MMOs from the Inside Out: The History, Design, Fun, and Art of Massively-multiplayer Online Role-playing Games - Softcover

Bartle, Richard A.

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1484217233 ISBN 13: 9781484217238

Publisher: Apress, 2015

Synopsis

This is an astonishing collection of ideas, information, and instruction from one of the true pioneers of Massively-Multiplayer Online Role-Playing Games. MMOs from the Inside Out: The History, Design, Fun, and Art of Massively-Multiplayer Role-playing Games speaks to the designers and players of MMOs, taking it as axiomatic that such games are inspirational and boundless forces for good. The aim of this book is to enthuse an up-coming generation of designers, to inspire and educate players and designers-to-be, and to reinvigorate those already working in the field who might be wondering if it’s still all worthwhile.

Playing MMOs is about fun, immersion, and identity. Creating MMOs is about imagination, expression, and art. MMOs are so packed with potential that today's examples are little more than small, pioneering colonies on the shore of a vast, uncharted continent. What wonders wait beyond the horizon? What treasures will explorers bring back to amaze us? MMOs from the Inside Out is for people with a spark of creativity: it pours gasoline on that spark.

It:

• Explains what MMOs are, what they once were, and what they could – and should – become.
• Delves into why players play, and why designers design.
• Encourages, enthuses, enrages, engages, enlightens, envisions, and enchants.
• Doesn't tell you what to think, it tells you to think.
  

What You Will Learn:

• Myriad ways to improve MMOs – and to decide for yourself whether these are improvements.
• What MMOs are; who plays them, and why.
• How MMOs became what they are, and what this means for what they will become.
• That you have it in you to make MMOs yourself.
  

Whom This Book is For:

MMOs from the Inside Out is a book for those who wish to know more about game design in general and MMO design in particular. It's for people who play MMOs, for people who design MMOs, and for people who study MMOs. It's for people with a yearning to see beyond the world around them and to make manifest the worlds of their imagination.

About this title

About the Author

Richard A. Bartle has been playing and designing MMOs longer than anybody, having in 1978 co-written MUD - the progenitor of the entire genre. His famous Player Types model has seen widespread adoption by the MMO industry and beyond, and the online test bearing his name has been taken more than 800,000 times. His book, Designing Virtual Worlds, is the classic text on the subject and he is an influential writer on all aspects of online game design. In 2010, he was the first recipient of the prestigious Game Developers Choice award of Online Game Legend. He is Honorary Professor of Computer Game Design at the University of Essex, England, where it all began. He’s also innumerable characters in MMOs.

Edition details

• Publisher: Apress
• Publication date: 2015
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1484217233
• ISBN 13: 9781484217238
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 748