Blizzard Entertainment is the Canary in the Coalmine
At the beginning of this year, I wrote an article where I stated I would be boycotting Blizzard Entertainment. After years of writing about World of Warcraft from a design …
The Death of an EverQuest Guild
Last week my EverQuest guild disbanded. For over a year, I was a member of an EverQuest guild on the time-locked progression server called Agnarr. The guild was Imperium Deus. …
Star Trek’s Holodeck, Virtual Worlds and the Future That Never Was
When they write the history of virtual worlds and interactive entertainment, the introduction of the Star Trek's holodeck that captured the imagination of millions of sci-fi fans will surely be included.
Why I am Boycotting Blizzard Entertainment
After years critiquing World of Warcraft, Blizzard’s recent decision to promote ideologies that are incompatible with the values and beliefs I hold dear, is a bridge too far for me …
Felmyst Server Shuts Down After Blizzard Sends Legal Letter to Disabled WoW Fan
Everyone loves the David versus Goliath story where the underdog prevails against the powerful bully. Unfortunately, real life isn’t like that. In reality, the small guy usually loses against the …
The Video Game Industry is Broken: Tales of a Retired Game Dev
Love playing video games? Got lots of original ideas? Think you can make a better video game than what’s out there? Want to get a job as a video game …
Blizzard Jumps on the Social Justice and Identity Politics Bandwagon
The Blizzard Entertainment we once knew and loved has vanished into the mists of time. Blizzard was once a shining city on a hill that stood out as a beacon …
How Jonathan Haidt Uses Moral Psychology to Explain Our Polarized World
The world has gone mad. Almost every day, there’s another story of lunacy erupting at a college campus somewhere in America. We hear about their safe spaces, trigger warnings and …
The Majesty of Elysium’s Vanilla World of Warcraft
Do you believe that time travel is possible? It most certain is in the realm of fantasy virtual worlds. Legacy servers from many early MMORPGs are popping up all over the …
The Curse of EverQuest Continues as Daybreak Games Closes Landmark
Is EverQuest and those who worked on the franchise cursed? I’m starting to think so. It seems no matter how hard those in charge of EverQuest try, they just can’t …
Rob Pardo’s Journey of Redemption Begins with Bonfire Studios
In September, the world learned that former Blizzard Chief Creative Officer Rob Pardo launched a new video game studio called Bonfire Studios. Pardo’s biggest claim to fame which earned him a …
World of Warcraft’s Diminishing Presence at BlizzCon 2016
As the month of November approached, I got to reminiscing about BlizzCon. For those of us that loved World of Warcraft and used to play it, the yearly BlizzCon event …
Donald Trump and the Triumph of the Common Man
This week Donald J. Trump defied the odds and was elected President of the United States of America. Americans from all walks of life rose up and said “enough” and …
My Thoughts on Tom Chilton Leaving the World of Warcraft Dev Team
This week Tom Chilton revealed that he is leaving the Blizzard World of Warcraft dev team. Apparently he is moving to another dev team within Blizzard and working on an …
The Death Penalty Mechanic and Loss Aversion in MMO Design
For many years I have been on a mission to unlock the elusive code that made EverQuest so great. There is no single equation that accurately explains the magic of …
The Rise and Fall of MMO Critique
This week while doing routine maintenance on my blog, I decided to make sure that the links to other MMO blogs that specialize in critique on this site were still …
How a Video Exposes the Sorry State of World of Warcraft
Almost 6 years ago in 2010, I penned an article entitled the Are Chatless MMOs a Precursor to Console MMOs? It was during that fateful year that Blizzard designed to …
Blizzard Dev Ion Hazzikostas Admits WoW Leveling is Pretty Broken
It’s not every day that a Blizzard developer candidly admits that something is terribly wrong with one of their products. This week Ion Hazzikostas did just that when he shared …
Blizzard Deletes Both Tracer Complaint and Ginny Higerd’s Rebuttal Post from Overwatch Forums
Just when you thought Blizzard had learned their lesson from the Overwatch Tracer pose fiasco they continue to show how tone deaf they are. The original Tracer complaint post (that …
How Blizzard’s Infatuation with Political Correctness and Disneyfication is Alienating their Fans
All is not well at Blizzard Entertainment. It has been a bad month for the embattled video game giant. In early April of 2016 Blizzard’s Jeff “Tigole” Kaplan in charge …
Visionary Realms Silences the Critics with Twitch.tv Reveal of Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen
The MMORPG community has just experienced a week like no other. First, we learned the bad news that EverQuest Next was cancelled. Second, a fledgling company called Visionary Realms silenced …
Another Black Eye for the MMORPG Industry as Daybreak Games Cancels EverQuest Next
This week Daybreak Games sent shock waves throughout the MMORPG industry as they announced that they had decided to cancel EverQuest Next. Here’s the most relevant part of Daybreak Games …
Lamenting the Lack of Purposeful Choices in the MMORPG Genre
Long before MMORPGs became a homogenized cultural phenomenon thanks to World of Warcraft, pioneering virtual world players felt they were embarking on a journey in a genre that had no …