Category Archives: World of Warcraft

David Reid hates themeparks

Posted on February 28, 2012 by SynCaine

Via JesterTrek, RPS has an interview from CCP CEO Hilmar Petrusson and new CMO David Reid about EVE, Dust 514, and other stuff. Nothing terribly interesting in terms of details, but I was fully entertained by Reid’s rather obvious hate for themeparks … Continue reading →

Posted in EVE Online, Mass Media, MMO design, Rift, World of Warcraft | 24 Comments

GW2’s perfect storm

Posted on February 24, 2012 by SynCaine

Ah back to blogging. Odd how even a few days away gets me twitching. I have an EVE update post coming, but wanted to get these GW2-based thoughts out first. Queues in GW2 WvW: Honestly it’s the second best solution, … Continue reading →

Posted in beta, Darkfall Online, EVE Online, Guild Wars, Mass Media, MMO design, World of Warcraft | 18 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

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

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

Rebuilding the genre on SW:TOR’s ashes

Posted on January 18, 2012 by SynCaine

I get the feeling that people misunderstand me when I say that I hope SW:TOR is the death of the AAA themepark MMO. I’m not saying the genre would be better if people did not spend 300m to make an … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, MMO design, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 48 Comments

You should return those glasses to their rightful owner

Posted on January 17, 2012 by SynCaine

Syp over at Biobreak has a post talking about the pre-2003 MMO market and todays, and how you can’t pay him enough to go back to that time. First I find this odd, as looking at his About page, I’m … Continue reading →

Posted in Asheron's Call, Atlantica Online, EQ2, Housing, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, RMT, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, World of Warcraft | 82 Comments

Seems a loaded failtrain has pulled into the station

Posted on January 12, 2012 by SynCaine

A lot of great stuff floating around today. First is this comment from Rammstein, responding to Azuriel yesterday, related to his and Blizzard’s claim that Cata failed because it was too hard: Anything that Chilton says to the New York … Continue reading →

Posted in Darkfall Online, EQ2, EVE Online, League of Legends, MMO design, Random, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 42 Comments

Getting back to the source

Posted on January 11, 2012 by SynCaine

Jester has a post up about how Sovereignty works in EVE, and how the game might benefit from borrowing some ideas from Perpetuum in that area. A good read as always, and it brings up a larger point: competition amongst … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Asheron's Call, beta, EQ2, EVE Online, Guild Wars, MMO design, Rant, Rift, SW:TOR, Ultima Online, Warhammer Online, World of Warcraft | 45 Comments