Monthly Archives: July 2009

Why is the B-team messing with your AAA product?

Posted on July 15, 2009 by SynCaine

I’m a bit late on this one, but Eric from ElderGame has a long and detailed breakdown of why WoW is currently being run by the B-team, adding his own experience as a former dev on AC2. It’s a great … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, MMO design, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 28 Comments

DarkFall is here, again.

Posted on July 14, 2009 by SynCaine

DarkFall has launched in the US. Forums seem happy so far, which is rare for that crowd. Guess it’s time to slot the game back between Blood Bowl, WAR, EVE, and DDO. Anyone want to fill in for me at … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Site update | 21 Comments

Dummies like dummy games

Posted on July 13, 2009 by SynCaine

My fiancé currently prefers WAR over DDO because DDO got hard. I prefer DDO over WAR because DDO is an enjoyable challenge rather than the insta-win that is general MMO PvE. I consider myself an MMO gamer; she is the … Continue reading →

Posted in DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 57 Comments

It’s Curt in the car up next, hi Curt.

Posted on July 10, 2009 by SynCaine

Have you ever listened to local sports radio, and heard callers suggest beyond ridiculous trades? You know, the one that goes something like “We get their star players, and we give them three of our bench guys that are underperforming … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rant, RMT | 40 Comments

F2P MMOs: The land of ‘just good enough’.

Posted on July 9, 2009 by SynCaine

One of the common complaints against the subscription model is that if you only play that MMO sparingly (whatever that may be for you), you are not really getting your moneys worth compared to those who play more. The perceived … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, Atlantica Online, DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online, FreeRealms, MMO design, RMT, World of Warcraft | 12 Comments

DDO Hirelings: Nicely done Turbine!

Posted on July 8, 2009 by SynCaine

Last night I tried out the somewhat new hireling system in DDO when my fiancé and I ran into a tough level 3 quest and came away very impressed. It’s not exactly like having a real player, but its close … Continue reading →

Posted in DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online, MMO design | 11 Comments

Bring back the gimps!

Posted on July 7, 2009 by SynCaine

At some point during the transition from MMORPG to just MMO, the ability to create a ‘gimped’ character was removed. In UO you could hit the skill cap and have a horrible character. In AC you could spend all your … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 30 Comments

Blood Bowl: Multiplayer goodness.

Posted on July 6, 2009 by SynCaine

A few days ago I commentated on Blood Bowl (BB) from the single player aspect, found here. Now that I’ve played a decent number (30?) of games online, I wanted to talk about that and how it differs from the … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 8 Comments

Everything you wanted to know, and more.

Posted on July 6, 2009 by SynCaine

Randolph Carter at “Grinding to Valhalla” recently interviewed me. He asked a great set of questions, and hopefully everyone finds the answers interesting. Feel free to follow up on anything either here or over at his site. Thanks again to … Continue reading →

Posted in Site update | 4 Comments

Some quick love for DDO PvE.

Posted on July 2, 2009 by SynCaine

Short post today, but the more Dungeons and Dragons Online I play, the more amazed I am by its PvE. For everyone bitching about doing the same old ‘kill X’ quests and how PvE in MMOs is boring, try the … Continue reading →

Posted in DDO, Dungeons and Dragons Online | 9 Comments