Back in December, Paragon Studios spoilered their own story when they publicly announced that Statesman would be the one to die in the “Who Will Die?” signature story arc. That Statesman is apparently dying in part 5 of what I believe to be a 7 part story arc raises my Eyebrow of Cynicism +3 – … Continue reading
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What Proportion of Games Actually Get Completed By Players?
One area I’ve been curious on for a while is what proportion of players actually complete the games they play. A lot of attention gets put on games about how their narrative sophistication is evolving and how players love playing for the story they uncover, but all of that is so much puffery if the … Continue reading
Reading the MMO Tea Leaves for 2012
In previous years I’ve spent a lot of time reviewing and writing up a year’s worth of Massively.com / other MMO sites news articles. Although this is very useful from an information point of view (particularly the “oh, I’d forgotten about that” articles) it takes a very long time. So, this year I’m still doing … Continue reading
EA Thanks Australian Classification Board For Free Publicity
So EA Australia won’t appeal the Australian Classification Board’s decision to refuse classification to Syndicate, effectively removing its ability to be sold in Australia. And why would they? It’s sacrificing four or five figures worth of sales (at best) in Australia for the greater good of seven figure or higher sales in other countries. Getting … Continue reading
Reviewing My 2011 MMO Predictions
Time to see how right I was back when I wrote the following predictions about how things would turn MMO-wise in 2011. F2P titles continue to enter the market and other existing MMOs are likely to join them. Warhammer Online is a distinct possibility, as are titles in the position of Vanguard and Fallen Earth: … Continue reading
Star Wars: The Old Republic – Not Failing Isn’t Always A Guarantee of Success
We’re on the downhill run to Star Wars: The Old Republic’s launch. Soon the hype will be over and the hard part – delivering MMO services to paying customers – begins. I saw a report that stated industry analysts saw SWOR as a “little risk of failure” title. In some ways this is because if … Continue reading
The Single Player RPG Versus The Massively Multiplayer RPG, Round 47
It happens with a frustrating reliability: a single player game RPG (you choose if the ‘R’ stands for ‘role’ or ‘roll’) is released that contains a large world to explore and threads of emergent gameplay, leading to a large number of people wonder why they don’t see the same in the massively multiplayer online space. … Continue reading
Bitching About Odd Narrative Things In Batman: Arkham City
I completed Batman: Arkham City (B:AC) recently, including the Catwoman DLC narrative content. There’s been a bit of controversy about the game’s narrative, but I wanted to experience things first hand before commenting on them (which is unusual on the internet, I know, and I promise it won’t become a trend). There will be SPOILERS … Continue reading
The Party Was A Bust: The Short Life of Playboy Party
Back in May 2009, I wrote an entry that covered the announcement of Jolt Online’s Playboy MMO and how no-one cared about it. Following that article, I’d kept half an eye on the (now offline) official site because I was interested in seeing what actually happened with the title. And I waited. And waited. And … Continue reading
The Creepiest Video Game Character in History
In honour of Halloween, it’s time for the creepiest video game character in history. Who could it be? Alma from the FEAR series? The Long-Armed Man from Fatal Frame / Project Zero? Doorman from Silent Hill 2? Nope. It’s Watson. Yes, Watson, as in “Sherlock Holmes and Doctor Watson”. Don’t believe me? Feast your eyes: … Continue reading
World Class Villains 