RPG Towns: Love them or Hate them

August 20, 2007 · Filed Under General, Online, Gaming

There’s a common feature in all video games and MMORPGs - the Town (or city).

Players often converge here to meet, trade, purchase, plan and scheme. In towns, riches are often made and sometimes lost. Towns have universal features which are shared by the genre. First, they are neutral places and are not PVP areas. This means that you can’t fight inside the confines of the town and/or lose exp. Second, they are havens of sanctity - monsters (not unless summoned by the GMs during the event) cannot breach the walls of the town or city. Third, NPC services are often inside the towns. Crafting, updgrading, trading, selling, job change and various quest NPCs are located inside the town.

More about towns after the jump…

In article at gamernode, Eddie Inzuato writes his personal thoughts and experiences in RPG towns: “Maybe what I like most about RPG towns is the freedom to explore, even though I am bound by the city limits. Most of the town’s inhabitants feel perfectly safe leaving their doors open, which means that their houses are never off limits to my exploration, and of course, my treasure-hunting. It’s great to steal sh*t out of someone’s home, oftentimes right in front of their face, and then proceed to have just the most friendly conversation you can muster. As a matter of fact, I love talking to NPCs.”

“Lastly…the shops. Who DOESN’T like being able to sell anything that they no longer need, even if it only nets them a quarter of the market value? The town is the main place that I buy and sell items, eat, sleep, and equip myself with deadly toys, allowing me at least some pleasure in dealing with Bandit 1 and 2, or Mr. Slime and all his friends and family. It’s the town, and everything therein that takes the edge off of those anxiety-ridden treks between happy places.”

Eddie basically summarizes the two most important facets of towns.

In my personal experience, I like to explore the nook and crannies… the unvisited areas in towns. Who knows? Sometimes I discover trivia - blurted out by the NPCs or an undiscovered quest. But call it weird, whenever I explore and meet new NPCs, it’s like meeting new friends. Yeah, they don’t answer your questions, but they DO get to chat with you. The stories they relate adds to the mystique and “feel” of the game world and contributes to the suspension of disbelief.

Any town stories from your end? Let’s hear them.

GM T

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Comments

7 Responses to “RPG Towns: Love them or Hate them”

Burke on August 20th, 2007 6:01 pm

Sir, any updates about my plea?
My problem is I cant access any LU site, even the customer support. This means to say that Im having no links or whatever to any announcements regarding pRO. This does not only affect me, but the whole shop which I am playing which is currently housing at least 30 accounts, all in Tyr.

I already asked some people (who still have access to the game) for updates but they too have no idea of whats going on with the game. I live in Makati and I dont know why this thing is happening to us.

These are the sites that can’t be accessed:
1. MyLU site
2. Ragnaboards
3. Voting Page
4. Ragnarok.ph
5. Levelupgames.ph
6. The game itself

As I’ve said, I’m from Makati, and my provider is Greendot (PT&T).

I also want to comment on my RB account(coz something happened to my RB account when I tried to access it in other cafes) although, its not my outmost concern at this point. Thanks
GM T on August 20th, 2007 6:15 pm

Hi, I just checked the sites and the game and all is running. Maybe it has something to do with your ISP provider. Kindly contact their customer support. There’s nothing wrong with the sites or the game. Thanks for informing me. I’m sure Greendot can explain the reason why

GM T
fatman on August 20th, 2007 6:24 pm

I used to do that, talk to every NPC I see, but the busy-ness of the grind has prevented me from checking out the NPCs for one reason or another.
Burke on August 20th, 2007 6:46 pm

Yeah I know, we are already contacting our provider but no one’s answering.

There is this IP banning issue (regarding international IPs) happening, so I just want to confirm if this thing is true as it might be the cause of our case because we got disconnected almost at the same time as when those international players were banned. If it is true, then we just want to know if this (international) IP banning is just temporary because at this point we are still thinking if we need to change our provider or just stick with Greendot (although it is quite expensive compared to other providers T_T).

Btw, Ive heard some players from Isabela are also having the same problems. Thanks.
GM T on August 20th, 2007 7:23 pm

Hi,

Like I said, I already alerted our tech guys. Still no updates from them. Once I know, you will know. Next time, I would appreciate it if OT comments are addressed directly to me via my CONTACT page.

Let’s not have OT comments, shall we?

Thanks,
GM T
Blackwolf on August 21st, 2007 9:54 am

Don’t forget that a town is also a developer’s pulpit from which they can preach of the impending changes, patches and mods to the huddled faithful.

Doesn’t it feel like communing with God, only not?

Also, towns are centers of player trade - the business centers of the MMO world. They’re also a good place to socialize. Majority of the people I’ve made friends with in MMOs, I met in towns.
Variance on August 22nd, 2007 3:45 pm

Ah the towns. Exploring the place is just like going around the mall, looking for new things. And just like in malls, you see familiar faces and you feel happy:

“Uy! Musta na?”
“Oy pare, eto ok lang, ikaw?”

And yep conversation ensues. And just like what Blackwolf said, you find new friends in town. That person sitting there, why not strike up a conversation eh? Just hope he/she is not away from the keyboard.