RPG Rosetta Stone: Disc Three

Welcome back. This is the third iteration of the RPG Rosetta Stone. The word “RPG” stands for Role-Playing Game, a popular genre of video games. The use of the term “Rosetta Stone” is a reference to an archaeological stone carved with dozens of ancient languages. It is the most extensive journal of such content ever unearthed. I hope my own articles can give readers a deeper understanding of the RPG world.

MMORPG: Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game. Essentially an RPG created for the Internet. Doing away with a main plot, the player instead travels an open-sandbox world, taking up various quests to gain items or abilities (“item hunts”). Bigger quests are difficult to do alone, so other online players can be recruited to form parties. MMORPGs can have many components. Some are larger than others, some are less sandbox-style and work more as though they were theme parks. It really depends on the game.

(Editor’s Note: A good reference on the difference between sandbox MMORPGs and “theme parks” is a video entitled “Un-Ruining the MMO”. I recommend checking it out after reading this. I’ll leave a link at the bottom.)

Item Hunt: A form of quest involving the acquisition of items. There is a complete sub-genre of RPG players based around the hunt; they will not stop until they gain every single item, no matter how difficult or rare the item is. The Item Hunt is imperative in MMORPGs, as it defines the hierarchy on which characters rank: the rarer the equipment a player wears, the more powerful he is ranked.

Class: Every character has a “class” that determines his/her abilities, strengths and weaknesses. Some of them wield devastating magic, but in turn can be easily killed by physical attacks. Others boast incredible strength but are ill-equipped to use magic. The general theme (although anomalies exist) is this: higher strength means lower magic, higher defense means lower magic defense, heavier armor means low speed, lighter Armor means higher speed.

Expansion Packs: Software upgrades. Once the MMORPG player runs out of dungeons to raid or items to find, there is nothing else to do. So, game companies provide “expansion packs,” giving the player new continents, quests or classes to utilize and explore. Each patch has a new backstory: this dragon is raising hell, so it must be defeated.

Skill Tree: An ability system popularized by MMORPGs. The character controlled is literally a blank slate. When a player gathers enough points, he/she can choose from a list of abilities to “upgrade” a character. This upgrade grants powerful abilities/stats to be gained upon the next upgrade. The player has the choice of many skill trees, each one meant for the development of a particular class. One skill tree, if developed, turns the character into a warrior, another turns the character into a wizard. A player is free to take upgrades from multiple low-level tiers of trees, but as the upgrade number grows, the character growth becomes more linear. Deciding and planning the character’s growth is essential for succeeding in MMORPGs.

(Editor’s Note: It should be noted that skill trees apply mostly to sandbox MMORPGs. In those that operate as “theme parks,” classes are often far more regimented, and therefore trees, while allowing for a level a freedom, are more in line with a specific class.

That’s it for part three. I hope you enjoyed this lesson. Please return for part four to gain a greater picture of the world of an RPG gamer. See you next time.

If you enjoyed Michael’s piece, you can find the rest of his work right HERE on Sci-Fi Bloggers. You may also subscribe to his YouTube channel by clicking right HERE. And as for that video I promised, here it is.

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