Category Archives: EVE Online

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

MMO housing IS gameplay

Posted on January 17, 2013 by SynCaine

And yes, I’ve heard the Ultima Online house analogy. But until I can plant a flower box outside my POS, I don’t buy it. EVE ain’t Minecraft. Going to pick on Jester a bit in this post. I say pick … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Housing, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Ultima Online | 15 Comments

7 minutes in heaven, a month of hell

Posted on January 16, 2013 by SynCaine

One point that I don’t think I made clear enough in my post about UO’s combat was that the slower pace and simplicity leads to longer retention, and so today I want to expand on that a bit (in horribly … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online | 30 Comments

Boxed in

Posted on January 10, 2013 by SynCaine

I bet you are wondering why I’m blogging less huh? Yea, I figured you were. Darkfall NDA is mostly to blame. MMO genre being a pile of crap is another factor. I mean, not only is there not a title … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Civilization Series, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, SW:TOR, The Witcher | 19 Comments

What 2012 was, and what 2013 will be

Posted on December 26, 2012 by SynCaine

The good for me in 2012 was more of the same (EVE, LoL), while the bad was highlighted by disappointment (GW2) and delay (DF:UW). The MMO genre as a whole continued to struggle with its identity, from massive failures like … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, League of Legends, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

EVE is a vampire

Posted on December 13, 2012 by SynCaine

So is EVE growing to 450k+ subs, or slowly bleeding? I believe it’s both. Unless you want to outright claim CCP is lying about having 450k+ subs, then they do. Which is a lot of subs for anything not called WoW. … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online | 8 Comments

Time to shut it down, EVE is dying

Posted on December 12, 2012 by SynCaine

In other niche game news, Tobold was right, CCP has declared bankruptcy in 2012. If your definition of bankruptcy is hitting 450k+ subs with a 10 year old MMO. But yea, totally bankrupt, yo. (Cue China does not count, WoW really had … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media | 28 Comments

Kappa Sigma Turbine

Posted on December 5, 2012 by SynCaine

Forumfall loves to bitch about Aventurine. It’s basically a tradition at this point, and it’s pretty well deserved considering DF2010 is (maybe) coming out 12/12/12. Like how hard would it have been for someone from AV to just provide a … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Rant, RMT | 28 Comments

The best MMO content = the best MMO content

Posted on November 26, 2012 by SynCaine

The measure of success when it comes to MMO content is surprisingly simple IMO (the longer the content holds your attention, the better), yet rarely mentioned much less accounted for directly. Both players and developers talk endlessly about many aspects … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rift, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 34 Comments

Glitch was EVE without PvP?

Posted on November 15, 2012 by SynCaine

Glitch is closing. I’ve never played the game, nor looked into it enough to really have an opinion, but if this is true: The game IMO is a 2D Eve without the PVP – instead of star systems you have … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Random | 10 Comments