(All you have is my word that I haven’t made any substantive revisions to this document since January 30, 2011. Trust me. I’m a blogger. For a point-by-point recap of 2010, see either the January to June or the July to December articles.) 2010 was an interesting year for the MMO industry in that it … Continue reading
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The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap (Part 2)
Part 1 is here, including a note about why April is the best time to review what happened about 16 months ago. July: Star Trek Online Executive Producer Craig Zinkievich leaves both the title and Cryptic Studios. Capcom’s Xbox Japan- and Xbox 360-only MMO Monster Hunter Frontier Online tops the sales charts in Japan. Activision … Continue reading
The Very, Very Late 2010 MMO Recap (Part 1)
A Note of Explanation At the end of 2010, I wrote up a recap of the year’s MMO-related events for a particular site, as I’ve done for a few years. Given that it’s now almost May, I don’t think that site is going to use it, but I’m really loathe to throw out all the … Continue reading
DCUO: Then and Now
What Was Said About DCUO’s Content Updates Prior To Launch “And you get a lot more content than you do with a standard game where you might get DLC once or twice a year. You’re going to be getting things every single month, and major content updates.” (SOE President John Smedley in an interview with … Continue reading
IP Less-Than-Freely: MMOs Based on Licensed Properties
With the news that Jagex and Hasbro have signed a deal to do a Transformers MMO (guess all that Mech-based development wasn’t a waste then, Jagex) I was reminded of all the other MMOs based on popular nerd properties that have been indicated as “in development” but have had varying levels of success. And by … Continue reading
Duke Nukem Forever: Respect Yo’ Momma, Slap The Rest
Part of me is dreading the launch of Duke Nukem Forever. As a horribly misogynistic, outdated franchise that is more remembered for containing pixellated boobs and ripping off Bruce Campbell than great gameplay (and for a game development cycle from hell) it is something that should have died off long ago. Sadly, no – Gearbox … Continue reading
PvP and the Mutually Exclusive Dilemma
Inspired by Keen’s RIFT post on the subject of PvP:
Mortal Kombat: Flawless PR Work, But…
Warner Brother Interactive Entertainment’s approach of “we failed the first time, but here is the same thing again but this time we’ll point out how wrong you are” around getting Mortal Kombat classified in Australia hasn’t worked, with MK being refused classification a second time. WBIE then thanked “the thousands of Mortal Kombat fans in … Continue reading
DCUO: Economics Trumps Cosmetics
A lot of MMO developers don’t get in-game economies. They put them in the game, sure, but they don’t seem to spend a lot of time thinking about what that in-game impact is going to be. This is probably because: Doing in-game economies properly is hard, where most MMOs implement in-game economic frameworks like auction … Continue reading
Full Contact Coin Collecting: Untold Entertainment Exploits GDC 2011 Panel
It’s a great story: Ryan Creighton finds a way to hold the most coins in order to win a spot to rant at a GDC panel – he manages to get his hand on one of the coin bags, then holds onto it. When it comes time to check who the winner he, he is … Continue reading
World Class Villains 