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.

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.

In a new editorial, columnist Jonathan Steinhauer embarks into "The Dangerous Wilderness". He looks at the concept of pf the wild and how it's presented in MMOs.

As I've wandered through the wilds of various games, I've been stunned by the panoramic vistas that have opened out before me. Trees sway in the light breeze, their leaves rustling softly through my speakers. A stream trickles by, the sunlight gleaming of the whorls and eddies of the current while in the distance, purple mountains capped with white glaciers scrape the billowing clouds. The imagery is so detailed, I could almost believe it is real.

Read more after the leap.

The latest patch notes for v34974 are available. While not a large patch, it covers some critical areas:

Patch Download

Manual Patch Files for Build 34918 to 34974 (Approx. 14mb)

* US Server (Membership NOT required to download)

Note: If you need a full build you will have to download the Full 34864 Build.

AI Opponents (Bots)

* Bot opponents have been disabled for Elimination 4v4. The check box will still appear but is ignored.

Gameplay

* Armor and weapon proc effects have been removed from Elimination 4v4. Proc effects will still function in all other gametypes.
* Lower tiered buffs and debuffs will no longer overwrite a higher tiered version of the same ability.

Match Making

* Various Match Maker and Ready Check reliability fixes.
* Fixed a display bug that could cause Skill Ratings to appear to decrease after winning a match.

Other

* General bug and usability fixes.

Download and get your game on!

MMORPG.com is featuring an interview with Auran CEO and Fury Lead Designer Tony Hilliam. Called "Catching Up With Fury", it's aptly titled. Here's a snip:

After Fury's various trip-ups at the starting line, it could be easy to pronounce the game as dead on arrival. But rumors of Fury's demise have been greatly exaggerated. Despite a poor showing early on, Auran managed to keep Fury alive and in the race with the Age of the Chosen expansion in December. While they didn't have the time or the funding to produce a game with the level of polish they wanted at launch, when December rolled around they were much closer to the version of Fury that they had envisioned. Age of the Chosen addressed many of the issues that the game had at launch, adding new game types such as Carnage and 1v1 Elimination, a streamlined tutorial section that players could return to at any time to practice their skills, and a number of combat tweaks, UI improvements, and bug fixes. Tony informed me that they have had a much higher player retention rate since Age of the Chosen, and in his opinion, "if Age of the Chosen had been at launch day, there would have been a different outcome."

Age of the Chosen wasn't the only good news when it came to player retention. Tony informed me that the game has done pretty well in Australia, and wasn't far behind their expectations for that region. In Australia Fury had the advantage of being the home team, where players were more likely to enjoy the fun parts, and be patient with the bad parts while the dev team worked to solve the game's shortcomings. Tony described the Aussie gamers as having more of a "glass half full" outlook for the game, where those in other regions where the game has been less successful have been a little pessimistic.

Fury fans definitely want to read this one.

Tomorrow, Fury will be undergoing a small update to fix a few things. Here are the patch notes.

Please note that the FURY servers will be down for patching on Friday 11th january 2008 at 3pm Australian Brisbane time (05:00 GMT) for approximately 2 hours to update the game.

Armor Proc Changes

* Normal proc effects should now occur only once every 15 seconds.
* Crowd Control proc effects should now occur only once every 25 seconds.
* Crowd Control proc effects have had PFX added to them.
* Reduced the number of Damage proc effects that can occur at the same time.

General

* Fixed an issue where music would not start immediately when loading a level.
* Fixed a bug where Perkons would not respawn, additionally Perkons will no longer be killable before a match starts.
* Fixed a bug where duplicate scrolling text messages were not suppressed.
* Players will no longer take damage from jump pads

Hope this helps.

TechDomain, an Aussie site has a review of Fury. The review was written by a variety of editors and here's the bottom line:

Fury needs some polish, but the core game is functioning and functioning well. The cons are all minor but together reduce the appeal of the game to the new player. I'm personally going to shelve this one until the end of the year, however I will definitely be going back to Fury. It's full of PvP goodness, and is one of those games where you can actually progress in some meaningful way within 10 - 15 minutes of play time, and in my book, that makes it a winner.

Fury is currently available for $29.95 USD and deserves an overall score of 7.5 out of 10.

A couple weeks ago Fury announced that if you create an account you would be flagged "Immortal for Life." Well, with popular demand, the offer has been extended until January 10th 2008.

You can check out the Fury website by going here.