Massively Multiplayer Games for Dummies

By Scott Jennings

Intrigued by MMGs? Here's the place to start Compare games, create a character, choose a guild to join, and have some fun So your friend keeps talking about playing this cool game with millions of people on the Internet, and you really want to join in? Great idea This book will let you in on the lingo, provide a little background on MMGs, help you choose a character, and prepare you for a trip into the fantasy world. Discover how to * Choose a game you'll enjoy * Start developing a character * Survive player vs. player combat * Find useful gameplay guides * Slay more monsters * Team up with other players

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471752738
• ISBN13: 9780471752738
• Release Date: December 2005
• Publisher: For Dummies
• Length: 342 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 1.0" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A guide for N00bs and L33T alike

I found that this guide focuses mostly twords newer players but was still an intersting read for someone as experienced as myself with over 5 years of MMO experience. Typical of a "for Dummies" book it was a plesent mix of humor and facts making it a very easy and amusing read regardless of your experience. Some of the main things that this book covers is considerations when picking out a MMG, an over view of games avalible at print time, first few days in the MMG world, a guilding over view, and end game. This book also has a glossery of MMG related terms in the back of it and a CD with a 14 day trial of DAoC and a 15 day trial of shadowbane(both of which are avalible for download). For those that are new to MMG's I would strongly sudjest reading this book I wish it would have been avalible when I first started playing. A MMG is nothing like playing your standard consol game where everything is straight forward and layed out for you, I found this book to explain the dynamics of MMG game play in a fun and intersting way. For those that are more experienced to MMG's its more dificult to see weather you will find this book to be of your liking. More experienced people to MMG's wont find this book to be praticlary informative but will probly still find it to be a fun read and will end up with a few happy memories poping into your mind as you read through this book. I rated this book with 4 stars because while I found it to be a fun read it wasnt praticlarly usefull with my experience in MMG's however I did see where it could be usefull to less experienced people

Great for beginners, still nice for experienced players

Scott Jenning does a great job of covering the basics of MMOGs, introducing the reader to a wide array of topics: Class role, group teamwork, endgame play styles, professions, and etiquette. As an intermediate player (~60 days played in WoW, a level 60 and many level 40 alts), I still found lots of new ideas, as well as lots of confirmation about things I had suspected, but was unsure of. If you want to find help getting into your first MMOG, this is an amazing book. If you are an experienced player, this is still worth the read for the entertaining anecdotes and the few tidbits that you might not yet know.

Real Good Buy

I've been Playin DAoC for about 4 months when I bought this book. A friend who has been playing for 3 years got me into it. This book answered showed me alot about these kind of games that I wouldn't have known about otherwise. For just coming into the game, this was a real useful tool in getting me playing and understanding the game better. I now kill Hibs and Mids alot more effectivly.

interact with many other humans

One of the biggest themes in computer gaming has been the rise of massive multiplayer games. Jennings takes you, the uninitiated, on an easy tour of these games. He shows that the rich interactivity with human players is the attraction. As contrasted to playing a game against purely software opponents. Another common theme in these games is that the other humans are not necessarily your opponents. Instead, there might be a community, with cooperative behaviour exhibited, that leads to benefits for all parties involved. The team aspect can be compelling. Beware, though, of the potentially addictive nature of these games! Some fans have become obsessively drawn into these, to the detriment of their real, mundane lives.