Stealth is an interesting mechanic; some people despise it in all forms, and others won't play without a class that can stealth and sneak around. I've had those moments where…
Tonight's topic is one that I've had on my mind for a few days. When I think about all the problems MMOs have, and all the issues I take with…
Another amazing idea came out of our forums today. Thelg and Lokked get credit for coming up with the idea of somehow integrating mobile devices like iPhones into MMORPG RvR…
The topic of "chaos" came up in the discussion we've been having lately regarding things we want/don't want in a next-gen MMORPG. I thought I might share my thoughts on…
Let's start the new year off with a discussion about PvP. I was thinking about why PvP -- more specifically RvR/WvW -- hasn't succeeded or ultimately been a lot of…
One of my favorite things about having a blog is how often I'm forced to think about what I want in MMORPGs. Do you ever stop and think what would…
Making goals is a New Year's tradition. I want to set some goals and share them with you all to help keep me accountable. These are goals related to the…
Another year has come and gone. As I reflect on a year of blogging, gaming, and industry events, I’m full of mixed emotions. Let’s take a walk down memory lane.
Keen and Graev’s Gaming Blog in 2012
We had more traffic this year than ever before! We started blogging in February 2007 meaning we’re almost six years old. I’m extremely proud that last year we grew our daily readership by 53%. That’s insane! I can’t believe so many more people now visit us daily compared to the start of 2011. We didn’t hype any major MMO releases, come up with any new phrases adopted by the industry, or receive any magical exclusives to drive traffic. I think the biggest increases came from two blog posts that were done simply to help people:
Each of the above brought in hundreds of thousands of people. Maybe this means we should go into tech support instead of musing about games all day?
I’m always fascinated by how I wrote during the year. Some years I’m hyped up, others I’m negative. Some years I feel full of ideas and inspired to share my thoughts on how games should be made, and others I just analyze what’s happening. This year was really ‘matter of fact’. I commented a lot on the state of things. Although this isn’t my favorite style (I prefer sharing ideas I have for how games can be made) it was needed, and fit the events of 2012.
‘Sandbox vs. Themepark’ and ‘Old school vs. A New Trope’ were extremely hot topics that came up in some form every month. I didn’t debate F2P as much as I did in 2011 because that topic took a back seat to analyzing why games are 3 monthers, or why MMOs die. I think we really dug into what MMOs are doing to deserve their classification, and discovered together what makes them fail and succeed. I’ve had a wonderful time learning from what you have to say in the comments. Keep it up!
Check out more of my 2012 in review including my year-end thoughts on specific MMO’s after the break. (more…)
Every year around this time I like to toss my prophetic predictions into the mix of what the coming year will hold for the gaming industry. Last year's predictions kicked…
We took a lot of time thinking about which games of 2012 are our favorites. We went back and forth about whether or not we should classify it by console,…