Video games are different than sports

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Category: Mmorpg

Guide to Making Money in an MMORPG

So you’ve finally reached level 70 in Maple Story! Hurray for you! But wait – your equipment costs HOW much?

The currency systems on many MMORPGs are very similar. Here are three simple steps you can take to make sure you always have money in-game. While this guide won’t be applicable to some games, it will work on most.

Step 1: Pick everything up.

You have no idea how many times I’ve seen higher level players in different games leave their loot behind for me to clean up. No matter what level you are, money is money. Even the tiny amount you get from killing lower-level monsters will add up over time.

And never leave behind loot – especially equipment you find in your travels. You can sell these to NPCs, sometimes for more money than the monsters themselves drop.

Step 2: When you can, sell to real people.

Sometimes the price that an NPC will give you does not reflect how much an item is really worth. Rarity, demand, and many other factors can contribute to an inflation in price among real players that does not affect NPCs. The bunny ear headband you just found might sell for 15 coins to an NPC, but an actual player might be willing to pay 1.5 million coins for it (because who doesn’t love bunny ears?).

Always double check how much an item is worth before selling it to the NPCs. This is especially true for higher-level equipment, rare drops, healing items, and items needed for quests (if they are especially hard to come by).

Step 3: Put money in the bank.

Many MMORPGs offer a storage system, where you can store items and money. I recommend using this feature to the fullest. Every time you pass one of these bank/storage places, deposit a portion of your money into it. In Maple Story, for example, I never leave a town with more than 20k on me. By the time I get to another town, I’ve already gotten enough money to leave more in storage.

Why do this? Simple. When you have money, you are tempted to spend it (ah the parallels between real life and games!). In addition, this method is similar to getting interest in the bank. If every time you go to a bank, you leave behind some money, when you finally need those 10 million coins for a nifty shield, you will have collected that much. Once in a while you might have to do a double take: “I have HOW much in my bank?? But I never had that much at one time! I’ve been putting 20k coins in every time I come here!”

So as long as MMORPGs don’t come out with a credit card feature, (and as long as your game has a storage system), this step is foolproof.

Follow these steps and you will soon be on the road to riches! Or, at least, the road our of poverty. Now if only it were that easy in real life…

A Review of Evony

Evony is one of the fastest growing free Man-on-Man-Online Role Playing Games (MMORPG) on the Internet. Game play takes place using your Internet browser. It appears the game engine is written in FlashMedia. I have tried the game using Safari, Firefox, Internet Explorer, Google’s Chrome, and even Epiphany. The game worked smoothly in either Windows, Mac, or Linux operating systems. I noted a little bit of slowdown after a period of play in some lower end PC’s, in which a browser refresh was needed.

Evony places you in the role as a leader of a city, and you are tasked with creating jobs, generating resources, and building armies and defenses. The object is to increase prestige and rank, while keeping invaders from destroying your city. As your city grows, you have the opportunity to attack and take over your neighbors, or forge alliances with other players, working with them to keep even larger forces at bay.

The game contains a chat server with several different chat channels. Once you find an alliance that will accept you, or if you decide to go it alone and make your own alliance, your alliance chat channel becomes active. The chat allows you to coordinate attacks and defend of the cities in your realm. The time line of Evony is generally based on the middle ages. Thus, technologies, weapons, and cities general contain objects from medieval times. There are certain magical items, such as amulets, powders, and charms that you can use to gain an advantage over your opponent.

Evony is completely free to register and log in to play. There are no hidden strings attached. However, if you want to advance quickly in rank and prestige, the game developers have put in place a series of mechanisms and incentives to try to get you to part ways with your cash. Not paying will not impede your progress, as there is always a way to advance through the game. If you form an alliance, or are lucky enough to get into a large alliance, then you always have your team mates to fall back on.

There are some negatives that I have encountered while playing the game. This is a game that is still under development. Be prepared for occasional server crashes. The developers are not shy about tweaking some of the mechanics of the game. For example, you may find that the equations that decide the outcome of combat suddenly change. Since there is active development occurring with the game, new features are being added all of the time. Just be prepared for a few surprises during game play. Expect rule changes as the developers see fit.

The servers at Evony are also prone to outages, as developers work to implement patches and upgrades. In most cases, downtime has only been limited to 10 to 20 minutes. They seem to have a decent back-up procedure in place as well, as there has been little loss of data when crashed occur. Usually, once the server starts up again, you are right back where you are when the game began.

Overall, Evony has a smooth running game engine and an enjoyable experience. The game is more interesting if you join an active alliance. There is a considerable amount of politics, and intrigue that occurs among some of the more active alliances, which could turn a small skirmish over a city or two into all out war.