design

Things you don't want.

Vague Patch Notes: If people aren’t raiding in an MMO, it’s not because it’s too hard

106
The start of the year, at least from my perspective, was dominated by Blizzard doing lots of dumb things. So it's kind of nice,...
You're already a corpse.

Vague Patch Notes: Chronicle of a Daybreak death foretold

38
On Tuesday, Daybreak Games announced what amounts to a form of slow death. Technically, sure, what it announced was that the company is splitting...
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Vague Patch Notes: Guild Wars 2 might be the MMO that defined the last decade

28
It's been about a week or so since we did our Overthinking on the best MMO of the decade, and I ultimately rattled off...
No belts

Vague Patch Notes: No, MMO lore does not excuse design decisions

17
There are a lot of problems with how people tend to use lore when it comes to MMOs. I've talked about one side of...
Oh, COME ON, what did that accomplish?

Vague Patch Notes: How to make your corner of the MMO space more pleasant

4
It's 2020, people - let's do this. What do I mean by this? Unscrew our MMO living space. That one's a lot more fun...
Big empty.

Vague Patch Notes: My wrecked treasure in No Man’s Sky

17
She was dubbed the Tender Claw C27, and I found her upside-down and half-buried in the ground beside the final beacon of the tutorial...
All right, let's ignore that this game is functionally abandoned.

Vague Patch Notes: Why don’t we have more MMO psionics?

16
Seized by what I can only describe as an incomprehensible fit of pique, I've spent a decent chunk of my free time over the...
Order from disorder.

Vague Patch Notes: Why do MMOs have randomness?

24
If there's one concept that is nearly universally reviled among MMO players, it's randomness. Yes, pretty much everywhere. You could make a little fairy...
Friends now.

Vague Patch Notes: A look behind the magic at Massively Overpowered

18
Here we are on another Thanksgiving holiday, and as with every year, one of the big things I'm thankful for is that I've now...
Be better.

Vague Patch Notes: Sub-optimal play vs. just plain bad play in MMORPGs

15
Something we need to start reckoning with when it comes to MMOs is the fact that it really is a problem when you're playing...

Vague Patch Notes: MMO grind is good (except when it isn’t)

13
Some of my fondest memories of World of Warcraft involve Adam Sandler and the Badlands. My wife and I had a pretty steady tradition made out...
Oh my.

Vague Patch Notes: Ethics, PR stunts, and the BlizzCon apology

37
Are you all really tired of talking about ethics and Blizzard in the same sentence? I am too, but a large part of that...
Back in time.

Vague Patch Notes: Does BlizzCon have a future in its current form?

67
BlizzCon 2018 was a pretty unnecessary disaster for Blizzard. It managed to demolish any hopes people had about Battle for Azeroth rounding the bend and...
Sometimes it's... pretty clear.

Vague Patch Notes: Scammers, grifters, and amateurs in the MMORPG market

18
There are two apparent truisms about scams in the MMO marketplace. The first is that players are quick to call anything that vaguely stinks...
hooooooboy

Vague Patch Notes: Copies, blatant copies, and plagiarism in MMOs

10
So... this was honestly not the story that I had expected to have wound up coming out of Eternal Magic. I'd been expecting that "beauty...
We don't mean anything bad!

Vague Patch Notes: Crime and punishment and intent in MMOs

8
Last week, we saw Blizzard explain its philosophy behind why some World of Warcraft bugs in which players got to get more stuff than...
Bart, stop creating a diversion!

Vague Patch Notes: Do video games really need trade shows anymore?

17
The past few years have seen some really big seismic shifts in the game industry. In the time that I've been working here alone,...
We're going to be here for a very long while, princess.

Vague Patch Notes: Timesinks, sunk time, and MMOs

11
Here's a fun question I asked myself a lot back in the day: Why, exactly, did leveling take so long in Final Fantasy XI? The obvious mechanical...
You won't believe the things I didn't bother telling you!

Vague Patch Notes: How MMO studio communication and player confidence really work

3
Here's the funny thing about communication from MMO studios: It's vital to the continued feeling of a healthy game, and yet at the same...
Doom approaches.

Vague Patch Notes: How time distorted what ‘hardcore’ means for WoW Classic

104
There's a contingent of players looking forward to the launch of World of Warcraft: Classic next week that is vocally thrilled about one specific...

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