I woke up this morning super excited and headed over to Toys R Us.  I was mentally preparing myself for lines wrapped around the building and was ready to knock over obnoxious 9-year-olds and stroller pushing mothers that stood in the way of me and my new obsession. When I got there, I was shocked [...]

The Prime: Battle for Dominus dev chat yesterday was a little different than usual.  First, it looks like they moved over to Twitch.tv (good choice for better quality, imo).  Second, this chat actually included video footage from beta! Usual disclaimers apply: (1) Beta footage subject to change, (2) Rough and unpolished/unedited video, (3) Beta, (4) [...]

I don’t want to come across ranty, but I have to speak my mind about the latest Tribes Ascend news.  Hi-Rez Studios announced today that pre-orders are available for Tribes Ascend and those customers who pre-order will get: * VIP Status (Value: $20 USD) * 800 Tribes Gold (Value: $10 USD) * 30-Day Booster (Value: [...]

People are up in arms about Blizzard’s decision to allow their Guardian Cub to be purchased from their store (with real cash) and traded to other players in-game.  The issue here is whether or not this is considered “endorsed RMT.”  First, we need to get something straight.  RMT is not the same thing as microtransactions [...]

I have to chime in on this one.  Scott Jennings has posted Matt Firor’s recollections from DAOC’s launch day.  It was ten years ago.  Crazy how time flies while at the same time making no sense… it’s crazy to think at 2001 was ten years ago when it feels like yesterday.  Read Matt’s story.  It’s [...]

I’ve been playing a ton of Battlefield 3 now that Caspian Border is available. Metro was fun, but this is Battlefield. I cut a clip from what I streamed earlier. It’s a short clip; mostly me flying in a jet, pulling Gs, avoiding missiles, and having a blast. Explosions everywhere, room for squads to advance, [...]

I was reading a news article on IGN about Cryptic’s Neverwinter — normally I pass over anything that has to do with Cryptic — when something caught my eye.  Then another thing.  Then another. Neverwinter is shifting from the co-operative multiplayer game that was announced last year and into full-fledged, free-to-play MMO territory… The developer [...]

I should have commented on this way sooner — busy, remember? Mark Jacobs, the guy very much responsible for a great deal of Dark Age of Camelot and Warhammer Online has resurfaced in the gaming industry. Once again at the reigns of his own company (City State Entertainment), it looks like the ever-personable fellow has, [...]

Don’t you just love when life is so busy that you’re constantly moving from one thing to the next?  I can’t believe anyone would say yes!  I’m in this weird, perfect storm of being busy while not being busy; does that make sense?  I have a ton to do but I know if I just [...]

I was reminded recently about two really neat features in Vanguard: Saga of Heroes: Brotherhoods and Caravans. Brotherhoods, similar to the mentoring system I spoke about in my last entry, are all about allowing friends to remain close enough in levels to play together.  A brotherhood is formed just like a group, but with with [...]

I first wrote about the mentoring feature in some MMO’s back in 2008.  My take on the subject back then was an apprehensive one with concerns that the cons of such a system might outweigh the pros.  I’m going to change my tune a bit. First, what is mentoring? It’s the ability for a higher [...]

When I first learned about the companion characters in Stars Wars the Old Reblic, I was against the idea of these NPC characters contributing to the gameplay in such a way that they would replace real players. Companion characters crafting for you and contributing a great deal to the story, however,  have been two ideas [...]

If you stop and think for a moment about the classes in MMO’s these days, none of them are really unique anymore.  Roles are no longer class based.  Instead, roles are being defined in archetypes and classes are being lumped into those categories.  World of Warcraft is, once again, a great example of the dumbing-down [...]

MMO’s are all about progression, permanence, and in my opinion a lot of decision making.  All roads lead back to your character.  What used to be a hot topic, but lately has been mostly ignored or looked over, is the idea of respeccing your character or undoing decisions you made to customize it a long [...]

Guilds are simply too important.  That’s a topic I wrote on early last year and one I still agree with 100%.  MMO’s are being designed around needing a guild instead of being designed to facilitate the formation of a guild; there’s a huge difference.  Without a good guild, or when a guild breaks up, it’s [...]