Category Archives: MMO design

GW2: The best epeen measuring stick yet?

Posted on February 17, 2012 by SynCaine

The more I think about it, the more I like the server ‘matchmaking/ELO’ aspect that Guild Wars 2 has announced. Instead of just coordinating what server your guild is going to be playing on, larger communities can now do this. … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, PvP | 9 Comments

GW2 WvWvW – The new Alterac Valley!

Posted on February 16, 2012 by SynCaine

This looks familiar. Three-way Alterac Valley that persists for two weeks, with an ELO system and DAoC relics/keeps. Not that the above is bad. God knows we have seen far worse attempts at MMO PvP (Hi WAR/AoC/Aion). Maxing out at … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, beta, Combat Systems, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, PvP, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 37 Comments

Great games are not great MMOs

Posted on February 15, 2012 by SynCaine

I’ve often commented that I believe a part of WoW’s success was a perfect storm scenario. I’d like to add one additional factor to that formula: My-First-MMO-ness. For many MMO gamers, WoW was their first title. This is a very … Continue reading →

Posted in Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rift, SW:TOR, World of Warcraft | 22 Comments

EVE: Scanning down options

Posted on February 13, 2012 by SynCaine

One of the defining and critical features of a sandbox MMO is options. Options are different than layers in that options don’t fade or get replaced by “the next thing”. You ‘finish’ layers. You can’t ‘finish’ options. EVE has a … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design | 18 Comments

EVE: 1400 in local, no big deal

Posted on February 9, 2012 by SynCaine

Great battle report, and good example of TiDi in EVE. I’ll keep hammering the lag point until every last person understands what’s technically possible, and why MMOs with servers the size of a game from 97 are doing it wrong. I … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Rant | 18 Comments

EVE: It’s someones story

Posted on February 3, 2012 by SynCaine

Quick point about the EVE story post from yesterday: whether the story is true or not is not all that important. What is important is that it’s POSSIBLE in EVE. Maybe this guy did what he says he did. Maybe … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design | 29 Comments

EVE: I’m in your wormhole, stealing your Sleepers

Posted on February 1, 2012 by SynCaine

As I logged in last night, a few Corp members had already scanned down a wormhole (C2) that happened to contain 11 POSs(!) and a large number of sleeper sites. Not wanting to miss out on the fun, I hopped … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design | 16 Comments

What’s a man to a king, what’s a king to a god, what’s a god to a non-believer?

Posted on January 27, 2012 by SynCaine

My post about the 1% in F2P games did not finish my thoughts on that topic completely, and hopefully in this post I can bring all of this around and wrap it up (not likely). The predatory nature of the … Continue reading →

Posted in EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 25 Comments

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

All the blame, none of the credit

Posted on January 26, 2012 by SynCaine

Can people please make up their minds? Are raiders an insignificant niche that devs should not spend time developing content ‘exclusively’ for or listening to, or are they so important that they are the reason a seemingly unstoppable social freight … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rant, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments