Monthly Archives: September 2011

Battlefield 3 Open Beta

Posted on September 30, 2011 by SynCaine

Battlefield 3 open beta is now live and I got the chance to play it a bit last night. It’s a gorgeous game. Flat out the best looking game I’ve played to date. And it runs well, with none of … Continue reading →

Posted in beta | 6 Comments

Blood Bowl 80% off

Posted on September 29, 2011 by SynCaine

Steam sale, of course. Recommend people pick it up (it’s a very solid TBS title at heart, with a football theme. It’s more a strategy title than a sports title),  as I’ll be running another league ‘soon’. Grab it now, … Continue reading →

Posted in Blood Bowl | 5 Comments

Redsox: Cataclysm

Posted on September 29, 2011 by SynCaine

I don’t normally do this, given that this is mostly an MMO blog, but what happened last night in Baseball was stunning, historic, and gut-wrenching. This piece by Tom Verducci sums it up well. As a resident of the City … Continue reading →

Posted in Random, World of Warcraft | 12 Comments

Bad content burns you out

Posted on September 28, 2011 by SynCaine

While talking about the fun curve, Tobold addressed something he and I have been going back and forth on for a bit: do you burn-out on an MMO, or do you quit because the game changed? Before we go on, … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 33 Comments

LoL Dominion, Total War, and Borderlands

Posted on September 26, 2011 by SynCaine

League of Legend’s Dominion is out today. Hopefully the servers don’t totally explode. I think Dominion is a nice break from the traditional map (SR), certainly much better than the 3v3 map, but at the same time I don’t think … Continue reading →

Posted in League of Legends, Mount and Blade: Warband, Random | 9 Comments

30 minutes to cap

Posted on September 23, 2011 by SynCaine

Tobold’s post today does a nice job of summarizing what’s gone wrong with MMOs in the last few years in terms of design. The best example is this part: If you consider a theoretical MMORPG with an infinite number of … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Asheron's Call, Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 20 Comments

Why Hogger is famous

Posted on September 22, 2011 by SynCaine

Because he killed you, made you stop and think, and made you either move on in defeat or find others to take him down. Read that WoWWiki entry and tell me that it’s a ‘problem’ that Hogger could be defeating … Continue reading →

Posted in Rant, World of Warcraft | 20 Comments

2000 hours with EQ, 5 minutes with the kids.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by SynCaine

2000 hours to hit the original level cap in EQ1 is not the reason EQ1 was ‘hard’ (not a great way to really look at this, but more on that later). A harsh death penalty wasn’t it either. Nor was … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Global Agenda, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 14 Comments

Raid or Breed

Posted on September 21, 2011 by SynCaine

Going to attempt to tie the previous two posts together, to hopefully reach some sort of conclusion. It might work… The Sims Social is just as good, or even better as The Sims in short play sessions. Empires & Allies … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

21 and under club?

Posted on September 20, 2011 by SynCaine

So wait, only teens want a challenge and have the time needed to put more than a Farmville-level of effort into a game? Wha? The average person does not get more time to game as they get older. As husbands and … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rant | 37 Comments