It seems like everyone wants to get their dirty, stinkin' hands on our maps these days. A product whose real world counterpart is threatened by the GPS, video game maps are going the same direction: "Hey, you're doing that quest with the rats for me, right? Let me just put a dynamic, clickable, fast-travelable button here for you. There you go, right there. Yes, you haven't been in that region before -- just click the button, no need to wander."

So it might be a little exaggerated (or not, as revealed here), but you get the picture: NPCs are out to kill us.

Kind of.

The chiptune sounds that once emanated from within the walls of arcades have long faded into darkness; the affordable nature of modern console and PC gaming effortlessly decimated the away-from-home competition. It leaves something to be wanted, though - with virtually no reason to leave the house these days, especially with the explosion of powerhouses like Newegg and Amazon, gamers have to find a reason to converge at a common ground and compete. If our trip to this year's Raleigh MLG event taught us anything, it's that internalized competition is far more ferocious, and irrefutably more entertaining for even the spectators. This was proven yet again when I attended a small local tourney at Strafe for Halo: Reach. Although the prize money and attendance is far from anything like MLG or PAX Prime, the high-octane competition is the same; gamers want to give it all, and if lucky, walk home with a couple bucks more than they arrived with.

Our new level design segment received such great traffic and feedback that I've decided to write a new piece, but don't fret, I will soon do a follow up of the Level Design Through Lyrics column. For this article, I am setting my sights on an old phenomenon within the RPG universe: "Open" RPGs.

The sentiment that a game world can be entirely open to exploration is not unique, nor is it in its infancy. Not surprisingly, the very roots of open world design can be attributed to pioneer tabletop games, the most widely known being Dungeons & Dragons and perhaps the Greyhawk setting, although adaptations have been made throughout the years to evolve these "pen and paper" interactions (seriously, who uses a pen for their character sheets?) into keyboard and mouse games. This feature can be applied to any sort of open world level design, but here are some examples you might like to employ:

• Naturally, using the article for your tabletop games.
• Repurposing ideas to fit Minecraft.
• Designing levels within your favorite level editors, such as UDK or TES Construction Set.
• Preparing for The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim!

The Internet is irrevocably the single most expansive compilation of knowledge in the world, and despite its humble beginnings as insignificant packets of data within token ring networks, the phenomenon has a current outreach of two billion global users. It is arguably man's greatest creation - a construct with procrastination-enhancing abilities second to none; somewhat more ostensible is its infinite potential to unite creative minds worldwide - be they mathematicians, undiscovered musicians, writers, or artists - and pool ideas into a sprawling mass of ingenuity. The Internet offers aspiring writers and garage bands an audience of millions of users, largely thanks to pioneer companies like Google and (before it was assimilated) YouTube. In fact, the very website you are reading would otherwise be non-existent without the affordable and forgiving ways of the web. However, as with all modern instruments, fear-stricken politicians of the United States have converged under the nigh-infallible vision of American mega-corporations, thirsty to stifle a new-sprung creative threat.

In our quest to interview the ever-expanding array of job functions within the versatile games industry, I had a chance to interview the omni-awesome (totally a word) David Martinez, a public relations 'account executive' at TriplePoint PR. This new column focuses on filling in the gaps between industry professions, so all of you who want nothing more than to delve into the bowels of gaming - short of MLG's bathroom stalls - this is the place to start! Last time, we made it a point to hone in on the often overlooked members in gaming - like audio directors; my interview with David continues the trend of examining the commonly forgotten contributors. PR reps are normally the people that set up the interviews with developers, although it is not uncommon to find them "working the floor" at conventions and expos.

I've been working with David for a little over a year now, and finally had a chance to meet him at PAX Prime (linked above). I'll let him do the talking in a second - but being on the receiving end of bountiful PR-ness, David is as good as they get. As he remarks below, a public relations rep has to be outgoing, open-minded, and generally knowledgeable about their selling points. Whether or not you want to work in the industry, the man is worth listening to! Continue on for the interview.