design
Vague Patch Notes: Why people can’t just ignore things they don’t want in MMORPGs
As I often do, I'm going to start this column with a bit of history. But in this particular case, it's a bit of...
Vague Patch Notes: The games industry arrogance cycle, in MMOs and elsewhere
Unity has fallen. Oh, sure, the company has rolled back the worst parts of its incredibly boneheaded "give us money for your successful game"...
Vague Patch Notes: So what actually kills MMO communities?
Since we're busy getting a front-row seat to World of Warcraft adding the dungeon finder again, only this time it's WoW Classic, we are...
Vague Patch Notes: I don’t know what the deal is with Throne & Liberty
Let me just state this outright: What in the absolute heck is supposed to be going on with Throne & Liberty at this point?...
Vague Patch Notes: The specter of racially locked classes in MMOs and before
One of the things I've taken on multiple times in this column is the concept of gender-locked classes, which are bad, and if you...
Vague Patch Notes: What you leave behind in MMOs
You meant a lot to me when we knew one another. I wonder if you ever really understood that, or if I even communicated...
Vague Patch Notes: Internet killed the MMORPG star
If you ever need to understand why MMORPGs today look so different from how they looked back in 1997, there are a lot of...
Vague Patch Notes: The shell game of MMO subscriber numbers and player counts
Here is a very reasonable question: How many subscribers does Star Wars: The Old Republic have? Not how many players, but how many subscribers....
Vague Patch Notes: Almost nobody can save struggling mid-to-small MMOs
A week ago, we all sounded off on the best way to save a small-to-mid-size MMO that was struggling, as prompted by a discussion...
Vague Patch Notes: Contemplating the origin of the Big Five in the MMO space
A few weeks back, I talked about the various tiers of MMORPGs, and that included a discussion of what we call the Big Five...
Vague Patch Notes: Culture doesn’t excuse poor design choices in MMOs
So Tarisland has heard that people don't like gender-locked classes. This is the correct feedback because gender-locked classes blow, and every game that has...
Vague Patch Notes: Whaling is a death spiral, especially in MMOs
Here we are again with another one of my "let's put down some important industry notes" columns, and this time we're talking about whaling....
Vague Patch Notes: Which players count in an MMO?
When I first started playing Final Fantasy XI some two decades ago, I went in with no illusions about one thing that seemed clear...
Vague Patch Notes: The power of the middle bit in MMOs
I knew that Tales of Arise wasn't really working for me like its immediate predecessor when I started kind of avoiding combat.
Now, to a...
Vague Patch Notes: So why didn’t crowdfunded MMOs save the genre?
The past few weeks we've been following this freakin' thing because... well, obvious reasons. But that has me thinking about crowdfunding in general, because...
Vague Patch Notes: Paying customers in MMOs aren’t voting shares
So let's take a tour back to the dewy slopes of 2010, when I bought the collector's edition of Final Fantasy XIV. That would...
Vague Patch Notes: Why we should evaluate MMO systems based on how they break
Back before Final Fantasy XIV's reboot launched, Naoki Yoshida talked about how the developers had plans to make certain primals be world bosses. Players...
Vague Patch Notes: Why do people remember an MMO past that didn’t exist?
Let's just start with the premise out of the gate. World of Warcraft launched to sales of 240,000 units on its first day. The...
Vague Patch Notes: The power of perspective in MMOs
So now that Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out, there is a very funny meme that is going around, but it...
Vague Patch Notes: You cannot win on pay-to-win
I want you to put a game in your head that you think is pay-to-win. No, you do not have to say it out...
