Jim Moreno tackles the difficult task of roleplaying a merchant in this edition of RoleCraft: "Even roleplayers are known to struggle with this cookie cutter gameplay, and with keeping their characters from looking and acting just like every other character in game. What to do? One sure way to avoid the pitfalls of routine is to realize that there are many other classes in game besides adventurer. It's time to become a professional roleplayer!"

Stargate Worlds devs proudly announced that one day after opening beta sign ups, they had surpassed the 65,000 mark:

Only a day since the official announcement, the beta list for Stargate Worlds is already pushing 65,000 sign-ups!
"We are extremely excited and overwhelmed by the positive response by fans to get a chance to beta test," said Senior Community Manager Katie Postma. " It gives the dev team a feeling of support and encouragement to know that so many people want to share this game with us, and work with us to make it better and better!"

Remember that the beta process has just begun, so please be patient if you have not been accepted yet. Testers will be added slowly over time, ramping up with much larger numbers in the coming months.

If you have yet to register for beta, do so now!

You can sign up for the beta HERE.

Closed beta applications are now being taken by Stargate Worlds. Publisher Firesky announced that the registration process is now live in the following bulletin:

MESA, Ariz. - April 24, 2008 - Stargate Worlds, the massively multiplayer online role playing game (MMORPG) from new publisher FireSky, is now taking registrations for closed beta at http://www.StargateWorlds.com.

The closed beta is an invitation-only test of the upcoming science fiction MMORPG Stargate Worlds. Invitations will be sent out this spring and summer as the Stargate Worlds team ramps up the numbers for testing.

Check out the rest by clicking below.

Sean Bulger's periodic community column today looks at the concept of Open PvP (player vs. player) and what it does to games and their communities.

A while back we talked about conflict between players and what sort of a role that it can play in a game and for communities. During this, it was noted that player competition can be implemented in numerous different ways. This week, I would like to revisit this discussion and talk about one of those particular methods: the open PvP world.

Open PvP is one of the more controversial topics in MMO circles and plenty of people have fairly strong opinions one way or the other on the subject. That said, I would like to explore both the positive impacts and negative ones on the player community. Open PvP has the potential to help bond a community fairly tightly, but it also has the potential to truly tear it apart as well.

Read more after the leap.

SGW IRC has announced a developer chat with Stargate Worlds developers coming on Friday, May 9th. Here are the details:

Yeah since I fail at making pretty glazing announcements. I'm just going to cut to the chase today.

We will be having a developer chat with a developer who likes to hang out on our network on May 9th at 4PM East USA, 1PM West USA, 9PM UK. He is one of the system designers for Stargate Worlds. We commonly refer to him as Aruspex around the community. Ok ok, enough with introductions...

Who? Aruspex of CME.
What? A live IRC developer chat with him for an hour.
Where? irc.sgwirc.com in channel #stargate-worlds ( Java: http://www.sgwirc.com/chat )
When? May 9th 2008 at 4PM East USA time, 9PM UK. Get there early to put your questions into the bot*.

* The bot is a little tool we use to collect questions to screen before being asked.

See you there this May 9th!

Be there with your burning questions.

Last week, Jonathan Steinhauer's column looked at the design of outdoor areas in The Dangerous Wilderness, Part 1. In Part 2, he continues his thoughts on the basic challenge most every MMO faces.

The easiest solution, though it avoids the root of the problem, is to disperse the ground spawns to a more realistic population level. There are areas where one would expect to encounter monsters, and that is where the heavy concentrations should be. Hard core hunting should occur in the fortresses and camps of the various villains, monsters, and animals that are the bane of the adventurer, not every time you step off the path. This opens up the wilderness for travel and casual hunting while giving players the kind of combat that exist in epic stories: battle in the lairs.

Read more after the leap.

Register for the Stargate Worlds website and keep your eye peeled for a minuscule box that indicates you wish to sign up for the Stargate beta.

Update: Katie from Cheyenne informs us that the Beta is due to begin in a few weeks time.

Sound Designer Nick LaMartina has posted a blog about music and sound within Stargate Worlds. His aim is to make sure that quest clues, for example, are not only visual but auditory as well:

SnakeCharmer brought something up recently on the forums that I agreed with, and I felt it would make a good blog post. He noted:

"Players are given more visual clues than audio clues, because in the past developers have conceded that a fair number of players eventually turn the music and/or all sound down and listen to their music."

I feel that he's right, and that's exactly the problem.

Let's say you're helping design a product. The part that you're designing tends to be the first thing that customers rip out to replace with an after-market part. You know this, and it's been this way for years.

Read the rest by clicking below.

Jim Moreno looks at the biggest question for the modern MMO roleplayer: how do you keep in character in an instance? They're here to stay, so it's time to learn how to deal with them.

Hear me now and believe me later, there is no reason why roleplayers cannot and should not engage in the same high quality RP within an instance as without. Personally, I'm not at all knowledgeable as to where the notion started from, but I absolutely aim to crush it here and henceforth. More than that, I want to share with fellow roleplayers why I think instances are the best places for RP, and provide some tips on how to take on these adventures with RP in mind. I hope they help!

Read more after the leap.

The winner of the recent Unlock the Gate contest got the Cadillac treatment during his visit to the Cheyenne Studios.

The winner of the Unlock the Gate competition visited the Stargate Worlds development studios at Cheyenne Mountain Entertainment today!

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Dennis Allen of Northern California spent the entire day rubbing elbows with the men and women developing the upcoming MMORPG. He received SGW gear, an exclusive look at the latest artwork, saw worlds being built, had lunch with the department heads, and even got to play in a starting zone of the game!

SCI FI Channel ran the Unlock the Gate contest during the second half of Stargate Atlantis Season Four, from January 4 to March 7, 2008. Dennis beat over 130,000 entrants to win the visit the studio!

Stay tuned to StargateWorlds.com for more information about the visit, including Dennis' very own video podcast!

Sounds like a blast. Stay tuned for more when it's posted.