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 …
Tag: MMO
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 …
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 …
Trion Announces RIFT MMO Beta and Opens Floodgates for Free Beta Keys
Via MMO Symposium, for those of us looking for a polished AAA+ MMO that poses a credible alternative to the Blizzard's dominance of the market, there is at last some …
BlizzCon 2010 New MMO Announcement Speculation
Earlier this week, Blizzard released the Cataclysm cinematic to the public. I find this anti-climatic given the fact that BlizzCon is only a few days away. Perhaps this might …
An Examination of Risk in MMO Design
A couple of years ago something happened while I was designing the levels on a LEGO video game that I'll never forget. After the programming team added the "lives" to …
Are Chatless MMOs a Precursor to Console MMOs?
At least for me, the big appeal of participating in a MMORPG was the fact that you could interact with other people online. Not only could you band together to …
Inspired New LOTRO Video Campaign
This week Turbine launched a very new ad campaign to herald their new free to play monetization model for their MMO <a href="http://www.lotro.com/">Lord of the Rings Online</a>. Here's the ingenious …
Did Blizzard Borrow “Cataclysm” Concept from Conan Author?
This weekend I finally decided to start reading Robert E. Howard's sword & sorcery classic Conan the Barbarian. At one point the author felt the need to write a history …