Author Archives: SynCaine

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About SynCaine

Former hardcore raider turned casual gamer.

LoL’ing the weekend away

Posted on September 13, 2010 by SynCaine

Another weekend in the books, and another bucket or ten filled with delicious League of Legends rage. My newest source? Trying to time Tryndamere’s ult ‘just right’ and having the screen go gray right as I hit ‘R’. Bonus points … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Inquisition Clan, League of Legends | 4 Comments

I have a great pre-order offer for you!

Posted on September 10, 2010 by SynCaine

Tell me if you’ve heard this before: Subscription MMO hypes pre-orders with exclusive content, early access, special bonuses, rainbow sherbet, etc. Beta is still under NDA and although all of the hype and writing still talks about 100s of features, … Continue reading →

Posted in DDO, EQ2, FreeRealms, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Warhammer Online | 10 Comments

$5,000 Darkfall contest winners

Posted on September 10, 2010 by SynCaine

At long last, the $5,000 “I love Darkfall” contest winners have been announced. Not a huge surprise that the concrete dragon statue won, anyone who saw the video when it was first posted knew it would be next to impossible … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online | 1 Comment

The WoW-like growth of League of Legends

Posted on September 9, 2010 by SynCaine

League of Legends has experienced some rather phenomenal growth in recent months. Growth that in many ways mimics the early days of World of Warcraft, where an initial niche group of players (DoTA for LoL, pre-WoW MMO player base for … Continue reading →

Posted in League of Legends, RMT, World of Warcraft | 29 Comments

Freedom or Profit

Posted on September 8, 2010 by SynCaine

Trusting your players is a risky move in an MMO. Accepting risky moves is often counterproductive to turning a profit, which is why the ‘safe’ choice when designing an MMO is to remove that potential risk and limit or eliminate … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Ultima Online | 7 Comments

Two years of WAR = …

Posted on September 7, 2010 by SynCaine

1) Has any game in MMO history redesigned more core systems then WAR? Amazing to think what could have been added these last two years if Mythic could stop ‘fixing’ things every patch. 2) Adding a third, PLAYABLE faction would … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, RvR, Warhammer Online | 10 Comments

Tropico 3 Review

Posted on September 7, 2010 by SynCaine

As previously mentioned I picked up Tropico 3 for $6 thanks to the current Direct2Drive sale, and I’m very glad I did. The game is a very lighthearted and comical take on the SimCity genre, and made for a great … Continue reading →

Posted in Random | 1 Comment

Choosing not to have fun

Posted on September 3, 2010 by SynCaine

The world has officially gone mad, as on a Friday, typically the day for a good blog war, I’m just linking to Tobold to comment on a post (and also because his post above, about blog roll drama, is hilarious). … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 12 Comments

Six years = 6 bucks sale

Posted on September 2, 2010 by SynCaine

Direct2Drive is having another sale, this time offering various games for $6 to celebrate the site’s sixth anniversary. Now when the cost of entry is $6, it’s kind of hard to argue ‘value’ here. I mean I’ve spend more than … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Media, Random | 13 Comments

League of Legends update

Posted on September 1, 2010 by SynCaine

League of Legends continues to dominate my gaming time, and my account is now midway through level 25 while Aria is at 15. Her current two favorite champions are Garren and Blitzcrank, while I tend to favor Amumu, Katarina, Poppy, … Continue reading →

Posted in Civilization Series, League of Legends, PvP | 8 Comments