Suffering for Your Art Has New Meaning in Video Game Industry
I wonder how many people who buy and play video games are aware of the draconian working conditions of the average employee in the industry. Not many I wager. Until …
Must We Always Kill? Confronting the Murder On Rails MMO Mindset
Let me make a small confession. I find it somewhat troubling yet strangely fascinating that video games are largely popular because they provide people with a safe, sanitized and consequence …
Confessions of a WoW Quest Designer
Rarely do we get a chance to peek behind the curtain at Blizzard Entertainment. The company that makes the most popular MMO in the history of gaming is fairly secretive …
G4TV Interviews 38 Studios Curt Schilling at GDC
There's been a MMO currently in development that has been looming on the horizon for a few years now that has generated a tremendous amount of interest and speculation. The …
Challenging the Sacred Cash Cow of Quest Based MMOs
It's been a good 5 years since the release of World of Warcraft -- the first MMO to focus on entirely on quests as the prime vehicle for it's gameplay …
Fix for Nvidia and Vista Problems in WoW
or the past few months since the release of the Wrath of the Lich King I have been experience terrible instability problems when I play World of Warcraft. I'm currently …
Fox Uses 24 TV Series to Broadcast Propaganda
Even MMO bloggers like to watch TV occasionally. Lately each Monday night I settle down to watch a popular drama called "24". Just this past Monday viewers of that Fox …
WoW Patch Notes We Might See in the Future
There is one undeniable fact about World of Warcraft: as the MMO ages it's becoming less challenging. For lack of a better word WoW is being dumbed-down as Blizzard feels …
Predicting the Second WoW Hero Class
By a simple process of deduction I'm going to attempt to predict the identity of the second WoW hero class. I have no special or inside knowledge but I will …
How to Clean Up Your WoW Server One Idiot at a Time
Admittedly, I'm still playing WoW. After quitting last year, like many people I decided to come back to experience the new expansion content of Wrath of the Lich King. To …
MMO Journalism Jumps the Shark
MMO journalism is in a sorry state these days. Faced with a lack of new information to report MMO news websites must resort to creating news to keep their readers …
Corruption, Treachery and Deceit at Wikipedia
Reverence for knowledge and history are two things that are absolutely essential for the continuance of any great civilization. At times in our history we have had emperors, kings and …
The Problem with the WoW Achievement System
I absolutely loathe the WoW achievement system. There I said it. Both in it's design and implementation Blizzard has created an obnoxious cuckoo clock that pops out every so often …
Bartle Questions Virtual Torture and the Lack of Choice in WoW’s Quests
Virtual world evangelist Richard Bartle has made the news yet again in the MMO blogosphere. Richard Bartle the grandfather of virtual worlds, recently posted a blog article about some concerns …
Are Blogs Impacting the MMO Industry?
Eventually every MMO blogger worth their salt ponders the impact that blogs have on the MMO industry as a whole. Of course we'd like to think we are somehow making …
Xbox Live Barbarians at the Gates of Virtual Worlds
Despite the amazing advances in information, communication, connectivity and commerce that Cyberspace has provided us, it has one glaring defect: people can behave badly without fear of repercussions because they …
Blizzard’s CEO on E-Sports and Community
Blizzard has often bragged about the fact that their 11 million subscribers total more then some small countries. It stands to reason that would make Blizzard CEO Mike Morhaime the …
PC Game of the Year — King’s Bounty: The Legend
I usually don’t do game reviews as this is a website devoted to MMOs but one PC game that I have recently fell in love with deserves to have it’s …
Predictions and Wishlist for the Third WoW Expansion
This Friday October the 10th hails the beginning of Blizzcon 2008. Typically that includes announcements about future WoW expansions. It got me to speculating about what Blizzard plans on doing …
WoW: How Blizzard is Cheating Explorers
Are you an explorer? Do you play MMOs primarily to see new areas? Do you delight in discovering what may lie beyond the next valley or hill? If you play …
A Blogger’s Ego and the Anatomy of a Phony Scandal
Ego. We all have one. Bloggers are no exception. Blogging started off as a way to share one's passion and hobbies with like-minded individuals. Yet blogging has started to change …
The Obsession with Math and Numbers in MMOs
A few nights ago while playing my paladin in the Wrath of the Lich King beta I overheard a conversation in General Chat in the Borean Tundra. There were two …
Who Should You Believe: Tobold or Will Wright?
Occasionally religion and politics intersects the world of video games. As this is a blog that deals with MMO's, I normally avoid discussing those issues as they are usually fraught …