Category Archives: EVE Online

DF:UW – Take care of the sheep to keep the wolves

Posted on November 27, 2013 by SynCaine

The biggest challenge for any PvP sandbox developer is figuring out how to keep the sheep around. The easiest challenge is figuring out how to keep the wolves. If you look at the history of this MMO sub-genre, it’s not … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP | 28 Comments

DF:UW – Economy, MVPs, and Forumfall noise

Posted on November 17, 2013 by SynCaine

Warning, the following is a long post centered around Darkfall, but in many ways applies to MMOs in general, and skims many concepts in order to prevent this from being an even longer novel. Apologies if I lose you along … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant | 25 Comments

More Massively EVE commenting entertainment

Posted on November 15, 2013 by SynCaine

I’ve posted this stuff before, but so long as the idiot train is running full steam in the Massively comments section, I’ll keep linking to it. My favorite out of this batch: It’s not just the gameplay though it’s the … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media | 31 Comments

This is why its hard to take Massively serious

Posted on November 5, 2013 by SynCaine

From this article: “But let’s say that things do work the way the developers estimate. The average gamer, age 33 with children barking in the background of Mumble, will run out of content after about two months on average MMO, … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media | 15 Comments

MMO Future: Understanding old memories

Posted on October 31, 2013 by SynCaine

Almost all of the original MMOs worked. UO, EQ1, AC1, DAoC; all of those games had solid populations and growth in their prime. In contrast, most of the recent MMOs (AoC, WAR, LotR, SW:TOR, Aion, Rift, etc) have not. Either … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Aion, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 52 Comments

MMO Future: Suits and timebombs

Posted on October 24, 2013 by SynCaine

A lot of good back and forth dialog happened yesterday, which you should go read if you haven’t. Thanks go out to Brian (Psychochild) Green for putting up more of a fight than the hotbar salesmen from SW:TOR. I’d like … Continue reading →

Posted in EQNext, EVE Online, Kickstarter, MMO design, Rant, RMT, SW:TOR, The Elder Scrolls Online, World of Warcraft | 77 Comments

MMO future: Social baseline

Posted on October 17, 2013 by SynCaine

At the time of its release, WoW was criticized for not bringing much to the MMO genre, and simply being a refined EverQuest. Refining someone else’s idea was, after all, how Blizzard made a name for themselves originally. In 2004, … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 26 Comments

The case for expansions

Posted on October 3, 2013 by SynCaine

The recent lack of Darkfall posts is due, surprise, to an overall lack of playing DF lately. It’s moved from a game I played daily to something I put a few hours into a week, which in turn moves me … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online | 25 Comments

Today’s Kool-Aid flavor is grape. Grape and failure

Posted on August 28, 2013 by SynCaine

A lot of funny stuff is happening in this post over at TAGN, please go check it out. My only major complaint is that Wilhelm was light on the actual insults. I’m going to try and correct that here. I … Continue reading →

Posted in Allods Online, DDO, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, RMT, SW:TOR, The Elder Scrolls Online, WildStar, World of Warcraft | 51 Comments

The cure for F2P disease is quality

Posted on August 22, 2013 by SynCaine

In the comments section from yesterday’s post, Rohirrim raised the issue that with so many failed MMOs being demoted to the F2P minor leagues, gamers today might be weary of jumping on a new game that is sub-based for fear … Continue reading →

Posted in Camelot Unchained, EQNext, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR, The Elder Scrolls Online | 33 Comments