Dude, Who Stole My Community? Confronting the Inertia of MMO Players
We all come to MMOs and virtual worlds with grand expectations. For months before a MMO is released we experience the hype about how this time it will be different. …
Tag: MMO
The Deafening Silence of Today’s MMO Chat
For the past few months I’ve noticed a marked decrease in people chatting in Blizzard’s WoW. Of course I haven’t enjoyed general chat in WoW for many years now because …
Archaic MMO Subscription Fees: Welfare for Hardcore Players?
Thankfully most of us live in a world where competition spurs on industries to make better products. In most cases this drive to succeed has the end result of giving …
Friends, Azerothians, Countrymen, Lend Me Your Bunny Ears
At first I thought that it was just another entry from the slow MMO news day department but after thinking about it perhaps there are some deeper issues to consider. …
Upside Down Cake: Contrived Controversy in the MMO Blogosphere
This week a well known MMO industry blogger and community manager Cuppycake posed a "controversial" question. Let me paraphrase: do game designers who blog know what the heck they …
How Dancing Failed in WoW
I don't know much about dancing. In fact I'm a terrible dancer -- ask my wife. But here's the thing: I like to watch other people dance and so do …
Must We Always Kill? Confronting the Murder On Rails MMO Mindset
Let me make a small confession. I find it somewhat troubling yet strangely fascinating that video games are largely popular because they provide people with a safe, sanitized and consequence …
Challenging the Sacred Cash Cow of Quest Based MMOs
It's been a good 5 years since the release of World of Warcraft -- the first MMO to focus on entirely on quests as the prime vehicle for it's gameplay …
Predicting the Second WoW Hero Class
By a simple process of deduction I'm going to attempt to predict the identity of the second WoW hero class. I have no special or inside knowledge but I will …
Corruption, Treachery and Deceit at Wikipedia
Reverence for knowledge and history are two things that are absolutely essential for the continuance of any great civilization. At times in our history we have had emperors, kings and …
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 …
Bushnell’s Theorem: Easy to Learn, Difficult to Master
Anyone who’s analyzed the success of Blizzard’s insanely popular World of Warcraft can not help but have heard the mantra: “Easy to learn, hard to master”. Their designers have lovingly …