Category Archives: crafting

The difficulty of depth

Posted on February 1, 2013 by SynCaine

Jester’s excellent Fractal post is well worth reading, and it’s just one example of the deep, multilayered posts frequently made about EVE. If you read enough blogs with enough variety, I’m sure you have picked up on this as well. … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, World of Warcraft | 25 Comments

UO Forever: More lessons

Posted on January 28, 2013 by SynCaine

UO Forever has been a great time so far, both from just a pure gameplay perspective and as a refresher of sorts on how the MMO genre got started and the design decisions that worked. I’ve covered combat already, as well … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Housing, MMO design, Ultima Online | 5 Comments

Darkfall:UW – Best Case

Posted on November 6, 2012 by SynCaine

With Darkfall set to release in two weeks, I want to write down my expectations for the game. Today will be a best-case post, while tomorrow I’ll do worst-case. If nothing else, it will be interesting to revisit these post-release … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, Housing, Mass Media, MMO design, PvP | 7 Comments

Rift: Storm Legion – Who put this sand in here?

Posted on October 22, 2012 by SynCaine

James, a community manager from Trion recently reached out to me and asked if I’d be interesting in taking Rift’s upcoming expansion Storm Legion for a guided tour. While I’m not currently playing Rift, and my reasons why are well … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, crafting, Housing, Mass Media, MMO design, Rift | 13 Comments

GW2: Broken Jack of Trades

Posted on September 17, 2012 by SynCaine

GW2 has a serious identity crisis. Is it an ultra-casual MMO that rewards everyone for everything? Is it an e-sport title for competitive 5v5 teams? Is it an updated DAoC focused on RvR? Is it a WoW clone, or the … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, Guild Wars, MMO design, PvP, Rant, RMT | 15 Comments

GW2: An ‘explorers’ dream

Posted on September 11, 2012 by SynCaine

Short musing for today: The ‘explorers’ who love GW2 for rewarding ‘exploring’ when they ‘find’ all of the points of interest and such in a zone and getting the “you got it all” chest. That’s not being an explorer. That’s … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Guild Wars, Rant | 37 Comments

EVE: A POS to call my home

Posted on September 10, 2012 by SynCaine

Another Jester-lead post for today (GW2 thoughts are brewing, but I can’t quite place my finger on them just yet. Something-something themepark though), this time about the next EVE expansion, and expansions/patches in general. Jester is worried that much like … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Housing, MMO design, Ultima Online | 6 Comments

EVE: The highsec player does not exist

Posted on September 6, 2012 by SynCaine

I like this post by Jester about highsec refining and production, and it brings up an aspect of the game that I think many misunderstand: the highsec player. Or rather, that “the highsec player” does not exist as a single … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP | 30 Comments

Dynamic layers

Posted on July 17, 2012 by SynCaine

This blog would be a lot more interesting if I could write about our current plans and immediate impacts of our current situation in EVE, but EVE being what it is, I can’t. Hopefully the delayed drip won’t result in … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, PvP | 6 Comments

Out of the kiddy pool

Posted on June 4, 2012 by SynCaine

This weekend I made the decision to have INQ-E join a wormhole alliance and move into their C5. It was not an easy decision, but one that I ultimately think will benefit us in many ways. First some back story, … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, crafting, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP | 27 Comments