Author Archives: SynCaine

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About SynCaine

Former hardcore raider turned casual gamer.

MMO gaming from the ultra-casual perspective.

Posted on May 1, 2008 by SynCaine

At the request of my bf that is swamped at work, I am writing my first blog post ever. And ironically, it is about something that a year and a half ago, I knew virtually nothing about. I am a … Continue reading →

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Site update, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Quick thought of the day.

Posted on May 1, 2008 by SynCaine

DoTA is a better version of WoW’s Arena PvP? Set map, 5 v 5, class/skill/item balance dependent, fairly twitch based, team unity/communication being key… Seem fairly similar to me, other than the fact DoTA is 100% fair pre-game, while the … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, World of Warcraft | 1 Comment

Returning to Middle Earth.

Posted on April 30, 2008 by SynCaine

Having hit 70 in WoW, and with Kara raiding being a once a week event currently, some gaming time has opened up for the gf and I. Since we had to stop playing LoTRO due to a technical issue and … Continue reading →

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft | 7 Comments

Wearing your sunday dress on mondays.

Posted on April 29, 2008 by SynCaine

As my head is still spinning in full PvP mode, I realized most games, and perhaps most MMO gamers, ignore a potentially very interesting gameplay mechanic, which I will refer to (very likely unoriginally) as the ‘Sunday dress’ mechanic. In … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design | 15 Comments

Understanding what makes PvP tick.

Posted on April 28, 2008 by SynCaine

Watching people react to all the new info about AoC’s PvP model has been rather entertaining, while also frustrating and somewhat surprising. PvP seems to be an idea that most people ‘think’ they love in an MMO, but when you … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Combat Systems, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 12 Comments

Nerd rage at it’s best/worst?

Posted on April 25, 2008 by SynCaine

Nerd on nerd crime It’s funny in a sad way I guess… But do we really need one nerd faction calling another nerd faction out? Can’t we just keep it to console vs comp, or casual vs hardcore? Do we … Continue reading →

Posted in Random, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

Camping for a beta spot… no thanks.

Posted on April 25, 2008 by SynCaine

Open beta does not mean what it use to in the MMO world. Back in the day, open beta for an MMO was not a big deal, and for the most part was quite similar to the most recent closed … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Combat Systems, MMO design, Pirates of the Burning Sea, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 15 Comments

Age of Conan, not-so-open beta.

Posted on April 25, 2008 by SynCaine

FilePlanet has the AoC beta, sorta… They seem to run out of keys within seconds of posting a batch, which is a sweet way of jacking up their page refresh rate. Good job… I’ll have a nice rant up about … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan | Tagged | 2 Comments

PvP theorycraft, and the lessons MMOs need to learn.

Posted on April 22, 2008 by SynCaine

Playing as much DoTA as I have lately, it’s got me thinking about the general idea of PvP, and why most MMOs can’t seem to get it right. We have seen what happens when you make it too extreme in … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, MMO design, PvP, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 11 Comments

DoTA talk.

Posted on April 21, 2008 by SynCaine

Monday already huh? Played a good bit of DoTA this weekend, mostly getting my ass handed to me in TDA games while still re-learning everything. Due to the game being basically 100% player skill, the learning curve depends almost completely … Continue reading →

Posted in PvP, Random | 1 Comment