How a Video Exposes the Sorry State of World of Warcraft
Almost 6 years ago in 2010, I penned an article entitled the Are Chatless MMOs a Precursor to Console MMOs? It was during that fateful year that Blizzard designed to …
Tag: virtual world
Visionary Realms Silences the Critics with Twitch.tv Reveal of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
The MMORPG community has just experienced a week like no other. First, we learned the bad news that EverQuest Next was cancelled. Second, a fledgling company called Visionary Realms silenced …
Lamenting the Lack of Purposeful Choices in the MMORPG Genre
Long before MMORPGs became a homogenized cultural phenomenon thanks to World of Warcraft, pioneering virtual world players felt they were embarking on a journey in a genre that had no …
Five Films that Every MMO Designer Should Watch
For the past 15 years, virtual worlds and MMOs have been experiencing a steady inspirational decline. This once great pastime has fallen into a formulaic rut that has all but …
The Destructive Legacy of Blizzard’s World of Warcraft
At the end of 2014, Blizzard Entertainment celebrated the 10th anniversary of World of Warcraft. There can be no doubt that WoW is a juggernaut that changed how we play …
The Decline of Social Interaction in MMORPGS – Full Interview
What follows is the full transcript of the interview I gave a University of Texas at Dallas student regarding the decline of social interaction in MMORPGs which was the basis for …
The Decline of Social Interaction in MMORPGs
A few weeks ago at BlizzCon during an interview with WoWInsider’s Anne Stickney, Blizzard’s Alex Afrasiabi — the World of Warcraft Creative Director — made a rare and frank admission. He …
Landmark Closed Beta Review: Bold Ideas Constrained by Designer Timidity
Watch most Twitch.tv streams that showcase SOE’s Landmark “sandbox” virtual world and you’ll see a familiar sight to those that follow the comic book and the superhero genre. You’ll see …
Elder Scrolls Online Beta Report: Another Predictable Theme Park MMO
I had the opportunity to have participated in two Elder Scrolls Online beta weekends. During the previous beta weekend I was able to devote some significant time to playing two characters …
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 …