Category Archives: MMO design

“Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online” Review

Posted on June 15, 2016 by SynCaine

Empires of EVE: A History of the Great Wars of EVE Online by Andrew Groen is a must-read for any MMO fan, even those who have never played EVE Online. I say this because the book does a masterful job … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design | 3 Comments

So a good game sells a lot of copies? Get out of here!

Posted on June 2, 2016 by SynCaine

100m+ copies of Minecraft have been sold, and today the game sells 53k+ copies A DAY. Who the hell is still buying Minecraft? And I don’t mean that in a “Minecraft sucks!” way, because it’s a great game/tool, but in … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Final Fantasy XIV, Kickstarter, League of Legends, MMO design, Random, World of Warcraft | 12 Comments

EVE: The hardcore and casual partnership

Posted on May 19, 2016 by SynCaine

Too often we talk about hardcore vs casual players in an MMO from a content perspective. Raiding is for the hardcore, the main quest must be casual, form X of PvP is hardcore, form Y is casual, etc. How you … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 8 Comments

EVE: New player experience, done Goon-right

Posted on May 16, 2016 by SynCaine

According to ‘sources‘, 51% of all new EVE player quit within the first 2 hours. I suspect that two hour timeframe is generous, as my guess would be a lot actually quit sooner. If you go into the game totally … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Goons, MMO design | 2 Comments

EVE: If the shoe fits

Posted on May 10, 2016 by SynCaine

In two hours I was part of the ‘end-game’ in EVE Online. In two hours and about fifteen minutes, I was pretty mad at myself for waiting this long to return to EVE. I also have a dozen blog posts … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Goons, MMO design | 5 Comments

WoW: Churn and burn

Posted on April 22, 2016 by SynCaine

The closing of a private WoW server has sparked some good debate, particularly around my favorite fact (not topic) of discussion; that WoW stopped growing during WotLK, thanks in large part to the design changes made at that time. Az … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, World of Warcraft | 18 Comments

Vanilla WoW today would have more subs than current WoW

Posted on April 14, 2016 by SynCaine

All the recent talk of vanilla WoW is right in my wheelhouse, and not just because its yet another feather in my giant cap of “things SynCaine was right about long before everyone else caught up”, but also because you … Continue reading →

Posted in EQ2, Final Fantasy XIV, MMO design, RMT, Tobold being Wrong, World of Warcraft | 56 Comments

Dragon’s Dogma is a great offline MMO

Posted on March 30, 2016 by SynCaine

Dragon’s Dogma was recently released on PC, but is a game that came out in 2012 or so on PS3 and whatever Xbox version was around then. I might have more to say about it as I play it a … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Random | 2 Comments

Time as a measure of greatness

Posted on March 2, 2016 by SynCaine

I often give ‘reviews’ of games here. Sometimes official reviews (whatever that means), and sometimes just some random thoughts about a game I’m currently playing. I’ve now been playing games for multiple decades, and have likely written about hundreds here … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, League of Legends, MMO design, Mount and Blade: Warband, Ultima Online | 14 Comments

FFXIV: The view from level 50 as it stands today

Posted on February 29, 2016 by SynCaine

Having returned to FFXIV for a few weeks now, the experience has been surprisingly great. I’m level 51 on my main class (Paladin), and I’m currently working through the main quest content that was added in patches after launch. The … Continue reading →

Posted in Final Fantasy XIV, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments