… but seriously, this ad:
Filed under MMOs …
Business Tycoon Online: Hot secretary attends all the way in-game!
No, really: Of course, you need to be able to pick your secretary: No, there aren’t any male secretaries. Where would you get that kind of insane idea from? Here’s a link to the main page, for those who want all the way attendance.
Scientific American on Why RMT Is Good For Developing Nations
An interesting article that serves as a decent history lesson as well as a different viewpoint on real money transactions (RMT) in MMOs. If you take the view of the article, it’s interesting to consider that RMT / gold farming can be a positive influence on employment in developing countries since it pays well enough … Continue reading
Star Trek Online Overview (Now That the NDA is Gone)
I’ve been beta testing Star Trek Online as best I could, given time zone differences and game stability problems. Here’s my opinion at this point: Conclusion: – An “action Trek” rather than a “diplomacy Trek” that is probably Trek enough for most people. It’s a bit light on, but fun enough. – In a better … Continue reading
A Random Thought: If I Were Head of Blizzard…
This thought occurred to me as I was reading We Fly Spitfire’s comments on the console MMOFPS rumour around Blizzard’s next game… If the rumour was true and I were head of Blizzard, I’d: Take a trip to the Money Room at Blizzard HQ and have a swim around in the Money Pool ala Scrooge … Continue reading
The Power of Free (and Hence F2P)
I came across this article the other day about the power of free stuff – a free product / item / service is much more widely accepted by people than the same product / item / service that has only a minimal cost attached to it. As the article points out, the difference between free … Continue reading
Nostalgia: Good. Criticism of Nostalgia: Bad.
Keen and Graev’s blog has been doing a bit of introspection about MMOs – how they are moving backwards in terms of design and how nostalgia is a great thing. It’s a common cry in discussions about MMOs – today’s titles aren’t as good as the previous ones – but the interesting defence here is … Continue reading
Trivial Things I Hope Don’t Happen In 2010
Star Trek Online launches too early. I know I’m going to be disappointed here. Cryptic Studios announces another title in development. Seriously, work with the ones you’ve got for 12 months. The “Barbarella” remake happens. Dear me, but I HATE that movie so much. “Iron Man 2” isn’t as good as the first one. It … Continue reading
The Failure of Beta – Testing and Marketing
The whole alpha / beta situation around MMOs is an interesting one. It’s a critical area of both testing and marketing for any MMO which is a curious place to be since ‘testing’ and ‘marketing’ are really at opposites ends of a gaming scale – testing is about fixing bugs and dealing with a rough … Continue reading
The Trials of UnSub: Ultima Online (Stygian Abyss)
One thing I did back when I was blogging on MMORPG.com was challenge myself to trial 12 MMOs in 12 months. I failed in terms of quantity – I only trialled 8 games in 2008 – but the experience was overall positive, even if I played a game I didn’t like. It let me see … Continue reading
World Class Villains 