Author Archives: SynCaine

Unknown's avatar

About SynCaine

Former hardcore raider turned casual gamer.

GW2 WvWvW – The new Alterac Valley!

Posted on February 16, 2012 by SynCaine

This looks familiar. Three-way Alterac Valley that persists for two weeks, with an ELO system and DAoC relics/keeps. Not that the above is bad. God knows we have seen far worse attempts at MMO PvP (Hi WAR/AoC/Aion). Maxing out at … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, beta, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 37 Comments

Great games are not great MMOs

Posted on February 15, 2012 by SynCaine

I’ve often commented that I believe a part of WoW’s success was a perfect storm scenario. I’d like to add one additional factor to that formula: My-First-MMO-ness. For many MMO gamers, WoW was their first title. This is a very … Continue reading →

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rift, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 22 Comments

EVE: Scanning down options

Posted on February 13, 2012 by SynCaine

One of the defining and critical features of a sandbox MMO is options. Options are different than layers in that options don’t fade or get replaced by “the next thing”. You ‘finish’ layers. You can’t ‘finish’ options. EVE has a … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design | 18 Comments

EVE: 1400 in local, no big deal

Posted on February 9, 2012 by SynCaine

Great battle report, and good example of TiDi in EVE. I’ll keep hammering the lag point until every last person understands what’s technically possible, and why MMOs with servers the size of a game from 97 are doing it wrong. I … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Rant | 18 Comments

Skyrim’s uncanny valley

Posted on February 9, 2012 by SynCaine

If you have 40ish minutes, watch all of this. If you are pressed for time, watch the first section. Either way, it’s awesome stuff. Listening to the design behind Skyrim, I think I’ve pinpointed one of the long-term issues I … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 10 Comments

EVE: Trailer, Corp update

Posted on February 8, 2012 by SynCaine

Good new trailer for EVE. Even better are the comments in that Massively article, clearly showing how so many ‘MMO’ gamers just don’t get an MMO like EVE. Expecting the PvE missions to be ‘impact’ content, the old “you get … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, Mass Media | 10 Comments

BioWare is amazing

Posted on February 6, 2012 by SynCaine

No, I’m not talking about that 90% retention rate they have going. I’m talking about Baldurs Gate. The RPG from 1999. I picked up BG on somewhat of a whim a few days ago from GoG.com for $10. It’s funny … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 21 Comments

EVE: It’s someones story

Posted on February 3, 2012 by SynCaine

Quick point about the EVE story post from yesterday: whether the story is true or not is not all that important. What is important is that it’s POSSIBLE in EVE. Maybe this guy did what he says he did. Maybe … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design | 29 Comments

a game that millions of people are going to be playing for a very long time

Posted on February 2, 2012 by SynCaine

Open after next quarter’s financial report: Q: You’ve previously said you need about a half million subscribers to be profitable, is that still the case? A: At 500,000 subscribers, we’d break even. At a million, we’d be making a profit … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Media, SW:TOR | 12 Comments

EVE: Just your average MMO story

Posted on February 2, 2012 by SynCaine

I don’t have much to add to this that has not been written either in the post itself, or in the comments. I’ll just point out that in the MMO genre, there exists only one game where such a story … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media | 11 Comments