Category Archives: Guild Wars

Closing out 2013. 2014 predictions

Posted on December 30, 2013 by SynCaine

2013 ends much like it began for the MMO genre, with a collective ‘meh’, and this blog overall has reflected that both in post volume and the number of posts about MMOs vs other games. My most played MMO this … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQNext, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, SW:TOR, The Elder Scrolls Online, Ultima Online, WildStar, World of Warcraft | 22 Comments

Smartest dummy I know

Posted on December 16, 2013 by SynCaine

Jester is a bit of a weird bird (and I say that with upmost respect). On the one hand, he is that rare player that is worth hundreds if not thousands of subscriptions in EVE. He is exactly the type … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, EVE Online, Guild Wars, The Elder Scrolls Online | 20 Comments

P2W changes coming to GW2

Posted on November 15, 2013 by SynCaine

Simply because I like nothing more than tooting my own horn, we have this steller NCSoft earnings report. Shocking that the 3 week wonder that was manifested to change the face of the MMO genre is not the home run … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, RMT | 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

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

WildStar – I can’t say it sucks, yet

Posted on August 20, 2013 by SynCaine

TAGN beat me to posting about the WildStar PLEX plan. /agree It works in EVE because EVE has a balanced economy. WildStar being a themepark, it won’t (feel free to bookmark this and come back 6 months into release and … Continue reading →

Posted in EQNext, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, SW:TOR | 8 Comments

EQN – Player freedom is too scary for most

Posted on August 12, 2013 by SynCaine

The most interesting topic around right now is how a living ecosystem or smart AI could actually work in an MMO. Now, before you go ahead and comment “but SynCaine, you already told us how it would work in 2011”, … Continue reading →

Posted in EQNext, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design | 15 Comments

EQN: The next big AAA disaster

Posted on August 5, 2013 by SynCaine

In case you don’t want to sit through the EQNext showing, here are the cliff notes: “If someone should do it, it should be EverQuest. Again” (UO…) Lighting Lighting Lighting Lighting Adventure Lighting Lighting How do you like it? :mild … Continue reading →

Posted in DDO, EQ2, EQNext, Guild Wars, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, The Elder Scrolls Online, Ultima Online | 33 Comments

The blogs reflect the genre

Posted on July 10, 2013 by SynCaine

This post about blogging over at TAGN, along with the comments, is worth reading, even if you are only vaguely interested in the topic of MMO blogs. As the posts-per-day rate here has slowed over the last two months, it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogroll, Camelot Unchained, Darkfall Online, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Kickstarter, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 19 Comments