MMORPG.com Istaria Correspondent Erin McManaway writes this look at the tight knit community that exists in Istaria, the MMORPG formerly known as Horizons.

What is it about MMORPGs that keep us logging in? Why do we choose to pay a monthly fee for a game when there’s the option of picking up a single player game with no fee at all? There has to be some draw, some magical force that pulls millions of players across the world to join in this genre of online gaming. That one thing is the feeling of connectedness with other people - the feeling of community.

There’s something about logging into a vast online virtual world, one that lives and moves around you, that you just can’t get from single player games. It’s a world that imitates our own in diversity, economics and dynamics. But exactly how important is the factor of community to an MMORPG? Can our connections to other players, guilds and factions be the glue that holds the online world together? The players of Istaria: Chronicles of the Gifted would tell you the answer is without question, “yes.”

Read When Community Really Counts.