I was wondering if anyone had any tips as far as scaling for MMO games levels/worlds.

I think you need to be more specific. What scale are we discussing? Size of the terrain from one side to another, measurement of a decimal point, play time of a stage, et cetera?

Sorry about not being more specific. Ok, I use 3DS Max 9 for all of my modeling and animations. I'm talking about as far as building a terrain and placing buildings and such on that terrain. Any ideas as to a general scale i.e. using real world or other for making that area. My game is based in a city-type setting. I have some concept sketches of the city, but have no idea on where to start as far as size for modeling.

Well, let's see, since you've decided to enter for A-Hole of the Day Award, you won!!!!...Anyways, why don't you point me in the right direction seeming since you know where I should be posting??

That response was rather uncalled for. He is just pointing out that this may not be the right forum for your question. No real reason to stoop to calling people "A-Hole"s on your first day posting.

As for your question, it would probably fall more under the Visual Arts forum. This forum is more for game mechanics/design issues.

What a mess of a thread. I think the topic does belong here. It's not the usual type of issue discussed in here, but it is part of game design. It effects Visual Arts and Programming as well, but what game design issues don't?

My recommendation is to use whatever measurement you're accustomed to using in the real world. There is abolutely no difference between smaller scale and larger scale, other than the fact that you'll need to mentally work with the numbers.

I used inches for my project. 1.0 = 1 inch.

if you're thinking scale in terms of units, I'd like kest say that you need to use something you're familiar with. for example I would use the metric system, I'm comfortable with the concept of a metre, people are generally between 1.6 and 1.9 metres, I know how long it would take to sprint 100m, how long a kilometre is and how long it would take to walk and how long it would take to jog.

For MMOs in particular it's necessary that you make the world seem incredibly large, so players don't feel they can walk from one end of the map to the other in anything less than an hour, yet each area needs to be intimate enough that players won't be frustrated that they need to walk for an hour from the nearest town in order to find their objective (often those pesky orcs that stole bob's belongings). This balance between size, and quick access is different for every game, and with some testing it generally becomes clear quite quickly whether or not you are fairly close to achieving this balance.

on the topic of personal responses, it is acceptable to express personal opinions, however doing so in a crude manner (ie. 'a-hole') is not, if you want to disagree with someone, do so in a sophisticated manner, and if you feel that they have been needlessly harsh toward you, let them know this in a more sincere and mature manner than name-calling.

edit: fixed typos