Category Archives: Ultima Online

Celebrating 12 years of themepark hate

Posted on May 12, 2011 by SynCaine

My enjoyment of virtual worlds goes back to Ultima Online, in large part because I loved the sRPG Ultima games, growing up on Ultima V and always being jealous of a friend who had a PC and had Ultima VI … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Asheron's Call, Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 36 Comments

PvE Sandbox MMO: Housing

Posted on April 13, 2011 by SynCaine

If combat and the economy are the two most important areas for a sandbox MMO, player housing is the most neglected. It says a lot about the genre as a whole when the very first MMO, Ultima Online, had and … Continue reading →

Posted in crafting, Housing, MMO design, Random, Ultima Online | 21 Comments

Burnouts Anonymous

Posted on April 11, 2011 by SynCaine

Quick break from the PvE Sandbox series to make an observation about Rift, but no worries (you were worried, I could tell), another post in that series is coming soon. Over a month in and I’m still having a ton … Continue reading →

Posted in Dark Age of Camelot, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Fallen Earth, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 27 Comments

Shades of blue

Posted on April 5, 2011 by SynCaine

Back then I was on the ‘red’ side, now I’m firmly on the ‘blue’ side. Guess the player along with the game evolves. Wise words from a wise man, minus the grammar fail on the original. The first part of … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 13 Comments

Souls > Trinity

Posted on March 22, 2011 by SynCaine

If everyone can be a tank/healer/dps, do you still have a holy trinity? Games with skill systems, rather than class systems, don’t have the holy trinity problem. You don’t stop a fleet action in EVE because your tank is afk, … Continue reading →

Posted in Combat Systems, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Rift, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 21 Comments

PAX thoughts: Future of MMOs panel

Posted on March 18, 2011 by SynCaine

My favorite panel from PAX was a MMORPG.com-hosted discussion attended by a number of high-profile MMO devs (Massively has the breakdown). It was a good, open talk on various MMO topics, and while some PR-speak was uttered, overall the devs … Continue reading →

Posted in Guild Wars, Mass Media, MMO design, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 4 Comments

The cult of MMO; Why it’s good to be a fanboi.

Posted on March 3, 2011 by SynCaine

MMO success has been the topic of a few blogs, mostly inspired by Rift’s successful launch and predictions of what will happen next. Will it WAR or will it WoW? Readers here will know I’m leaning more toward WoW than … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 4 Comments

Rift: MMO 3.0

Posted on February 28, 2011 by SynCaine

Let’s call UO/EQ/AC the first generation of MMOs (sorry MUDs), where both the devs and the players were total noobs, and the ‘hey this is new’ factor was off the charts. If you dialed in during the late 90s, you … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQ2, MMO design, Rift, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 26 Comments

Crafting sucks

Posted on January 28, 2011 by SynCaine

I think I spend a good hour or more last night getting the water entrance to my new structure in Minecraft ‘just right’. That activity involved placing and deleting dirt squares repeatedly. Finally it’s now a waterfall that only has … Continue reading →

Posted in Console Gaming, crafting, MMO design, Random, Rant, Ultima Online | 6 Comments

After 1000+ posts, little has changed

Posted on January 24, 2011 by SynCaine

A thousand posts over close to four years is a lot of writing, it’s a lot of opinions, and it’s the publicly viewable history of one gamer. In four years of anything, things are bound to change. Hell, since starting … Continue reading →

Posted in Site update, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 2 Comments