Category Archives: EQ2

Preying on the weak

Posted on January 26, 2012 by SynCaine

I have a friend who is in the 1%. No, not the Occupy nonsense, but the 1% of F2P players that spend a silly amount of money in the cash shop. He is the guy who buys up every DLC … Continue reading →

Posted in Allods Online, Atlantica Online, EQ2, FreeRealms, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, RMT | 13 Comments

Rebuilding the genre on SW:TOR’s ashes

Posted on January 18, 2012 by SynCaine

I get the feeling that people misunderstand me when I say that I hope SW:TOR is the death of the AAA themepark MMO. I’m not saying the genre would be better if people did not spend 300m to make an … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 48 Comments

You should return those glasses to their rightful owner

Posted on January 17, 2012 by SynCaine

Syp over at Biobreak has a post talking about the pre-2003 MMO market and todays, and how you can’t pay him enough to go back to that time. First I find this odd, as looking at his About page, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Atlantica Online, EQ2, Housing, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 82 Comments

Seems a loaded failtrain has pulled into the station

Posted on January 12, 2012 by SynCaine

A lot of great stuff floating around today. First is this comment from Rammstein, responding to Azuriel yesterday, related to his and Blizzard’s claim that Cata failed because it was too hard: Anything that Chilton says to the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, League of Legends, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 42 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

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

Fun with lists

Posted on May 26, 2011 by SynCaine

What do the games listed below all have in common? Age of Conan All Points Bulletin Dungeons & Dragons Online Lord of the Rings Online Global Agenda Ragnarok Online Champions Online Everquest 2 Extended If you answered “failed to meet … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Allods Online, Darkfall Online, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, Rant, Rift, RMT, World of Warcraft | 36 Comments