When you've got a community of intelligent and thoughtful gamers like we've got, you've no choice but to try and exploit them for your own gratification.  Which is the inspiration for Second Opinion, where we'll invite our more active, willing, and verbose forum members to take center stage and let us know what they think about some of gaming's many topics.  We open today, and the series, with Fangblackbone.

Visit a MMORPG thread in our forums, and odds are that you're going to see Fangblackbone positing a comment of one kind or another.  The guy's got a dangerous level of knowledge about not just the genre, but the individual components of the multitude of games within the genre that he's played.  So, when I wanted to get some input about the state of gaming, I knew Fang was the man to ask about MMORPGs.  I was pretty certain he could find a topic to whip up some words on, and I wasn't disappointed. 

LOADING PLEASE WAITÂ"….

IÂ'm going to apologize ahead of time for making a big assumption that you, the reader, have heard these sometimes cursed words. As long time players of Everquest know, they signify one of two things, your character either just crossed an ethereal boundary into the next array of uniquely themed polygons, or has just started pushing up daisies. Both circumstances have caused many to deem the word "zone", as a four letter word in MMORPGÂ's. But, is this characterization fair? Should zones be done away with?

A zone is much like a level in Quake or Unreal. Zones connected to one another donÂ't have to follow the same theme or construction style or even blend. However, most adjacent zones donÂ't stray too far from one another.

The scars left on MMORPG players and developers from zones have caused them to become a marketing bullet point no-no. Everything must now be anti zone, pro free roaming, open, landscape. We now ignore all the benefits of zones or disguise them under different names. Risk public outcry and crucifixion if Mr. Community Manager so much as whispers the dreaded "z" word. Do zones inherently justify player lament?

The reason for ill will towards zones is largely due to long loading times for swapping land geometry and players in and out of memory. More often than not players find themselves zoning on accident or not finding the zone line when they actually want to leave. Zone borders without a lot of landmarks can cause the player to run around in circles for minutes. Ponder this sequence of events: you accidentally back into another zone (zone#1), get killed by something you arenÂ't prepared to fight (zone #2); scuffle your way to try and find your body with all your equipment (zone#3-5); bump into a nasty in the zone adjacent to the one with your corpse; frantically search for the small gap in a sea of rolling hills; and finally die again after too many double backs searching for your corpse with the nasty on your tail(repeat zone#1-5). DonÂ't laugh, it happens all too often. Lament justified for now.

So we know both bad and ugly, whatÂ's the good? Zones organize and categorize MMORPG content. Each one takes on a unique personality with specialized construction and monster types. A lot of free roaming landscape MMORPGÂ's use height maps for the majority of its construction. Height mapped terrain does not have that same hand crafted appeal of zones. It is much easier for players to collect information on where to explore or hunt next with zones. It is also easier to categorize and congregate monsters that play to a given characterÂ's strength. This adds elements of strategy to basic combat and encourages choice in character selection. For reference, check out Everquest. Well, those of us with a year to kill I mean. Epic encounters with yet another dragon or god makes us salivate with intrigue. Scripted sequences are much easier to create in a hand crafted zone that can have its own unique properties.

Can we top zones with scripted sequences? You bet! Developers get personal. Well, they implement instanced personalized content zones. Screw immersion! I want my own copy of the last epic battle of Wankiwotz the Fooser that I can enjoy with a few friends. I donÂ't care that others have done it before, perhaps many times, and others may be doing it at the same time I am. They arenÂ't with me in my copy I have to myself and my group. No girls aloud! Er, I mean griefers and 133t d00dz. Girls are most certainly welcome. Developers have even passed bits of story in little movies to me in my own private theatre zone. That Wankiwotz sure is one bad mofo. These little tidbits are excellent for the casual gamer as these personalized zones usually have about 30 minutes of game play. So everyone wins!

ItÂ's a shame that "zone" is such a four letter word in the MMORPG community. Especially since all future MMORPGÂ's will have them whether they are called "zones", "instancing" or "vaults". Creative "zoning" is the future of MMORPGÂ's. More people such as casual gamers will play. More people will have more fun with personalized content and better scripted events. The story telling will be more prevalent with zones dedicated to detailing the gameÂ's history. It is ironic that from all that running away from the stigma of "zone" and we will come full circle. It is also highly ironic that MMORPGÂ's are developed to bring massive amounts of players into a seamless persistent state world, yet, designers are trying to organize, separate and control the populations of that same world. MMORPGÂ's allow thousands of people to congregate only to be isolated into "zones" by class (crafter and fighter), level (high and low), race (good and evil), or geography (jungle, snow, desert or urban).

- Fangblackbone