WWWest-Online Development Blog

Wow, it’s a been a while since my last post. During that time we’ve made a lot of progress with our knowledge base, and now I’m gonna tell you a bit more about it. So, as the song goes, let’s start at the very beginning.

WWWest-Online is set in the American Old West, more commonly known as “The Wild West”, so the first thing we had to do when we started work on our knowledge base was to delimit it to that era. The Wild West, we soon found out, was a bit tricky to box in, since its start and end are a bit hazy. What I did find, however, was that as a general rule, the Wild West era is considered to have spanned most the second half of the 19th century. Though several years before and after that time are still considered to be “Wild West”, that was how we decided to delimit it, and that’s why we decided on 1845-1895: we took those years and added a few before and after them, for some surrounding backstory.

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Yeah, I’ve been itching to say that since the first post on this blog.

Anyway boys and girls, today we’ll be talking about the thing that Westerns all through the ages are famous for. That’s right, it’s time to talk about combat. Be it a showdown, a bar brawl or a shootout between a Sheriff’s posse and an outlaw gang, I can’t recall a single Western that didn’t feature at least one fight. In addition to that, a major factor of practically every MMO I’ve ever played is combat. Even if it isn’t the main point of the game, it always plays some important part (with the exception of A Tale in the Desert). And somehow, we’ve managed to write two dozen posts without properly touching on the subject. Well, ladies and gents, allow me to correct that oversight.

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As I’m pretty sure I’ve already mentioned, I’m no big expert on the Wild West. Heck, I ain’t even American. Like most folks my age I’ve seen my share of Western movies – some were actual Westerns, some were comedies set in a Western theme (think “The Man from the East”) and one was just a parody (“Blazing Saddles”, naturally). Read a Western-themed book or two, not much, really.

The thing is, with this game, we’re going for real information. We’re not looking to make it an educational game, per se, but we do want it to give accurate information about the Wild West. As accurate as we can while still making it fun, anyway, because let’s face it – like most periods in Humanity’s history, the Wild West had it’s low points, too.

Towards that end, we’ve now formally started studying the Wild West. Whether it’s important events, or just famous ones, or famous people, the language of the era, the technology in use (yes, trains and guns count ), or the politics in the background, we’re aimin’ to know it.

It’s not much of an update – but we figured we’d let you know what’s up, since we’ve been a bit on the quiet side lately…

Kraz