Category Archives: beta

GW2: Microtransactions, fantasy PLEX

Posted on March 20, 2012 by SynCaine

Full post here. Key line: it’s never OK for players who spend money to have an unfair advantage over players who spend time. This is good, and hopefully ArenaNet sticks to this. Unlike most devs, I currently have no reason … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, RMT | 15 Comments

GW2’s perfect storm

Posted on February 24, 2012 by SynCaine

Ah back to blogging. Odd how even a few days away gets me twitching. I have an EVE update post coming, but wanted to get these GW2-based thoughts out first. Queues in GW2 WvW: Honestly it’s the second best solution, … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Mass Media, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

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

Getting back to the source

Posted on January 11, 2012 by SynCaine

Jester has a post up about how Sovereignty works in EVE, and how the game might benefit from borrowing some ideas from Perpetuum in that area. A good read as always, and it brings up a larger point: competition amongst … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Asheron's Call, beta, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 45 Comments

Battlefield 3 Open Beta

Posted on September 30, 2011 by SynCaine

Battlefield 3 open beta is now live and I got the chance to play it a bit last night. It’s a gorgeous game. Flat out the best looking game I’ve played to date. And it runs well, with none of … Continue reading →

Posted in beta | 6 Comments

This is what happens when the MMO genre sucks and I have ‘nothing to play’

Posted on September 6, 2011 by SynCaine

Random thoughts blog incoming. Played a little more Heroes 6 beta 2. Huge improvement from beta 1. All the little UI errors are gone, skills and spells make a lot more sense now, and the multiplayer is much better. I … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Combat Systems, Global Agenda, Random | 15 Comments

Rift: Happy half-birthday, welcome to Azeroth!

Posted on September 1, 2011 by SynCaine

Prompted by Tobold (its Thursday blog noob, not Friday), let’s talk about Rift 6 months after release. Pre-release, Trion was hyping Rift with “You’re not in Azeroth anymore”. Yes, Rift was never pitched as more than yet another fantasy themepark, … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, MMO design, Rift, World of Warcraft | 19 Comments

Third faction finally added to Warhammer Online!

Posted on August 16, 2011 by SynCaine

The F2P knockoff game that is. If you are still playing WAR, how much does this kick in the nuts hurt? “Oh hi, we screwed WAR by making it two faction like WoW, but we made the knockoff a threeway. … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, League of Legends, PvP, Rant, Warhammer Online | 16 Comments

Dawntide: A little more time

Posted on August 9, 2011 by SynCaine

I played a little more Dawntide (I can’t explain why, other than that I’m a sucker for sandboxes I guess), and while I still would not recommend it to most people, I have seen a few noteworthy things. The combat … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Combat Systems, crafting, MMO design, Random | 1 Comment

I’m back, and the games I’m playing

Posted on August 5, 2011 by SynCaine

Finally back from vacation. The plan to blog while there did not exactly work out (you might have noticed), but the blogging break was nice as well. I’ve got the “how to get RPG players who turn to MMOs into … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Combat Systems, DoTA, iPhone, League of Legends, Mount and Blade: Warband, Random | 10 Comments