Monthly Archives: November 2009

DarkFall: Lessons from the fall of TRA

Posted on November 30, 2009 by SynCaine

Sunday night saw VAMP and co (the alliance either has no name, or the name changes on a daily basis, so I’ll just refer to our side as VAMP going forward) siege another TRA city on Yssam. While there was … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Housing, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP | 10 Comments

DarkFall: CtS gets a Q&A and a release date.

Posted on November 27, 2009 by SynCaine

Taking a break from tourist talk and doomed MMOs for a moment, lets talk about what really matters to MMO gamers, DarkFall! First off the next expansion got delayed until Thursday, with a notice that DF might be down for … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes | 21 Comments

Mark Jacobs should have listened to his own blog.

Posted on November 27, 2009 by SynCaine

File this one under “Dark Humor”, but Mark Jacob’s (former Warhammer Online lead designer) now-dead blog was called “Online Games Are a Niche Market”, a title that at the time was used as a joke because Mark believed MMOs had … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 33 Comments

What caused Warhammer Online to fail?

Posted on November 26, 2009 by SynCaine

Today Tobold is asking why Warhammer Online failed to live up to it’s mega-title expectations (expectations that I was grossly wrong about as well), give readers either the choice that WotLK killed it (tourists) or that WAR was just a … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, Darkfall Online, Fallen Earth, Mass Media, MMO design, RvR, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 39 Comments

DarkFall: Spotlight on ship-related changes

Posted on November 25, 2009 by SynCaine

For the TL:DR crowd, I’ll just sum up the new spotlight for you: bla bla bla pure gold bla bla bla. I’m curious to see how the new collision detection works with bigger ships pushing smaller ones, and whether this … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP | 2 Comments

Dragon Age: Thoughts after the finish.

Posted on November 25, 2009 by SynCaine

I finished Dragon Age last night, and I must say the ending was somewhat disappointing. I mean the actual ending, not the events leading up to it and the final fight with the Archdemon (did I just spoil that for … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Random, Site update | 5 Comments

Life Evolution in the sandbox

Posted on November 24, 2009 by SynCaine

Pacing and gameplay evolution are very important and at times overlooked factors in any MMO. The actions and motivations of a day one player are very different than those of a two year veteran, and good game design takes that … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Aion, Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 20 Comments

Why a sandbox makes life more difficult for a griefer

Posted on November 23, 2009 by SynCaine

If you only know one thing about DarkFall, you likely know that a LOT of people just outright hate the game, or more accurately, the supposed playerbase behind the game. If you have been playing MMOs for any decent length … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP | 36 Comments

DarkFall Community Publisher update

Posted on November 23, 2009 by SynCaine

With the DarkFall Community Publisher initiative a week old, here are some initial thoughts: The link itself gets clicked quite often here, more so (on average) than any other link. Whether this is due to placement, the link being an … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Darkfall Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Patch Notes, Site update, Ultima Online | 9 Comments

Are you sure that’s really an expansion?

Posted on November 20, 2009 by SynCaine

In the comments of a previous DarkFall-related post here, the question of whether the next update should be considered a patch or expansion was brought up. Now I’ve already written what pushed the update from patch to expansion for me … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Housing, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP, World of Warcraft | 26 Comments