Monthly Archives: June 2015

Are Clash of Clans and Boom Beach MMOs?

Posted on June 30, 2015 by SynCaine

This is mostly just food for thought, and spoiler answer: No, but its real close. To really answer this question, you first have to ask yourself what you value most in an MMO, and how many of those factors does … Continue reading →

Posted in Boom Beach, Clash of Clans, MMO design | 5 Comments

Time Warp – D:OS thoughts

Posted on June 29, 2015 by SynCaine

Welcome to the newest feature for the blog (which means this will be the only time it is used); where I blog about an older game you have either already played or have no interest in playing. Should be really … Continue reading →

Posted in Random, Time Warp | 2 Comments

Who are these people spending money on Fallout Shelter?

Posted on June 24, 2015 by SynCaine

Fallout Shelter is doing rather well. Actually, it’s doing amazingly well considering the game is fully, 100% playable for free, to the point that spending money on it is almost counter-productive. Not bad for a throw-in title to help everyone … Continue reading →

Posted in Fallout 3, iPhone | 15 Comments

Fun vs Reward

Posted on June 23, 2015 by SynCaine

Designing MMO content is, IMO, far different than designing gaming content, primarily because MMO content has to last, while other gaming content has to be as fun as possible. It may sound odd, but I don’t think you should try … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Final Fantasy XIV, MMO design | 12 Comments

CoC: TH9 Tactics

Posted on June 22, 2015 by SynCaine

(Write-up by Delpez) Our recent wars have shown something quite clearly: Clash of Clans is a game of skill, and the gap between skilled and unskilled is large. Two weeks ago we warred in a complete mismatch. Our opponents had … Continue reading →

Posted in Clash of Clans | 9 Comments

Darkest Dungeon Review

Posted on June 19, 2015 by SynCaine

Darkest Dungeon is kicking my ass. A lot of games are billed as being brutally hard or difficult, but few make that experience as enjoyable as this game. I’ve said before I’m not a huge rogue-like fan, and while DD … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 8 Comments

SW:TOR – Good enough to be a sub MMO again?

Posted on June 17, 2015 by SynCaine

Two observations about the ‘big’ SW:TOR expansion announcement (based only on reading Rohan mostly, since lulz actually playing SW:TOR): Bit early to call SW:TOR trying to save itself here as it going the FFXIV route. FFXIV isn’t special in so … Continue reading →

Posted in RMT, SW:TOR | 20 Comments

Fallout Shelter and Fallout 4 additional thoughts

Posted on June 16, 2015 by SynCaine

Let’s talk Fallout Shelter first. For a free game (and it is free, as buying extra boxes is truly a dummy trap to skip playing the game, nothing more), its not bad, and certainly worth downloading and messing around with. … Continue reading →

Posted in Fallout 3 | 6 Comments

Fallout 4 info and the mobile game

Posted on June 15, 2015 by SynCaine

As most of us predicted, given it was up for pre-order on Steam, Fallout 4 is coming later this year. The full 2+ hour E3 presentation can be seen here (talking starts at 26min, Fallout 4 around 1hr), and you … Continue reading →

Posted in iPhone, Random | 2 Comments

Darkest Dungeon mini-review

Posted on June 13, 2015 by SynCaine

Darkest Dungeon is absolutely kicking my ass. Some times things turn ugly on the first run, before I even open the various buildings. Either I’m doing something (a lot of things) wrong, or the game is just brutal. Fun game … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 8 Comments