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 Best “The Phantom Menace” Review Evah.
It’s an impressive feat to create a review of “Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace” that runs for 70 minutes. It’s more impressive that it is as funny as it is (although pretty mysoginistic and the wheels kinda come off in the last few minutes). But what stands out is how dead on … 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
We Do It To Ourselves, We Do – Why MMOs Are as They Are
Psychochild made an interesting post recently – why haven’t MMOs lived up to their early potential? Why hasn’t the early potential of games like Ultima Online or Meridian 59 with all their freedom and player-driven worlds been built on? Why have more controlled experiences like Everquest 2 or World of Warcraft dominated the genre? Some … Continue reading
Truisms in Game Development: Someone Always Loves The Status Quo
Chris Bruce, Senior Lead Animator/Visual FX artist on City of Heroes / Villains and frequent forum poster made this observation the other day: “And if there’s one thing I’ve learned in the time I’ve been here it’s that any change will be perceived by some people as a good change, others as a bad change, … Continue reading
World Class Villains 