MMORPG.com columnist Justin Webb attended this year's Game Developers Conference and took in the seminar presented by famous novelist and current MMO developer R.A. Salvatore. Today, Justin fills us in on Salvatore's love of a hardcore death penalty and the fact that death and resurrection will be directly addressed in 38 Studios' Copernicus.

One of the highlights at this year’s GDC was R.A. Salvatore’s talk about world design. While he stressed that the talk was about his personal gaming opinions, and that we shouldn’t assume that anything he talked about would be in “Copernicus”, he did drop one nugget regarding 38 Studio’s upcoming MMO, a system feature called the Well of Souls, which I’ll get to later.

Much of Bob’s talk revolved around ensuring that players feel like they are heroes. And many of his opinions were filtered through an old-school love of Everquest, which is understandable. All of us MMO players have a soft spot for our first game. It’s a cross between imprinting and a rose-tinted nostalgia for your first love. You are willing to overlook all kinds of things that are wrong with your first sweetheart. And for Bob, his first MMO love was Everquest.

Read Pacman Jesus and the Well of Souls.