Category Archives: Dark Age of Camelot

Bucket of rage

Posted on June 20, 2012 by SynCaine

Random ranting incoming: One ‘awesome’ feature does not an MMO make. “TESO is a copy/paste puddle of fail, but feature X looks interesting”. A cute gimmick feature can make an iPhone game worth the buck and download. It won’t get people … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, beta, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Random, Rant, SW:TOR, The Elder Scrolls Online, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 25 Comments

GW2: Same old siege

Posted on April 2, 2012 by SynCaine

Quick thought on this post from Werit about a GW2 siege video, and the comment from Snafzg that sieging in DAOC, WAR, and (potentially) GW2) suck: sieges in Darkfall don’t suck. They don’t display the same “bang a door” pattern, … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, Guild Wars, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online | 8 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

The more things change…

Posted on December 1, 2011 by SynCaine

Timing is everything. Today Raph has a post showing a 3-part “History of MMOs” video. (well worth watching btw, especially for those who started playing post-2004) Also today Tobold has a post about how bots could easily play certain MMOs … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Console Gaming, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Random, Rant, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

Bad content burns you out

Posted on September 28, 2011 by SynCaine

While talking about the fun curve, Tobold addressed something he and I have been going back and forth on for a bit: do you burn-out on an MMO, or do you quit because the game changed? Before we go on, … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 33 Comments

2000 hours with EQ, 5 minutes with the kids.

Posted on September 22, 2011 by SynCaine

2000 hours to hit the original level cap in EQ1 is not the reason EQ1 was ‘hard’ (not a great way to really look at this, but more on that later). A harsh death penalty wasn’t it either. Nor was … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Global Agenda, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 14 Comments

Twit generation is in my MMO

Posted on September 19, 2011 by SynCaine

First, can we please stop qualifying Facebook games? “Not bad, for a Facebook game”. We don’t do it with TV (oh that show was terrible, but it was on a 3rd rate network so it was decent), we don’t do … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, Global Agenda, iPhone, Mass Media, MMO design, Mount and Blade: Warband, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 28 Comments

Celebrating 12 years of themepark hate

Posted on May 12, 2011 by SynCaine

My enjoyment of virtual worlds goes back to Ultima Online, in large part because I loved the sRPG Ultima games, growing up on Ultima V and always being jealous of a friend who had a PC and had Ultima VI … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 36 Comments

Burnouts Anonymous

Posted on April 11, 2011 by SynCaine

Quick break from the PvE Sandbox series to make an observation about Rift, but no worries (you were worried, I could tell), another post in that series is coming soon. Over a month in and I’m still having a ton … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Fallen Earth, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 27 Comments

“It seems much easier to make interesting, sandbox PvP content then it is to maintain and create PvE treadmill content”

Posted on November 30, 2010 by SynCaine

Every now and then you come across something shocking it’s just too hard to ignore. Today is one of those days. This is a comment from a post Keen made, waiting for WoW to embrace its PvP nature (pro-tip: HKO … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Aion, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, PvP, Rant, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 39 Comments