Ways Space MMO Culture Is Developed

By Aaliyah I. Herzog


As online role playing games get to be increasingly popular around the world, many of them, including space MMO titles, are developing their own unique culture. The subscription fees alone that gaming studios earn for their MMORPG games, not to mention sales and ad revenue, makes this genre a real money maker for the industry. One of the unique challenges that online games give to developers is that the gaming environment must stay active and fresh 24 hours a day in order to support players who are logging on in a variety of countries. MMORPG's bring together many gamers and form a new community with its own culture based around the game they enjoy together, complete with its own terminology and customs.

Space MMO games are constantly getting updated by their designers so that there is fresh content for players to enjoy and the game never becomes boring. In order to adjust game play and force players to reconsider their approach to their favorite MMORPG, designers often send out updates that buff or nerf specific in-game character classes. Buffing indicates that the stats of that class is improved, perhaps by changes that developers make to the characters' skills and abilities. Nerfing is the opposite and refers to a general limitation in character strengths brought on by an update to the game itself or just to the skill set of a particular class.

Most space MMO games utilize a leveling system to help you track your progress through the game and gauge your character's abilities against those of other players. Grinding, a word used frequently in online games, is a system of leveling up through which you simply hunt down one enemy after another until your experience grants you a new level. Any person who has played an MMORPG before can attest to the fact that grinding is a very normal part of getting a character through the beginning of a game and into the endgame levels.

Naturally, no online game would be complete without the social aspect of an in-game chat interface that lets you talk to other players. Each game has its own chatting culture, such as abbreviations that refer to locations, enemies, and items in the game those players are sure to learn as they play.

Because space MMO games form communities of gamers, it is only natural that they create their own culture as well. You are certain to comprehend the terminology of the gaming culture more as you become a part of that community.




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