Responses
51 entries. 29,218 words.
2014-04
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ESO – Public Dungeon Boss Bots.
2014-04-30.
Massively wondered why public dungeon boss bots are so hard to stamp out in ESO. I thought I would answer this in a blog post, because any comment I posted would be lost in the noise.
I don’t have any first-hand “inside baseball” knowledge but from what I’ve pieced together from years and years of developer posts about how bots are dealt with, this is my guess on why they can’t just snap their fingers and make all the bots in public dungeons disappear:
- MMORPG
- Responses
2014-05
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Scheduling Posts.
2014-05-08.
I saw this excellent post from Belghast a while back: Thumper Logic.
The first part of his post got me thinking about my own publishing schedule, and as it is NBI month I thought a meta-blogging post would be a good topic.
I too have tried to write one post a day-in the past. I applaud the effort, and anyone who can do it is far better at this than I am.
- Advice
- Blog
- Musings
- Responses
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Blogging The Hardest Way Possible.
2014-05-15.
In honor of the Newbie Blogger Initiative, in this post I’m going to talk about “how” I blog for Endgame Viable. That is, the actual process. I don’t recommend doing it this way. :)First, I play some games. Usually they are MMORPGs. This typically happens on weeknights and weekends.After I’m done playing games, the next morning I often go to a place where I can’t play any games, which is a place that rhymes with the surname of a famous Star Trek captain.
- Advice
- Blog
- Responses
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YouTube Buying Twitch.
2014-05-20.
Google is buying Twitch, apparently. Or YouTube is buying Twitch. Or something. I don’t report news, I just talk about it.
This seems like one of those “surprising but inevitable” plot resolutions that we aspiring authors are always told to strive for. At first you read it and think, “Whoa! Google is buying Twitch! No way!” Then a second later, you think, “Oh, of course Google is buying Twitch. We should have seen that coming a mile away.
- Responses
- Streaming
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PvE, PvP, and Racing.
2014-05-23.
The topic of discussion from the NBI Talkback is whether or not PvE and PvP mix in MMOPRGs. At long last I have some time to write about it, now that everyone else has moved on.
The answer is no, they don’t mix. Thanks for reading.
But seriously, we’ve all seen the sharp divide between the PvE and PvP communities within any given MMORPG. In my opinion, it’s not because of the games or the players.
- MMORPG
- PvP
- Responses
- Discussion
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On Hardcore Raiding.
2014-05-27.
After I listened to Massively’s latest podcast featuring an interview with WildStar developers, I realized that I hadn’t said anything about Carbine’s hardcore raiding philosophy, which is a topic of some mild controversy.
One of them raid thingys, blatantly stolen from the WildStar site.
If you aren’t aware, WildStar raids are supposed to be really hard like the old school raids of yore. They are taking the stance that their raids are meant for hardcore guilds and players only, and they won’t be dumbing them down over time like most other games do.
- MMORPG
- Responses
- Discussion
2014-06
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WildStar – Adventure Difficulty.
2014-06-06.
I thought I would expand a little bit on my experience with the difficulty of group content in WildStar.
But first, I don’t agree with Herding Cats that the overland quests are difficult enough to encourage grouping. They don’t seem inordinately challenging to me, at least through level 16. (Though I suppose it depends on which other MMO you compare them to.) They are not a cakewalk, mind you, and you will die if you slip up or get overwhelmed (or stumble into one of those stupid red-outlined mini-bosses), but if you pay attention to your surroundings and go through the mobs methodically there isn’t much to worry about.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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WildStar – Addons I Use.
2014-06-11.
I’ve seen some others reporting the WildStar addons they are using, so here are mine.Overall I feel like WildStar addons are going to allow people to do “too much.” I mean, there’s an addon to automate the Simon games. Really Carbine? You put that in your API? I would not be surprised if we see aimbots very soon. But in the meantime:Active:
AMP Finder. Pretty much mandatory if you want to locate AMPs within a reasonable time frame.
- Advice
- MMORPG
- Responses
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WildStar – Those Attunements Again.
2014-06-12.
For some reason, the topic of WildStar raid attunements seems to be nearly as volatile as sexism in gaming, but hey, it’s something to write about, so here it is.
To summarize the story so far: Some elitist jerk guild made an infographic showing the 12 hardcore steps you need to complete before you can raid in WildStar, and various bloggers have commented on it, with viewpoints ranging anywhere from “That’s insane!
- MMORPG
- Responses
2014-08
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WoW: 10 Years, 10 Questions, 10 Answers.
2014-08-19.
Alternative Chat is asking everyone 10 questions about WoW for a documentary. Most answers that I’ve seen have been coming from semi-hardcore WoW players, but I thought it would be fun to give answers from a non-hardcore WoW player. Plus, it’s good material for a blog post!
1. Why did you start playing Warcraft?
I started playing in 2006 after I saw the infamous Make Love, Not Warcraft episode of Southpark.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
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ArcheAge – It’s Not A PvP Gank-Fest.
2014-08-20.
UPDATE 10/24 - Before you run to the comments to disprove me because of that one time you were ganked in a situation where you probably should have expected it, let me explain the purpose of this post. I’m not saying that ganking is impossible in ArcheAge, especially after level 30 (though I would argue that “ganking” is the wrong term to use after you’ve reached level 30). What I’m saying is that it’s extremely rare if you stay in safe zones, and you’re not going to lose anything if it happens, so there’s no reason not to try the game.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
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‘Cannot Be Tamed’ Gaming Answers.
2014-08-24.
Okay, okay, here’s my answers to the Cannot Be Tamed Gaming Questionnaire. I found many of these questions pretty silly. I feel like writing my own questionnaire with hard-hitting, insightful questions like, “If you were a ferret, what kind of video game controller would you use?”
**1. When did you start playing video games? **2. What is the first game you remember playing?
Somewhere around 1980-ish. I don’t remember if I had an Atari 2600 or a TRS-80 Color Computer first, though.
- Gaming
- Responses
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Identifying As A Gamer, Erratum.
2014-08-25.
I’m not entirely sure what happened, but somehow WordPress posted two different versions of my last post. The RSS feed and the front page shows one version, but the post page itself shows a newer version. I think maybe ScribeFire did something to it. Anyway, I added a paragraph to my answer for question 20 at the last minute and this is what it was supposed to say:
20. Do you identify as a gamer?
- Gaming
- Opinion
- Responses
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Why Endgame Viable.
2014-08-31.
Well, here’s a topic. From Rowan Blaze: Why Have I Touched The Sky? Sort of a meta-blogging topic.
So my second challenge for you, Dear Reader, in these few days of Blaugust: Why did you title your blog what you did? Do you think the name still fits?
My first name for this blog was Melanthius. I still think that’s a cool name that rolls off the tongue, but it doesn’t have any inherent meaning when you look at it.
- Blog
- Musings
- Responses
2014-09
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A Brief Word About That Controversy.
2014-09-05.
I generally try to avoid industry politics on this blog, unless it relates to in-game politics. (Like raiders versus casuals.) Which is why I don’t have much to say about the recent kerfuffle known as GamerGate.
But I will say that I fully support equality and inclusiveness among gamers and I find personal threats against anyone loathsome. I try to cling to the possibly naive belief that truly despicable people are a very small, very loud minority.
- Administration
- Opinion
- Politics
- Responses
2014-12
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Massively’s Best of 2014.
2014-12-21.
I was looking over Massively’s choices of the best MMO launched in 2014. That’s a terrible list.
Of those, I consider only two of them to be “legitimate” candidates: ESO and WildStar. And of those two, ESO wins because it is the more innovative of the two. (Only one of the Massively people agreed with me.) It’s sad to note, though, that I only played those two games for two months and one month respectively.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
2015-01
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MMORPGs Aren’t Dinner Parties.
2015-01-14.
I recently read this Soapbox article on Massively: Of course I care what you’re doing in MMOs.
(Contains Moderate Peril also read it.)
It’s a soapbox article, so I’ll grant that it’s supposed to be controversial. Jef sets out to refute what he calls this misconception he read on a forum: “Why do you care what other players do in an MMORPG? It doesn’t affect you.” I didn’t write that, but it’s something I might have written.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
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H1Z1 – Early Access Already?.
2015-01-15.
So apparently John Smedley of SOE called PvE players “disgusting carebears” on Twitter. (Covered by TAGN, BioBreak, and Clean Casuals.) It’s yet another example of how executives should never attempt to be funny in public.
More interesting to me was the sudden news (to me, at least) that H1Z1 is launching on Steam today (January 15). (Well, I say “launching” but I really mean “crowdfunding” because it’s an Early Access game.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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ArcheAge – Patron Status Waning.
2015-01-20.
Ruh roh.
No more soup for you. Or land.
I logged in quickly to see what, if anything, changed. The only immediate change I noticed was that my Labor Points plummeted from 5000 to 1000. My house and land are still mine, but they are only “protected” until the 28th, after which I believe they will decay in a week.
I went to the web site to see how much it would cost to resume my Patron benefits, and realized I had never redeemed my Patron Compensation thingy, so I went ahead and did that to extend my time another 5 days.
- MMORPG
- Responses
- Status
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AOL Sucks.
2015-01-29.
If this rumor that AOL is going to shut down Joystiq-and by extension Massively-is true, then I’d just like to say that AOL sucks. Massively is basically the only gaming news site that I read, and their podcast is one of the few that gets a regular weekly listen from me on my morning commute. I hope everyone at Massively and Joystiq lands on their feet.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
2015-02
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Goodbye Massively.
2015-02-01.
So yeah, there was a post recently in the MMO blogosphere that basically trashed Massively. I guess they’re entitled to their opinion, but it didn’t make any sense to me.
I liked Massively for the exact reason that this other blog trashed them: They didn’t take themselves too seriously. I always felt like there were human beings behind their articles and podcasts. Real people doing the best they could with clearly limited resources in a super fast-paced environment.
- Opinion
- Responses
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Hello MassivelyOP.
2015-02-05.
I knew they’d be back. :) The web site isn’t live yet but it’s going in my feed reader the second it does.
I was really honored to see my page mentioned on the last Massively post. Thanks guys!
Reading over all of the finale posts on Massively this past week reminded me of something I forgot to mention in my earlier post, which was that all of the contributors are really top-notch writers, too.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
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Something Witty Like: SOE’s New Daybreak.
2015-02-05.
Breaking News! (Not.) SOE is turning into Daybreak.
I don’t read as much doom and gloom into this news as SynCaine does, but if Daybreak intends to take a more cross-platform stance, it could mean EverQuest Next will end up a lot more controller-friendly than we PC MMORPG gamers might like. You can already sense it with Landmark actually. You’ve got a left button ability and a right button ability and that’s about it.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
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GW2 – Heart of Thorns Initial Reactions.
2015-02-06.
I’m pretty sure I will buy the GW2 expansion Heart of Thorns, however I’m not sure it will hold my attention for very long since it appears there is not going to be anything new to do for existing endgame characters except collect more achievements.
Masteries. “We’re reimagining progression with our new Mastery system.” I’ll need to see this before I can make a final judgment on it, but initially it sounds like more grinding, to be honest.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Crowfall Sounds Like A PvP MMO.
2015-02-07.
I’ve been interested in the dribble of Crowfall information that has been coming out over the last weeks. I liked the art style, and the initial bits on character creation looked interesting. That is until they started in with The Hunger Week. Now it’s starting to lose me.
I’m on board with the idea of a periodic “reset.” I actually like the idea of starting over now and then, but then I’m sort of an altoholic, so it fits my playing style.
- MMORPG
- Pre-Release
- Responses
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Things I Do And Don’t Buy.
2015-02-10.
Bio Break had a great post a while back: Six ways that MMOs can get me to spend money on them. Being the shameless copycat that I am, here are some things I will happily buy in an MMO, roughly in order of priority.
More Inventory Space. Shuffling my inventory slots around is not a fun gameplay element for me, so buying inventory and/or bank slots is usually one of the first things I buy.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Daybreak Firings.
2015-02-12.
I wanted to believe SOE being bought out might be-well, if not good news, then at least not bad news. But now I guess it’s okay to officially start with the doom and gloom over Daybreak. I hope everyone affected by these layoffs finds another place soon. (I’m going through my own job placement stress right now so I feel for anyone with any uncertainty about their job.)
While this news doesn’t affect me personally the way it does others-I don’t have the nostalgia for EverQuest that most people do (I was an Asheron’s Call guy and hardly ever played EQ)-based on the dour mood around the blogosphere it’s easy to see that this is a tremendous blow to the spirit of the genre.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
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Three Times The Controversy.
2015-02-21.
There have been three controversies in the blogosphere lately that I haven’t had a chance to comment on. (Well, three that I know of, at least-I’m sure there are more floating around.) I don’t particularly like to be controversial on this blog but I did want to at least voice my opinions.
Twitter and MMO Gypsy made me aware of a Rock, Paper, Shotgun interview with Peter Molyneux that made the rounds of the blogosphere.
- Opinion
- Politics
- Responses
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Storybricks and The Nature Of The Internet.
2015-02-23.
More alarming news about SOE/Daybreak/EQNext.
Speaking as a gamer, even if EQNext had launched with the Storybricks AI (and I use the term “AI” loosely) included, it almost certainly wouldn’t have been as impressive as it sounded (see this demo), and it probably would have ended up being a non-factor in the game like that UO “artificial life” thingy. I’ve been very skeptical of SOE’s claims of “emergent behavior” ever since they first started talking about it.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
2015-03
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The Line Between Hand-Crafted And Random.
2015-03-09.
Syp generated some conversation and controversy by posting a somewhat strongly-worded post against procedurally-generated worlds, but I think he’s absolutely correct: If a developer tries to cut corners by substituting a computer-generated world in place of what should have been a hand-crafted world, it probably won’t be fun. I’m not sure which game he was talking about, but it might have been Crowfall or H1Z1, both of which embrace procedurally-generated worlds and claim to be MMORPGs.
- Opinion
- Responses
2015-05
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NBI Talkback – GamerGate.
2015-05-11.
Slightly belated, but…
How did GamerGate affect you?
It actually didn’t affect me per se. I was a passive observer and it wasn’t discussed that much where I spent time on the Internet. I generally don’t read “hard-hitting” game journalism sites like RPS, Kotaku, and whatever others there are, and I definitely don’t venture into their comment sections. I think I only unfollowed one person on Twitter because of their relentless talk about GamerGate.
- Community
- Opinion
- Responses
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NBI Talkback – Early Access.
2015-05-14.
Early Access and Kickstarter – Do you support unfinished games? This question is worded a little ambiguously, perhaps intentionally... what does "support" mean? I certainly support the development of new games, by which I mean that I always want people to try to make games. As for financially supporting unfinished games, sometimes I do and sometimes I don't. I've been refining my criteria (see below), but it depends on the situation.
- Community
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
2015-08
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The Elite: Dangerous Expansion And Value.
2015-08-09.
Elite: Dangerous has an expansion coming out and you’ll never guess what happened after the announcement: People on Reddit got mad.
In a related story, the sun rose and set today.
I admit I’m just an average guy who doesn’t grasp all this new-fangled math the kids use, but I have never understood the “it’s not fair that if someone buys it today they’ll get a better price than someone who bought it before” logic when it comes to games.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
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Game Developers Aren’t Slaves.
2015-08-11.
A while back I saw this pro-GamerGate post and had a flashback to my days in the political blogosphere. I’ll save you the time of reading it: It’s a long, very well-worded piece of propaganda disguised as anti-propaganda. (You know you’re reading propaganda when you come across the word “indoctrination.”)
The part that really made my jaw drop was this:
Never forget that you [developers] are here to please the gamers, they are not here to please you, validate your beliefs or prop up your ego.
- Gaming
- Opinion
- Responses
2015-09
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The Great Blaugust Flame-Out.
2015-09-01.
I flamed out of Blaugust, so I guess I can now break my own self-imposed Blaugust rule, which was not to write about Blaugust.
There was this one day that I hadn’t scheduled a post, and it was a long, terrible day at work, and when I got home I had to decide whether to try to find enough energy to write a post real quick or play a game instead, and of course that was a no-brainer so I didn’t get a post out that day.
- Community
- Responses
- Status
2016-02
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Don’t Feel Bad About Getting Bored.
2016-02-03.
I recently saw a farewell post on My Life in Azeroth. I’m sorry to see anyone stop blogging, and I hope they resume someday, but the tone of the post got me thinking.
It seems like a lot of WoW players sound apologetic or guilty when they discuss leaving that game, like they are somehow letting Blizzard or the community down. I’ve seen it in blog posts, and I’ve seen it on Twitter.
- Advice
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
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Punishing PvP Activity In PvP Games.
2016-02-05.
I was reading the Albion Online State of the Game and came across this part:
Red zones will be full loot PvP zones that do not contain any claimable territories. Red zones will be subject to a crime and reputation system that makes sure that killing peaceful players - in particular, if they are zerged down - has more consequences for the attackers.
No part of that makes me more interested in Albion Online.
- MMORPG
- Musings
- Responses
2016-03
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Black Desert Cash Shop.
2016-03-10.
On the subject of the Black Desert cash shop, I agree that it’s a little steep. Or perhaps I should say that you don’t get enough in-game value for the money you spend. I’ll get to the specifics later.
First I want to highlight something I think is good about the BDO cash shop: They don’t shove it in your face in every window that comes up. There’s no popup window when you login that shows you all the sales and exhorts you to “Go buy stuff now!
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Goodbye EverQuest Next.
2016-03-13.
I don’t have much to add to the EverQuest Next wake that hasn’t already been said, except for this possibly controversial thought:
I’m kind of glad they cancelled it.
Wait, wait, let me explain. We’ve known all along that Landmark was the prototype for EverQuest Next. I don’t know about anyone else, but I was dreading the day that they released Landmark with Norrath assets and called it EQN, because Landmark is not a very good game.
- MMORPG
- Opinion
- Responses
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WildStar’s Doom.
2016-03-17.
At the risk of sounding pessamistic, WildStar’s probably going to close soon. I’m not sure whether to jump in and play as much as I can before it closes, or just let it go quietly into the night and remember fondly that one month I played.
Okay, let’s be real, it’s going to be the latter, because I’m playing Black Desert now and Dark Souls III hits Steam on April 11, and that will be that.
- MMORPG
- Responses
2016-09
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Three Albums.
2016-09-29.
I saw Liore’s post on #3AlbumsThatChangedMyLife, and I started to think back on my own impressionable youth and the albums that affected me.
I was raised in a somewhat musical family, but I didn’t become “interested” in music until let’s say my mid-to-late teenage years. Prior to that most pop songs went in one ear and out the other and I never owned any albums. (Okay I did buy a single of M-M-M-My Sharona, a song that was entirely inappropriate for my then-age.
- Musings
- Responses
2017-05
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Why Solo MMORPGs.
2017-05-30.
Another one rescued from my Drafts folder, from February 2016…
I’m in the camp of people who primarily play MMORPGs solo, so I guess I can speak a little on this topic.
I wouldn’t say that I “demand” solo content from MMORPGs, though.* And it’s not that I’m against group content. I just prefer games where I can log in and do interesting things without having to form or join a group all the time.
- MMORPG
- Responses
2017-07
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Ranking My Play Personalities.
2017-07-21.
Thinking Play had a very interesting post recently about Play Personalities, something I had never heard of before. I recommend reading it. It’s a bit like a Meyers-Briggs test for how you spend your leisure time, or the Bartle Test. Here’s my self-assessment of how I fit the different play personalities:
The Joker. Nope. Well, maybe a little. Sometimes I do like to poke fun at things that other people find deadly serious, much to my own detriment on Twitter.
- Discussion
- Musings
- Responses
2017-08
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Getting Lost In MMOs.
2017-08-23.
A recent MassivelyOP Daily Grind asked the question: “Do you like being lost in MMOs?”
My answer is generally no, I never want to my progress to be impeded by not knowing where to go. But it depends on the situation and/or the game. Here are two recent examples:
When I think about my experience playing through the remainder of the GW2 Heart of Thorns story, I was lost a lot in the Maguuma Jungle, and it was aggravating.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Comfort MMORPGs.
2017-08-25.
Here’s another post based on a MassivelyOP’s Daily Grind:
What’s Your Comfort MMO?
I find this to be a somewhat odd question, because I generally like to have a constantly-changing game experience, as opposed to an experience that is always the same. I am the kind of person who likes to learn and try new things all the time (within the boundaries of crippling anxieties, of course). This is why I try out most new MMORPGs if I can.
- MMORPG
- Responses
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Lockbox Expectations.
2017-08-30.
While the rest of the world is probably posting about the Destiny 2 open beta today, I’m going to post about lockboxes, because I wrote this yesterday. I think it was Roger that said we bloggers could get a lot of good topics out of MassivelyOP’s Daily Grinds, so here’s another one:
What Do You Actually Expect To Get Out Of MMORPG Lockboxes? This particular Grind was inspired by Bhagpuss boldly claiming to like lockboxes (in a way).
- MMORPG
- Responses
2017-11
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Blogging In A World That Hates Blogs.
2017-11-20.
I usually prefer to post nothing instead of a post about blogging*, but since Roger brought it up, and I just said two posts ago that there’s nothing to blog about, let’s talk about blogging!
Rather than write something that stands on its own, I’m just going to respond to the parts of Roger’s post that jumped out at me, as if it were a Usenet post.
The Nature of the Beast “I’ve written several pieces that I’m proud of.
- Blog
- Responses
2017-12
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The Blogosphere Strikes Back.
2017-12-06.
Image stolen from Wookiepedia. And, you know, that movie. Tobold recently declared that the MMO blogosphere was dead to him (paraphrasing slightly), so I suppose it’s my duty to point out that we’re still here, sort of.
Tobold was one of the first, if not the first MMORPG blogger I read, way back in the olden days when he talked about Vanilla WoW all the time. He was one of the original models for how I thought a blog should look.
- MMORPG
- Responses
2018-12
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Fighting Early Access Disasters.
2018-12-24.
Live shot of players navigating the gaming industry in 2018. Bhagpuss has a post referencing, among other things, the deplorable state of Early Access game releases right now, seen in such recent launch disasters as Fallout 76 (not technically early access but, seriously, it was) and Atlas (which as I write this hasn’t been out more than a day and has already been review-bombed to death on Steam).
I have nothing to add to his observations except that yes, I agree.
- Musings
- Responses
2019-10
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Only Five Games In A Year.
2019-10-31.
Naithin poked some of us on the Blaugust Discord to chime in on this: If you could only play five games in a year, what would they be?
It turns out this would not be a terribly big sacrifice for me. I don’t play a lot of games in a year to start with. I’ve already done some research for my 2019 year-end post, and the number of new games that I’ve purchased and started in 2019 is extremely small.
- Musings
- Responses
2020-05
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Gamer Motivation Profile.
2020-05-03.
I saw Roger posted his Gamer Motivation Profile, which “motivated” me to take the test myself. Many others have also done it, including Rakuno at Shards of Imagination, who links to surely at least a dozen others. Anything I can do to help dislodge that Bartle thing-the test that our gaming neanderthal ancestors* created from stone knives and bear skins and VT100 terminals and MUDs-from the public discourse is a win.
- Musings
- Responses