Scott Jennings (born 1966), also known as Lum the Mad , is an American commentator on the MMORPG game. He is famous for creating a website, The Rantings of Lum The Mad, a pioneering blog, which existed from 1998 to 2001, when Jennings was hired by MMO developer Mythic Entertainment, where he remained until 2006.
Video Scott Jennings (game designer)
Biography
Jennings was born c. 1966, and started playing games at the age of 10, when he started playing Dungeons & amp; Dragons . He created his first website to post tips and tricks about the 1996 game The Elder Scrolls II: Daggerfall . Around 1998/1999, the focus switched to Ultima Online (UO), the first graphical MMO first released in 1997, and one of the first to become famous in popular culture. Jennings, whose primary career is as database programmer, became a respected UO critic, as he posted detailed criticisms of the game. Jennings's strong view of "macroing" - the practice of automating aspects of the game, effectively makes it easier - makes it very popular with some UO players. As noted by game researcher Edward Castronova, this is an early example of a site where game designers have strong opposition from certain players, who will use their website to actively criticize the development of a game. Jennings' writing is characterized by a very sharp mix of humor and anger, and his writing is known to the reader as "harsh words". This site is frequented by UO fans and haters, along with some UO developers and personnel, as well as competing game developers.
With the 1999 release from competitors to UO, Everquest Ever, Jennings expanded his writing to new games. The initial EQ analysis focuses on the difference with UO. However, he continues to criticize EverQuest in person. Jennings argues that the game forces players to spend a long time to earn very little, and this is not fun. He also argues that the game consists of fighting the same monster repeatedly. He offers several examples of greed players, in his view, ruining the game experience for other players. Other issues he discussed include "squatting" by large guilds, class balance, real money trading, server delays, "robbing" as the final game, and a lack of expansion of completed and working content.
Jennings continues to write about a number of other MMORPGs when released, including Asheron's Call and Anarchy Online. His works then became more complicated, such as the mock-up event for Shadowbane made entirely with Warcraft II: Tides of Darkness sprite. Instead of the usual review articles for World War II Online , he posted a long, profane and funny chat from himself testing an offline game, where he declared, "I WILL TAKE FOR TRIUMPH!", A phrase which became a favorite among his fans.
The Jennings website attracts many famous MMORPG staff and developers who participate in forum discussions. These include Richard Garriott, Raph Koster, and Mark Jacobs. Discussions are often centered around the virtual world they build, with many inputs from the community, both constructive and negative.
In 2001, when Jennings lost his job because of a dot-com accident, he was hired as a database programmer by Jacobs company, Mythic Entertainment, maker of Dark Age of Camelot. He developed the Camelot Herald.
Once he started working for Mythic, Jennings decided he could not continue writing for Lum the Mad site. It later changed its name to slownewsday.net and managed by volunteers for a while, but eventually closed down.
Also in 2001, Jennings started a new blog, Broken Toys , which he rarely updated about random subjects sometimes but not always related to online games. Jobs from previous blogs are hosted in separate archives.
In 2005, Jennings published the book Massively Multiplayer Games for Dummies .
On February 17, 2006, Jennings left Mythic and started working at another MMO company, NCsoft in Austin, Texas.
August 13, 2008 is the last day of Jennings at NCsoft, after being released as part of the company's focus. According to his blog, Jennings will start working on a game called Webwars with John Galt Games.
In 2010 Jennings returned to NCsoft, first as a contract developer and later as a permanent employee. His work with NCsoft ended in September 2012.
He currently works at the Portalarium, where he is frequently visited by Richard Garriott using a telepresence robot.
Maps Scott Jennings (game designer)
Personal life
Around 1995, Jennings married. He and his wife Pat have a son, Robert.
Origin name
Lum the Mad is the name of Jennings's Ultima Online character. The original "Lum the Mad" is a character in a Greyhawk campaign setting for Dungeons & amp; Dragon and previously mentioned in the 2nd edition of the Advanced Dungeons and Dragons book "The Dungeon Master's Guide" in the artifacts section referring to "The Machine of the Lum the Mad".
In Baldur's Gate II game: Bhaal Throne, there is a machine built by one "Lum the Mad". These are the artifacts originally described in the Dungeon Guide and Dragons Dungeon 1st Stage One. In computer games, this machine is found in the fourth level dungeon called "Keeper Keeper."
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments