Category Archives: MMO design

EVE: Dodging the tax man

Posted on December 2, 2011 by SynCaine

Via Jester’s Trek, Letrange does some of the Excel work on the new Planetary Interaction (PI) taxes, what impact they have, and what the risk/reward ratios might look like if a Corp moves to low/null sec space to setup their … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design | 10 Comments

The more things change…

Posted on December 1, 2011 by SynCaine

Timing is everything. Today Raph has a post showing a 3-part “History of MMOs” video. (well worth watching btw, especially for those who started playing post-2004) Also today Tobold has a post about how bots could easily play certain MMOs … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Console Gaming, Dark Age of Camelot, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Random, Rant, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

MMO Expansions

Posted on November 29, 2011 by SynCaine

It’s expansion day in EVE today, and Crucible sounds like it will get the game back to its winning ways. What’s interesting about Crucible is that it comes without a ‘killer app’ of a feature. Nothing that really jumps out … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, League of Legends, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

EVE: Grind leads to greatness

Posted on November 22, 2011 by SynCaine

I found a few comments interested related to the R&K video I posted last weekend. In particular, the mention of ‘grind’ related to getting into Nova. If getting into Nova was not ‘hard’, Nova would not be worth what it’s … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, PvP, Rant | 13 Comments

1997 all over again?

Posted on November 16, 2011 by SynCaine

Whether it’s at MMOCrunch, over at Keen’s site, or even here, a lot of people are expressing interest and excitement over the possibility of a more “open world” MMO. This confused me initially, considering WoW and other linear-world games are … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, Ultima Online | 19 Comments

If you keep banging your head into the wall, eventually you get to the other side… right?

Posted on November 11, 2011 by SynCaine

This amuses me. The people that are responsible for driving the most popular MMO into decline propose a way to stop that decline, and its accepted as fact. Let’s ignore real facts though. Like the fact that when raiding (and … Continue reading →

Posted in Mass Media, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 17 Comments

EVE: Save the kids!

Posted on November 10, 2011 by SynCaine

First off, Jester’s Trek is a great blog. Easily in my top 5 blogs now (congrats…?) His post today, commenting on yet another scam in EVE, brings up a topic I’ve been meaning to talk about since returning to EVE; … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, Rant | 14 Comments

I greatly underestimated the awesome of Farmville

Posted on November 7, 2011 by SynCaine

The new game I tried this weekend is called PlanteteryFarm InteractionVille. “Syn, is it like FarmVille but Sci-Fi? I love clicking cows while tweeting that I’m clicking cows and updating my facebook status that I’m tweeting about clicking cows! Want … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, EVE Online, MMO design | 8 Comments

Gamer evolution, 30 minutes a day

Posted on November 4, 2011 by SynCaine

Time requirements and complexity in gaming are clearly not the same thing, but they are linked. The more complex your game, the more time required to learn it. But a game can be both ‘simple’ and incredibly hard (Meatboy), or … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Console Gaming, EVE Online, League of Legends, MMO design, PvP, Random, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments

EVE: On-demand complexity

Posted on November 1, 2011 by SynCaine

From the outside looking in, EVE appears to be a terribly complex game, and in many ways it is. Something as simple as firing a turret at another ship has a lot of math behind it, and an almost countless … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, EVE Online, MMO design | 11 Comments