BlizzCon 2011 Aftermath: Before the Thrones of the Virtual Gods
If you could ask God one question what would it be? Would you ask a deep question such as what is the meaning of life or would you waste your …
The MMO Road Less Traveled: The Actor and the Adventurer
The past paradoxically becomes clearer as time passes. Trends are very hard to pinpoint and define while they are incubating and growing. When you are personally experiencing a cultural movement …
The Dark Age of the Super Hero Slacker MMO Player
For a long time I have been concerned about how the focus of MMOs has changed from the community as a whole to the individual player. Practically every MMO quest …
Blizzard’s Smoking Gun Interview that Shows How MMOs Became Games
Those of us poor souls who are MMO and virtual world veterans have seen a lot in the past 12 years of the history of this genre. We are no …
Reflections on Blizzard Losing 600,000 WoW Subscribers
In January of 2011, I made the somewhat the bold and outrageous claim that Blizzard's Cataclysm was the worst MMO expansion in history. From the vantage point of a player …
Why It’s Time to Get Rid of Quests in MMORPGs
I used to think there was something grand and noble about the idea of a quest, that is until MMORPG developers got their slimy hands on them. Quests have become …
Chasing the Virtual Dragon and the Search for Wonder
Many years ago when I first started to be seduced by the charms of EverQuest — the first fully realized 3D virtual world — I was overcome with a feeling …
RIFT Impressions: Loving and Hating That New MMO Smell
Almost everyone likes new. In our culture, newness gets an undeserved sense of respect and cachet. There’s a sense of anticipation and mystique about an upcoming film, a new restaurant, …
MMOs Were Originally Designed to Be Shared Social Experiences
Most MMO enthusiasts have noticed a sharp decline in the quality of the WoW community of late. Cursing, nastiness, bullying and other forms of rudeness have now become endemic in …
Is Blizzard’s Cataclysm the Worst Expansion in MMO History?
There's an aging corpulent MMO dinosaur that is lumbering under the weight of its own arrogance and sloth. This MMO has grown too big for its environment and is due …
MMO Design Lessons from Hannibal Lecter and Why Combat Needs Fixing in RIFT
Ever since watching the Silence of the Lambs movie I've been somewhat fascinated by a particular scene in the film where the character of Hannibal Lecter quotes Roman Emporer Marcus …
RIFT MMO Beta Impressions and How to Fix What’s Wrong
Now that Trion Worlds has lifted the NDA and I have a few hours of spare time during the Christmas holidays, I'd like to share some of my impressions of …