An Orchestrated Combat Revolution

There was a certain subtle charm in hitting auto-attack and going to get a beer, back in the day...

Combat in massively multiplayer online roleplaying games has reached a point where players are beginning to look for new interactive features for their standard RPG systems. Ever since the release of Everquest, gamers have been playing with the same class-based abilities and hot keys, hitting one button for auto-attack and lots of hot keys to cast their various spells and abilities. In today's editorial, Cody "Micajah" Bye explores the changes Tabula Rasa is bringing to the combat landscape in the MMOG market and what that may mean for gamers.

Massively multiplayer online roleplaying games revolve around combat. Except for a scant few examples that are being developed as independent projects by smaller game studios, every mainstream MMOG on the market has a form of combat that is almost unavoidable. Although some players may love the social, economic, exploratory or achievement portions of their favorite game, there's almost no denying the fact that each of these elements – in some way – presents itself in the form of the game's combat system.

Read the rest of the feature here at Ten Ton Hammer.