Category Archives: MMO design

Getting RPG players to act like MMO players

Posted on July 26, 2011 by SynCaine

On vacation right now, so blogging activity might take a little dip for the next week or so. I’ve got a laptop so I should be able to post a bit, but we’ll see. Azuriel over at Player Vs Auction … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Site update | 14 Comments

Time, Money, and Glowsticks

Posted on July 21, 2011 by SynCaine

Between my post about new MMO pricing ‘methods’ and EA bending SW fans over with their $150 (more in EU)  CE, money has been the topic of late. My plan for SW:sRPG is to pick it up for $5 on … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, MMO design, Random, Rant, SW:TOR | 12 Comments

Speaking of innovation…

Posted on July 19, 2011 by SynCaine

The (not really all that) new MMO business model: Is your MMO ‘good’? If you lied and said “Yes”, go to A. If you ran out of money, need to ship the alpha, and said “No”, go to B. A: … Continue reading →

Posted in Allods Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Pirates of the Burning Sea, Random, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR | 17 Comments

Innovation = Lowered Expectations

Posted on July 18, 2011 by SynCaine

This article is making the blog rounds today. It’s interesting enough, and also a little comical (count how many people complain about innovation, and then count how many of them are “Currently know for” a sequel). While mostly console-focused, the … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Gaming, Mass Media, MMO design, Random, Rant, World of Warcraft | 3 Comments

Darkfall: 2.0 update needs to come sooner than ‘soon’

Posted on July 15, 2011 by SynCaine

Aventurine has been fairly active of late, releasing a good amount of info related to Darkfall 2.0, and I find myself buying into the hype. The things we know about 2.0 all sound great, and the core of DF is … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Darkfall Online, MMO design | 3 Comments

Wipe or Expansion: What’s the difference?

Posted on July 14, 2011 by SynCaine

Jef Reahard over at Massivily asks if you would keep playing if your MMO had a character/server wipe (side point: if a character wipe is a ‘full’ wipe in your MMO of choice, what does that say about its world?) … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, Housing, Mass Media, MMO design, Patch Notes, PvP, World of Warcraft | 19 Comments

Good F2P, bad F2P

Posted on June 30, 2011 by SynCaine

A proper free-to-play game allows players to enjoy the game and still spend money based on the amount they feel comfortable with Psychochild The “they feel comfortable with” is, for me, the key part here. Comfort to me is when … Continue reading →

Posted in Atlantica Online, Inquisition Clan, League of Legends, MMO design, Random, Rant, RMT | 10 Comments

The side-grind of raiding

Posted on June 28, 2011 by SynCaine

Back when Molton Core was the first raid in WoW, Blizzard ‘nerfed’ it by introducing fire resist gear. These days they nerf raids by turning god-mode on for everyone and letting them breeze through the content. Trion also elected to … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Rift, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

How much for a sparklepony with a monocle?

Posted on June 27, 2011 by SynCaine

Good summary of the EVE monocle debate over at TAGN, including links to other info and a post from the CCP CEO. I had to dig into my archive to find exactly what I have written about the WoW sparklepony, … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

The metrics made me do it!

Posted on June 24, 2011 by SynCaine

One of the justifications from Trion concerning nerfing difficulty in Rift was to allow Dungeon Finder groups to complete them. That statement contains a lot of value when broken down, and directly relates back to the topic of accessibility and … Continue reading →

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