Massively Multiplayer Games For Dummies [Paperback]

Scott Jennings (Author), Alexander Macris (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 19, 2005

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

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

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

About the Author

Scott Jennings has been playing roleplaying games since 1976, when at the age of ten, during a game that had just come out called Dungeons & Dragons, he lost his first character, a 1st-level wizard, to a demon lord. He’s been complaining about poor game balance ever since.
More recently, he has been involved in the massively multiplayer gaming world in various capacities. In 1999, he posted tales of his various frustrations and amusements with Ultima Online on a Web site, which he named the Rantings of Lum the Mad after his character. Over the next three years, as the number of people who played MMGs grew, the combination of humor and commentary on Scott’s Web site proved popular, both with the players and the creators of these games.
Meanwhile, Scott’s day job as a database programmer disappeared during the dot-com crash of 2001, luckily right at the time when a new massively multiplayer game, Mythic Entertainment’s Dark Age of Camelot, needed a database programmer. It didn’t take much convincing for him to move across the country and work on hit dice and monster aggro for a living.
Four years and six expansions later, he’s still working behind the scenes of Camelot’s round table. He can’t think of a more fulfilling career than to tinker at the machinery that makes worlds tick.

Product Details

• Paperback: 342 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (December 19, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0471752738
• ISBN-13: 978-0471752738
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.5 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,101,883 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A guide for N00bs and L33T alike, January 9, 2007

By 

HaddenIV - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Games For Dummies (Paperback)

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

7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Great for beginners, still nice for experienced players, March 1, 2006

By 

William J. Brinkman II (Oxford, OH USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Games For Dummies (Paperback)

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.

5 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Real Good Buy, January 29, 2006

By 

BOLT (hawaii) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Massively Multiplayer Games For Dummies (Paperback)

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.