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 …
More Pressure to Remove Leveling for MMO’s
ust this week, Cameron at Random Battle called for the removal of the first 20 levels for veteran MMO players. What is the reason for his discontent? It's the problem …
Unintended Consequences of Quest Directed MMO’s
Lately there have been some good discussions in the blogosphere lamenting the erosion of one of the key facets of MMO's: grouping. I made a few comments on some of …
Will You Grow Out of Your MMO?
Steve "Moorgard" Danuser brought up a thought provoking <a href="http://www.moorgard.com/?p=271">point</a> on his blog this week. He contends that MMO's focus on a certain type of demographic. He used the analogy …
Thoughts on Lord of the Rings Online One Year Later
For a change of pace from my usual obsessive critiquing of Blizzard's WoW, I've decided to jot down my some of my opinions on another relatively popular MMO: Turbine's Lord …
WoW: Is Blizzard Promoting Virtual Torture and Murder with the Deathknight Hero Class?
Today I read a very interesting thread on the official Blizzard forums about details about the quests for WoW's first hero class: the Deathknight. Orophino points out that in order …
WoW Insider Columnist Ridicules Stay At Home Mom
For years, the WoW community has been one of the worst communities in MMO history. Players on the official Blizzard forums routinely indulge sophomoric acts of flaming, personal attacks and …
WoW: Is Rolling the Dice a Good Way to Select Beta Testers?
Lately I've started wondering about the validity of the selection process for the beta test of Blizzard's Wrath of the Lich King. In the Burning Crusade Blizzard admitted that players …
Raph Koster on the Bartle Controversy
Before you can evolve you have to *want* to evolve. You just don't stumble upon greatness, you need to aspire to something greater. First comes the desire, then comes the …
Why They Hate Richard Bartle
Well lots of folks are upset with Richard Bartle including players, bloggers and some MMO developers. Why? On the surface it’s because he has the temerity to speak his mind …
WoW: Realizing When it’s Time to Quit
Once you progress to 25 person raids -- WoW becomes a virtual job. Many guilds start off as "casual, family style" guilds but soon end up becoming hardcore raiding guilds. …
MMO Developers: Community Should be Your Most Valued Commodity
It was in that moment that I made a value judgement about EverQuest2 as a whole. Instead of using the quality of the game play, the graphics, the quests as …
WoW: Thoughts on PVP, Tribalism and Marshall McLuhan
For a time WoW had both elements of right brain tribalism as it’s main underlying premise for being. Community driven game play was the cohesive element that made WoW really …
WoW: Blizzard’s Epic Arms Race
It's one thing to talk about this problem and hear anecdotal stories from players. It's another thing entirely when you see hard evidence that proves conclusively that Blizzard is literally …
WoW: Heroism For Sale
The bizzare way that Blizzard seems to be giving everything away lately is a real cause for concern. It's like they are dismantling WoW one feature at a time in …