The Obsession with Math and Numbers in MMOs
A few nights ago while playing my paladin in the Wrath of the Lich King beta I overheard a conversation in General Chat in the Borean Tundra. There were two …
Who Should You Believe: Tobold or Will Wright?
Occasionally religion and politics intersects the world of video games. As this is a blog that deals with MMO's, I normally avoid discussing those issues as they are usually fraught …
Unintended Consequences of Quest Directed MMO’s
Lately there have been some good discussions in the blogosphere lamenting the erosion of one of the key facets of MMO's: grouping. I made a few comments on some of …
Will You Grow Out of Your MMO?
Steve "Moorgard" Danuser brought up a thought provoking point on his blog this week. He contends that MMO's focus on a certain type of demographic. He used the analogy of …
Thoughts on Lord of the Rings Online One Year Later
For a change of pace from my usual obsessive critiquing of Blizzard's WoW, I've decided to jot down my some of my opinions on another relatively popular MMO: Turbine's Lord …
WoW: Is Blizzard Promoting Virtual Torture and Murder with the Deathknight Hero Class?
Today I read a very interesting thread on the official Blizzard forums about details about the quests for WoW's first hero class: the Deathknight. Orophino points out that in order …
WoW Insider Columnist Ridicules Stay At Home Mom
For years, the WoW community has been one of the worst communities in MMO history. Players on the official Blizzard forums routinely indulge in sophomoric acts of flaming, personal attacks …
WoW: Is Rolling the Dice a Good Way to Select Beta Testers?
Lately I've started wondering about the validity of the selection process for the beta test of Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King. In the Burning Crusade Blizzard admitted that players …
WoW: Realizing When it’s Time to Quit
Once you progress to 25 person raids -- WoW becomes a virtual job. Many guilds start off as "casual, family style" guilds but soon end up becoming hardcore raiding guilds. …
MMO Developers: Community Should be Your Most Valued Commodity
It was in that moment that I made a value judgement about EverQuest2 as a whole. Instead of using the quality of the game play, the graphics, the quests as …
WoW: Thoughts on PVP, Tribalism and Marshall McLuhan
For a time WoW had both elements of right brain tribalism as it’s main underlying premise for being. Community driven game play was the cohesive element that made WoW really …
WoW: Blizzard’s Epic Arms Race
It's one thing to talk about this problem and hear anecdotal stories from players. It's another thing entirely when you see hard evidence that proves conclusively that Blizzard is literally …