan, and her master, Kao Cen Darach. Suddenly, a Sith named Darth Malgus, who serves as the main antagonist, and his master Vindican, along with several Sith troops, attack the base. Satele, a trooper named Jace Malcom, and Okarr escape the attack, but Darach is cut down by Malgus. Malgus then kills Vindican, who was wounded by Darach. 10 years later, new conflicts have arisen. In the "Hope" cinematic trailer, Satele and some troops destroy a Sith party that includes Malgus, and Malcom, who has become the troop's commander, states that, despite the losses, there is still hope amongst even "a single spark of courage". Later in the "Deceived" cinematic trailer, however, Malgus, having appeared to survive the earlier attack albeit with a mask covering his nose and mouth, leads an army of Sith into the Jedi Temple on Coruscant, killing many Jedi including the Jedi Master Ven Zallow.

After the death of Jedi Grand Master Zym, Master Satele Shan is named the new Jedi Grand Master. The game itself is set in the cold-war soon after these events, with the Jedi Order and Galactic Republic struggling to maintain their control of the core worlds while the Sith plot their downfall and the expansion of the Sith Empire. The conflict opens on many fronts and across many planets, while native factions are engaged in political struggles or civil war.

BioWare stated, prior to release, that the game would have a significant focus on the storyline. Each of the eight classes has a three act storyline that progresses as the character levels up. A collaborative effort between BioWare, LucasArts, EA Games and Dark Horse Comics has resulted in webcomics entitled Star Wars: The Old Republic – Threat of Peace and Star Wars: The Old Republic – Blood of the Empire, the purpose of which is to establish the backstory as the game opens and closes.

Gameplay

Players join as members of either of the two main factions – the Galactic Republic and the Sith Empire. Although each faction is led by a benevolent or malevolent leader, it is emphasized that an individual member may possess a morality at any point along the light/dark spectrum. The project's key focus is to differentiate between the player's faction and morality.For instance, a member with ties to the Galactic Republic may belong to the Darkside while attempting to achieve their own ends, which may be misaligned or dissimilar from the Republic's vision.

Player advancement occurs by a combination of mission completion, exploration, and defeating enemies. New skills, unlocked by level, are taught by trainers and can be learned in game at a multitude of locations. Heroic missions exist that require the cooperation of multiple players to complete objectives, and can be repeated normally on a daily basis.

While each class in The Old Republic favors a certain play style (ranged/melee damage, healing or support skills, or tanking), customization combined with companion characters allow for a class to be able to tackle many different situations, with or without the support of other player characters, and without requiring specific other classes in order to move forward.

Players' choices permanently open or close storylines and affect players' non-player character (NPC) companions.It is intended that the game should provide more context for characters' missions than any previous MMORPG. Every character in the game, including the player character, features full voice dialog to enhance gameplay, and interactions feature a dialogue system similar to that used in the Mass Effect series. Players are able to choose from a variety of NPCs, although spending time with a single companion will help more in developing story and content than dividing time among several, and may even develop a love interest. It is possible for players to "blow it big time" if they fail to meet NPCs' expectations.Players also have access to several planets, including Korriban, Ord Mantell, Nal Hutta, Tython,Coruscant, Balmorra, Alderaan, Tatooine, Dromund Kaas, Taris, Belsavis, Voss, Hoth, Corellia, Ilum and Quesh, and the moon Nar Shaddaa. The planet Makeb was added in Patch 2.0, along with the Rise of the Hutt Cartel Expansion.

Every player receives their own starship, which was announced at Electronic Entertainment Expo 2010. Footage of space combat was released at Gamescom. The short clip provided by BioWare revealed that space combat would be a "tunnel shooter."[25] A tunnel shooter, otherwise known as a scrolling shooter or rail shooter, is a flying game where the player is on a predetermined track. Game play includes moving right and left on the X axis and up and down on the Y axis; however, players do not have control of the speed of their space craft. Jake Neri, LucasArts Producer, told PC Gamer in their October 2010 issue that their goal was to "capture the most cinematic moments that we can create. We want players to get in and feel like they're in the movies. It's about highly cinematic, controlled combat moments ... very heroic, action-packed, exciting, visceral and dangerous encounters that'll make you pee your pants." With the December 2013 release of the free expansion, Galactic Starfighter (GSF), players now have a free flight PVP space combat experience, with multiple ships and roles independent of other aspects of the game.

MapleStory

MapleStory

MapleStory is a free-to-play, 2D, side-scrolling massively multiplayer online role-playing game, developed by the South Korean company Wizet. Several versions of the game are available for specific countries or regions, and each is published by various companies such as Nexon. Although one may play the game for free, one has the choice to purchase some character appearances and gameplay enhancements from the Cash Shop with actual currency. In the game, players travel the "Maple World", defeating monsters and developing their characters' skills and abilities as is typical in role-playing games. Players can interact with others in many ways, such as through chatting, trading and playing minigames. Groups of players can band together in parties to hunt monsters and share the rewards and can also collaborate forming guilds to interact more easily with each other. In July 2010, the Korean version of the game was completely revised in a patch named the "Big Bang". The new update patch named "Big Bang" completely changed the mechanics of the game. It introduced the potential system which allowed for equipment in the game to be further enhanced. Each item has a "potential" to be greater and it allowed for character statistics to be further increased dramatically. Prior to the "Big Bang" update, Characters were limited to 10,000 health points and 10,000 mana points. After the Big Bang update, these limits were increased to 30,000. The Big Bang update allowed players to increase their statistics by percentages rather than a set amount. Prior to the update, 10 points on any attribute was considered very good, after the update, items were able to give users over a hundred points from a single item. This caused the game to be completely revamped. All the creatures in the game had their attributes altered to adjust to the new gameplay. Other versions followed suit and have since received the Big Bang update. Later in the year, the Korean version received the Chaos update which introduces PvP (player-versus-player) and professions to the game.

Currently, the game has gotten many updates and complete revamps to gameplay. Compared to the game's origin, it now takes much less time for a player to progress and level up. The system has also updated level caps and damage caps.

The game has changed the emphasis to quickly leveling up, and (often spending real money) to create new and more powerful items. This is in stark contrast to the previous experience of training slowly for a long period of time to level.

The community's perspective on the game has changed. They are now focused on the gameplay itself, rather than on the social aspect of the game. This has arguably lead to the game to lose a lot of players.

The players also can make profit by selling in game currency, "meso" online to players for real money. It if one of the common way a person tries to make profit from the game.

Community Fansites

Southperry
Basilmarket

MapleStory also has fansites that have been established so players can refer to a community about certain in-game events. For instance, Southperry.net and Basilmarket.com are two known fansites to date. Users are able to create threads on these fansites just to share their experiences, thoughts, or questions. MapleStory also has its own forums on its website, however, it is not as popular as the two listed fansites. Furthermore, although MapleStory is not popular on social media such as Reddit, there have been times when Nexon has implemented events by utilizing Facebook—from giveaways to notices asking the gaming community for votes in MMORPG surveys (to raise its popularity.) [9]

Plot

Players assume the roles of citizens in the Maple World with no specific objective to win the game, but to work on improving their characters' skill and status over time. The antagonist of the game, the Black Mage, was sealed away years ago by six heroes. The heroes consists of Mercedes, Aran, Phantom, Luminous, Freud, and Shade. For the Black Mage to be sealed away, Shade had to sacrifice the knowledge of his existence. Shade then became the forgotten hero. Although the battle was over, the heroes were separated and were cursed. Aran was badly wounded and became frozen in ice. Mercedes returned to her hometown, Elluel, and sealed the entire town into deep slumber. Phantom was also sealed in ice. Luminous was sealed away with part of the Black Mage's power. Shade ended up in a different dimension with the memories of everything that has happened, but the memories that the people had of him were forgotten. Freud's dragon Afrien shielded him from the curse and he lives on without the rest of the Heores. Afrien soon passed but left a dragon egg for the next hero to replace Freud. Freud leaves behind a ring for the next hero to find. Centuries passed and the Heroes were also forgotten. Until they all finally came out of deep slumber. Fearing his resurrection, Empress Cygnus enlisted the Maple World to join her Cygnus Knights in preventing his evil from returning. However, they failed and the Black Wings resurrected the Black Mage. With the heroes resurrected, they will have to work together to defeat the Black Mage once again.

Gameplay

MapleStory is a 2D scrolling platform game. The controls for the game are executed using the keyboard and mouse. The keyboard is used for many game functions, and much of it can be rearranged to suit users' needs. The mouse is mainly used to trigger NPCs and manipulate items. Like most MMORPGs, gameplay centers on venturing into dungeons and combating monsters in real-time. The players combat monsters and complete quests, in the process acquiring in-game currency called "Mesos", experience points and various items. Players are able to acquire in-game professions, allowing them to craft equipment, accessories or potions. Players have a variety of options when interacting with others online: They can form parties where loot and experience are distributed from a monster; in-game marriages where the game will recognize the two players as a heterosexual couple; guilds which is indicated with a guild's name listed under their character name; or families, an architecture gathering of juniors and seniors. Players are also able to raise or lower the in-game popularity stat entitled Fame of other players and compete with other players in minigames, such as Gomoku or Concentration.

Lv.171 Pure Dex Mercedes about to fight Zakum

Classes

There are many classes in Maplestory. Some of these characters are "gender-locked" meaning that only a male or a female can be a certain type of class. There are currently 33 playable classes in Maplestory. The classes are then divided into the 5 main categories which are, magician, thief, warrior, bowman and pirate.

The Magician classes: Battle Mage, Beast Tamer, Blaze Wizard, Evan, Kanna, Luminous, Fire & Poison Arch Mage, Lightning Arch Mage, Bishop, Kinesis, Illium

The Thief classes: Dual Blade, Night Walker, Phantom, Shadower, Night Lord, Xenon, Hoyoung

The Warrior classes: Aran, Dawn Warrior, Demon Avenger, Demon Slayer, Hayato, Kaiser, Mihile, Hero, Paladin, Dark Knight, Zero, Blaster

The Bowman classes: Bowmaster, Marksman, Wild Hunter, Wind Archer, Mercedes, Pathfinder

The Pirate classes: Angelic Buster, Cannoneer, Jett, Mechanic, Buccaneer, Corsair, Shade, Thunder Breaker, Ark

Maplestory Heroes

Hero Classes

  • Mercedes is a bowman elf who wields dual crossbows and is very agile
  • Aran is a warrior who wields a polearm
  • Phantom is a theif who wields a cane
  • Luminous is a magician who wields a staff
  • Evan is a magician who wields a wand
  • Shade is a pirate who wields a knuckle

Economy

The currency used in Maplestory is known as "Mesos". The maximum Meso capacity a user can hold in their inventory use to be 2,147,483,647 Mesos. However, inflation started to occur and the prices of items started to go up. This led to the Meso capacity to increase to 10 Billion and then eventually 30 billion. Some ways you can store your Mesos are in your inventory, a storage NPC (non-playable character) or creating multiple characters used to store your Mesos.

Maplestory Trading Shop

The maplestory FM (Free Market) is a market place where players can open up a shop and sell their items for as much as they want usually depending on the demand of the item. To open up a shop, the user has to purchase a shop from the Cash Shop with Nexon Credits or real life money. The user can leave their shop open for as long as they like as long as their computer is still running maplestory.


The maplestory MTS (Maplestory Trade Shop) was a significant era in maplestory. This was an auction house or platform where players can sell their items for Nexon Credit or real life money. Due to the amount of hackers exploiting rare items and selling it for real life money, this platform was taken down in September 2012.

To obtain rare items that are worth a lot of Mesos, you need to play the Gachapon, tickets to play the gachapon are purchased with Nexon Credit. The chances of getting a rare item in high demand is very low but are worth a lot in Mesos. Some items you can obtain are limited edition collectibles, high stat items, rare scrolls and orbs and much more!


Party System

Maplestory encourages people to utilize their party system and defeat bosses together. It gives players a way to socialize with and work together. A party can have up to five players. Benefits that come with being in a party is that party members get a small amount of EXP per mob killed.

Guild System

Guilds give players a place to form bonds with other players. Guilds also give skills as it levels up and can level up when members contribute enough points. The maximum guild level is 25. Players can either create a guild or join a guild. Within the guild there are up to 5 different ranks. The defaulted ranks are, Master, Jr. Master, and Member. Ranks can be added. With guilds, there are also alliances. Alliances are when two guilds agree to form the alliance.

Upgrading Equipment

Enhance.png

In order to become stronger, players have to enhance and upgrade their equipment. Equipment can be scrolled a certain number of times using spell traces or actual scrolls. The amount of spell traces needed to scroll equipment depends on its level. The higher the level the more spell traces are needed. Each successful scrolling attempt will raise the equipment's stats. If for any reason players do not want to stick with the enhancements, they can use innocence scrolls ,clean slate scrolls, or ark innocence scrolls. clean slate scrolls restores 1 failed upgrade slot. Innocence scrolls reverts the equipment back to its original status, not including the potential. Ark Innocence Scrolls works like normal innocence scrolls, but the equipment keeps its star force. Star force enhancement is another way for players to become stronger. After the player is content with their scroll enhancements, they can increase the star level of their equipment. To do that, players have to spend mesos every every time star force enhancement is attempted. Each successful attempt decreases the success rate for the next star force level and increases the meso cost. At 13 stars, the equipment has a chance to be destroyed. This can be prevented by protection scrolls. During certain events these rates are subjected to change.

Arcane River

Located behind the Gate of the Present of Temple of Time, Arcane River has 7 areas:

Map of Arcane River

Vanishing Journey, Chu Chu Island, Lachelein, Arcana, Morass, Esfera, and Tenebris. Advancing through these areas, the player can collect resources to increase their arcane power needed to defeat high level monsters. The area is a high leveled area, suitable for level 200 and above characters who completed their 5th job advancement.

Vanishing Journey

The first gateway to the Black Mage. The minimum level requirement for the area is level 200. Due to the Arcane Force present in the area, a new strength is required for Maplers to defeat the stronger monsters are found here. In order to move on to the next area, players have to finish the main quest line within Vanishing Journey and become level 210.

Vanishing Journey
Monsters

Monsters players can face in Vanishing Journey

  • Happy Erda (Level 200)
  • Sad Erda (Level 202)
  • Raging Erda (Level 201)
  • Joyful Erda (Level 203/209)
  • Stone Erda (Level 204)
  • Blazing Erda (Level 205)
  • Soulful Erda (Level 206/209)
  • Tranquil Erda (Level 207)
  • Lantern Erda (Level 208)
  • Arma (Level 209)

Chu Chu Island

A colorful and tropical island. A giant golem, Muto, has caused the river to stop flowing here, prompting the player to save the Chu Chu Village from a monstrous shark, Gulla, so they can move one step closer to the Black Mage. The minimum amount of Arcane Power needed to efficiently defeat the monsters of Chu Chu is 100. Players have to go through a quest line of making a sandwich for Muto to gain arcane symbols to become stronger. The minimum level requirement here is 210.

Map of Chu Chu Island
Monsters

Monsters players can face in Chu Chu Island

  • Bighorn Pinedeer (Level 211)
  • Ramanana (Level 211)
  • Unripe Wolfruit (Level 212)
  • Flyon (Level 212)
  • Ripe Worlfruit (Level 213)
  • Angry Flyon (Level 213)
  • Green Catfish (Level 214)
  • Rhyturtle (Level 215)
  • Blue Catfish (Level 216)
  • Boss Rhyturtle (Level 216)
  • Crillia (Level 217)
  • Birdshark (Level 218)
  • Patriarch Crillia (Level 219)
  • Patriarch Birdshark (Level 219)
  • Slurpy Tree (Level 219)

Lachelein

Lachelein is a mysterious festive city. As the Dreaming City, it is the location to challenge the Black Mage's newest commander Lucid. Defeating Lucid awards the players with the level 200 Arcane Umbra equipment set: Weapons, Gloves, Boots, Capes. The minimum requirement here is 220.

Map of Lachelein

Arcana

Arcana is a mystical forest of life currently in a crisis as the land of the spirits here was overtaken by dark spirits. It is the player's mission to reclaim the song of the forest here. The minimum level requirement here is 225.

Map of Arcana

Morass

Morass is a Swamp of Memory. Learn about the truth about the girl at the end of Arcana in this region, as the area resonates on the memories of those who pass through them. The minimum requirement here is 230.

Map of Morass

Esfera

The Origin Sea Esfera, is the 6th region of Arcane River, released in Korean Maplestory on January 25. It features the newest raid boss: Commander Will, the main antagonist from Zero's storyline. Defeating Will awards players with the level 200 Arcane umbra equipment set: Weapons, Hats, Overalls, Shoulders. The minimum level requirement here is 235.

Map of Esfera

[10]

Cheats & Hacks

Maplestory was and still is plagued by a community known as "hackers". The term refers to players who use third-party programs to alter or enhance gameplay. These tactics are against the terms of use for the game and players found using these third-party programs are banned from the game and are unable to further use their accounts. The cheats that were commonly used were "Vac", "auto-click", "No delay", "D/C hack", packet spamming, and memory hacking.

Vac

The term "vac" refers to vacuum. This cheat allowed players to create a vacuum in which all the monsters are sucked into a certain spot in each map so that players can hit all the monsters simultaneously, allowing playing to gain an unfair advantage by gaining optimal experience in a very short period of time. Players are able to level up extremely quickly using this cheat.

Auto-Click

In the game there are NPC's (Non-Playable Characters) which are characters controlled by the computer. NPC's are used to help regulate game play and certain NPC's allow users get into exclusive maps known as "Party Quests" to have a slight advantage over other players. Players often used third party programs known as "Auto-Click" to click on these NPC's at a rapid pace maximizing chances of gaining entrance into the party quests. Players using Auto click had a higher chance of getting into these party quests and had a much higher advantage over players that did not use Auto Click.

Packet Spamming

Using third party programs, players were able to send "packets" which are a string of bytes that relayed a specific command. Players quickly exploited this ability by finding commands that allowed players to send enormous packets at a rapid pace to other players and overload them causing them to D/C or disconnect. Spamming certain packets allowed players to exploit the game and take advantage of actions that would not be possible because they were either limited by the game or the user interface. Players exploiting the use of packet sending allowed them to duplicate items, exploit the use of NPC's in other maps, and even allowed them to duplicate currency.

D/C Hack

Using LetharyTrainer Hack and Botting

D/C refers to the term disconnect. Players are able to disconnect other players using glitches as well as sending packets. By sending specific packets, players are able to send popups to other players which interrupts their game play as well as their current activity. Eventually, the player is unable to stop these pop ups and the game is forced to disconnect the user from the game. By taking advantage of glitches, players were able to disconnect all the other players in a map. An example of a glitch that existed for a short period required players to equip a pole arm and riding a specific helicopter mount. By doing so, the player would automatically cause all players visible to suddenly freeze and disconnect from the game due to an error. Because of this advantage, players would fear the users of this glitch because of the fear that these players would use this glitch to take away the ability for another player to play the game. Players with the ability to disconnect other players often took advantage of other players and would benefit tremendously.

Memory Hacking

Memory hacking is the first and most used method of hacking on MapleStory, it is also the most powerful. Memory hacking involves modifying the game's memory which in turn alters the game play. This is how many cheats such as monster vacuum's, godmodes, fly hack, and other cheats are made. Memory hacking is usually accomplished by using every hacker's best tool, a Cheat Engine. It is also commonly done by creating a .dll file that is injected into the game process. A less-commonly used method is done by executable programs (.exe) but they are harder to bypass the game. Memory editing can vacuum monsters, give you godmode (unlimited health), exploit the game, and even edit packets (modify data sent to the server). Although packet editors are useful, a solid Cheat Engine can do everything a packet editor can do and more.[11]

Reboot Server

On December 1, 2015, the v.168 Reboot Patch came out. The Reboot world brings Maplestory back to its roots as a hardcore RPG, offering many changes that will prove to be a new challenge. The main purpose for this world is to eliminate the "pay to win" concept in the game. There will not be a free market and trading with other players is not allowed.

Monsters and Rewards

The monsters in Reboot world are strong but give more EXP when defeated. Monsters will also drop significantly more mesos. Weapons and equipment dropped from monsters will only be relevant to your character's job. If you receive an item that cannot be used in Reboot world, a mystery bag will be given instead.

Items and Enhancement

Item enhancing has been simplified. Scrolls and Bonus Potentials have been removed. Spell Traces will still be dropping from monsters, but they will be unusable. Instead, they will be sellable to the shops for mesos. The trade system has been removed. You'll have to grind for money and equips on your own. Non-equip items and mesos are the only movable items that can be transferred to your other characters via the storage system.

Cash Shop Many items will be able to be purchasable through mesos. Examples include, Red Cube, Black cube, Hyper Teleport Rock, Safety Charm, and much more.

Character Details All characters can be created except Zero. 6 Character slots will be available to start with. Basic inventory slots will start off at 48 slots. Slot expansions will be purchasable through in-game shops. After creating a character, you get a snail pet and Reboot potions to help you get started. Reaching major level milestones (Lv.30,Lv.60,Lv.90,Lv.120, and Lv.150) on your account will grant you gift boxes containing useful items and lots and lots of mesos! You may obtain the box with multiple characters, but only one character on your account can open the gift box at each milestone

Maplestory 2

MapleStory 2 is a 3D isometric adventure MMORPG and continuation of the original 2D Maplestory where players create their own character and select one out of several jobs to explore the new Maple World.[12] Players will encounter various NPCs with various Quests, Monsters, and Bosses from the previous version as well as completely new ones to fight against. The game also features Dungeons and Raids for players to team up with each other to complete.

Outside of combat, there are also an assortment of activities for players to engage in, such as buying and building personal houses, crafting with Life Skills, fishing, composing music, creating custom user content such as custom clothes and much more.

As of March 18th, Nexon announced the closure of Maplestory 2 services on May 27, 2020. Page text.[13]

Leveling and Gameplay Guide

Character Screen and Stats
1-50:

Do your main storyline quest. 1-50 Should take about 4-5 hours to complete assuming you skip most cutscenes. Utilize your aerial and ground mounts in addition to the free air taxi service rotors from the storyline rewards. You can skip through trash mobs in many dungeons as well. Festival Balloon (purchased in supply shop) is as good as the rainbow rocket plane (-1 meter/s). [14]

Consumables Locations
50-60:

Although your storyline should still continue with “Epic” quests, they’re nowhere near enough to get you to level 60. There is also currently no rush to the level cap because of a dungeon mechanic called Fair Fight. [15] Fair Fight scales your stats, gear and damage down to the level of the monster/boss you’re facing. As a result of incorrect scaling, the closer you get to level 60 the less damage you deal to dungeon bosses(a bug so far, AFAIK). Therefore, your primary goal should be to get to 2100 gear score (GS) in order for you to gain access to Hardmode Dungeons (more on that in Gear Score Cheese).

Meso Making Guide:

Do your daily “Get Rich” missions If you are premium member, run your premium dungeon (does not count towards dungeon limits) Open ; and you’ll find it in there Can only run once a day Use Oska, the archer. You can make ~250k mesos a day. Run hard dungeon if you can, each run nets you ~200k, 10 runs daily nets you ~2mil a day. You can try running normal level 50 dungeons and hope to get lucky for epic drop to sell. Even if you dont, you can sell the blue equipments. ~20k mesos stacks a lot over time. You can also dismantle the blue equipments, and sell your onyx crystals.

Daily Missions

Daily reset is at 5 PM PST while weekly reset is on Thursday at 5 PM PST.

Help, I hit my DUNGEON LIMIT, what do I do? As MS2 is imposed with a dungeon cap limit (10 dungeons per day/30 dungeons per week), you can Do your dailies, they a reliable source of income and materials. You can also make alternate accounts to play multiple characters and classes. Socialize, Fish, Play Music!

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft (WoW) is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) created by Blizzard Entertainment. It is the fourth released game set in the fantasy Warcraft universe, which was first introduced by Warcraft: Orcs & Humans in 1994.[16] World of Warcraft takes place within the Warcraft world of Azeroth, approximately four years after the events at the conclusion of Blizzard's previous Warcraft release, Warcraft III: The Frozen Throne.[17] Blizzard Entertainment announced World of Warcraft on September 2, 2001.[18] The game was released on November 23, 2004, on the 10th anniversary of the Warcraft franchise.

The first expansion set of the game, The Burning Crusade, was released on January 16, 2007.[19] The second expansion set, Wrath of the Lich King, was released on November 13, 2008.[20] The third expansion set, Cataclysm, was released on December 7, 2010. The fourth expansion set, Mists of Pandaria, was released on September 25, 2012.[21] The fifth expansion set, Warlords of Draenor, was announced at BlizzCon 2013. [22]

With over seven million subscribers as of July 2013,[23] World of Warcraft is currently the world's most-subscribed MMORPG, and holds the Guinness World Record for the most popular MMORPG by subscribers. [24]

Races

The races in World of Warcraft is divided into two factions, Alliance and Horde.

Alliance: Worgen, Draenai, Dwarf, Gnome, Human, Night Elf

Both: Pandaren

Horde: Goblin, Blood Elf, Tauren, Orc, Troll, Undead

Classes

Priest, Rogue, Warrior, Mage, Druid, Hunter, Warlock, Shaman, Paladin, Monk, Death Knight

Gameplay

World of Warcraft

As characters become more developed, they gain various talents and skills, requiring the player to further define the abilities of that character.[25] Characters can choose from a variety of professions, such as tailoring, blacksmithing, or mining. Characters can learn four secondary skills: archaeology, cooking, fishing, and first-aid.[26] Characters may form and join guilds, allowing characters within the guild access to the guild's chat channel, the guild name and optionally allowing other features, including a guild tabard, guild bank, and dues.[27]

Much of World of Warcraft play involves the completion of quests. These quests, also called "tasks" or "missions", are usually available from NPCs.[28] Quests usually reward the player with some combination of experience points, items, and in-game money. Quests allow characters to gain access to new skills and abilities, and explore new areas.[29] It is through quests that much of the game's story is told, both through the quest's text and through scripted NPC actions.[30] Quests are linked by a common theme, with each consecutive quest triggered by the completion of the previous, forming a quest chain. Quests commonly involve killing a number of creatures, gathering a certain number of resources, finding a difficult to locate object, speaking to various NPCs, visiting specific locations, interacting with objects in the world, or delivering an item from one place to another.

While a character can be played on its own, players can group with others to tackle more challenging content. Most end-game challenges are designed in a way that they can only be overcome while in a group. In this way, character classes are used in specific roles within a group.[31] World of Warcraft uses a "rested bonus" system, increasing the rate that a character can gain experience points after the player has spent time away from the game.[32] When a character dies, it becomes a ghost—or wisp for Night Elf characters—at a nearby graveyard.[33] Characters can be resurrected by other characters that have the ability, or can self-resurrect by moving from the graveyard to the place where they died. If a character is past level ten and they resurrect at a graveyard, the items equipped by the character degrade, requiring in-game money and a specialist NPC to repair them. Items that have degraded heavily become unusable until they are repaired. If the location of the character's body is unreachable, they can use a special "spirit healer" NPC to resurrect at the graveyard. When the spirit healer revives a character, items equipped by the character at that time are further degraded, and the character is significantly weakened by what is in-game called "resurrection sickness" for up to ten minutes, depending on the character's level. This "resurrection sickness" does not occur and item degradation is less severe if the character revives by locating its body, or is resurrected by another player through special items or spells.[34] [35]

World of Warcraft contains a variety of mechanisms for player versus player (PvP) play. Players on player versus environment (PvE) servers can opt to "flag" themselves, making themselves attackable to players of the opposite faction.[36] Depending on the mode of the realm, PvP combat between members of opposing factions is possible at almost any time or location in the game world—the only exception being the starting zones, where the PvP "flag" must be enabled by the player wishing to fight against players of the opposite faction. PvE (called normal or RP) servers, by contrast, allow a player to choose whether or not to engage in combat against other players. On both server types, there are special areas of the world where free-for-all combat is permitted. Battlegrounds, for example, are similar to dungeons: only a set number of characters can enter a single battleground, but additional copies of the battleground can be made to accommodate additional players.[37] Each battleground has a set objective, such as capturing a flag or defeating an opposing general, that must be completed to win the battleground. Competing in battlegrounds rewards the character with tokens and honor points that can be used to buy armor, weapons, and other general items that can aid a player in many areas of the game. Winners get more honor and tokens than losers. However, players also earn honor when they or nearby teammates kill players in a battleground.[38]

Expansions

World of Warcraft: The Burning crusade, is the first expansion pack following the original World of Warcraft game. It was released in January 15, 2007. It sold nearly 2.4 million copies on its release date. This expansion introduces two new playable races to the game. Blood elves for the horde and Draenei for the Alliance. In addition, a new planet called Outlands was released along with quests, dungeons, raids, creatures, cities, and increased max level of characters to 70 from 60.

World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King is the second expansion released for the World of Warcraft game on November 13, 2008, just a year after The Burning Crusade. This expansion added substantial amount of new content to the original world of Azeroth. Adding a third continent Northrend, to the original two of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. The expansion introduces a new class, Death Knights. Additions of new dungeons, raids, creatures, cities, and increased max level of characters from 70 to 80.

World of Warcraft: Cataclysm is the third expansion released for the World of Warcraft game on December 7, 2010. This expansion's plot brings back the evil dragon named Deathwing the Destroyer from one of Blizzard's earlier games Warcraft II. The release of the expansion gives the idea that Deathwing's return creates a sweeping cataclysm that reshapes most of Azeroth's original continents of Kalimdor and Eastern Kingdoms. This brings new zones, raids, creatures, and an increased max level of characters from 80 to 85. Two playable races of Worgen for Alliance and Goblins for the Horde.

World of Warcraft: Mists of Pandaria is the fourth expansion for the World of Warcraft game on September 25, 2012. This expansion takes place after Deathwing's menace ends and the naval armies of the Horde and Alliance are at war and forces are washed ashore on a fog-shrouded island known as Pandaria. The introduction of Pandaria creates a fourth continent in the world of Azeroth, opening up new zones, dungeons, raids, quests, cities, and increased max level of characters from 85 to 90. A new Monk class and Pandaren race is introduced to both factions.

World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor is the fifth expansion for the World of Warcraft game released in November 13, 2014. The plot starts from the end of the Mists of Pandaria expansion where Garrosh Hellscream is taken in to custody and escapes by a mysterious ally and travels back in to time to the original home world of the orcs, Draenor. He creates an alternate timeline which leads to the corruption and plays a major role in the events of the first three games. He threatens to take over the present Azeroth by building a dark portal that allows his army from Draenor to travel back to the present in order to lay siege on Azeroth. This expansion brings the new world Draenor to the game accessible through the dark portal in order for players to stop the siege. New content includes new zones, dungeons, raids, quests, cities, and increased max level 90 to 100.

World of Warcraft: Legion is the sixth expansion for the World of Warcraft game released on August 30, 2016. In this dire new chapter of the Warcraft saga, the demonic Burning Legion has returned, seeking to call forth their fallen leader the dark titan Sargeras, Ravager of Worlds. As destruction rains across Azeroth, its heroes must seek salvation among the ruins of the Broken Isles, doomed center of ancient night elf civilization, and birthplace of myths dating back to the world’s creation. In the face of hopeless odds, they must learn to master mighty artifact legendary weapons that hold the potential to bring down the corrupted armies of the Legion, Also, the heroes must strike an infernal pact with the dreadful Demon Hunters of the Illidari, accursed followers of the infamous Illidan Stormrage, the Betrayer. A new class called the demon hunter was released alongside raise in the level cap to 110.[39]

World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is the eighth expansion for the World of Warcraft and has a release year of 2020. It was announced at Blizcon on November 1st, 2019. It focuses on the new area called the Shadowlands, which is the equivalent to the realm of the dead in the Warcraft world lore. It will include new zones, new dungeons, and new raids. It will also be the first time the World of Warcraft will include a "level squish" where max level characters will be reduced to 50, and the new level cap will be 60 instead of 120. This is described as being a new game + experience. It will include 5 main zones called Bastion, Ardenweald, Revendreth, Maldraxxus, and the Maw. [40]

Warcraft (The Movie)

Warcraft (Alternatively known as Warcraft: The Beginning) [41] is a 2016 American fantasy film directed by Duncan Jones and written by Jones, Charles Leavitt and Chris Metzen. It is based on the Warcraft video game series and novels set in the world of Azeroth. The film stars Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper, Toby Kebbell, Ben Schnetzer, Robert Kazinsky and Daniel Wu. The film portrays the initial encounters between the humans and the orcs and takes place in a variety of locations established in the video game series.[42]

Guild Wars 2

Guild Wars

Guild Wars 2 is the sequel to the Guild Wars series of games by ArenaNet. Guild Wars 2 was released on August 28, 2012. It has been in development since 2006. Many features have integrated into the game which align it with traditional MMORPGs, such as a persistent world and a level cap of 80, but the game has been described by ArenaNet as having non-traditional elements as well, because "it doesn’t make you spend hours preparing to have fun rather than just having fun." [43]

Gameplay

Guild Wars 2 was originally a pay-to-play game. It recently became a free-to-play game as it failed to compete against the major competitors on the pay-to-play (P2P) subscription market.[44] Guild Wars 2 currently allows its players to select between 5 races and 9 playable classes. Players get to customize their characters to their liking and create multiple characters within a single account. Guild Wars 2 allows its users to create names using spaces, a feature not offered in a many popular games. Another unique feature that Guild Wars 2 has over its competitors is the flexibility in terms of selecting a story line for a character. Like many other MMORPGs, Guild Wars 2 offers a variety of approaches to the game. There is the typical grinding play-style where players level up through defeating monsters and gaining experience points per kill. Alternatively, players can also complete quests and follow their character's story line to get the full RPG experience. The best part about Guild Wars 2 is the option to collaborate with other online players or solo play.

Dynamic Events

In Guild Wars 2, your actions really matter and your choices have an impact on the world around you. Instead of static quests in an unchanging world, the dynamic event system creates a world dynamically responds to player actions. Dynamic events change and evolve in response to how you interact with them, leaving lasting effects in the game world. If you save that village from ogres, they may return with siege weapons to counter attack or regroup in nearby caves. You can prevent bandits from destroying a town’s water supply or you can defend the workers who repair the damaged pumps. As in real life, every action has a consequence—intended or not. They are designed to scale in difficulty depending on how many players interact with them. [45]

Races

Guild Wars 2 Races

There are currently 5 available races to choose from, each consisting of male and female genders:[46]

  • Human* - The Human is a standard race in which appear in most (if not, all) video games. This race is typically the most popular among others due to its aesthetic features.[47]
  • Charr* - The Charr race is a beast-like character that is described by its war-driven fury and lust for blood. They are brutes within the game.[48]
  • Norn* - The Norn are hunters who live on icy regions. In game, the Norn share similar physical features with humans and have the largest character models in the game.[49]
  • Asura* - The Asura are known to be alchemagical inventors who have the smallest character models in game. According to the game lore, the Asura are viewed to be the scientists or philosophers in the Guild Wars franchise. They are the second most popular race because of their physique.[50]
  • Sylvari* - The Sylvari are created from Pale Tree. They appear in game to share tree-like features: their skin is made of bark visible by day, and glisten in the night time.[51]

Professions

There are nine professions, otherwise known as classes in other games, that the player will be able to choose to play as. Each have their own unique powers and play style.

  • Mesmer - Mesmers are magical duelists who wield deception as a weapon. Using powerful illusions, clones, and phantasmal magic to confuse and distract their foes, mesmers make sure every fight is balanced in their favor and their opponents can’t believe their eyes.
  • Guardian - Guardians are devoted fighters who protect their allies and smite their enemies by drawing from the power of their virtues. True guardians are brilliant tacticians and selfless defenders who know when to sacrifice their own defenses to empower their allies to achieve victory.
  • Necromancer - Practitioners of the dark arts, necromancers summon the dead, wield the power of lost souls, and literally suck the life force from the enemy. Necromancers feed on life force, which they can use to bring allies back from the brink or cheat death itself.
  • Elementalist - Elementalists are multi-faceted spellcasters that channel elemental forces, making fire, air, earth, and water do their bidding. What they lack in physical toughness, they make up in versatility and the ability to inflict massive damage in a single attack.
  • Warrior - Warriors are masters of weaponry who rely on speed, strength, toughness, and heavy armor to survive in battle. Adrenaline fuels their offensive power—the longer warriors stay in a fight, the more dangerous they become.
  • Thief - Experts at stealth and surprise, thieves can move through the shadows, vanish into thin air, or steal items from their opponents and use them as weapons. Thieves practice an agile, acrobatic fighting style, which can make them very hard to hit.
  • Engineer - Masters of mechanical mayhem, engineers love to tinker with explosives, elixirs, and all manner of hazardous gadgets. They can take control of an area by placing turrets, support their allies with alchemic weaponry, or lay waste to foes with a wide array of mines, bombs, and grenades.
  • Ranger - Rangers rely on a keen eye, a steady hand, and the power of nature itself. Unparalleled archers, rangers are capable of bringing down foes from a distance with their bows. With traps, nature spirits, and a stable of loyal pets at their command, rangers can adapt to any situation.
  • Revenant - Revenants are heavily armored warriors who augment devastating physical attacks with the mystical powers of legends from Tyrian history.

Buy to Play Pricing Model

Unlike typical MMOs, you will only need to purchase Guild Wars 2 once in order to play it. While this may sound attractive to gamers, it's not a model that can support a game for a long period of time. Unlike a game like World of Warcraft, they are not able to easily make money off returning players. To counteract this, they offer numerous in-game items that players will be able to buy with real-world currency, also known as a "cash Shop"[52]. Also, they release expansions to the game that players will need to buy in order to gain access to. ArenaNet will be releasing the expansion, titled Heart of Thorns, in 2015[53]. This expansion includes the base game as well as the expansion, with no ability for existing players to simply purchase the expansion for a cheaper price. This model has been the target of a lot of criticism. [52] However, the fact that a game like this makes most of its money from up-front retail sales explains why ArenaNet would decide to go this route.

Expansions

Heart of Thorns

Guild Wars 2: Heart of Thorns

Heart of Thorns is Guild Wars 2 first expansion.[54] Heart of Thorns takes place in the Heart of Maguuma where an expedition group crashes on their way to confront the elder dragon Mordremoth. Heart of Thorns introduced a new area called the Heart of Maguuma which is a jungle region that contains 4 new maps: Verdant Brink, Auric Basin, Tangled Depths, and Dragon's Stand. In addition, Heart of Thorns brought about the new mastery system that is available to players who are above level 80. Players are able to complete content in the Heart of Maguuma and complete challenges in order to receive mastery points. These mastery points can be invested into different categories, ranging from Gliding Mastery to Legendary Equipment Crafting. The mastery that Heart of Thorns brought were Gliding, Itzel Lore, Exalted Lore, Nuhoch Lore, Raids, and Ancient Magics.

Heart of Thorns also brought out a new class called the Revenant that derives from the legends from the world of Guild Wars.

Path of Fire

Guild Wars 2: Path of Fire

Path of Fire is Guild Wars 2 second expansion. [55] Path of Fire takes place after Heart of Thorns, where the player leads his allies to hunt down the rouge god Balthazar, whose campaigns threatens the existence of Tyria. Path of Fire takes place in the Crystal Desert which is a desert region that contains 5 new maps: Crystal Oasis, Desert Highlands, Elon Riverlands, The Desolation, and Domain of Vabbi. In addition, Path of Fire introduced mounts for the game, which allows the players to ride a beast to travel rather than walking everywhere. Prior to mounts, there is was no method of traveling from one area to another quickly.

Mounts

There are currently 6 mounts available if the player purchases Path of Fire.

  • Raptor - A hardy saurian, capable of leaping horizontally across long distances.
  • Springer - A large jerboa-like creature, capable of jumping vertically to great heights.
  • Skimmer - A floating manta-ray-like creature, capable of hovering above water and environmental hazards.
  • Jackal - An elemental canine, capable of blinking across short distances and making precise jumps.
  • Griffon - A cat-bodied bird, capable of gliding across the sky with great speed.
  • Warclaw - A suit of enchanted armor in the shape of a large cat.

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV

Final Fantasy XIV is the 14th in the line of Final Fantasy series of role-playing games by Square Enix. It's the second MMORPG in the Final Fantasy series, the other being Final Fantasy XI. Final Fantasy XIV had very unique origin story for an MMORPG. The game was released on September 30, 2010 [56] on a pay to play $15 a month subscription fee model. However, subscriptions were halted on November 11, 2012 due to heavy and almost unanimous criticism about the game's quality.

Final Fantasy XIV 1.0

At launch, FFXIV was considered to be an incomplete and poorly made game.

It was laden with game-breaking bugs on release. An example of such a big would be doors not properly opening and not letting players enter or exit buildings, a bug that presents a massive problem in a virtual world when many people have to enter and exit buildings to access parts of the game. There was also very little support given by the developer team to actually help players with any technical difficulties they were having with the game, earning Square Enix a negative reputation with the player base.

Although the game boasted large landscapes, there was evidence showing that large areas were created through blatant copy and pasting of other sections of the same map, giving the illusion that one was running through an expansive world, when really it was just the same textures they were going through.

Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn

Final Fantasy as a series had developed a reputation for quality over the many years and had created a large fan base. Yoichi Wada, the President of Square Enix then fired Hiromichi Tanaka, the producer of the game at the time. However, instead of scrapping the game as a failure and giving up, Square Enix still wanted to save their reputation as a producer and of the Final Fantasy series. They set Naoki Yoshida to lead the project to improve and change the game from its core in a drastic way and fired all of the previous developers. The news and actions stirred up so much controversy and interest that Square Enix was able to leverage it into a marketing ploy, effectively getting the whole online game community to set sites on them. No game had tried to do what they were attempting, to rebuild a broken game, and it made for great press. Since the changes would be drastic (even down to the graphics) but Square Enix wanted it to make sense for any people still playing the game who would be suddenly thrust into the new one, the designers decided to incorporate the changes into the overarching story of the world by making the plot line lead into a calamity that would wipe out the old world in the game, yet introducing a new one.

On August 27, 2013 the game was relaunched under a new title, Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn [57] and was praised by fans and newcomers alike. Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn currently sits at above 4 million registered accounts. [58]

When the game first released there was 9 playable jobs:

Final Fantasy XIV all jobs
  • Monk - A melee damage dealer that uses fists and knuckles.
  • Dragoon - A melee damage dealer that uses spears.
  • Bard - A ranged damage dealer and support specialist that uses bows and can buff the party.
  • Black mage - A magic ranged damage dealer that uses staffs and explosive magic.
  • Summoner - A magic ranged damage dealer that uses books and able to summon pets to aid them.
  • Scholar - A healer that uses books and are able to summon pets to aid them in healing.
  • White Mage - A healer that uses staffs and specializes in area healing.
  • Paladin - A tank that uses a sword and shield with powerful defensive cooldowns.
  • Warrior - A tank that uses a two-handed axe and is able to deal more damage than a paladin.

On October 28, 2014 one new job was added [59]:

  • Ninja - A melee damage dealer that uses daggers.

Final Fantasy XIV: Heavensward

The first expansion for Final Fantasy XIV was announced in October 2014 during the Las Vegas Fan Festival and was officially released on June 23, 2015. [60] In an unique way for MMORPG expansions, the Heavensward expansion requires players to be caught up with the main story quest before being allowed into the expansion content and areas.

Huge and expansive new areas were added and flying mounts were also added to aid in the new long distance traveling.

The expansion increased the level cap from level 50 to level 60 and thereby adding many new abilities to pre-existing classes. The expansion also added one new playable race to character creation, the dragon-like, Aura.

The expansion also added three new jobs to play as:

  • Machinist - A ranged damage dealer who uses guns and turrets to buff the party.
  • Astrologian - A healer with the ability to draw random cards to buff the party.
  • Dark Knight -A tank that uses a greatsword and MP to enhance abilities with dark powers.

The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online

The Elder Scrolls Online is a massive multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG), developed by ZeniMax Online Studios. This game was released on April 4, 2014 for Microsoft Windows and on July 17, 2014 for Steam. [61] The Elder Scrolls Online is part of the Elder Scrolls video game franchise and it is the first open ended multiplayer installment of the Elder Scrolls games. At first, The Elder Scrolls Online needed an active subscription to play the game, however on January 21, 2015 it was announced that the active subscription was no longer needed. In addition, the game was renamed to The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited and the console version(Xbox One, Playstation 4) of the game were released on June 9, 2015. [62]

As with the other Elder Scrolls games, the world is set in a continent known as Tamriel and the storyline is not connected with the other Elder Scrolls games. This game has been in development for roughly seven years before its release. It has received many mixed reviews about the game, however, after the changes to The Elder Scrolls Online: Tamriel Unlimited, the comments were mostly positive.

Gameplay

As in the other Elder Scrolls franchise video games, The Elder Scrolls Online is a video game with nonlinear gameplay. This means that challenges can be completed in any sequence the player desires. Similarly, there are many quest, random events and free roaming of the world in the game. The main difference between The Elder Scrolls Online and all the other Elder Scrolls game is that this game is a MMORPG. There is no single player option. Players can communicate and interact with each other such as forming parties to play the game. As the title of the game states, this game is played online with other people, hence it is a MMORPG.

The Elder Scrolls Online gameplay

The player is able to play as a Nord, Redguard, Breton, Imperial, Dunmer (Dark Elves), Altmer (High Elves), Bosmer (Wood Elves), Orsimer (Orcs), Khajiit (Cat like features), and the Argonians (lizard-like features). When selecting a race, players are also able to customize how they look by creating their ideal looks. The player can choose to be male or female, fat or skinny etc. Additionally, in The Elder Scrolls Online, the player can become either a vampire or werewolf, which both has skill trees. Furthermore, the player can join guild in-game and also participate in PVP (player vs player) events.

Lastly, when creating their characters, players must choose one of four classes. These classes include Dragonknight, Sorcerer, Nightblade, and Templar. Each of these unique classes gives the player various attacks, spells and passives.

Setting

As with the other games in The Elder Scrolls franchise, The Elder Scrolls Online is set on the continent of Tamriel and the storyline is indirectly related to the previous games. The events of the game takes place roughly a millennium before the events in The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The structure of the game is similar to Skyrim, but there are two separate conflicts progressing simultaneously. One conflict involves the fate of the world and the other conflict deals with the supreme power on Tamriel. In The Elder Scrolls Online, the first problem is against the Daedric Prince Molag Bal who is attempting to meld the plane of Mundus. The second struggle is to capture and conquer the imperial throne which is vacant and contested by three other alliances. The player’s (you) soul has been stolen by Molag Bal and you primary objective is to retrieve it. The game begins in the Wailing Prison in Coldharbor. This introduction is similar to the other Elder Scrolls game where you, the player begin the game as a prisoner.


StarCraft II

StarCraft II

StarCraft II is a sequel to the real-time strategy game StarCraft, announced on May 19, 2007, at the Blizzard World Wide Invitational in Seoul, South Korea. It is set to be released as a trilogy. StarCraft II's multiplayer mode is available at no cost. Internet access is not required to play the game but is required for installation. StarCraft II is available through digital distribution. StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty sold 1.5 million copies in its first two days and 3 million copies in its first month. It was the best-selling game of July 2010. Blizzard intends to continue support StarCraft II years after release, in a similar manner to the StarCraft patches, which have been updated more than ten years after the release of the original StarCraft. As of 2011, there are no plans to port StarCraft II to any console platform.

StarCraft 2 Gameplay

[63]

Gameplay

StarCraft II multiplayer gameplay features the original three gameplaying races and no new races. StarCraft II retains some units from the original game, although some of these units have been given new abilities. Due to story events from the previous game, some units have been phased out or replaced. For example, the conquest of the protoss homeworld of Aiur has prevented the creation of more dragoons – the transplanted forms of protoss warriors in exoskeletons – resulting in the remaining dragoons to be redesigned with different weaponry and a shield that absorbs heavy damage and renamed to "immortals". The number of units in the game did not significantly change from Brood War. For every new unit added, one "underused" unit has been removed. There are six levels of AI script difficulty: very easy, easy, medium, hard, very hard and insane. The insane AI mode is the only one which "cheats". StarCraft II features 20 unique tilesets, including the Shattered City environment.

Expansions

Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm This expansion was released on March 12, 2013. In this expansion, players would play through the story line from the perspective of the Zergs.

Starcraft II: Legacy of the Void This expansion was released on November 10, 2015. In this expansion, players would play through the story from the perspective of the Protoss.

DotA 2

DotA 2

DotA (Defense of the Ancients) is a strategic game with ten players, five on each team, who have to work together on a standard map to invade and destroy the enemy team’s barracks (the Ancient). These five players can choose from over 100 heroes, 100 items, and have at least four predetermined skills, which they can upgrade up to a hero level of 25. When combining all these factors, the game becomes extremely complex and the scenarios that you may end up in approach infinity. DotA started off as a custom map on WarCraft and eventually attracted so much attention that Valve bought it's rights from Blizzard Entertainment. Valve called it DotA 2 making dedicated servers for people to play on and a ranking system to show people's strategy and knowledge of the game. Now DotA is one of the top free games on the Steam market and has competitions worldwide for its professional players.

Economics & Betting

Although this may just be a game, there recently has been introduced a betting system. Valve Corporation, the owner and creator of the game, created custom cosmetic items that can be bought on a marketplace for real cash (Introduced in the Fall 2015 Major Tournament Game Update). In DotA, they have recently added a system in which you can bet virtual coins in order to gain these custom cosmetic items, which (as mentioned before) can be traded on the marketplace for real cash. These coins that you bet can be related to real life monetary betting because you either have to work for these coins or you can purchase them. In comparing this to a poker tournament, it would be like buying into the game. People bet up to a certain amount of virtual coins within each game and get double if they win and lose their bet if they are defeated. The reason why this is such an interesting argument is because DotA matches average around 30 to 60 minutes a match. The amount of time invested into the game truly gives an accurate representation of the payoff you will receive and is consistent with many sports in our everyday lives.

Competitions & Ranking

Valve Corporation has not only created this game to be entertaining, but also has refined it so much that people have created careers out of it. The e-Sports scene has become such a large market with quarterly competitions having a payoff of over $3 million for a team and annual competitions of over $6 million. This really puts into perspective how important this game truly is on some people’s lives. DotA has an extremely efficient and accurate method of determining a person’s skill level and ranked placement. After at minimum 100 games, a person is allowed to compete to calibrate their ranked position. The player plays 10 ranked games, where the system is automatically finding opponents similar to you. Each passing game it either finds tougher opponents or weaker opponents to properly determine a person’s rank. A person’s rank can vary from zero to infinity. Generally, the population average rank is around 2,000 Matchmaking Rank abbreviated as 2K MMR. The game has an extremely high learning curve and someone with over 2,000 hours of gameplay would not even know every aspect of the game. Although it may seem complex, the wagering system is quite easy to understand, but the game will take time and effort.

The International

The International or sometimes referred to as the TI is an annual DotA 2 tournament hosted by Valve, the developer of the game. The Tournament has so far been held annually every August. The first year of The International(2011) was set in Cologne, Germany but since 2012, has been held in Seattle, Washington.[64][65] The International is regarded as the most popular eSports Tournament and has viewers from all over the world. The International has become so popular that the games in the tournament have begun to be televised in the United States on ESPN. [66]

Here we see the money that was invested by players into the prize pool. Every year, each goal is achieved.

The International has a special promotion held every year where normal players can buy an item called "The Compendium". The Compendium allows users to add money directly to the prize pool and also gives them better items as the price pool increases. [67]

Compendium.jpg

The International has the world's highest eSports prize pool with over $20 million dollars that can be won. [68]

Winners of the International

2011- Natus Vincere- $1,000,000 prize.

2012- Invictus Gaming- $1,000,000 prize.

2013- Alliance- $1,437,190 prize.

2014- Newbee- $5,028,308 prize.

2015- Evil Geniuses- $6,616,014 prize.

2016- Wings Gaming- $9,139,002 prize.

League of Legends

League of Legends (LoL) is a multiplayer online battle arena, real-time strategy video game developed and published by Riot Games and released on October 27, 2009. League of Legends is free-to-play and can be played on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X. In League of Legends, players assume the role of an unseen "summoner" that controls a "champion" with unique abilities and battle against a team of other players or computer controlled champions. The goal is usually to destroy the opposing team's "nexus", a structure which lies at the heart of a base protected by defensive structures. Each League of Legends match is fair, with all champions starting off quite weak but increasing in strength through items and experience over the course of the game. League of Legends has an active and widespread competitive scene in countries all over the world. There are championship series which consists of 8-12 professional teams in each continent. Countries include China, South Korea, Taiwan, South America, and Southeast Asia. These regional competitions culminate with the annual World Championship, which in 2013, had a grand prize of $1 million and attracted 32 million viewers online.[69] The 2014 and 2015 tournaments each gave out one of the largest prize pools at 2.3 million dollars.

Competitive Scene

League of Legends is not only played by your average everyday people; the game is slowly revolutionizing into a sport. In the competitive scene of League of Legends, the game is played in a best of three format with 8-12 major teams in each region. The regions are broken down into NA:North America, EU:Europe, KR:Korea, CN:China, LMS:Taiwan, BR:Brazil, CIS:Commonwealth of Independent States, JPN:Japan, LAN:Latin America North, LAS:Latin America South, OCE:Oceania, SEA:Southeast Asia, and TUR:Turkey. There are two splits in each season, the Spring Split and the Summer Split. At the end of each season the top teams advance to the playoffs and compete for the Spring/Summer split champions, while the bottom three teams face relegation.[70]

NA LCS: Cloud9, Team SoloMid(TSM), FlyQuest eSports, Phoenix1 (disbanded), Immortals (disbanded), Counter Logic Gaming, Echo Fox, Team Dignitas (disbanded), Team Liquid, Team EnVyUs (disbanded), 100Thieves

EU LCS: G2 Esports, Misfits, Fnatic, Giants! Gaming, ROCCAT, Unicorns of Love, H2k-Gaming, Splyce, Vitality, Origen

CN LPL: Royal Never Give Up, Invictus Gaming, LGD Gaming, OMG, Snake Esports, IMay, EDward Gaming, Qiao Gu Reapers, Team WE, Vici Gaming, Newbee, Game Talents

KR LCK: SK Telecom T1, KT Rolster, Longzhu Gaming, Samsung Galaxy, MVP, bbq OLIVERS, afreeca Freecs, ROX Tigers, Jin Air Green Wings, Kongdoo Monster

BR CBLoL: RED Canids, INTZ e-Sports, paiN Gaming, Keyd Stars, CNB e-Sports Club, Operation Kino, KaBuM! e-Sports, Remo Brave eSports

TR TCL: SuperMassive eSports, HWA Gaming, CREW eSports, Team Aurora, Galakticos, 1907 Fenerbehce, Dark Passage, Galatasaray Esports

JPN LJL: DetonatioN Gaming, Rampage, Unsold Stuff Gaming, Rascal Jester, Scarz, 7th heaven

OCE OPL: Chiefs eSports Club, Legacy eSports, Avant Garde, LG Dire Wolves, Sin Gaming, Tainted Minds, Abyss Esports, Exile5

LAN LLN: Lyon Gaming, Predatirs eSports, Zaga Talent Gaming, Infinity eSports, Just Toys Havoks, Dash9 Gaming, Gaming Gaming, Infamous Gaming

LAS CLS: Last Kings, Isurus Gaming, Hafnet E-Sports, Furious Gaming, Rebirth eSports, Kaos Latin Gamers,

CIS LCL: Vaevictis eSports, Vega Squadron, Virtus.pro, M19, Team Just Alpha, Natus Vincere.CIS, Gambit.CIS, TORNADO ROX

As with any sport the game has strict guidelines and rules that are mandated by the association. Each professional League of Legends team must have at least 5 starters, 2-5 substitutes, one head coach, and a general manager.[71] The players must wear professional gaming apparel and look presentable to the public. Each team is also allowed to have sponsors that are in compliance with the guidelines set by the association. Each team is given a salary at the start of each competitive split, and teams are also given a game schedule that they must follow.

Mid-Season Invitational

At the end of each split, Riot Games hosts a event; when the Spring Split ends the Mid-Season Invitational begins. The Mid Season Invitational is an event that gathers 13 teams from all the regions combined and places them in a tournament. This tournament decides certain key factors that will carry over into the World Championship. In the past the tournament would grant certain teams the opportunity to move past the play in stage, & move directly into the group stages. Unfortunately, the rules tend to change every year. There are several stages in this tournament and the winner of the tournament takes home the title of Mid-Season Invitational winners. [72]

Worlds Format

The final showdown for each season takes place after the Summer Split Season, this is when the League of Legends World Championship begins. The event is held in a different region every year, and tournament concludes after a month of competitive games. Teams from each region send their strongest teams to compete with the best of each region. The World Championship is comprised of 24 of the best teams in the world, the 5 major regions CN, KR, NA, EU, and LMS are each given three seeds into the World Championship. The format for the Championship is broken into 5 stages, the play in stage, group stage, quarter finals, semifinals, and lastly the Finals. The winner of this event takes home the World Championship Trophy and a huge prize pool. [73]

Gameplay

League of Legends is a 3D, third-person multiplayer online battle arena game. The game consists of three major game modes: Summoner's Rift, Twisted Treeline, and Howling Abyss. Generally, Riot Games releases a "fun" mode every weekend to allow players to have a fresh, casual game mode to play. Previously released casual game modes include Ultra Rapid Fire mode (URF), One for All, Odyssey, etc. Players compete in matches that typically lasting 20–45 minutes. In each game mode teams work together to accomplish an objective and achieve a victory through either destroying a central objective controlled by the enemy team, known as a Nexus, or capturing and holding the most strategic points for the longest period of time. Each game mode includes a variety of smaller objectives that give players and teams advantages in achieving overall victory. In all game modes, players control characters called champions, chosen or assigned every match, who each have a set of unique abilities. Players compete to advance waves of minions into the enemy base, which allows them to destroy enemy structures, achieve intermediate objectives, and ultimately victory. Champions begin every match at a low level and then gain experience over the course of the match to achieve a maximum level of 18. Gaining champion levels in matches allows players to unlock their champion's special abilities and change them in a number of ways unique to each character. Players also begin each match with a low amount of gold, and can earn additional gold throughout the match in a variety of ways. One way is by killing non-player characters known as minions and monsters. The second way is by killing or helping to kill enemy players. The third way is by destroying enemy structures. The fourth way is by doing nothing because gold is given passively over time. Finally, the last way it through unique item interactions or champion abilities. This gold can then be spent throughout the match to buy items that further change each champion's abilities and game play in a variety of ways. Champion experience, gold earned, and items bought are specific to each match and do not carry over to subsequent matches. Thus, all players begin each match on more-or-less equal footing relative to their opposing team.

Summoner's Rift

Summoner's Rift

Summoner's Rift is the most popular map in League of Legends. On this map type, two teams of five players compete to destroy an enemy building called a Nexus, which is guarded by a number of defensive structures, Towers. The nexus continually spawn weak non-player characters known as minions, which advance toward the enemy base along three lanes: top, bottom and middle lanes. This makes it more difficult for the opponents to destroy the towers and Nexus because they have to go through the minions first. This map can be considered an "official" map of the game as it is the map where competitive matches are played on. Players get to choose between normal or a ranked mode. The normal mode is a game for fun where they can play with your friends and you can invite up to four other members to play with you. In the ranked games, the losing time loses league points which basically determines their ranking. The top 200 players of each region have the rank of Challenger. Professional players are usually this rank and are seen playing ranked to practice daily. The average game time for a game on Summoner's Rift usually lasts for 25-45 minutes.

To win the game on this map, one enemy team needs to arrive on their enemy's "base" and destroy the "Nexus".[74] To do this, people usually select character that synergizes well, because this map promotes team play more than the others. In addition, there are objectives that can help you win the game such as destroying the enemy's tower or killing the opponent's champion. Both these activities helps the team gain gold to use to buy better items to win.

Preseason 2021

League of Legends New Item Shop.jpg

Season 10 of League of Legend has ended as of November 10th, 2020. A new season will begin in January 2021. Between the end of the current season and the upcoming season, Riot Games provided a Preseason event in which various things are updated or changed in preparation for the upcoming season.[75] In this preseason, the main change to the game is towards the item shop. Many items had their art icon improved. The shop itself also changed in terms of adding a sidebar to purchase boots, potions, and wards. The recommended section also has improved item recommendations; it provides effective items against the opponents' champions. Riot Games added a new type of item called Mythic items.[76] These items have a Mythic passive added to their original stats to improve gameplay in a match.

Twisted Treeline

Twisted Treeline

In Twisted Treeline two teams of three compete to destroy the opposing team's Nexus, which is guarded by enemy towers. These structures continually create minions, which advance toward the enemy base along two lanes. The winning strategy for this map is players would usually have 1 person on the top lane while the other 2 on the bottom. There are many variants for the match-ups where most people choose champions that they are comfortable with. Additionally, the team that consistently captures the two nodes called alters - one on each side of the map gets buffs to their stats. Another way to get buffs to champion stats is to defeating "Vilemaw" which is a boss on the top of the map. After defeating this boss, the team who defeated it all gain buffs to their champions as long as the champion was alive at the time Vilemaw was defeated. The average game time for this game mode is usually about 30-45 minutes. This map was very popular along with the rest. After 7 years, Twisted Treeline game mode was retired from the game as of November 19, 2019.[77] When it was still available, its map was used for one of the League of Legends's featured game mode, Hexakill, where there are 6 players on each team rather than the default number of 5. [78]

Howling Abyss

Howling Abyss

In Howling Abyss two teams of five players compete to destroy the opposing team's Nexus, which is guarded enemy Towers. These structures continually create minions, which advance toward the enemy base along one central lane. Unlike Summoners Rift and Twisted treeline, Howling Abyss consists of one central lane. Also, players cannot return to their allied base to replenish health and mana and to purchase items unless they have been killed. This map is often associated with the game mode ARAM (All Random All Mid). This states that the champions are randomly chosen for the players and thus, everyone would be playing in one lane (middle) with all random champions. During the winter time, Riot holds an event where a special game mode can be played on this map. Game time usually lasts around 15-20 minutes.

Crystal Scar

Crystal Scar

The Crystal Scar map is where the game "Dominion" takes place. Unlike the other modes, two teams of five players on the Crystal Scar compete to capture strategic points and hold those points for the longest possible period of time. Each team controls a base known as a fountain and each team scores points by capturing and owning more objectives than the other team over time. These points count down from an initial score of 200. The first team to reduce the other team to 0 points achieves victory. The average game time on Crystal Scar is usually 20-30 minutes.

Crystal Scar Icon

Although highly anticipated before the debut, the play time on Crystal Scar was deemed low as players opted to play more on the other game modes such as Summoner's Rift, Twisted Treeline, and Howling Abyss. Therefore, not many people play on this map due to its unpopularity. Due to the loss of popularity, queue time were long and and eventually the map was discounted. This map was discounted four years after it was created on February 22, 2016. The Riot Games team also honored the players that spent a lot of time on Dominion by giving out an exclusive icon to people who won 100 games of Dominion. [79]. This icon can be seen on the left and is a picture of the strategic points that needed to be captured in the game to win.

RuneScape

RuneScape is a Java-based massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) operated by British developer Jagex Ltd. With over 9.5 million active free accounts and more than 500 thousand paid member accounts, RuneScape is the second most-played MMORPG in the world, and the most popular free MMORPG in the world for three years in a row.

RuneScape offers both free and subscription content and is able to be played from any computer which is connected to the internet, and runs in any ordinary web browser without straining on/or expending system resources. Since its release, the game has been praised for its free-playing abilities and its availability on a web browser. Each month, the website has around ten million unique visitors, and around ten million unique players access their accounts to play the game.

Yahoo! recorded RuneScape as the fifth most popular overall search term for the year of 2008 - this makes it the only video game in the top ten, despite other big-name games being released in that year.

History and development

DeviousMUD, the forerunner to RuneScape, was created in 1998 by Andrew Gower|Andrew, Paul, and Ian Gower. The game used isometric graphics. The original version was scrapped, and never publicly released. In 1999, Gower completely rewrote DeviousMUD, albeit with no improvements to the graphics or several other aspects of the game. This version was released as a public beta for approximately one week before it was again withdrawn.[80]

As Cambridge University undergraduates, the Gower brothers worked on a complete rewrite of the game. The isometric view was replaced by a mixture of both 3D and 2D sprites. The game, renamed RuneScape (created using a word combiner and randomiser program that Andrew had), was released to the general public as a beta version and for testing on 4 January 2001 and was originally operated from their parents' house in Nottingham. In December 2001, the Gower brothers and Constant Tedder formed Jagex to take over the business aspects of running RuneScape.

On 27 February 2002, a membership service was created, allowing players to choose to pay a monthly fee to access a variety of additional features including new areas, quests and items. This service significantly changed the focus of the game.

As RuneScape became more popular, Jagex began planning major changes. Although only a graphical update was initially planned,[81] the developers opted instead to rewrite the game engine completely, introducing a version that consisted entirely of three-dimensional graphics, with other significant improvements. While in development, this version was known as RuneScape 2. A beta version of the new engine was made available to paying members on 1 December 2003. At that time, the game had 660,000 free players and 58,000 members. The finished version was launched on 29 March 2004.[82] Upon release, RuneScape 2 was renamed RuneScape, and the older version of the game was kept online as RuneScape Classic. On 2 February, 2006, Jagex banned more than 5000 Classic accounts due to cheating. On [[2 August, 2006, RuneScape Classic was closed to new accounts and restricted to paying members who had played Classic at least once in the prior six months.

On 16 May 2006, Jagex upgraded RuneScape's game engine, primarily as a back-end upgrade rather than a visible graphical boost.[83] In particular, the amount of memory required to run RuneScape was significantly reduced, allowing the game to be expanded and improved without increasing the loading time for most players. As of March 2007, RuneScape had more than nine million players. The engine was upgraded once again on 26 June 2007, to allow Jagex to add more complex content to RuneScape in the future.

On 5 July 2007, an article was released in which Andrew Gower told an interviewer he saw a release of RuneScape onto seventh-generation gaming consoles (such as the Wii, the Xbox 360 and the Playstation 3) as "tempting"; however, he states that there are currently no such plans to do so.

On 10 December 2007, Jagex, faced with widespread real world trading rule violations, decided to remove several key areas of the game, especially player killing in an area called, "the wild". Many serious players believed that the game needed to keep several of these areas at least in part; the update prompted a record number of users in the rants forum, and it is estimated that over 60,000 membership subscriptions were cancelled. However, many of these memberships cancelled were macros themselves rather than legitimate players.


On 1 July 2008, RuneScape High Detail, also known as RuneScape HD or RSHD by some, which was a major overhaul of RuneScape's graphics and the single largest update of RuneScape 2 to date, was released to members as a beta. On 14 July 2008, this update became available to non-members and the entire RuneScape community.

Jagex appointed current CEO, Mark Gerhard as of 1 February 2009 [84] (a Sunday), though it was not announced on the RuneScape homepage until [ He promised to make the members version of RuneScape seem like an expansion, instead of simply becoming a "full version" of the free-to-play version/game. He also commented on opinions that RuneScape had been "dumbed down", promising players that it was not aimed extensively at a child-based consumer audience.

Jagex re-released RuneScape Classic on November 2009 and again on June 2010. They were going to re-release RuneScape Classic on January 2011, but did not end up doing so. In September 2011, however, RuneScape Classic was re-released again. It was the last time players were able to access it.

Servers

RuneScape servers are located throughout the world, which are numbered and referred to as worlds by players and Jagex. The servers use Unix, Debian GNU/Linux, and Cisco IOS software,[85] and they are located in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Australia, Finland, Belgium, Mexico, Brazil, Ireland, Norway, Denmark, New Zealand and Sweden.[86] Historically, servers have been located in areas where they will provide the best connection for players in a cost-effective manner. Servers are moved or added as the need arises.[87]

Each of the 200 RuneScape servers allow 2,000 players to connect simultaneously. The servers are divided into free servers, accessible to all players, and member servers, accessible only by those players who choose to pay a monthly fee for additional content. Unlike many other MMORPGs, RuneScape characters are not bound to a particular server, but rather can switch freely among the servers each time they access the game. Some servers are given suggested activity labels, allowing players performing tasks that require or are made easier by group participation, such as minigames, to more easily find each other.

In addition to the RuneScape servers, there are two members-only servers for RuneScape Classic, both located in the United Kingdom. Each of these is limited to 1,250 players, allowing a total number of 2,500 simultaneous RuneScape Classic players. Only players who played RuneScape Classic in the six months prior to the banning of about 5,000 accounts are able to use these.

Gameplay

Players begin in a secluded area, where they are taken through a tutorial, a set path where they learn the most basic skills in RuneScape. After the tutorial, players have access to tutors and advisors located in the towns they explore, who can give players appropriate information about their respective skills.

Players set their own goals and objectives as they play the game. They can train their in-game skills, engage non-player character (NPC) monsters and other players in combat and complete quests at their discretion. Players interact with each other through trading, chatting or by participating in mini-games.

Skills

Skill Screen

The 26 skills in RuneScape enable players to perform various activities within the game, allowing for interaction with NPCs, the environment and other players. Players gain experience points in a skill when they utilise it. For example, mining an ore trains the mining skill, and when the player accumulates enough experience points in the skill, their character will "level up". As the skill level rises, the ability to retrieve better raw materials and produce better products increases, as does the experience awarded if the player utilises new abilities. The total skill level of a player partly symbolises the player's status in the game and subscribers with a high total level can appear on the official high scores. Upon reaching the highest available level in a skill, members may buy a special cape to symbolise their achievement.

Some skills, such as woodcutting and fishing, enable the player to collect raw materials that can be processed into usable items for other skills, such as fletching and cooking respectively. The items created can be used by the player or sold to shops and other players. Other skills allow players to kill certain NPCs, build their own houses, move around the map with greater ease, steal from various NPCs, market stalls and chests located in-game, light fires, cook their own food, create their own potions, craft runestones and weapons, plant their own plants, hunt NPC animals, raid dungeons, and summon familiars to assist in combat and training skills.

Combat

RuneScape features a semi-real-time combat system. Combat is an important aspect of the game, allowing players to defeat monsters to obtain dropped items or to complete quests. A combat level is an indicator of how powerful a player or NPC is in combat. For players, it is determined by applying a mathematical formula to their combat skills. Players engage in combat by clicking on the enemy they want their character to attack and will automatically continue fighting until they kill their opponent, die, or retreat from the fight. Most of the game's weapons are medieval or fantastical in nature, and feature different strengths and weaknesses. Players may also summon a familiar to assist with combat, use special attacks called "abilities" to deal additional damage, and use potions and the Prayer skill to boost their combat prowess.

Combat is subdivided into three main categories: melee, magic and ranged. Melee attacks are close range, magic attacks focus on using runestones to cast spells, and ranged attacks use projectile weapons like arrows, darts or knives. These combat types make up a "Combat Triangle", which governs effectiveness of styles in a rock-paper-scissors fashion; melee beats ranged, ranged beats magic, magic beats melee, and each style is neutral to itself. The advantages and disadvantages of the combat triangle apply to both NPCs and player opponents. Players are not required to choose a character class nor are they bound to a specific category of combat. They may freely change between or combine the three styles of combat by switching weapons and armour.

Combat is governed by a life points system. Every combatant has a maximum capacity of life points, and dies when their health is depleted to 0. Lost life points can be recovered by consuming certain food or drinks, or casting abilities. Players who die reappear at a respawn point of their choice with their life and skill points restored; however, they drop all but three chosen items, as well as certain common items. Dying spawns a gravestone that will hold all of the player's items and will last for an allotted time; however, there are situations in which all items will be lost upon death. If the player does not return in time, the grave will collapse and their items will disappear.

In June 2012 players were invited to beta-test a new combat system named "Evolution of Combat", which included fundamental changes such as re-balancing the Combat Triangle to avoid favouring melee attacks, and replacing special weapon attacks with abilities that produce a range of effects when activated. The system was released on the live game on 20 November 2012. Various polls were also added for players to vote on in game that would determine the result of future content development, some of which would dictate the development of the improved combat system. A beta for a separate combat system dubbed "Legacy Mode" was officially opened to players on 16 June 2014, before being introduced to the live game on 14 July. Legacy Mode allows players to the combat system and interface from prior to June 2012 instead of the Evolution of Combat system.

Player versus player combat

Player versus player combat (PvP) can be performed in specific controlled mini-games and in an area known as the Wilderness. The Duel Arena allows players to stake money and items, while other PvP games offer their own rewards. In the Wilderness, players can engage in combat provided that their combat levels fall within a certain range of each other, and if a player kills their opponent they will be able to claim their opponent's items as a reward.

Before December 2007, players went to the Wilderness to fight other players within a certain combat level range, hoping to kill them and gain their items. In December 2007, the Wilderness was altered to prevent players from transferring in-game items for real-world currency. PvP combat was removed from the Wilderness and temporarily restricted to new mini-games named Bounty Hunter and Clan Wars. Bounty Hunter was replaced by special Bounty Worlds on 6 May 2009 in which players were confined to the Wilderness and could be assigned specific targets to kill. "PvP Worlds" were introduced on 15 October 2008 where players could fight almost anywhere in Gielinor, but these and "Bounty Worlds" were removed when PvP combat in the Wilderness was restored on 1 February 2011.

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Non-player interaction

NPCs populate the realm of Gielinor. Some NPCs, such as shopkeepers and some characters in quests, are unavailable for combat. However, most NPCs can be attacked and these are generally referred to as monsters. Monsters range from common, low-level creatures, such as chickens and goblins, to unique and often much more powerful monsters, such as the King Black Dragon, Kalphite Queen, TzTok-Jad, or the Corporeal Beast.

Most monsters have their own strengths and weaknesses, notable exceptions being certain bosses, which have no specific weaknesses. Demons, for example, have a weak defence against ranged attacks, while metal dragons have extremely high defence against ranged. The weakness of an individual monster is displayed in an interface above its model, along with its combat level and lifepoints.

Monsters may either be aggressive or non-aggressive. Non-aggressive monsters ignore players unless attacked, while aggressive monsters may attack all players or may only attack players with combat levels below a specified level, depending on the circumstances or location. This can make certain areas throughout Gielinor dangerous or inconvenient to players with lower combat levels.

Player interaction

Players can interact with each other through trading, chatting, or by participating in mini-games and activities, some of which are competitive or combative in nature, while others require cooperative or collaborative play. Players can trade items and gold coins with each other, either through a face-to-face trade or by using an automated marketplace known as the Grand Exchange.

The chat system enables players to conversation|communicate with each other. Public Chat broadcasts text to players in the local area on one server, both by text appearing above the speaker's head and in the message box. Friends Chat broadcasts text in the message box only to certain players tuned into a specific channel, who can be available on any RuneScape world. Each Friends Chat channel has an owner, who can assign different ranks to individual players; players' ranks dictate their ability to perform administrative tasks within the channel. Clan Chat allows members of a clan to communicate with each other through a separate channel. Quick Chat allows players to choose from a list of predetermined messages to send as Public Chat, Clan Chat, or Friends Chat.

RuneScape also features independent mini-games, although most are only available to paying members. Mini-games take place in certain areas and normally involve specific in-game skills, and usually require players to cooperate or to compete with each other. Examples of these mini-games include Castle Wars, which is similar to the real-life game Capture the Flag, Pest Control, a highly combat-focused mini-game, and Fist of Guthix, where one player (the hunter) tries to stop another player (the hunted) from collecting charges into a magical stone.

Quests

Quests are series of tasks with a storyline that players can choose to complete. These often have requirements including minimum levels in certain skills, combat levels, quest points and/or the completion of other quests. Players receive various rewards for completion of quests, including money, unique items, access to new areas, quest points and/or increases in skill experience. Some quests require players to work together, and many require players to engage in challenging combat. Quests are grouped into categories based on requirements and difficulty. Once a player completes all quests in the game, an achievement item known as the "Quest Point Cape" can be claimed. New quests are released periodically. Every holiday event there are also quests that are unique to the season. An example would be Christmas, there are special events pertaining to Christmas and the winter season.

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Cheating

Jagex, the creator of Runescape, set up many rules in the game so that all players can compete equally. One of the specific rules about cheating is called "Macroing and third party software". This rule spells out the criteria that a player must commit to be considered a cheater. Despite knowing the repercussions of violating the rules, many players uses third party software to aid their endeavor in training skills for their characters. Those who uses third party software aid are called botters. All they need to do is to download a third-party software program and a script for a particular skill. For example, if a player is skilling woodcutting, the botter can download a script and feed it into a third-party software that automatically controls the character in the game without any human interaction. This is considered cheating because players who use third party software are often absent from the keyboard, hence the term AFK is created.[88]

There have been several prolific anti-bot events in 2011. Bot-Nuking event is a measure undertook by Jagex show how much the company is committed to rid of cheating in RuneScape. The most memorable event took place on November 3,2011 when 1.5 million accounts were given ban status. Some characteristics on the scale of cheating on Runescape include: new botting accounts created every day 100,000 - 200,000, gold-farming accounts banned on bot-nuking day: 1,500,000, Accounts being banned per minute right now: 9,000,Gold farming accounts banned since Tuesday: 7,700,000 accounts created from China and Korea per week Old: 173,000, new: 95, decrease in player activity since bot-nuking day: 60%,banned accounts that were paid members: 10%,bots estimated to have been rendered ineffective: 98%".[89]

Old-School Runescape

Old-School Runescape is a perfect example of how sometimes older generations want something that they can relate to more. This is something that is seen in new media as well as online. It is an older version of the game based on the source code from 2007. It has been extremely successful and has now more active users daily compared to the main game, Runescape 3, that has been developing since the release of Evolution of Combat. Accounts are separated based on different usernames and there is only one person who can use an account at the same time.

The game was released because of the outcry that followed Evolution of Combat and how players wanted that nostalgic feeling of the game. When it was first voted in, there were many things that needed to be done in order for the game to be added to the company. Mainly, it had to see a lot of feedback from players who wanted to see the game return. It saw an extreme amount of support and gained 449,351 votes for the game to return. This was the right move because it helped the company progress more and helped the player-base choose whether they wanted the new game or the old game.

With Old-School Runescape back in the scene, there needed to be a team of developers that continued to update the game. One way these developers decided to help the game stay fresh is by giving ideas to the community and then having the community vote for it. The idea would be implemented into the servers if the idea received over a 75% majority vote by the community.[90] This allowed the game to stay relevant by always adding new content to challenge the player-base. In addition, Old-School Runescape got so popular that Jagex decided to make a mobile version of the game. This allowed the game to be played on most IOS and Android devices while making it portable. With the release of Runescape mobile, the player base soared. In October 2018 (the release of Runescape mobile), the number of players that played Runescape went from 80,000 to 120,000 (A 50% increase). [91]

Blade & Soul

Blade & Soul

Blade & Soul is a Korean fantasy martial-arts massively multiplayer online role-playing game developed by NCSOFT (Team Bloodlust). On September 13, 2012, NCSOFT announced that Blade & Soul would release in Western territories, which eventually happened on January 19, 2016.A Japanese animated television adaptation began airing on April 3, 2014 on TBS and other stations.[92]

Plot

The world is divided into four continents, with its geographical position name - south mainland, east mainland, west mainland and north mainland.Since due to channel blocking for the understanding of the western China and north China still stays in the shu kingdom and they age.Bai qing mountains of eastern continent is because of cold climate, adventurers only to explore the hidden plains.Only the southern continent in the wind, under the guidance of the ruins of fact-finding mission has never been suspended the study of geography and history.Before the cloud established, southern China have been ruled by south heaven. South of the kingdom of heaven is the advanced civilization and martial level laid the foundation for them as the first mainland.Even in the southern kingdom perish many years later, the clouds countries can still rely on the south of the kingdom of heaven is the legacy martial consolidate their dominance.The power of the inferno to let this pass one thousand south heaven disappear overnight on the map.Today, once the center of the south heaven gate array of soil, just cover the sand.The polished by the sand rocks, telling people that a glorious period in Chinese history. Cloud the emperor "Wang Tianze" in the south of the kingdom of heaven after took over the mainland's rule.Stable life nurtured the internal contradiction, general right general wang zong and left suspection.i infinite partisanship is one lesson from the deepest.Wang after the defeat to any suspection.i proteges, fled to hidden plains, and where the wind empire is established.If cloud countries rely on martial rule, so the wind empire inherited the south of the kingdom of heaven is another advantage - multiplier, wind from the imperial army essential combat multiplier can prove it.

Gameplay

Blade & Soul features a combination of martial arts inspired combat and qinggong in an open-world environment. Players create playable characters that explore around the world by completing quests assigned by various NPCs. The game uses a real-time battle system in the third person camera view and requires players to "combo" a series of attacks, much like that of fighting games. According to NCSOFT, the game also features an innovative “Downed” mechanic, allowing players to recover from the brink of death. Players begin with “player-versus environment” (PvE) but may participate in “player-versus-player” (PvP) combat later in the game.[93]

Race

Blade & Soul

The characters pick one of four races,there are : Gon, Jin, Kun, and the Lyn.

Jin They have simple mind wisdom and diligence and good character, and a sage like type of shape, so they in martial arts attainments gained more comprehensive breakthrough, their representative career - "swordsmen" balanced ability is demonstrated. Terran with their curiosity, creativity, and tenacious unyielding will, in all fields to exert remarkable ability, no one would question the Terran created great achievements in the world, is worth looking forward to their future development.

Lyn have a picture of a lovely and delicate appearance, eldar is integrated with the power of the holy beast "kylin" strong race.They have to communicate with the underworld the extraordinary strength of emotions, and can also see the spirit of the ordinary people can't see.Their spiritual, extremely mischievous, keen perception, action quick, holds the "flame", "frozen" and "gas" the use of power, can play with the enemy at the palm between, similar to the Terran, they also have unyielding willpower, the eldar on this ancient continent.

Gon they have gigantic body and like human with Lai's te reproduce the same explosive force, launching wrath, even as hammering hard to stop.Gon with common purity of character, their thinking is pure and simple character and fellow as compared with other RACES more reliable and trustworthy.But it is also easy to use, once into the enemy became a huge threat.

Kun as the celestial fairy, they have the whole world the most beautiful appearance and elegant temperament, they are integrated with the order of the phoenix will race, just like a beautiful scenery.As "the linnet" seed for day, the family of women without men, they think it is one of nature's creatures and choose, so they usually disdain interacting with humans, they like to communicate with nature, pay attention to order and harmonic, they like to sing song poetry in the mountains, out-of-touch, enjoy a high mental state.

Classes

Blade & Soul

Blade Master have a wide variety of attack and defense skills, making them a powerful force on the battlefield. Their techniques rely on high attack speed and careful maneuvering around an enemy, dodging and parrying without pause, while countering any attacks with devastating ease. In battle, the Blade Master is able to swiftly switch between stances, allowing for many combinations of attacks in either their Basic Stance or their blindingly-fast Draw Stance, calling on a unique set of skills only available in those stances. With the Flock of Blades technique, they can summon a flurry of flying swords to overwhelm their enemies.[94]

Destroyer have the most stopping power of any class in Blade & Soul. With their overwhelming presence, Destroyers provoke enemies into attacking them as the biggest threat around. Once they have their opponent’s attention, they overpower all who stand in their way. The iconic skill of the Destroyer is their ability to Grab a staggered enemy, dominating them in battle as they are left defenseless before the Destroyer’s might. Fallen opponents become weapons as the Destroyer hurls them into other enemies, while friends who could not keep up are safely carried out of harm’s way. The Destroyer’s strong attack power and defensive skill make them seem like a lone wolf, but they are most effective in group combat. They complement other classes like the Assassin, Force Master, or Kung Fu Masters, allowing each to set up devastating combinations and Joint Attacks.[95]

Summoner and their Familiar are a team, fighting together to overwhelm their enemies. The Familiar rushes into the thick of it, dealing heavy physical damage and holding the attention of their opponent. Meanwhile, the Summoner hangs back, supporting their Familiar with long range skills that both help their feline friend and hinder their shared enemy. Don’t let the adorable appearance of these two fool you. Summoner attacks deal constant damage and can readily control the flow of battle, making them particularly hard to deal with. Even if one part of the team is defeated, they can revive their fallen ally and jump right back into the fight.The Summoner and their Familiar are the strongest at transferring health from foes to themselves. While it is a great class for novices, actually mastering the Summoner is a difficult process given their wide range of tactics and abilities.[96]

Force Master Unlike other classes, the Force Master attacks at long range, dealing heavy damage from a safe distance. Their swift strikes and ability to remain on the move while attacking makes them a dynamic addition to any battle. They are less durable than the other classes, so careful positioning is key to their survival. The Force Master is able to freely switch between elements; their searing Fire abilities stack damage with repeated attacks, while the freezing Ice powers control the battlefield and enhance their defenses. With careful focus they can even snatch an enemy and hold them suspended in the air, leaving that foe helpless against incoming attacks.[97]

Kung Fu Master While their mighty punches and kicks can lay waste to enemies, a Kung Fu Master’s true power is their ability to catch an opponent’s attack, divert the blow, then counter-attack in the blink of an eye. Due to the precision needed to switch between offensive and defensive abilities, the Kung Fu Master is recommended only for the more experienced. Kung Fu Masters can control the flow of combat through use of combination attacks, stringing together a long chain of blows one after another. While they are capable of facing multiple enemies at once, leaping and pouncing from one foe to another, they are most effective in one-on-one combat.[98]

Assassin While most classes charge in bold and daring, the Assassin is a stealthy sort that prefers to take things at their own pace. They can control the battlefield like no other, luring enemies into deadly traps before they even know what hit them.The Assassin whittles away at an enemy’s strength with rapid fire attacks that cause bleeding and poison damage, which drain the life from their foes over time. While their razor-sharp Dagger is vital, they also employ explosives, poisons, smoke, and other potent utilities to hobble their enemies. On top of their ingenuity, they can also use strange martial arts that allow them to turn invisible, teleport around the field, and even swap places with enemies in an instant.[99]

Blade Dancer The Lyn have also taken up the sword, but rather than wholly adopt the techniques of the Blade Master, they have invented their own unique blend of skills exclusive to their kind. The Blade Dancer merges rapid attack speed, high mobility, and devestating control abilities at the expense of defense.Blade Dancers focus on dashing around the battlefield at blinding speed to evade damage entirely. With both physical and mystical abilities at their disposal, they can dominate a fight before their opponent even realizes what hit them.[100]

Warlock Harnessing dark magics, the Warlock is a medium-ranged caster that relies on empowered Talismans—floating supernatural writings that can be consumed or unleashed to great effect—to protect or attack. Through their Talismans they primarily focus on summoning visceral and nefarious restraints and weapons, like spikes and chains.While the Warlock can be considered a glass cannon, they have a number of ways to keep their enemies at bay, not the least of which is their ability to summon a giant demonic Thrall to finish off their enemies. By keeping enemies at a distance, marking them with limited-time debuffs, and mastering their lengthy ability cooldowns, a Warlock can be a difficult—but rewarding—martial art to master.[101]


Ragnarok Online

Ragnarok Online

Ragnarok Online (RO) is a massive multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) based on Norse mythology created by Gravity. It is based on the popular Korean manhwa, Ragnarok, by Lee Myung Jin. It was first released in South Korea on August 31, 2002 and was soon released around the world, the most popular being International Ragnarok Online (iRO). The Players interact in a 3D environment that gradually changes as the storyline progresses. The game server supports Player vs Environment, Player vs Player and Guild vs Guild as well as others such as Arena Combat and Player vs Monster.

Storyline

After the long and gruesome war between God, Humans, and Demons...

Scarred during the dangerous moments in battle, and avoiding total destruction altogether, the Humans, God and Demons entered a long truce

The 1000 years of fragile and forged peace...

In the land of Midgard, the existence of peace eventually led the humans to erase their memories of the scars and hardships of the wars in the past. Not remembering the faults of the past, culture was spreading throughout the land along with selfishness, corruption, and arrogance.

Then one day, strange occurrences started happening, breaking the balance that once existed in Midgard. There came a strange howl from the boundaries that divided the humans, God, and demons; creatures began attacking; increasing earthquakes and hail - and...

The mysterious legend of demons...

As the fragile peace began to fall apart, stories about the parts of Ymir, protecting the peace, began to spread among the adventurers. Forgetting the true nature of it, people set out to seek each of the pieces for their own selfishness, and the wealth that would come with it.[102]

Gameplay

Ragnarok Online Tutorial

To begin, players have to customize their own avatar to the specific job class that they want to play. This includes hairstyle, hair color, stats, and an in game name. They will then go through a tutorial or training center that teaches the player basic game play - how to attack a monster, how to use an item, how to equip their weapon and armor and how to travel between maps. After the player feels that they are ready to leave the tutorial or training center, they will be sent to the kingdom of Rune Midgard, Prontera, where all players start.





Classes

Ragnarok 1st Job Classes

Novice

All players start out as a Novice. Novices do not incur any EXP loss when they die and they regain 50% of HP when they respawn. Once they reach Job level 10, they can then choose between a variety of first job classes listed below. After the first job change, each job can change into a more advanced class. The character continues to grow through the job changes.

1st Class

Swordsman

Swordsmen are close range fighters with strong physical attacks and defense. They have a strong sense of command and make very good leaders to others. They use weapons such as one handed and two handed swords, daggers, and spears.

Archer

Archers are good at long range combat with high dexterity, agility, and accuracy. They attack with bows and elemental arrows. Archers have the ability to quickly change their weapon and arrows, making it easier for them to attack. Their range enables them to defeat stationary or slow moving monsters without being hit.

Mage

Mages are also good at long range combat. They focus on using elemental skills to attack their enemies. Their weapon of choice are rods, wands, and staffs, which boosts their magical attack power.

Merchant

Merchants are the money-makers in the game, always buying low and selling high. They have a high vitality and are good at defending. They can pull around a Cart that has the ability to carry a lot of heavy items and equipment. Merchants are usually found in populated cities and marketplaces selling their rarest items for a lot of zeny (Ragnarok Online's currency).

Thief

Thieves are a quick with close combat fighting, using daggers as their main weapon of choice. They are swift, powerful and have the ability to steal items and zeny from other monsters and players. If they come across a stationary opponent, they can use a bow and arrow to attack without losing HP.

Acolyte

Acolytes are religious and live their lives serving the Church. They are always ready to support other players when in need and train to become selfless and devoted individuals. They use holy skills and carry rods and maces for physical damage.

2nd Class

Ragnarok 2nd Job Classes

Knight Knights are the 2nd class of a swordsman. They have new masteries that allows them to ride on a birdlike horse monster called a peco peco. They also acquire more masteries making their sword and spear attack much more stronger than when they were a swordsman.

Hunter Hunters are the 2nd class of an archer. They will obtain new masteries that allows them to tame and use a falcon for battle. They also acquire more masteries where instead of using only a bow and arrow for battle, they can also set landmine and traps to snare the monsters.

Wizard Wizards are the 2nd classes of a mage. As a mage the spells casted towards a single monster only. When advancing to a wizard they have multiple dangerous magic skills where it would create an area of effect(AoE).

Blacksmith Blacksmiths are the 2nd class of a merchant. They will have new masteries where they can upgrade weapons and forge weapons. Forging weapon to another elements such as fire, earth, wind, and water. Still know as the money makers in the game because only they can sell these types of weapons to other players for their zenies.

Assassin Assassins are the 2nd class of a thief. They are able to enhance their weapon type to be poison. Instead of using a dagger in battle they are also able to use a Katar. It is two daggers in both hands and only assassin class are allow to do that. Also, They are able to cloak and turn invisible if they are losing a battle and escape.

Priest Priest are the 2nd class of an acolyte. They are good for partying because of their masteries. Their masteries allows them to give extra damage to themselves and to others; therefore, partying with other users would help them gain experience and level up. One skill they have that is most powerful in the game is resurrection, it can revive any party member in the game. They usually are able to power level by themselves on zombie monsters because healing them will damage them undead monsters heavily.

DC Universe Online

DC Universe Online

DC Universe Online, developed by Daybreak Game Company, is the only massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) that is set in the worlds made popular by DC Comics. [103] The game was originally released for Microsoft Windows and PlayStation 3 in January 11, 2011. DCUO later arrived to next gen consoles, starting with the PlayStation 4 in November 15, 2013, followed by the Xbox One in April 29, 2016. [104]

In February 2011, DC Comics launched its 52-issue bi-weekly limited series titled DC Universe Online: Legends. [105] The comic series was based on the game, and it finished in May 2012. This MMO has been received quite well, with a total of 18 million registered users and its status as the number one revenue generating free-to-play game on the PlayStation 3 and 4 as of August 2014. [106]

Gameplay

The user creates a new and original character that interacts with the heroes and villains of DC Comics. Players begin by selecting their character's faction (Hero or Villain), movement mode (flight, acrobatics, speed or skimming), weapon/power (fire, ice, gadgets, mental, nature, sorcery, earth, light, electricity, rage, quantum, celestial, munitions and atomic), and many other customization options. In addition, there are cosmetic customization options that do not affect the character's gameplay, such as hair, skin and costumes. All of which can be further personalized with a color palette equipped with 3 color slots. Players also have the ability to choose from pre-built templates that are inspired by well-known DC characters, in order to quickly jump into the game.

DC Universe Online gameplay

After choosing a superhero (or villain) name, the player begins the tutorial mission, fighting their way out of an enemy spaceship while learning the basic mechanics of the game. The player's character is then inducted into the Justice League or The Society (based on choice of Hero or Villain), and receive more missions to embark on and level up their character. Like all other MMO's, the world is mainly shared, public space. However, the space occupied by the player may be different depending on the decisions made during character creation. As the players progress they will fight with and against a variety of key DC Comics characters, advancing stories that are predominantly based on other DC Comics.

DC Universe Online has been actively updating through Game Updates, (also known as GU), and Hotfixes. Aside from bug fixes, several Game Updates involve Seasonal Events which provide special feats, styles, base items, overworld missions and instances exclusive to the time frame it runs for, usually a month. There are two new Events that tend to cycle throughout the year: Survival Mode and Legends PvE. DC Universe Online offers downloadable content (DLC) or Episodes which expand the game universe with new, more difficult missions to progress that provide new or continuations of stories already existing; new costume styles and equipment, and being released monthly. [107]

Aion

Aion: The Tower of Eternity is a Korean MMORPG [Korean name: 아이온: 영원의 탑] released by NCsoft on November 25, 2008 where it was initially released. It was then released in North America on September 22, 2009. Originally, Aion was not free-to-play and subscription based, however due to the declining populations later, it was later made free-to-play. What makes Aion unique than other MMORPGs was its flight combat system. There are a lot of gameplay involving flight combat where other MMORPGs do not offer.

Aion: Tower of Eternity

Plot

The lure of Aion involves two races of which is playable by players. These two races have been at constant war against each other, and must fight to protect their homelands, Elyesia for the Elyos and Asmodae for the Asmodians from the dreaded Balaurs’ invasion. The world of which these races reside in is called Atreia. The major instances in the game follows the storyline of both races trying to protect their homeland from the invasion of the Balaurs.

Aion: Atreia - Elyesia and Asmodae

Races

Eylos – They are the more human-like people of Aion and are generally lighter skinned than the Asmodians. Their cities and land are more radiant and live in Elysea which is on the lower part of the Atreia. [108]

Asmodian – They are more beast-like than the Elyos with manes that runs through their back and dangles like a tail. They are described as loyal and strong-willed people that would fight every hard to protect their own against outsiders. They reside in the upper part of Atreia known as Asmodea. [109]

Customization

Aion’s customizations is very detailed and unique when compared to other MMORPGs. Players are able to create a character of their dreams as the character customization is extremely detailed and impressive. Nearly every minor characteristic of your character can be altered, from simply the characters face to the height of the eyebrows, eyes, and/or noses. Players can also modify the shape of a characters eyes, nose, and body shape. Additionally, Aion provides a variety of different hair colors, including any color of the rainbow accompanied by over 30 different types of hairstyles for both male and female characters. Even the pupil of the eyes has over 15 different types of shapes and sizes can be made smaller or large according to the players’ will. The bodies also have a vast variety of options from the length of the feet to the size of the neck on the characters. Aion's customization is truly impressive and worthwhile for any MMORPG fan.

Character Creation : Facial Features

Gameplay

Aion is a PvPvE MMORPG, meaning players has a chance of being attacked by other players as well as mobs in the open world and so therefore it would be a mixture of PvP and PvE. There are many instances in which players can join up in parties to conquer the bosses for better gear as they progress in the game. For those who rather PvP, all maps besides the starting map allows PvP which means people are able to join up with others to hunt for their opposing fractions. Players are only allowed to attack their opposite fractions within the open world, however arenas allows same fraction PvP. Interestingly, because Aion has two factions, the Elyos and Asmodians, when one faction joins the other factions world and tries to communicate, the words are scrambled, making it ineligible. There have been various apps that were created that reverse scramble the words making the two opposing factions able to communicate with one another when they are in contact with one another. Most of the communication is trash talking. For example, when an Asmodian encounters an Elyos, the Asmodian player can write "ked" which would write "bad" in the chat of the Elyos player. [110]

Abyss

The unique flight combat system of Aion mostly takes place in the Abyss which is the place that came about when the Tower of Eternity was shattered during the Cataclysm. It left an empty hole in the middle between Asmodae and Elyseia which became known as the Abyss.[111] In there, players are able to do flight combat as well as capture the opposing fractions’ fortresses during certain times of the day.

A fortress in the Abyss

Stigma stones

In addition to the skills that each class have unique to themselves, they also have stigma stones that are unique to themselves. Stigma stones represent stones that are imbued with the souls of the past Daevas. [112]Players are able to use certain stones based on their levels and can gain more as they level further. The stones can give either an offensive or defensive abilities, depending on what stigma they are. In order to equip or change out a stigma stone, players must go to a stigma master that should be at every city.

Greater Stigma Stones

Greater Stigma Stones are powerful stigmas that also give a unique abilities, however to gain them, there are requirements that must be met. To equip a Greater Stigma Stone, certain Normal Stigma Stones must be already equipped or else it would not work. Originally to gain Greater Stigma Stones players must buy it with their AP (Abyss Points), which are points gained from killing other players in the abyss, however with the recent patches, it was given to the players and can be brought from other players.

Classes

There are currently 6 main classes where there are subclasses under each that you can pick from after you have reached the level 10 in the game. The 6 main classes are Warrior, Scout, Mage, Priest, Technician, and Bard. These classes define the roles of your characters on Aion when you are in an instance or an arena.

Warrior

Templar- They are considered as the main tank of the game where they take all the damage from the bosses. In addition, Templars are one of the only two classes in Aion that has a different skill set when they switch from their shields to swords. [113]

Gladiator- They are a melee dps class with many AOE skills which allows them to hit multiple targets at the same time. [114]

Scout

Ranger- They are a ranged dps class that outputs consistent damage. They have a limited time on stealth. [115]

Aion Weapons : The 13 Different Types From Instance Drakenspire Depths

Assassin- They are a melee dps class with quick, brutal attacks and can go into stealth for a indefinite period of time.[116]

Mage

Sorcerer – They are a ranged magic dps class that uses the four elements of water, fire, air and earth, as well as Aether. They can release high damage through several bursts and provide good CC. Sorcerers are considered as one of the top dpsers in the game. [117]

Spiritmaster – They are ranged magic dps class that uses the power of the spirits that they summon. They have a spirit of each of the four elements which all have their each unique set of skills. The fire spirit is a melee with boosted attack power, while the water spirit has more attack range than the rest. The earth spirit serves as a tank with it's boosted defense and HP, and the air spirit is a melee with a unique ability that allows it to have a chance of stunning the enemy whenever they attack. They are also considered the top CC class in the game with their ability to send multiple things including mobs and players within their AOE running away in trance state for a few seconds. [118]

Priest

Cleric – They are considered as the major support class of the game in which almost every instance requires them. They are the ones that heals the group while the group attacks the bosses or other players. Clerics are equipped with the most AOE heals in the game, however they can also be a magic dps if they choose to do so. [119]

Chanter – They are a support class as well as a melee dps class that can use their staff to dps the boss if extra inputs of dps is needed. They can switch to maces for extra healings if the cleric needs help with extra healing. [120]

Engineer

Gunner – They are a ranged magic dps class that uses pistols and cannons as their main weapons. They use the Aether in the air as bullets and cannon power. They can released major dps and are able to interchangeably switch between each weapon to produce more dps. They are one of the only two classes that has a different set of skills when they change weapons. [121]

Aethertech—They are mainly a ranged magic tank that can substitute the Templar at times but is usually used for dps. They have some melee skills that allows them some melee dps. [122]

Artist

Bard—They are a ranged magic dps class that uses a harp and uses their tunes as attacks. They are also able to heal themselves and groups but not as effective as the Cleric or Chanter and so is mainly used as magic dps. However they are considered as a very good class for solo PvP and PvE due to their many abilities such as healing themselves and healing their mana which is used for attacks.[123]

Weapons in Aion

There are a total of 13 different types of weapons in the game as of now. These 13 types includes, Daggers, Swords, Maces, Staves, Spellbooks, Orbs, Greatswords, Polearms, Bows, Pistols, Aethercannons, Cipher-Blades, and Harps. [124]

There are many classes that can use multiple types of weapons, however are limited to very few skills aside from their main weapons. The weapons can be enchanted and fused together with another of it's weapon type for more stats.

Weapons can be acquired through many different ways, including quests, instance bosses, open world mobs, and etc. Although all the weapons have the same base, they have a variety of different colors and styles based on where they acquired from.

Fortnite

A snapshot of Fortnite Gameplay

Fortnite Battle Royale exploded into the popular the year of 2018 with high profile celebrities such as Drake, Joe Jonas, Lil Yachty, playing the game. Fortnite Battle Royale is essentially a shooting game where 100 players are sent to a deserted island, loot, build, and eliminate other players to victory. The game is ever changing with new updates to spice the gameplay experience even more. As of the summer of 2018, Fortnite has surpassed League of Legends as the most played and streamed game.

Plot

Fortnite has a backstory similar to that of the Hunger Games when it comes to the online aspect of the game. The single player story mode itself revolves around a post apocalyptic zombie survival game. The zombie genre itself should not be taken seriously as evidenced by the cartoony graphics of the game itself. The multiplayer or Battle Royale game mode is where the game truly shines. The player drops out of a flying bus, along with 99 other players, parachuting down to an island filled with guns, treasures, and other loots. The player needs to be resourceful in collecting the best weapons and materials (wood, brick, or metal) in order to eliminate other players in combat. During that time, the island has a storm enclosing every set interval to encourage players to continue moving. As the game goes on, the circle grows significantly smaller forcing the last remaining players to fight each other. Ultimately, the last player standing claims Victory Royale. [125]

Weapons in Fortnite

A snapshot of Fortnite Weapons

There are many different weapons/tools in the game as of now, each dealing different damage according to their type and tier. The player starts off with the pickaxe, as a basic weapon used to mine resources (wood, brick, and metal). The pickaxe can be used as a weapon to attack other players, but generally, a player does not get close enough to do so.

Guns can be acquired mainly by looting houses or by eliminating players and taking their weapons. Guns used in the game include, Assault Rifles (AR), Machine Gun, Mini Gun, ShotGun, Sniper Rifle, Rocket Launchers, Missiles, and Grappler. The Grappler is a tool to hook onto structures and pulls the player in that direction. The Grappler, while doesn't do damage, when used strategically can be a method of mobility to go between structures at a faster pace. [126]

Materials

The player can mine for three different resources in the game: Wood, Brick, and Metal. Wood is the weakest but most common material available, and metal is the rarer but stronger material available. Players need to have the technique to build structures at a fast pace to serve as defense against players who are shooting at them. A well built structure can hinder the process of an enemy trying to eliminate you, allowing you time to eliminate the enemy instead. In addition, structures provide a method for players to climb over bigger obstacles such as a mountain with no way up other than to build. [127]

Cultural Impact

From its debut in 2017, Fortnite's free to play business model exploded onto the video game scene. The easy access to the game helped ensure that even casual video game players could at least attempt to try the game once. Soon people began to gravitate towards extremely talented Fortnite players and streamers such as Ninja and Myth gained a huge following and in turn helped Fortnite become more popular as well. The graphics and general aesthetic of the game allowed it to appeal to younger audiences as well. The "emotes" used in Fortnite range from gestures to dances and these dances usually emulate popular dances from pop culture. It became a sensation to do dances from Fortnite with many people around the world documenting how children would randomly start doing "Fortnite dances" in public. Unfortunately, not everything was positive. Some children began to exhibit signs of an addiction when it came to the game. Children younger than the age of twelve were consumed by the game and spent countless hours playing without getting sleep. Schools also reported a rise in Fortnite being played at school once the game secured itself a mobile version.[128]

Lootbox System

Fortnite is not the first game to incorporate a loot box system, but it is one of the games that revolutionized it. Loot boxes are items in a game secured by a pay wall. You either have to pay a form of currency, either in the game itself or from purchasing game currency using real life currency, in order to acquire a loot box. These loot boxes can contain cosmetic items or items and weapons that can assist a player. The controversy surrounding loot boxes is that younger children tend to buy these boxes not understanding that the probability of getting something good is extremely low on purpose. Many governments have started to investigate loot boxes as a form of gambling. Fortnite took a different approach to loot boxes. Since their game was already free to play, the only way they could make money off the game is by having a loot box system. However, instead of creating a gambling esque system, Fortnite created an item shop that refreshes every 24 hours. By doing this, Fortnite is up front about what exactly you would get with your money. The items they sold were also cosmetic only, meaning that people did not have to worry about a wealthier gamer buying the best weapons and items for an unfair advantage. This model changed the landscape of loot boxes completely because prior to Fortnite's release, popular games such as Call of Duty, Overwatch and Star Wars Battlefront took advantage of their consumers by continuously coercing them to gamble for loot. Fortnite has brought in over 2 billion dollars in revenue just from cosmetic items alone and these numbers will continue to [129]

PlayerUnknown's BattleGrounds

Header.jpg PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG) is an online multiplayer battle royale game developed and published by PUBG Corporation, a subsidiary of South Korean video game company Bluehole. In the game, up to 100 players parachute onto an island and scavenge for weapons and equipment to kill others while avoiding getting killed themselves. The available safe area will decrease in size over time. There will be electrical light in these unsafe area which will decrease your heath if you are in these areas. The last player or team alive wins the round. [130]

Maker of PUBG

Brendan-greene.jpg The maker of PUBG is Brendan Greene, who was born in Ballyshannon, Republic of Ireland. During his early stage he was a DJ, photographer and photo designer.After he got divorced, he started to work as a web designer. When he was young he used to play games to pass time. One of his favs was a Japanese game named,'Battle Royaled' which was quite similar to 'The Hunger Games'. Its a form of last man standing in which dozens of players scavenge, hide and fight until just one is left alive.Whats funny was he didnt get paid for what he did until he was hired by Sony to be a consultant for its H1Z1 survival game.After developing PUBG, Greene now has a net worth of 5 Billion dollars. That's a giant leap of jumping from 200 Million to 5 Billion for net worth.[131]

Weapons of PUBG

PUBG Weapons.jpg There are so many types of weapons in PUBG, you will search for them during each round of game.(You don't have anything when you start the round.) Weapons categories are Ammunition,Attachments,Assault Rifles, Carbines, DMRs, Rifles, Submachine Guns, Sniper Rifles, Light Machine Guns, Shotguns, Bows, Pistols, Throwables, Melee Weapons and Others.DMRs stand for Designated Markman Rifle, a subset of sniper rifles which a higher rate of fire than traditional sniper rifles reduces range while increase suppressive power. Other include Ballistic shield, Crossbow, and Flare Gun(use it to get air supply). [132]

Maps of PUBG

Erangel.jpg DesertMap-FEATURED.jpg Sanhok.jpg Viken.jpg The Maps are the playable area where players are pitted against each other in BATTLEGROUNDS. Within these maps, a red zone‎‎ periodically spawns onto random cities/locations causes explosions within that area and also periodically a C-130 flys over the map and drops an air drop. The three maps are Erangel,Miramar and Sanhok. The very first map was Erangel it is a Russian Map. The map itself was based off of a town that is located in Russia, its also called the alpha map. The second map that was released was the Miramar, its a desert map or a Central America sand map. And the latest map is the Sanhok map, a Southeast Asian forest map. And PUBG is still making more new maps to come such as the Vikendi Map, the map of the Adriatic island snow map that should be releasing this winter. [133]

PUBG revenue

Pubg-mobile-royale-pass-revenue-growth.jpg Since PUBG, it reach 200 million downloads worldwide, exclude China because its launch on March 19 which is three months later than U.S. version. On the other hand, PUBG Mobile which is own by Chinese company call Tencent, has reach 100 million registered users in only 4 months. It has already earned the nomination for Best Mobile Game at The Game Awards 2018. It's revenue grow up 166 percent from Rs 32 crore to an estimated Rs 85 crore. [134]

Onmyoji

Onmyoji Header

Onmyoji is a mobile MMORPG CCG turn-based game with PVP or PVE battles[135] that was released by the NetEase[136], Inc. on April 18, 2018. The game takes place in a Heian themed fantasy world where spirits, also known as shikigami, exists alongside humans. Along side PVP and PVE battles, there is a story mode where the player follows the story of an onmyoji, a person who specializes in divination and protection, Abe no Seimei.

Plot

The story is about an onmyoji named Abe no Seimei. From the beginning, Seimei is travelling with Kagura, who is also an onmyoji, both of which has lost their memories due to a currently unknown reason. An onmyoji is a person who practices magic, divination, and exorcism[137]. Seimei is a high renowned onmyoji in Kyoto. Seimei travels in hopes of finding clues as to why he and Kagura has lost their memories. Throughout the journey, they met Hiromasa and Yao Bikuni, who are also onmyojis, and they join their party also in hopes of reaching their own personal goals. Eventually, came a day where they found clues about Seimei's and Kagura's memory loss. Orochi was awakened by Dark Seimei and his goal was to wreak havoc in Kyoto.

Onmyoji

Playable Onmyojis[138]
  • Seimei: Renowned onmyoji in Kyoto who lost his memories
  • Kagura: Kindhearted girl following Seimei who lost her memories
  • Hiromasa: Kagura's brother
  • Yao Bikuni: Immortal onmyoji who accidently consumed the flesh of a mermaid making her immortal

Shikigami[139]

Collectible cards of different rarity that the player can use in PVE and PVP battles. They are summoned by the player to assist them throughout the game. In game, the shikigamis are seen as cards and as 3-D models. Shikigamis can equip souls to give them stat boosts. Each shikigami has an unique set of skills that are passive, meaning that you do not have to use them, or activated. These set of skills determine what type of shikigami it is, such as a DPS, AOE, Support, or mix of those three. Skills can be leveled up using darumas. Each shikigami has a bio where players can do quests to unlock and read. Each shikigami is voiced by voice actors. They talk when they use a skill in battle or if players interact with them in My Shikigami.

Rarity

Shikigamis are categorized in different rarities, such as SP, SSR, SR, R, SSN, and N.

Collecting Shikigami

My Shikigami.jpg

Shikigamis can be collected through summoning and can be seen in the Shikigami tab.

SP
SP Shikigami
SP Shikigami
Jr. Ootengu
Inferno Ibaraki Doji
Divine Miketsu
Azurestorm Ichimokuren
Crimson Yoto
Vengeful Hannya
Waverider Lord Arakawa
Blazing Tamamonomae
Demoniac Shuten Doji
SSR
SSR Shikigami
SSR Shikigami
Oootengu
Shuten Doji
Lord Arakawa
Enma
Ryomen
Shishio
Ibraki Doji
Aoandon
Yoto Hime
Ichimokuren
Hana
Kaguya
Susabi
Higanbana
Yuki
Yamakaze
Tamamonomae
Mitketsu
Menreiki
Onikiri
Hakuzosu
Orochi
Shiranui
Otakemaru
Takiyashahime

Summoning

Summon.jpg

Summoning allows players to use Broken Amulets, Mystery Amulets, AR Amulets, and Jade to summon shikigami. Broken Amulets can only summon N and R rarity shikigamis. Mystery amulets, AR amulets, and Jade can summon R, SR, SSR, and SP rarity shikigamis. To summon, players can draw anything on the amulet or use their voice.

Summon Chance

Different rarity shikigami have different summon rates.

Mystery Amulet

  • SP: 0.25%
  • SSR: 1%
  • SR: 20%
  • R: 78.75%

Broken Amulet

  • R: 13%
  • N: 87%

Monthly Mystery Pattern

Every month, players can receive a reward by drawing the monthly pattern while summoning.

Shrine

A place where the player can release their shikigami in exchange for Talismans. Talismans can be used to purchase different resources that are available at the shrine.

Resources

  • Action Point: Allows players to enter battles
  • Friendship Point: Points that are gained through sending hearts to friends
  • Honor: Reward from participating in duels and can be used to purchase resources
  • Coins: Gained by completing battles and as rewards and allows players to buy other resources
  • Orochi Scale: Reward from defeating Orochi in Soul Zones
  • Orochi's Reverse Scale: Reward from participating Orochi's Moan and from releasing souls
  • Demon Soul: Reward from participating in Assembly Boss battles
  • Mystery Amulets: Used to summon shikigami
  • Skin Token: Used to purchase shikigami skins
  • Jade: Gained by completing quests and as rewards and allows players to buy premium resources
  • S Jade: Are available through in-app purchase and can be used to purchase resource packs

Gameplay

PVE

PVE

While progressing through majority of the game, the player faces many battles using their shikigami. In these battles, the player can use at most five of their own shikigami.

Exploration Zone
Exploration Zone

The Exploration Zone gives the player access to many different PVE options. Some of which, players can co-op with other players to defeat battles together.

  • Evolution Zone: Farm materials to evolve shikigamis
  • Souls: Farm souls to equip on to shikigamis
  • Realm Raid: PVE battles against other players
  • Totem: Farm materials to change the appearance of the onmyoji's totem
  • Heian Tales: Side stories
  • Dispatch: Send shikigamis out on quests
  • Chapters: Play through different battles from stories
Evolution Zone

A place where players can battle a boss to collect resources to evolve their shikigamis. There are four main types of evolution materials, which are Fire Wheel, Wind Talisman, Azure Carp, and Lightning Drum. Each main type has three sub-types I, II, and III.

Souls

A place where players go through three stages to collect souls needed to give shikigami stat boosts. In souls, the player can challenge Orochi which gives different souls every weekday, and Sougenbi, where players can receive the same couple of soul types. In Orochi, There are 11 different stages varying in difficulty. The higher the difficulty the better the rewards are.

Realm Raid

A place that allows players to attack other player's realms using their personal shikigami. The defender is controlled by the computer.

Heian Tales

Side stories of select groups of shikigamis.

Heian Tales.png
  • Frosty Memories: Dodomeki, Yuki, Tamamonomae
  • Wails of the Flock: Susabi, Chin, Mitketsu
  • Tesso's Story: Tesso, Hiromasa, Kamaitachi
  • Capital of Fireworks: Haku, Tamamonomae, Seimei
  • Mujou Apprentices: Enma, Shiro, Kuro, Hangans
Wanted Quests

Daily quests where players are given a hint and they have to figure out which shikigami they need to hunt. Each wanted quest give out rewards.

Demon Parade

A mini game within the game where players throw beans at shikigami to gain shikigami shards. The player can select a friend to give bonus rewards to.

Duels

Dueling is the PVP aspect of the game. In duels, the player can battle other players using three or five of their shikigamis. After each duel, the player accumulates points, which shows what tier the player is in. At the end of the week, players gain rewards depending on how many points they achieved. Over the celebrity tier, the player starts to gain stars instead of points.

Duels.jpg
  • Tier 1: At least 1000 points
  • Tier 2: At least 1200 points
  • Tier 3: At least 1400 points
  • Tier 4: At least 1600 points
  • Tier 5: At least 1800 points
  • Tier 6: At least 2000 points
  • Tier 7: At least 2200 points
  • Tier 8: At least 2400 points
  • Tier 9: At least 2800 points
  • Celebrity: At least 3000 points
  • Grand Celebrity: At least 30 stars

Souls

Equipment that can be put on shikigami to give stat boosts. Each shikigami can equip up to six souls where each slot has specific bonuses in each slot. Slot 1 gives a fixed ATK bonus. Slot 2 gives ATK Bonus, DEF Bonus, HP Bonus, or SPD. Slot 3 gives DEF Bonus. Slot 4 gives ATK Bonus, DEF Bonus, HP Bonus, Effect HIT, or Effect RES. Slot 5 gives HP. Slot 6 gives ATK Bonus, DEF Bonus, HP Bonus, Crit, or Crit Damage. Each soul can also gain sub stats. Souls can be leveled up to at maximum level 15 by feeding the soul other souls. Souls can also be released in exchange for coins and other types of resources

Types of Souls[140]

Each type of soul gives a two set bonus and a unique four set bonus.

Harpy
Harpy.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Grants 3 Orbs when KO'ing a target



Watcher
Watcher.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Increases damage by 10% for each 15% of target's HP reduced when dealing damage



House Imp
House Imp.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Increases damage by 45% when attacking a target with a controlling effect



Scarlet
Scarlet.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Grants a 35% chance of launching a counter-attack



Soultaker
Soultaker.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Grants a 20% chance of gaining an extra turn



Nightwing
Nightwing.png
  • 2-Set Bonus: ATK Bonus 15%
  • 4-Set Bonus: Grants 20% HP Steal when dealing damage



Town

The town is where the player has access to their shikigami collection, Royal Battles, Co-op Duels, Hunts, Demon Encounters, Duels, Demon Parade, Showdown Bidding, and Mystic Trader.

Mall

Mall Screen.jpg

The mall is found on the bottom menu on the main courtyard screen. It gives the player access to the Illustration Shop, Mystic Shop, Soul Shop, Skin Shop, General Shop, S-Jade Shop, and Pack Shop.

Illustration Shop

This shop sells illustrations that can be displayed on loading screens. After an illustration is purchased, it is added into the player's collection.

Mystic Shop

This shop sells soul boxes that contain random souls. You can purchase these soul boxes with Orochi Shards, Reverse Orochi Shards, and Demon Souls.

Soul Shop

This shop sells certain souls in certain slots. The stats of these soul are not shown until they have been purchased.

Skin Shop

This shop sells skins for shikigami. It allows the player to change the appearance of their shikigami.

General Shop

This shop sells resources that the player can purchase using coins and jade.

S-Jade Shop

This shop sells S-Jade that can be purchased using real money.

Pack Shop

This shop sells resource packs that can be purchased by S-Jade.

Multiplayer

The game encourages multiplayer teams by making battles difficult to clear alone. Additionally, resources needed to start the battle are reduced when entering as a team.

Guild System

Guilds are groups within the game that consists of many players. Each guild has a unique name and is led by the leader of the guild. As guild members complete tasks and quests together, the guild earns medals which determines the guild level. Raking among the guild is determined by the total duel score of all of the guild's members. The guild can also set the day and times to battle bosses which yield various rewards. The guild also has a chatroom where members can ask questions or socialize with one another.

Friend System

Players can add other players within the game. Each pair of friends can increase their bond level through sending friendship points and farming together. When the maximum bond level is reached, friends can donate shikigami shards to each other and gain exp bonuses while farming. Players can also give other players likes.

Team System

Players can find teams to clear battles with, such as Evolution Zone, Soul, etc.. The team system allows at most three players to battle together. During the battle each player can put out two units. After the battle is over, all team members are rewarded. These teams are temporary teams and by using the team search option, players can match with other players who they do not know.

Assembly Boss

Assembly Boss.png

A special type of daily boss where a large amount of players can join forces to defeat a strong boss together. It can only be attempted once per day. Players can receive boss souls, coins, shikigami shards, and evolution materials.

  • Tsuchigumo
  • Oboroguruma
  • Odokuro
  • Namazu
  • Shinkirou
  • Ghostly Songstress

Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online

Black Desert Online is a sandbox Massive Multiplayer Online game developed by Pearl Abyss and published became published in 2015. Since 2018, Black Desert Online has undergone a visual reconstruction and has been then known as Black Desert Remastered.

Story

When the player finishes creating and customizing their character, they find themselves awaken with amnesia with no recollection of who they are, where they are, and why a black mist with human facial features stick onto it. Because no one can see this black spirit that hovers around you, the player learns that they are in fact, possessed by the Black Spirit. After a while, the Black Spirit reveals itself to be a chaotic neutral presence. It claims to hold onto the player’s memories and in order to get them back, it urges the player to go on an adventure to fight, explore new areas, and to do various tasks such as trading, fishing, lumbering, cooking, and horse training.

The world of Black Desert Online is divided into two countries, the Republic of Calpheon and the Kingdom and Valencia who compete for black stones that are considered an essential energy resource for their kingdoms. These places are very culturally and religiously different, where Calpheon is more materialistic and Valencia focuses more on religion and spiritual values. Black Stones litter the areas that separate the two kingdoms and has been known as the "Black Desert" to the people of Calpheon and is known as the "Red Desert" to the people of Valencia as a result of all the bloodshed and the blood that stains the sand from fighting over these black stones. The story takes place during the course of an endless war for the black stones when both countries are weary, depleted of resources, and their people are dying. [141]

Gameplay

Black Desert Online is an action based MMORPG that breaks away from traditional formulas. In addition to using skills and abilities to attack your enemies, players must aim from a third person perspective to hit their enemies. Abilities can be activated at a push of a button but the game allows for the player to chain their skills in succession in order to deal high amounts of damage at once. Through this, combos are developed and players now follow a DPS rotation in order to maximize the amount of damage they do. Black Desert Online also features a weather system that affects gameplay. Such weather includes typhoons and fog that give players advantages when fighting other players. There is also a day and night cycle in the game which changes the lighting effects in the game. During the night time, monsters become stronger and drop better rewards when defeated. In addition, certain aspects of the game are limited to the day and night time schedule.

Classes

Black Desert Online offers a variety of classes. Due to the nature of the game however, classes are locked to certain genders. [142]

  • Witch: Witches are female magic casters who in exchange for long casting times for their spells, deal high amounts of damage. They can cast elemental magic that varies from fire and water to lightning and earth magic. This is the female counterpart of the Wizard.
  • Wizard: Wizards are male magic casters who in exchange for long casting times for their spells, deal high amounts of damage. They can cast elemental magic that varies from fire and water to lightning and earth magic. This is the male counterpart of the Witch.
  • Kunoichi: Kunoichs use swift movements and attacks to defeat their foes. With unique abilities such as smoke bombs that allow them to hide, they lurk behind enemy lines. In the right situation, their sneakiness can swing the tides of a fight. This is the female counterpart of the Ninja.
  • Ninja: Ninjas use swift movements and attacks to defeat their foes. With unique abilities such as smoke bombs that allow them to hide, they lurk behind enemy lines. In the right situation, their sneakiness can swing the tides of a fight. This is the male counterpart of the Kunoichi.
  • Maehwa: Maehwas specialize in one-on-one fights on the battlefield. With their fluid attacks and movements, they can deliver a huge amount of damage at once. This is the female counterpart of the Musa.
  • Musa: Musas specialize in one-on-one fights on the battlefield. With their fluid attacks and movements, they can deliver a huge amount of damage at once. This is the male counterpart of the Maehwa.
  • Mystic: Mystics focus on hand-to-hand close quarter combats. They deliver strong and elegant martial art blows and are able to match almost everyone on the battlefield. This is the female counterpart of the Striker.
  • Striker: Strikers focus on hand-to-hand close quarter combats. They deliver strong and elegant martial art blows. This is the male counterpart of the Mystic.
  • Sorceress: The Sorceress uses dark magic as their main source of damage. They switch between ranged magic attacks to draw the enemy close and melee attacks in order to deliver strong and powerful blows to enemies nearby.
  • Valkyrie: Valkyries use a sword and shield in order to deliver staggering blows to their enemies. They also use divine magic to heal and empower allies that are in need.
  • Warrior: Warriors are balanced fighters that use a sword and shield. Considered the most balanced class of them all, they charge into hoards of enemies to bring about heavy damage.
  • Tamer: Tamers fight enemies from all ranges. They have the ability to call upon the divine beast, Heilang, in order to take down enemies of all sorts.
  • Berserker: Berserkers overwhelm enemies with their brute strength and size using two axes and their own bodies. Although they are slow due to their size, this does not hinder the Berserker’s ability to intimidate foes around him.
  • Dark Knight: Dark Knights weave in and out of battles, switch from melee damage to magic damage.
  • Lahn: Lahns are martial artist who fight in battles as if they are dancing. As agile as someone can be, their captivating movements may lead to an enemy’s death.
  • Ranger: Rangers specialize in ranged attacks. With swift movements, they are able to dash in and out of battle and can easily avoid enemy attacks. They are able to maintain a distance between their enemies and unleash high amounts of damage without being touched. This is the female counterpart of the Archer.
  • Archer: Archers specialize in ranged attacks. With swift movements, they are able to dash in and out of battle and can easily avoid enemy attacks. They are able to maintain a distance between their enemies and unleash high amounts of damage without being touched. This is the male counterpart of the Ranger.

Shadow Arena

Black Desert Online: Shadow Arena

Black Desert Online released a temporary game mode called Shadow Arena: Battle Royale [143] where a group of 50 players queued up and entered into an open battle field to fight to the death in a free for all style or in groups of 3. In order to win, the player or the group must be the last one standing.

In Shadow Arena: Battle Royale, everyone starts fresh. That means that no one has any equipment advantage over the other player. In order to get better equipment, the player must hunt monsters, break objects around them, or defeat other players to take their equipment to make yourself stronger. As a reward for participating in Shadow Arena: Battle Royale, players were rewarded with in-game currency equal to the value of the items that they had obtained.

Wizard101

Wizard101 Logo

Gameplay

Wizard101 is a MMORPG that revolves around the creation of a Wizard that will attend the fictional school called the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts. Within the school that is in the world of Wizard City there are other worlds in the universe that is called the Spiral. All these worlds hold different stories and they also contain many different areas that the wizards will be able to explore once they have achieve the level and status to do so. While also achieving these levels and status the only way to get to these areas is to unlock the areas by purchasing a membership that opens any area on a temporary basis or by buying the crowns that are available that will open the area on a permanent basis. Even before you can start going to areas yourself you need to create a wizard of your own from one of the eight school that is offered. Those schools are the School of Life, School of Fire, School of Ice, School of Balance, School of Death, School of Storm, and the School of Myth. [144] [145]

The game is based around the wizard and his opponents being in a duel. The wizard and his opponents cast magical spells using Pips and they are able to gain one pip per round of the duel but sometimes both are also able to gain a Power Pip which is double what a regular Pip is worth but you only get the Power Pip for your school only. These spells that are casts have many different purposes they can inflict damage on the opponent, they can also heal the wizard or opponent, they can shield to reduce the damage of an attack, and finally they blade themselves which can increase the amount of an attack, increase the accuracy of an attack, and increase the amount of a heal spell. When you get your opponents or computer AI down to 0 health you the player win the battle but if it is the other way around you have two options: you can flee the battle, get healed up, and come back in or you can hope someone on your team can heal you up so you can stay in the battle. [146]

Schools of Magic

School of Fire - The School of Fire is one of the schools that a player can choose when they are starting out the game. These wizards known as Pyromancers rely on there passion and upbeat nature but within the passion they have it can come back to bite you and then consume you and then rely on the power of mythical Fire Dragons that they draw there strength from. Now, Fire School wizards use spells that deal damage in a slow and steady pace and rely on spells that build the damage up over time. As you grow in level you are able to learn attacks that deal massive damage in short spurts. Some of these attacks include Fire Cat, Fire Elf, Helephant, and Sunbird [147]

School of Ice - The School of Ice is the second school that you can choose from when starting the game out. These wizard known as Thaumaturges are known for great patience and persistance when it comes to magic and they allow for steady progression and advancement when it comes to magic. The School of Ice trains there wizards to be able to take huge amount of damage at one time while surviving at the same time. If you start out with a Ice Wizard you can expect to have a wizard that will be able to have most health at it highest level as well as the most defense due to the nature of the school. Most attacks they learn are defensive attacks that are you used to shield and absorb damage from the other schools while learn some offensive attacks as well. Stuns are also used a lot by Ice Wizards. Some attacks they can learn are Evil Snowman, Blizzard, Ice Serpant, and Colosus among other spells. [148]

The Schools of Magic

School of Storm - The School of Storm is third school that you can choose from when starting out the game. The School of Storm similar to New Media relies on the wizards to use creativity in battle to achieve their goals. These Wizards known as Diviners are similar to detectives in that they thrive on the thrill of adventure and curiosity and love to discover as well. These wizards unlike Ice School wizards are highly offensive wizards from the start in so they rely on that power to beat the Computer AI but with huge power they give back in terms of accuracy as well. They also suffer from the fact they start with least amount of base health which is a downside but they are able to remove any increases that the opponent gives to itself. Some spells that they learn are Lightning Bats. Stormzilla, Thundersnake, and Storm Shark. [149] [150]

School of Myth - The School of Myth is the fourth school that you can choose from when starting out the game. The School of Myth similar to School of Storm relates to New Media in that with the School of Storm they rely on creativity the School of Myth relies on imagination which people in New Media also rely on when coming up with new technology. Myth Students known as Conjurers use their mind and imagination to summons creatures that you only hear in legends and picture books to help in there adventure. Myth Wizards are known for the summoning of these creatures but they can also be on the offensive and defensive when it comes to the minions they summon and these minions serve and have different functions. They also have the ability to take down any defensive shields that other AI or players themselves put up. Some spells include Minotaur, Cyclops, Earthquake, Troll, Bloodbat, and etc. [151]

School of Life - The School of Life is the fifth school that you can choose from when starting out the game. The School of Life really focus on the nature around you and help you keep the mind and soul in check so that you can keep your constant growth up. These Wizards known as Theurgists use spells that will breathe life into others while also creating new life as well which to any Life Wizard is a success. These Wizards learn all types of healing spells that are useful to others in battle and can also help other Wizards trying to complete quests so they don't have to start over again. They also have are known not to be attackers so there attacks don't deal a lot of damage but unlike Storm Magic these are highly accurate so you don't have to worry about you spell fizzling out. Some of the spells include Satyr, Imp, Sprite, and Unicorn. [152]

School of Death - The School of Death is the sixth school that you can choose from when starting out the game. Unlike the Life School where Wizards try to help one another it is the exact opposite for Death School Wizards in that they only try to support themselves through their spells. These Wizards known as Necromancers are focused on completing their quests without fear and will do anything to get rid of their opponents similar to those who love to cheat. Death School wizards don't have high power attacks but what they do have are attacks that steal health from their opponents so they can health themselves similar to Life Magic but that magic can be used on others this magic only help yourself. Some of the spells that are included in Death Magic is Banshee, Feint, Wraith, Ghoul, and etc. [153]

School of Balance- The School of Balance is the last and final school that you can choose from when starting out the game. The School of Balance likes to train its wizards to be equal and ironically balanced in life. They like to have consideration and brood-minded so they are like the middleman trying to not to take side when it comes to a fight which can be seen as disadvantage. These wizards known as Sorcerers are trained to be balanced and effective during battles with spells that help buff other wizards during group play which is seen as most effective. Those seen as most effective during group play if they are traveling solo they can support themselves as well since their skillset keep them balanced both offensivley as well as defensivley. Some spells that Balance school wizards use are Scorpion, Spectral Blast, Hydra, Sandstorm, and etc. [154]

Worlds of Wizard101

Arc 1

Wizard City Map

Wizard City - Wizard City is known to be Center of the Spiral and also where new wizard start there journeys to becoming excellent wizards. At the middle of Wizard City you will find the Ravenwood School of Magical Arts where you are taught by Headmaster Merle Ambrose and all the other professors you can choose from when start out the game. Also, located where most of the schools are is the ancient tree Bartleby that is connection to Spiral and serves as its protector though it is old. Some of the major areas in Wizard City are Ravenwood, Unicorn Way, Firecat Alley, Cyclops Lane, Triton Avenue, and Colossus Boulevard. Once you have completed all the major quests in Wizard City you will get prompted to move onto the new world known as Krokotopia. [155] [156]

Krokotopia - Krokotopia is the second world the Wizard explores in their quest and this world is known to be called Lost City of the Witch Kings. The world when you explore it will give it you vibes like your are exploring Egypt. You will experience the pyramids, crypts, mummies, and ancient kings and queens that are related to ancient Egypt. The four major areas in the world include The Oasis, The Pyramid of the Sun, Krokosphinx, and Tomb of the Storms in each area there are three to four subareas that wizard must explore to complete the major storyline and move to the next world which is Marleybone. [157]

Marleybone - Marleybone is the third world in the spiral that the wizard explores he gets closer to fighting the first main villain of the game Malistaire Drake but you face the cat gangs and the villainous Meowiarty who is one of Malistaire minions. The world similar to how Krokotopia has a link to Egypt this world has a link to it's links to London in regards to nobility and advancement in STEM area especially the science area. The major areas of Marleybone that the wizards go through to complete the world storyline and progress are Chelsea Court, Hyde Park, Newgate Prison, Knight's Court, Katzenstein's Lab, The Ironworks, and ends with the battle with Meowiarty inside Big Ben in the Royal Museum. Once you finish up in Marleybone you move onto MooShu the fourth world in the first arc. [158]

MooShu - MooShu is the fourth world in the spiral that the wizard explores as the wizards inch closer to catching up to Malistaire. The world of Mooshu is known for its astonishing beauty which relates to the real life country of Japan. You have the beauty of the cherry blossoms growing around the world, along with the elements of Japan including samurais, ninjas, the Emperor, the full kept gardens, and just honor and tradition is presented through the world which replicates that of Japan. The wizards go through many areas in MooShu to complete this world's storyline some areas in the world that Wizard explores is Tree of Life, Ancient Burial Grounds, Village of Sorrow, Hametsu Village, and many more area. Through this world you try to get rid of the Onis that are disguise as ninja pig clan leaders and ultimately ends with Jade Oni battle and saving the Emperor. This will prompt you to head to last and final world in Arc 1 which Dragonspyre. [159] [160]

Dragonspyre - Dragonspyre is the fifth world in the spiral that wizard explores as they are super close to the battle of Malistaire. The world of Dragonspyre known for its lava based theme as well as it ancient history is really does show a focus on Fire School and Pyromancers. As you explore the world you learn about the ancient history and how the spiral has was created with help of the ancient Dragon Titan which Malistaire is trying to use to bring back his dead wife Sylvia Drake. The help of Malistaire's brother who is the School of Myth Professor Cyrus Drake you make through some crucial areas as you move one step closer to Malistaire. Some of the areas on the way to Malistaire include the Drake Hatchery, The Necropolis, The Labyrinth, Dragonspyre Academy, and more. The final battle of Arc 1 takes place inside the Great Spyre in an area called the Crown of Fire which you ultimately defeat Malistaire to end Arc 1. [161]

Arc 2

Celestia Map

Celestia - Celestia is the sixth world in the spiral that the wizard explores and this world is the beginning of the second arc of Wizard101. The world of Celestia is underwater world that run by Pisceans, Crustaceans, and other water creatures but this world holds it own secrets as well. The second main villain in the game Morganthe has discovered this secret and trying to learn this secret which is the fact that Celestia is home to Astral Magic which is Moon, Sun, and Star schools. As the wizard ventures through the underwater world they start learn the same secrets that Morganthe is trying to learn but they learning these secrets to stop Morganthe. We first see Morganthe in the final area of the world and she condemns Merle Ambrose for trying to send a child to stop here. Some of these areas in the world of Celestia include The Grotto, The District of the Stars, Stormriven, The Floating Lands, and more. Once they completed the world of Celestia they will move onto the world of Zafaria which is Morganthe next stop of her path of chaos. [162] [163]

Zafaria - Zafaria is the seventh world in the spiral that the wizard explores and you are sent here to investigate wizards who went missing from a exchange program while continuing to chase after Morganthe. Zafaria with it's grasslands, jungles, and cultural history will relate to continent of Africa and the countries inside the continent. Morganthe who once lived in the world of Zafaria has come back to get her lost wand and Deck of Shadows which are tools she needs to continue her plans and through the world with help from her Shadow agents sow discord with the ancient tribes of Zafaria. While the wizard fails to stop Morganthe in Zafaria she then moves onto the world of Avalon continuing the path of discord and chaos with her. Some of the areas in Zafaria include Savannah, Mirror Lake, Waterfront, and more. [164]

Avalon - Avalon is the eight world in the spiral that the wizard explores and this time the wizard is here to retrieve the legendary Sword of Kings that was once held by the legendary King Artorius himself. The world of Avalon holds a lot of history similar to Dragonspyre did for Malistaire it's the opposite because the Headmaster of Ravenwood Merle Ambrose comes from the world Avalon. This world and it's history relates to the Medieval Times with the kings, dragons, and knights who in the Knights of the Silver Rose take after the Knights of the Round Table. While exploring this world you must deal with Morganthe and her shadow agents but we also learn a little more about Morganthe's past as wizard and what lead to her turn to the shadows. At the end of the world you are able to save the Pendragon who had the twisted Horned Crown which reveals King Artorius underneath. While you are saving Artorius Morganthe has moved to world of Azteca to continue her plot. Some areas in Avalon include Caer Lyon, Caliburn, High Road, The Wild, and more. [165]

Azteca - Azteca is the ninth world in the spiral that the wizard explores and this world is really around the ancient dinosaurs called Aztecosaurs. While many thought that this world was destroyed it wasn't and Morganthe has come to this world to gain the last piece she needs in her plans to ruin the spiral. The piece that she needs is the ancient Nine Lords of the Night who hold the secret to Astral Magic. While Morganthe is learning this magic and obtaining the wizard is forced to go through the world trying to stop Morganthe's Umbra Legion that has caused chaos under her command. As you reach the final area of Azteca, which Xibalba the comet that was believed to destroy Azteca you fight your way up the comet to find Morganthe who escapes to the world of Khrysalis. She leaves you with a surprise and an old nemesis to fight which you do beat that nemesis being Malistaire who is brought back from the dead and now goes Malistaire the Undying. Once, you finish up on Azteca you the wizard move onto Khrysalis as well to stop Morganthe. Some of the areas in Azteca include Xibalba, Cloudburst Forest, Floating Mountains, and more. [166]

Khrysalis - Khrysalis is the tenth world in the spiral that the wizard explores but this is the first world that world is split into two parts. The first part starts with Morganthe trying to learn the primal song that will help her recreate the spiral in the her image. Merle Ambrose knowing this plan sends you to recreate the old Council of Light which contains the Emperor of MooShu, Ice Professor Lydia Greyrose, Diego the Duelmaster, while adding Avalon's Woman of the Lake, and Zafaria's Inyanga Whitestripes. Since the world is shield with magical wards and broken off from the spiral you the wizard need to go at this alone but you will get help creating the Spiral Key that will get you to world. Once, you get there you will see the twisted world that Morganthe has turned Khrysalis into but that does not stop you from achieving your goal which is defeating Morganthe. As you move through the world the wizard will find ways to defeat Morganthe's magic, her Umbra Legion, and more as you move closer to Morganthe. Some of the areas in Khrysalis Part One are Tyrian Gorge, Fort Rachias, Crescent Beach, and more. [167]

After the help of the mice warriors to restore the Bastion and your victory at Fort Rachias to repel Morganthe's forces you face a hard journey ahead to defeat Morganthe but you must cross the Starfall Sea first. After, you cross the Starfall Sea you will head to the city of Mantises which Sardonyx while also trying to navigate the brutal Kondha Desert with Mantis Hunter, Mice Barbarians, Scorpion Warriors, and the Umbra Legion's Arachna Magi all there to stop you. While, you journey through these areas you head to an area called Radiance Reborn which like in Avalon gives you more of a perspective of Morganthe's life. Once, you reach the Shadow Palace you meet a mysterious person called Old Cob who helps you navigate the Palace defeating her minions's and ultimately battling Morganthe and defeating her and ending the second arc of Wizard101. Some areas that are in the second part are Sardonyx, Radiance Reborn, Kondha Desert, Shadow Palace, and more. [168]

Arc 3

Polaris - Polaris is the eleventh world in the spiral that the wizard explores. After your victory against Morganthe on Khrysalis and ultimately saving the spiral again you are reward for your efforts with a graduation from Ravenwood and they hold a huge ceremony in your honor. That ceremony comes to an abrupt halt when a cold wind comes through during the ceremony attacking Bartleby and he starts mumbling and mentions a phrase where the Land meets the Sea which then becomes a reference to Polaris so you journey to Polaris. Polaris is an ice world where Penguins are being ruled oppressively by Walrusks and the Walrusk Empire. The Walrusk are being controlled by a darker force so with help from former circus Strongman Ivan the Great and young witch Mellori you will help the Penguins take back their land. As you journey through the world you learn that Old Cob that mysterious figure back on Khrysalis is actually Grandfather Spider. You will meet another mysterious character causing terror to the world of Polaris called Rasputin who use mind control to get what he wants. You travel through and ultimately find Rasputin and battle him but Rasputin was only a form and it is revealed as The Rat which is one of 3 children of Grandfather Spider. You beat The Rat and Grandfather Spider gives you an eerie warning and they both disappear and this will lead you to becoming a member of the Arcanum and helping them out. Some of the areas in Polaris include Urville Station, Kataba Ice Block, Frigid Maw, Borealis Peak, and more. [169]

Mirage Map

Mirage - Mirage is the twelfth world that the wizard the wizard explores. After finding out that Bartleby's condition is getting worse they find out that Malistaire had stolen the Eye of History and gave it to an organization called the Cabal. Bartleby believe the eye can be his hope to shake his condition and Arcanum tracks the Eye of History and the Cabal to world of Mirage so they send the wizard there. Mirage is a world that used to be ruled furiously by the Ancient Qhat clans and they still are but add Djinni, the Cabal, the mysterious Overlord, and Grandfather Spider it is a recipe for trouble. As you travel through the world you come up against the Overlord which is again one of Spider's children this time the Scorpion and you defeat him and Spider takes them away. They ultimately get to end of the world were the Cabal helping Grandfather Spider has taken the Eye of History and the chronoshards to reverse time but you and Mellori are able to defeat Grandfather Spider and recover the Eye of History but at a price of you losing Mellori to Grandfather Spider who fled to Empyrea to continue his plans. Some of areas in Mirage are Caterwaul Canyons. The Rubal Wastes, Alkali Burrows, Caravan, and Aggrobah. [170] [171]

Empyrea - Empyrea is the thirteen world that the wizard explores and the world was created by Grandmother Raven to keep out everybody including Grandfather Spider whos Chaos Heart resides in the middle of Empyrea chained up by three Paradox chains. Spider knowing this took Mellori to break the chains and unlock the Chaos Heart so the wizard is sent their to stop Spider and the Cabal. Through the world we see that the third of Spider's children The Bat is working alongside Cabal leader Medulla takes Mellori to break the chains under Spider's command. When, Medulla goes rogue and takes Mellori that forces The Bat and the WIzard to team up to get Mellori back and stop Medulla. The wizard is able to stop Medulla but of course a turn of events happens and Bat double-crosses you and steals Mellori's Luminiferous Essence. Some of the areas of Empyrea Part One include Aeriel Jungle, the Inner and Outer Athanor, and Sepidious. [172]

Part 2 starts out with Bat having Mellori's Luminiferous Essence and her on the brink of death but when you visit her dreams you find out an even bigger plot that is Grandmother is trying to destroy the Spiral. You go back to Empyrea to first save Mellori and second to stop the Bat and more specifically the Cabal from destroying the other two Paradox Chains and unlocking the Chaos Heart. You return to Empyrea as the Scion of Bartleby and become that agent of peace that the spiral needs and along the way you can't stop the two Paradox Chains from break but you are able to heal Mellori as well as get Bat back on your side to help you out. In the end, you are able to stop Spider and Raven from destroying the Spiral and actually you are able to get them to reconcile their differences and locking themselves in the Ancient Primodal Forest. Some of the areas that are included in Empyrea Part Two include Nimbus Hanger and Citadel, Port Aero, Aero Plains, The Nexus and more. [173]

Arc 4

Karamelle City

Karamelle - Karamelle is the fourteen and final world that has been released so far in the game. Karamelle is world that is sweet like candy and also takes up many aspects of the country of Germany. The wizard is sent to the world of Karamelle to be a representative of the Arcanum so they finally make piece with the Cabal but what happens when strange cavities start appearing all over the world that is a mystery that the wizard must solve. On top of the cavities appearing, the wizard must also deal with Nana who is creating an army of sour gummies so that Karamelle can be the only world to selling swwet delights to the Spiral. As you take down Nana's army and rogue Cabal operatives you discover the issue in Karamelle can be something much bigger. In the end the different groups in Karamelle are able to take down Nana and start to restore Karamelle's good name by making sweets that are sweet while the wizard tries to figure out what this mysterious force looked like the wizard in their final battle in Empyrea. [174] [175]

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