Online MMORPGs: Starport

The 2008 Championship games started off with a bang.  On day one of the PK (player-killer) server, over fifty players played with often more than twenty players were online at a time, making for some interesting conversation and action.  The PAX championship was a bit quieter, with around 35 players joining in the action.

In the early days of the Championship, it became clear there were three main corporations vying for the top spots: The Empire (Viper1, sbaldrog and Frogleggs); Organized Crime (Wormites and Notorious), and the Kukamanga empire (Kukamanga and -nox-).  On the Pax Server, Paxamunga (Kukamunga’s PAX alias) dominated from the start.

Yet despite the familiar experts, some newbies also began to make inroads, particularly on the PK game.  Notably, new builders Mat and Hummingbird entered into the top ten by mid-game and were able to stand their ground throughout the game.   Invader D-Tox (going by the name of “Larry”, part of Three Stooges coporation, which dissolved in the early days of the game) also made a name for himself, as did Moss, another expert builder.

Many players became disillusioned with some elements of game play during the championships, however.  There were a series of friendly-fire kills, whereby a corporation member kills a friend or another member of their corporation (who has agreed to be killed) in order to boost their own experience points.   Wormites killed Notorious multiple times during the game, and Viper1 took out one of his teammates as well.  Also, toward the later stages of the game, corporation members concentrated all planets on one member as well, in order to further boost the chances of one member taking first place.  There was much talk in the Starport forums about how to modify future championships so that it is more of a test of skill and strategy rather than “popularity” - i.e. how many friends a player can convince to play and die for him.

In the end, the competition for the top spot on the PK server came down to two players: Viper1 and Wormites.  The finish was close, but Viper1 barely edged out Wormites to take the top spot!

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