Monthly Archives: April 2010

Today’s reason to hate the French

Posted on April 29, 2010 by SynCaine

Well this is rather sad news. While I don’t personally care much for the Halo franchise, Marathon and especially Myth were two franchises that were head and shoulders above the rest of gaming in their respective genres (FPS and RTS), … Continue reading →

Posted in Bungie Studios, Mass Media, Rant, Uncategorized, World of Warcraft | 9 Comments

Perma-death to all Darkfriends!

Posted on April 29, 2010 by SynCaine

Since 1997 and Ultima Online the concept of perma-death in an MMO has always interested me. I think a large part of it has to do with a core appeal of MMOs themselves; the fact that everything ‘counts’ and you … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, EVE Online, MMO design, Perma-death, PvP, Random | 29 Comments

The dreams of an IP, and the inevitable reality

Posted on April 28, 2010 by SynCaine

Over vacation I read a good chunk of Vampire Wars, a collection of books set in the Warhammer universe all about the von Carstein vampire counts. Considering I’ve been reading Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series almost exclusively for the … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rant, Site update, Warhammer Online | 28 Comments

SC2, heat, the heat, and nuts

Posted on April 27, 2010 by SynCaine

First a quick note for any former DarkFall players, today Aventurine started their welcome back program, giving inactive accounts 14 free days to come back and see what has changed. All the details can be found here. If you have … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Gaming, Darkfall Online, Random, Site update | 5 Comments

The future of DarkFall.

Posted on April 26, 2010 by SynCaine

During my week of vacation Aventurine was busy on the forums making posts about upcoming changes to DarkFall, along with a new initiative to drive more developer-player interaction as related to the design of the game. They also gave more … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Darkfall Online, DoTA, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP, Random, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

Vacation, good. Computers, bad.

Posted on April 24, 2010 by SynCaine

On the plus side, vacation was phenomenal. Hard to beat an all-inclusive resort right on the beach in Mexico, and the break was much needed. The downside is that someone must have broken into our home while we were away, … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Gaming, Site update | 13 Comments

Vacation

Posted on April 16, 2010 by SynCaine

Off to Mexico for a week, so don’t expect many (any?) blog updates until I return. Have a good week blog world!

Posted in Site update | 6 Comments

PLEX vs Cash Shops, plus the e-peen pony

Posted on April 16, 2010 by SynCaine

To finish off a week of EVE-related posting, let’s talk about PLEX vs Cash Shops and how I believe they are two extremely different pieces of an MMO. As a side bonus this should also cover the e-peen pony that … Continue reading →

Posted in Allods Online, Atlantica Online, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP, Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 7 Comments

Sometimes others just say it better

Posted on April 15, 2010 by SynCaine

This. edit: Fixed for grammar. IBB (In before Bonedead)

Posted in EVE Online | 27 Comments

Give me a reason to return

Posted on April 15, 2010 by SynCaine

Continuing the recent string of WAR-related musings, I’d like to talk about developer focus today. As I see it, there are basically three groups of players for any MMO at all times: those who never played your game, those who … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, Warhammer Online | 9 Comments