In this installment, Jonathan Steinhauer looks at the last MMO class archetypes, the Healer, and why this role at least is solidly developed.

Starting a new series on the archetypal MMO classes, Jonathan Steinhauer begins by looking at DPS and the issue of hitting versus damaging.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno tries his hand at role-writing, telling the story of one particular Blood Elf in the World of Warcraft.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno tackles Blizzard's recent debacle with the RP-PvE realm, Wyrmrest Accord.

Everything that exists, both in fiction and in reality, has links to what has come before so nothing is truly original. The adage "there is nothing new under the sun" holds true. In order to achieve something that is measurable, I will investigate originality in the sense of what is commonly called new IP.

When Tolkien, the father of modern fantasy, wrote "The road goes ever ever on," MMOs took him at his word. A large part of online gaming consists of traveling from one point to another, but when it takes so much time to get anywhere, frustration mounts. If I'm picking up a book or alt-tabbing to web surf or check e-mail instead of playing the game, there is something wrong with the dynamics.

In this week's RoleCraft, Jim Moreno looks at how the new WoW Achievement system could affect roleplaying.

Character stories area told in MMOs so frequently we often don't even recognize them for what they are. They will exist whether there are active world stories or not. Such tales survive even if they are completely ignored by the devs. But as with all things in gaming, with proper attention character stories can be made stronger.

In this week's examination of Clausewitz "On Gaming," Jonathan Steinhauer looks at what victory and defeat mean ... to NPC monsters.