Editorials

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno looks at different ways to roleplay with weather effects in-game.

In this week's "RoleCraft," Jim Moreno continues his look at character alignment in MMORPGs - this time focusing on how in-game factions make characters "evil" (or not).

In this week's examination of Clausewitz "On Gaming," Jonathan Steinhauer looks at what victory and defeat mean ... to NPC monsters.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at the standard D&D concept of alignment, how it works in roleplaying, and how it's applied to MMORPGs.

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Carl Clausewitz to MMOGs, this time focusing on defeat and "life after death" in online worlds.

Sony Online and Vanguard want to draw former players back to the game. The time to check it all out for free, however, is running out. Until July 31st, former players can try out all the upgrades and changes for FREE. See what we mean after the jump.

Vanguard and Sony Online Entertainment have released a new gameplay video featuring the new mounts and several multiplayer battles. It's a nice looking film so check it out after the jump.

This week in RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at ways for roleplayers to deal with the Fairer Tongue of Elvish.

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his application of the writings of Carl Clausewitz to MMOGs, this time looking at what happens when victory is yours.

Vanguard's producer, Thom Terrazas, has put out a 'State of the Game' letter that goes into detail about Update 6, the Isle of Dawn and the future of Vanguard. Check it out after the jump.

This time on RoleCraft, Jim Moreno wants to hear from you roleplayers out there.

In this installment of RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at an interesting idea from WoW RP Realms: Full Immersion Roleplaying (FIRP).

Jonathan Steinhauer continues his study of Clausewitz and examines the art of the kill.

According to a recent study by a US-based psychiatrist, admitting to sex-addiction is preferable to revealing one's addiction to MMOs. Dr. Jerald Block has even gone so far as to press the American Psychiatric Association to enter "Internet Addiction" as a new diagnostic term. Read some of what Block has to say about it all by clicking below.

Sony Online has sent out a new press release and video for Vanguard: Saga of Heroes, Telon Rides On. Included in Game Update 5 are racial mounts among other things. Check it all out by clicking below.

Just in case you may not be aware, RoleCraft isn't the only place where you can find roleplaying related info on the interwebs. Of course you know that, and I'm only joking. During the course of my day, I am given and locating sites which are directly related to or merely referencing some aspect of roleplaying, and I consider it part of my duty to help keep you, my fellow roleplayers, informed as much as possible.

Registration for SOE's annual Fan Faire is now open. The event will be taking place from August 14-17th at the Las Vegas Hilton Hotel. Day passes run $39 and the All Access Pass will run you $89, details for the All Access Pass below:

Check Out What's Been Added to Our ALL-ACCESS Lineup!

For just $89, Fan Faire attendees can go VIP with a weekend-long ALL-ACCESS pass that includes loads of special activities:

* Receive an invitation to participate in the upcoming Free Realms Beta test!*
* Receive an invitation to participate in the upcoming EverQuest II Expansion Beta test! *
* Attend the 2nd Annual Community Address from SOE President John Smedley.
* Attend lots of social activities, including a Kickoff Reception, a Grand Banquet, a Costume Contest and an offsite VIP Party with lots of fun, games and live entertainment!**
* Encourage Guild mates to pre-register online! Guilds who pre-register groups of 10 or more attendees for the All-Access pass online will receive 50% off the All-Access admission fee. (Offer does not apply to walk-in or day-pass registrants.)
* Play live demos of SOE's upcoming titles.
* Receive gifts and in-game items.

For more details you can visit the official Fan Faire website here!

Vanguard: Saga of Heroes is ready to implement Update 5: Telon Rides On. Several screenshots have been released as well as the following announcement:

"TELON RIDES ON" VANGUARD: SAGA OF HEROES GAME UPDATE #5

WHAT: Vanguard: Saga of Heroes®, fifth game update titled "Telon Rides On", introduces unique land mounts customized for each one of the player races in the game. With the launch of the game update, a citizen's favor can now earn them great rewards and is of high importance to those throughout Telon. Residents of each town are seeking adventurers to help spread the city's influence across the land. Those heroic enough can don the banner of the city they favor and battle against the enemies of Telon.

Click through for the rest of the press release and screens.

Since we are dealing with computer-generated cyber worlds that are more than likely not our own creations, there are certainly roadblocks and speed bumps in these games that challenge roleplayers to improvise and adapt. These game mechanics come with the nature of the beast, and many are very necessary to the operation of the games, and are often so obvious as to threaten to pull a roleplayer out of character. While they may not be pleasant to experience during roleplay, their effect in-game can be at least lessened through the lens of imaginative roleplaying.

Allakhazam.com has an interview with Thom Terrazas about the state of the game and improvements:

Allakhazam: Assuming that you are also a player, if there was one thing you could add to Vanguard - even if, as a developer, you do not see it as being feasible? And why that one thing?

Thom: This one I had to think about for a while. It seems like almost anything is possible to create inside games these days, but I think it would be very cool to put in more "side" games. It probably makes more sense to do this within your guild house or just your house that you can do with your buddies. Games like checkers, chess, cards, poker, etc... Being able to pass the time away, playing cards and drinking your favorite brew with the people you spend hours with every week sounds like a nice getaway when you're not being chased by lions, tigers and... ok, I won't say it, but you get the picture.

Head over to Allakhazam to read the rest.

As game worlds become more and more advanced, they also grow larger and larger. The by-product of this improvement is the long distances that must be traveled between locations. For some reason, with this increase in world size, there is not a corresponding improvement in traveling systems. Indeed, there seems to be almost a perverse joy in sending players on quests that involve running back and forth between two distant points with no other objective but carrying a bickering message between a pair of NPCs.

Sony has announced that they are opening up a pair of server transfer opportunities in the near future:

Vanguard's excited to announce that we're offering two opportunities for server transfers to new and existing Vanguard players! Originally, we had offered one transfer per character created before the server merges, but due to a large amount of old friends coming back to the game, we've decided to do away with all those rules, and open up the server transfers to anyone - regardless of their creation date or prior move history.

We're hoping this opportunity will let people come back to the game, and easily find a home on a server where their friends are playing.

The first round of transfers will be happening on Tuesday, May 13th. The second will come sometime the following week. Requesting a move is simple, and only requires logging into the game and using the /petition command. Players will need to include the names of all the characters on their account they would like to have moved, along with the server they would like to be transferred to.

Things to keep in mind:

Players cannot transfer to the Sartok (PvP) server, but are free to move to any other server.

All broker items should be packed up before the move, tombstones and house items collected. Players do not need to tear down their homes.

Don't let this opportunity slip by!

Massively has two features of interest to Vanguard players. The first is an interview with Vanguard dev Lenny Gullo. The interview focuses on Update 5 and deals with the new racial mounts as well as what is on for the next update.

Anything new in crafting or diplomacy coming this patch? Can people earn the faction for the new mounts purely through diplomacy?

Nothing "new" to say. There are just more bug fixes and tweaks as normal. At the moment, there is no way to earn points in the new faction through diplomacy. We are not ruling it out though. We wanted to get the system set up first for adventuring.

I imagine the diplomats will be somewhat eager to see it come for them as well.

In time, we may add a way for it to be earned through diplomacy. By the way, the way you earn faction is by trading in coins. These coins you earn from fighting under the banner of your city.

There is also a video featuring the various mounts coming in Update 5.

Check it out at Massively.

Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

href="http://vgplayers.station.sony.com/newsArchive.vm?id=530§ion=News">The official Vanguard site[/a] was updated with some great information about the upcoming 'update 5', including racial mounts.

Hey all! You should expect to see Game Update 5 on the Test sever after the weekend! Below is an outline of the main features included in the final update - please note though that they are not all fully implemented yet. As you play through the content on the test server, please keep an eye open for any bugs and be sure to submit a "/bug" for any you find - particularly in regards to particles not displaying correctly. Thanks, and enjoy!

Game Update #5

1. Racial Mounts
2. Class Updates
3. Anti-Hitching
4. New Particles

1. RACIAL MOUNTS
We have added a unique racial mount for each race in Vanguard! The mounts can be attained through a series of faction based quests that can be started in each race's home town. If you happen to like another race's mount better than your own though, worry not! With the appropriate faction, players will be able to complete any of the quests.

Click through for a look at a couple of the mounts as well as tons more information about Update 5.

Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.

Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!

Read more after the leap.