Monthly Archives: May 2011

Difficulty settings, not tiers

Posted on May 11, 2011 by SynCaine

While plenty of forum posters are not happy about the expert dungeon nerfs (which, I must admit, I find somewhat surprising), the more I think about it the more I realize this is not an issue of making the current … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rift | 20 Comments

I found those missing 600k WoW players!

Posted on May 11, 2011 by SynCaine

Right here. Clear message to Blizzard; one sparkle pony won’t be enough to retain real gamers! Oh and yea, one step closer to the apocalypse. A big one.

Posted in Mass Media, Random, World of Warcraft | 1 Comment

Rift 1.2 patch: day after

Posted on May 11, 2011 by SynCaine

One night into 1.2, here is the good, average, and bad. The good: The weekly crafting rift quest is well designed. The rifts themselves are new, look good, and are pretty damn easy (you can duo them at worst, most … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Patch Notes, Rift | 17 Comments

Recruit-a-Random

Posted on May 10, 2011 by SynCaine

The Rift recruit-a-random program tops out at 3 sales. If Aventurine had limited their plan to that, I’d have to give up not just the mansion, but also three of my four cars. It would have saved me from 2+ … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 7 Comments

The return of server reputation?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by SynCaine

Since I’m at work, I’ve not yet had a chance to see how hard the 5 man content was hit in Rift (that make or break is tonight), but one item I did notice in the patch notes that (on … Continue reading →

Posted in Patch Notes, Rift, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

Witchers, Heroes, Thrones, Rift

Posted on May 9, 2011 by SynCaine

Just some quick hits for today. I finally, for the first time, beat The Witcher. My previous two attempts both fell short due to mass bugs (at release) and a comp change (a few months ago). Now, on the new … Continue reading →

Posted in Patch Notes, Random, Rift, The Witcher | 16 Comments

Time to make WoW accessible, end the elitism!

Posted on May 6, 2011 by SynCaine

Blizzard needs to stop being elitist with WoW, and allow the 100m or so Farmville players access to the game. Clearly tab-1-2-2-3 is too difficult. Assigning talent points is hard. Getting to 85 is a ridiculous grind. How is anyone … Continue reading →

Posted in Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 28 Comments

Little Billy and his trophy

Posted on May 5, 2011 by SynCaine

I’m not a fan of the “everyone is a winner” approach, be it Little League Baseball or MMOs. Handing out a trophy just for showing up is, to me, silly at best. I don’t care that little Billy is 6 … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 26 Comments

Is faster always better?

Posted on May 4, 2011 by SynCaine

Currently in Rift to zone into a dungeon one member of the group has to actually travel to the portal. Is this meaningful travel? Is it nice that only one person has to do it or a pain just for … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rift, World of Warcraft | 31 Comments

Back to Azeroth?

Posted on May 3, 2011 by SynCaine

With the upcoming addition of the Looking for Group tool, we’re also in the process of tuning our Expert Dungeons to be completable with one appropriately geared healer per group, instead of frequently requiring a second full healer on top … Continue reading →

Posted in Patch Notes, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 51 Comments