Category Archives: EVE Online

The future: Farmville or bust?

Posted on March 18, 2010 by SynCaine

Scott Jennings (Lum) has another entry up on his MMORPG.com blog, this time talking a bit about Farmville and Co and what it might mean for MMO gaming. Lots of quality quotes from around the industry, and some good insight … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Gaming, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Fallen Earth, Mass Media, MMO design, Patch Notes, Random, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 14 Comments

DarkFall: Zergs and shitties

Posted on March 16, 2010 by SynCaine

This post is inspired by an email I received from Ragnarok Vanir from Persona Non Grata in DarkFall, who wanted me to comment on the term ‘zerg’, specifically how it is used on ForumFall whenever a battle breaks out. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, PvP, Rant | 15 Comments

The concept of ‘easy’ in MMO land

Posted on February 22, 2010 by SynCaine

A while back GameMonkey made this post, basically stating that “easy is fun”, and that easy is one of the keys to reaching the mass market. He later goes on to state in the comments that the easy version of … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Console Gaming, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 39 Comments

F2P games: nice for the price, or actual competition?

Posted on February 18, 2010 by SynCaine

Something I’ve noticed for a while now, that’s really come to the foreground with the release of Allods, is how some people play both sides of the fence when talking about Free to Play MMOs. In one sentence they will … Continue reading →

Posted in Allods Online, Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, RMT, World of Warcraft | 21 Comments

How awfully ‘keen’ of you Tobold

Posted on February 10, 2010 by SynCaine

Whenever Tobold talks about EVE, it’s always entertaining, but sadly it’s the “Keen” kind of entertaining, if you know what I mean. And just a day after making a “WoW is too easy and not fun now” post (wish someone … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, crafting, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, World of Warcraft | 67 Comments

Why you DON’T want to hit the cap

Posted on January 28, 2010 by SynCaine

The topic of character progression, and more specifically how long it should take to reach ‘the end’, came up when a noted member of the community (ValRoth, the guy who did the newbie videos linked on the right) made a … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design | 25 Comments

What is Realm Pride?

Posted on January 8, 2010 by SynCaine

In the land of MMO PvP setups, we know for sure that one style, freeform PvP, works. We also know that another style, pre-set PvP, has worked, but has also has a history of failure. The one major example of … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, Asheron's Call, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, RvR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 28 Comments

2009 predictions: BINGO! (not exactly)

Posted on December 30, 2009 by SynCaine

Can you believe I had trouble finding my 2009 predictions post. I know, how hard is it to find a post titled “2009 Predictions” on my own blog, but um, it took a lot longer than I care to admit. … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Aion, Darkfall Online, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Fallen Earth, FreeRealms, Lord of the Rings Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 6 Comments

300k subscriptions to fail, 50k to profit.

Posted on December 22, 2009 by SynCaine

Much like Tobold’s knowledge of MMO blogging history (Lum invented it, if you did not know…), his understanding of business success also seems to be a little off. Actually I’m going to go out and say the above-linked post is … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Rant | 63 Comments

Failure post is fail

Posted on December 21, 2009 by SynCaine

This post by Lum is a little funny. Funny given the source, and funny given the ideas within. It’s also funny because in parts it’s more or less a time capsule of, oh, 5-10 years ago? I won’t bore you … Continue reading →

Posted in Aion, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Rant, Ultima Online | 122 Comments