Group Questing
Epic quests are turning into a thing of the past in favor of scripted experiences designed to make individuals the center of attention and story. Graev and I were talking…
Epic quests are turning into a thing of the past in favor of scripted experiences designed to make individuals the center of attention and story. Graev and I were talking…
Not even two weeks ago I published a post about dungeon finders being dangerous for the future of MMOs, and today I see a video published on the official FFXIV…
When I got home from work yesterday, Graev shouted to me "Hey, did you see this ex-WoW Dev's article? He's saying the same thing you've been saying for years!" I…
My time in MMORPGs lately has been, admittedly, sporadic and brief. I attribute this mainly to the fact that while the genre continues to grow larger, the games themselves conversely…
A few weeks ago, when I was writing about themeparks with inaccessible end-games, Graev and I had a side conversation about consistency. We came to the conclusion that MMOS should…
Back in 2009 I wrote a a series of articles about what MMORPGs have lost over time. You're familiar with the topic; I've written about it 100 times since. MMOs…
What is the ideal MMO group size? I've been giving raids a lot of thought lately, but the most enjoyment I get out of MMOs comes from a really good…
Three days ago Blizzard announced a new raiding difficulty: Flexible Raids. Flexible falls between Looking for Raid and Normal difficulty, and scales depending on the number of players you bring…
I mentioned in an earlier post about the “guys who knew the dungeons” and how I wanted to talk about it later. Well this is it. I wanted to call them MMO Rangers, but that would probably just confuse people and make them think of the class and not the type of guy I was going for. So anyways, let’s get into it.
Do you remember back in school that one kid who seemed to know EVERYTHING game related? Of course this was all pre-internet (Or maybe not, depending on your age) so the only info we got was spread around. If you needed to know how to get to a secret world in Mario or how to perform a fatality in Mortal Kombat then this was your guy. Or maybe it was the dude at the arcade who had this seemingly arcane knowledge of everything about the game and could give you mind-blowing tips. Regardless, these sages of early gaming wisdom guided us and imparted sacred knowledge unto us and had a huge impact on our gaming lives. In reality these were the kids with the right magazine subscriptions but still… I try not to look behind the curtain.
Back in the days of early and more difficult MMOs we had similar players. These guys were digital missionaries who spread their gospel of world geography, dungeon pathways, and so on. Keen has recounted his tale about his first experience in EQ and migrating from the frigid north to the scorching deserts of Freeport. The player who took him there was one such person, whom to my recollection appeared out of the mists with out-streched hand and whispered, “Lo, let me safely guide you unto the promised land of North Ro.” Or something like that at least. I was 10-year-old kid who gnawed on wooden countertops; maybe I don’t have the best memory. (more…)
The topic of 40-man raids came up on our gaming community forums the other day when someone mentioned that WildStar might be trying to attract the 'vanilla' WoW crowd. Everything…