Author Archives: SynCaine

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About SynCaine

Former hardcore raider turned casual gamer.

The side-grind of raiding

Posted on June 28, 2011 by SynCaine

Back when Molton Core was the first raid in WoW, Blizzard ‘nerfed’ it by introducing fire resist gear. These days they nerf raids by turning god-mode on for everyone and letting them breeze through the content. Trion also elected to … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rift, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

How much for a sparklepony with a monocle?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by SynCaine

Good summary of the EVE monocle debate over at TAGN, including links to other info and a post from the CCP CEO. I had to dig into my archive to find exactly what I have written about the WoW sparklepony, … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

TL/DR post on accessibility

Posted on June 24, 2011 by SynCaine

Accessibility brings content to the players that they previously would have had to make an effort to reach. If the players would rather quit than make the effort to reach the content, what does that say about the content itself?

Posted in Random | 9 Comments

The metrics made me do it!

Posted on June 24, 2011 by SynCaine

One of the justifications from Trion concerning nerfing difficulty in Rift was to allow Dungeon Finder groups to complete them. That statement contains a lot of value when broken down, and directly relates back to the topic of accessibility and … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

Rift: -Insert dramatic quitting title here-

Posted on June 23, 2011 by SynCaine

Rift patch 1.3 is out, along with the ‘new’ world event. Phase one has, more or less, the same exact daily quests as the previous event. And the one before it. Collect stuff around Sanctum, travel to a zone to … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, Rift | 32 Comments

Knighturn on the iPhone and what I’m playing

Posted on June 22, 2011 by SynCaine

Knighturn for the iPhone is a great TBS game with terrible, terrible graphics. I’m actually convinced it’s a social experiment to see just how many people judge a title based on looks alone, as everything BUT how it looks is … Continue reading →

Posted in iPhone, League of Legends, Mount and Blade: Warband, Random, Site update | 4 Comments

League of Legends Season One viewing

Posted on June 20, 2011 by SynCaine

League of Legends is running its season one championship, viewable here. At one point the stream reached 210k viewers, which sounds like a damn good amount of people. Riot was showing off its new spectator mode, and I must say … Continue reading →

Posted in Inquisition Clan, League of Legends, Mass Media, PvP | 12 Comments

‘Accessibility’ killed Rift

Posted on June 16, 2011 by SynCaine

Some very perceptive readers have picked up on the fact that Rift has somewhat fallen out of favor with me. It might have been my post about patch 1.2. I did drop a few hints there. Patch 1.2 brought the … Continue reading →

Posted in Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 42 Comments

Oh how topical

Posted on June 15, 2011 by SynCaine

Breaking news: CPP > others. I know, I’m shocked. Literally the first time this has happened, ever. Silly mega-niche hardcore PvP devs and their crazy ideas. Any bets how Bobby ‘borrows’ and screws this up? My bet is “pay to … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, RMT | 29 Comments

I’d like to pay $100 for M&B: Warband

Posted on June 15, 2011 by SynCaine

M&B:Warband continues to dominate my time, and I’m beginning to feel a little bit like a thief. I mean, I picked the game up on a Steam sale for $10, and yet at well over 200+ hours played, I feel … Continue reading →

Posted in Mount and Blade: Warband, RMT, Site update | 17 Comments