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Hi there,

I am hoping someone can help me out with this... I only recently got a decent computer and am interested in playing as many games as possible...

I saw in the PC Game shop a whole section dedicated to MMORPG (think that's the right acronym)...

I understand that these games are on-line (being on the internet)... what I would like to know is the following:

1) How does that work?
2) Does it chew bandwidth to play these games?
3) How much bandwidth is required to be able to play these games?

If anyone can help, please let me know.

Vince.

well :
Try Guild Wars
its an online Game with millions of people and it doesnt chew alot of Bandwidth!
its basically an RPG which is Online - ie you quest with other people in a team!

wish i had a pc that cud play guild wars....lol

Okay... I will have a look at it...

Is there, by any chance, that you could give me a rough estimate on bandwidth usage? The thing is (now no laughing...), I have a 3G Data card plugged into my desktop that I use for the net, and I have a 500mb limit per month....

That's not gonna get you very far.

Okay... next question then...

How much bandwidth (considering that I have a budget...) would be considered as Okay to be able to decently play MMORPG games?

1. It works the same as most conventional rpg's. Get quest, complete quest and get reward. Quests are actually just a way to make grinding seem less boring than what it really is and usually consist of kill x amount of that or gather x amount of that. The big difference however is that you will share the world you quest in with many other real life people with whom you can team up to complete difficult quests or beat to a pulp in pvp combat. PvP varies from game to game. WoW for instance has two factions at war with each other and you normally go to battle grounds and beat on the other side or you can have a friendly duel with friends in your faction. On PvP servers everyone in the opposing faction is basically fair game.

2. Bandwith consumption is very low. You can expect to use between 3 and 5 meg per hour in most of these games.

3. I have a 2Gb cap and it's more than enough and I play almost every day.

Edit - Patches will use anything from 10 to 500mb depending on how many patches you've missed.

ive heard of people going through about 3-5mb in an hour on Guild Wars
The initial setup is big though - you Have to download the update which is big (cent remember how big though)
50-100mb max. (probably less though)

Thanks Y0da... So basically 500MB should hold me for about 80hours play?

What games do you play Y0da? Any recommendations? (I am a huge fan of games like Two Worlds, Oblivion, Diablo)

TheMartyr wrote:ive heard of people going through about 3-5mb in an hour on Guild Wars
The initial setup is big though - you Have to download the update which is big (cent remember how big though)
50-100mb max. (probably less though)

Is there some way that I can download the update from somewhere else (use the work's bandwidth) and then install on my PC at home?

Don't bother with anything other than World of Warcraft. It's still the most balanced, rounded and addictive mmo out there. If you just want to get your feet wet you can try a free mmo like Rappelz that is also loads of fun.

Just remember that game patches are released frequently so you really should up you cap to 1GB at least.

Take your Pc to work and download Guild Wars update at work
the update happens when you start installing the game
theres no way around it, you have to update on each pc you install to.

or you could try one of the many Free MMORPG games out ther
http://www.gameogre.com/freemmorpgs.htm
the downloads are huge though...

I will see where I can trim some fat off the budget and get some more bandwidth....

Thanks again Y0da...

Very clever idea TheMartyr... hehehe... That definitely sounds like the plan... atleast until I can get a 2GB or 3GB cap....

I would start off with WoW. Bandwidth usage is next to nothing, 4-6 hours will end up at 20mb depending on if your doing instances or normal grinding.

I got another MMORPG last night called LOTRO (Lord of the Rings Online). So far it's looking really good. Very similar gameplay to WoW but with much better graphics IMO. No world based PvP though, but very true to the original Lord of the Rings story which I much rather prefer over the WoW storyline.

Patches are another story. I had to patch 750MB to LOTRO last night and WoW usually has largish patch once every 3 months (100MB - 300MB).

Also keep in mind that you are using 3G so you will not get hard capped after reaching your limit but you will pay R2 per meg that you go over. I pay R459 per month for my 2GB 3G account which is really not much considdering you get a 1.8Mbs connection. It's much cheape than Telkom's ADSL offering for the same speed. The main issue you will encounter is high latency certain times at night when the network gets busy although that has improved a lot lately. My average latency on WoW is 700ms which is really fine but it can go up to 3k ms for short periods of time in peak hours. Go make coffee, reconnect and you're fine again.

i want wow
but i cant afford the Membership fees!!!
i just dont play enough monthly to warrant paying so much!

My average latency on WoW is 700ms which is really fine

700ms is fine for instances, questing and grinding, but for hard core PvP it isn't. Someone with a 100ms ping overseas will have a huge advantage over you. My ping is similar, 450-650.

Yeah, you're right Hex. Although I must admit I rarely have issues in bg or 1vs1 duels. Arena might be a different story...

WoW is pwnzor.

TheMartyr wrote:i want wow
but i cant afford the Membership fees!!!
i just dont play enough monthly to warrant paying so much!

How is R130 per month much? It's really nothing considering what you get in return. Unless you're still in school...

Y0da wrote:Also keep in mind that you are using 3G so you will not get hard capped after reaching your limit but you will pay R2 per meg that you go over. I pay R459 per month for my 2GB 3G account which is really not much considdering you get a 1.8Mbs connection. It's much cheape than Telkom's ADSL offering for the same speed. The main issue you will encounter is high latency certain times at night when the network gets busy although that has improved a lot lately. My average latency on WoW is 700ms which is really fine but it can go up to 3k ms for short periods of time in peak hours. Go make coffee, reconnect and you're fine again.

I only get charged 80c a meg out of bundle.... and I see that I can go up to 1GB for R340/month....

yoda if im going to play WOW
i have to get my GF an account too.
so its 260 pm
and we play Weekends only
maybe on sundays only
so 4days a month for 260 BUCKS!!

compare to GW - hmm... R Free.00
(you just have to buy the game)

TheMartyr... What is the best Guild Wars to get? I have seen so many...

Each to his own . I have GW as well but it's not really my style. Especially not having to wait 5 minutes for it to load everytime I move into a new area.