Monthly Archives: October 2014

Civilization: Beyond Earth – Mod or future greatness?

Posted on October 30, 2014 by SynCaine

I fully expect to see two basic review styles of Civilization: Beyond Earth. One will lean heavily towards “its a mod/expansion for Civ V”, while the other will dig into specific changes to try and explain why it ultimately feels … Continue reading →

Posted in Civilization Series | 4 Comments

Random: Did someone hack Comcast?

Posted on October 30, 2014 by SynCaine

Just got off the phone with Comcast, and not only was I put into contact with a human in short order, the human spoke English, didn’t BS me for 30 minutes, and actually clearly explained current options. Then, when I … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 7 Comments

AA: Good design can’t overcome a bad business model and stupidity

Posted on October 27, 2014 by SynCaine

Whelp, things went downhill fast huh? To some extent this should have been obvious, given that ArcheAge is a F2P MMO, the very clear minor-leagues of the genre. Maybe I was trying to convince myself otherwise, or maybe a particularly … Continue reading →

Posted in ArcheAge, MMO design, Trion being Trion | 37 Comments

CoC: War stats vs Dayana 10/20/2014

Posted on October 22, 2014 by SynCaine

(Post and stats by Delpez. Also a quick note; we are now at 50 members, the cap in CoC.) Supreme Cream! vs Dayana Supreme Cream Enemy Average TH Level 6.98 7.38 Score 141 126 Total Attacks Used 88 90 Total … Continue reading →

Posted in Clash of Clans | 1 Comment

AA: Trion being Trion at it’s finest

Posted on October 21, 2014 by SynCaine

If even half of this is true, Trion is far more incompetent than even I have joked about. It honestly has taken most of the wind out of the game for me, which is a complete shame because the game … Continue reading →

Posted in ArcheAge, Trion being Trion | 20 Comments

AA: View from level 50

Posted on October 21, 2014 by SynCaine

I recently hit the current level cap of 50 in ArcheAge, so now is a good time to talk about that experience, what changes, and plans going forward. First thing however is how effortless getting to 50 was. Not only … Continue reading →

Posted in ArcheAge, MMO design | 18 Comments

Some people play MMOs, some play EVE

Posted on October 20, 2014 by SynCaine

To say that EVE is a different kind of MMO is perhaps the biggest understatement in gaming. Year after year events happen in EVE that no other game will likely ever come close to replicating, and the game’s depth, complexity, … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design | 28 Comments

PvE-only servers don’t actually work

Posted on October 17, 2014 by SynCaine

Would CCP be better off if they created a PvE-only server for EVE? Some carebears would argue yes, because since EVE only has a PvP server, they don’t play. On the surface that makes sense; PvP-only games are indeed locking … Continue reading →

Posted in ArcheAge, EVE Online, MMO design | 17 Comments

Who hasn’t wanted to kill someone over a balance change?

Posted on October 16, 2014 by SynCaine

Oh Gamergate, why are you so entertainingly funny? The fact that comments aren’t enabled on that story is a crime, because the CNN comments section makes the Massively comments section look like a Mensa meeting. I’m not going to fully … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Media, Rant | 15 Comments

The taint of your ‘peers’

Posted on October 14, 2014 by SynCaine

If I tell you “Game X is kinda like Farmville”, you take that as a negative. Same but reverse if I say “Game Y is like Civilization”. This works on a broader view too; F2P, ‘casual’ game, WoW-clone, zombie-survival, yet-another-MOBA, … Continue reading →

Posted in ArcheAge, Clash of Clans | 2 Comments