Monthly Archives: December 2009

Sandbox Envy

Posted on December 10, 2009 by SynCaine

Having now seen the issue from both sides, I’d like to talk about something I’ll call ‘Sandbox Envy’. Sandbox Envy is basically what happens when you read about the really cool stuff happening in a sandbox game and compare it … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Random, World of Warcraft | 74 Comments

Aventurine pays up

Posted on December 9, 2009 by SynCaine

As if the high from an epic sea battle was not enough, just this morning I received my first Community Publisher-related payment from Aventurine via PayPal. Very painless process (I entered my paypal info into my account page, and the … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Site update | 45 Comments

First taste of Naval combat in DarkFall? Sweet, very sweet.

Posted on December 9, 2009 by SynCaine

Yarrr. And not a wannabe Yarrr where the only Yarrr’ing that happens is when you put on your pirate hat in town and pretend something pirate happened. No no. Real, actual pirate-like stuff happened last night, and it was glorious. … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, MMO design, PvP | 14 Comments

DarkFall: Good PvP video of after-CtS combat.

Posted on December 8, 2009 by SynCaine

In order to show off good PvP in DarkFall I’m somewhat forced to linking other players videos. I don’t record DarkFall while I play, and more importantly, because my skills are not even close to the guy in this video, … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, PvP | 4 Comments

DarkFall: CtS’s first fixer patch.

Posted on December 8, 2009 by SynCaine

I said yesterday that I’m fine with Aventurine launching Conquer the Seas with some (ok, a ton) of bugs as long as they get fixed within a week or so. It seem the QA community (the paying players) worked overtime, … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Patch Notes | 2 Comments

DarkFall: “Conquer the Seas” Expansion first impressions

Posted on December 7, 2009 by SynCaine

With one gaming-heavy weekend over, I’m going to talk about what Conquer the Seas has brought to DarkFall, but first let me toss this out for everyone. On one side of the MMO dev spectrum you have Aventurine, and on … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, Housing, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP | 16 Comments

DarkFall: Kraken eats a ship video.

Posted on December 5, 2009 by SynCaine

This looks like it might be a tiny bit of fun… :head re-explodes) (No expansion on NA still, plus some ForumFall’ing about bugs with archery and PvE on EU) (DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, MMO design, Patch Notes | 25 Comments

DarkFall Expansion notes

Posted on December 5, 2009 by SynCaine

Um… yea. :head explodes: (DarkFall-related post disclaimer/reminder. If you click the image link near the top-right of this page and buy a DarkFall account, I get paid 20% of the client cost. If you believe this taints my views and … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Patch Notes | 16 Comments

Even DarkFall devs love WoW

Posted on December 4, 2009 by SynCaine

Between zoning out with headphones on, inter-office romance, being female, not showing up, ForumFall’ing while waiting for the server to come up, and doing a WoW review for EuroGamer, I now understand why the DarkFall expansion is delayed. Fail Aventurine, … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online | 11 Comments

Reasons to skip SW:TOR, +1.

Posted on December 4, 2009 by SynCaine

While I’ll very likely be skipping SW:TOR for a few reasons (It’s SW, it’s ‘casual’, it’s a mega-themepark), the news about henchmen being added to allow you to solo everything makes that choice even easier. Hopefully the idea of designing … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rant, SW:TOR, Ultima Online | 50 Comments