Author Archives: SynCaine

Unknown's avatar

About SynCaine

Former hardcore raider turned casual gamer.

GW2: Colin Johanson understands raiding

Posted on September 17, 2012 by SynCaine

Our own internal testing teams and alpha test groups learned to beat them using a combination of player skill, synchronous builds, strong use of cross-profession combos, use of cooking/consumable buffs (these make a huge difference!) and well formed player tactics. … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant | 7 Comments

Wallet vote

Posted on September 15, 2012 by SynCaine

I don’t often link to Kickstarter projects because while a lot of ideas sound great, we all know a great idea is not enough to actually make a great game. With that said, when people with experience making games like … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 14 Comments

GW2: Dead on the inside

Posted on September 14, 2012 by SynCaine

Everything just kinda plays/unlocks itself. – kalex716 I think this describes why GW2 feels like an enjoyably meh experience to me right now. I like each piece of content, to varying degrees, but as soon as I close GW2 the … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant | 40 Comments

The MMO genre is a niche space, entry 25603

Posted on September 14, 2012 by SynCaine

“TSW was not buggier than, say, GW2. Nor did it lack things to do.” – tithian “Personally I found TSW to be sub-par in both combat and graphics, and far inferior to GW2 in game flow. In the beta the … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 11 Comments

GW2: To scale or not to scale

Posted on September 13, 2012 by SynCaine

GW2 scaling in many ways makes the whole leveling process somewhat silly. You return to where you started but the local bandits are still just as tough as their far more senior members in later zones. No matter how legendary … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, Rant | 33 Comments

EVE: Vile Rat

Posted on September 12, 2012 by SynCaine

Many sites have better posts than I could write about the real life death of EVE player Vile Rat, so I’ll just link to one piece in case anyone reads this site and might have missed it. Obviously tragic and … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media, Random | Comments Off on EVE: Vile Rat

GW2: An ‘explorers’ dream

Posted on September 11, 2012 by SynCaine

Short musing for today: The ‘explorers’ who love GW2 for rewarding ‘exploring’ when they ‘find’ all of the points of interest and such in a zone and getting the “you got it all” chest. That’s not being an explorer. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Guild Wars, Rant | 37 Comments

EVE: A POS to call my home

Posted on September 10, 2012 by SynCaine

Another Jester-lead post for today (GW2 thoughts are brewing, but I can’t quite place my finger on them just yet. Something-something themepark though), this time about the next EVE expansion, and expansions/patches in general. Jester is worried that much like … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Housing, MMO design, Ultima Online | 6 Comments

EVE: The highsec player does not exist

Posted on September 6, 2012 by SynCaine

I like this post by Jester about highsec refining and production, and it brings up an aspect of the game that I think many misunderstand: the highsec player. Or rather, that “the highsec player” does not exist as a single … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP | 30 Comments

GW2: Review at the midpoint

Posted on September 5, 2012 by SynCaine

I hit level 41 last night on my Human Elementalist. In that time I’ve completed (all items checked) three zones, done all storyline quests up to my level, have two crafting skills to 130ish, ran the first instance in Story … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP, RvR, Warhammer Online | 21 Comments