The martial arts free-to-play MMORPG "Jade Dynasty" has a weekly developer journal series, and today it has a new entry. The development team has written about new features called Dream, Invigorate and Meditate that have been created to help players gain experience without having to be playing the game -- perfect for impatient and lazy people, or those who try to hang out with real-life friends on a regular basis.

Meditate is for when you need to take a break from playing and go walk the dog, make some dinner, or anything else that pulls you away from the computer for a short while. This tool will keep you gaining experience as if you were still playing the MMORPG. Basically, the pause button on experience gained from stepping away from the computer has been taken away. The only catch is that you must be in a safe zone of a major city to be able to meditate.

The Dream feature is great for players who travel or end up having events in their lives that prevent them from leveling up with the rest of their friends online. If the player finds a particular item, they could gain a level once they log back in again.

Invigorate is accessible through a player's Esper. It can be activated once an Esper has recovered at least 50% of its energy, allowing it to take control of a character -- sort of like having a bot that won't get you banned. You can set the Invigorate feature with specific parameters like what monsters to kill, which skills to use, and when to heal. The development journal does not state how long this feature lasts, but it only lasts as long as your Esper's energy lasts, so you probably can't go to bed for the night and wake up with your character still questing by itself.

All of this should be enough for you MMORPG players who like to hurry through games or don't like to put the work into leveling up a character. That may sound a bit harsh, but you can't say it isn't true.

I know these are meant to be once-in-a-while conveniences for players, but it's like dipping your toes in the Convenience Pool. How far out will they go? What lies in the deeper waters? Will players not even need to be in front of their computers to gain a high level character?

Posted by Nikki Lee
June 25, 2009

If you are a game developer or publisher and would like us to write about, review and update your games, then contact our editors. Please email: press@mmolife.org. and send us your latest press releases, game updates, images and videos.