Category Archives: World of Warcraft

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

‘Accessibility’ killed Rift

Posted on June 16, 2011 by SynCaine

Some very perceptive readers have picked up on the fact that Rift has somewhat fallen out of favor with me. It might have been my post about patch 1.2. I did drop a few hints there. Patch 1.2 brought the … Continue reading →

Posted in Inquisition Clan, MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, Rift, World of Warcraft | 42 Comments

Delicious red drops of MMO community goodness

Posted on June 2, 2011 by SynCaine

What I object to is that in EVE the players with all the advantages are the leeches who pay nothing. In the F2P model the people who pay at least get some advantages over the people who leech. – Tobold … Continue reading →

Posted in Blogroll, EVE Online, MMO design, Rant, RMT, World of Warcraft | 24 Comments

Fun with lists

Posted on May 26, 2011 by SynCaine

What do the games listed below all have in common? Age of Conan All Points Bulletin Dungeons & Dragons Online Lord of the Rings Online Global Agenda Ragnarok Online Champions Online Everquest 2 Extended If you answered “failed to meet … Continue reading →

Posted in Age of Conan, Allods Online, Darkfall Online, DDO, EQ2, EVE Online, Lord of the Rings Online, Mass Media, Rant, Rift, RMT, World of Warcraft | 36 Comments

I’m going to post about server transfers, again

Posted on May 24, 2011 by SynCaine

If nothing else, Trion wins the “talk about us” battle. I still don’t see how this is, in any way, something to be proud of or celebrated. Its server transfers for a themepark people. Tell me if this sounds familiar: … Continue reading →

Posted in MMO design, Patch Notes, Rant, Rift, RMT, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments

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

I found those missing 600k WoW players!

Posted on May 11, 2011 by SynCaine

Right here. Clear message to Blizzard; one sparkle pony won’t be enough to retain real gamers! Oh and yea, one step closer to the apocalypse. A big one.

Posted in Mass Media, Random, World of Warcraft | 1 Comment

The return of server reputation?

Posted on May 10, 2011 by SynCaine

Since I’m at work, I’ve not yet had a chance to see how hard the 5 man content was hit in Rift (that make or break is tonight), but one item I did notice in the patch notes that (on … Continue reading →

Posted in Patch Notes, Rift, World of Warcraft | 10 Comments