design
Vague Patch Notes: Can anyone really cover games objectively when there’s suffering built-in to them?
In July of 2021, we started a roundup tag in our tag cloud that most of us probably didn't expect to still be using...
Vague Patch Notes: The objective truth of ‘objectivity’ in games journalism
All right, folks, real talk: Originally there was going to be a much more sober and depressing column this week, but then this week...
Vague Patch Notes: How WildStar’s first dungeon killed me
This is the story of a girl who ran a dungeon in WildStar's world, and while it looks all right in photographs, I absolutely...
Vague Patch Notes: Being there or getting there in MMORPGs
Here's an interesting fact to consider: It took me ages to hit the level cap in Final Fantasy XI. Absolute ages. And no, it's...
Vague Patch Notes: Why I’m anticipating Blue Protocol
My anticipation for Blue Protocol is something that I cannot adequately explain because at the end of the day it's more based around a...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO events are not for the high-level playerbase
Let me start with a statement of fact: I actually really like limited-time events in MMORPGs. I don't like them as a means of...
Vague Patch Notes: The three kinds of sunset in the MMO space
Not all sunsets are the same, no matter how much you may like a given game. This is one of the things that tends...
Vague Patch Notes: Diversions are what makes the MMO
I am going to put forth a theory today in the Vague Patch Notes column. It is potentially an odd theory, and as sometimes...
Vague Patch Notes: Floaty, samey, and janky – a treasury of MMO terms for bad combat
Any time you bring up The Secret World or Secret World Legends's bland, floaty combat, at least one person is going to chime in...
Vague Patch Notes: Fractured Online deserved better, even if you think it looked bad
When it comes to upcoming MMOs, there's always a sense of uncertainty in terms of what the final product is going to look like....
Vague Patch Notes: Stop taking your released MMOs back to the drawing board
This is not a column about Kingshunt, but it is. It's not a column about Crowfall or Deathverse: Let it Die or even Crucible....
Vague Patch Notes: Embracing limited-time content modes in MMOs
Today's column was inspired by a discussion in work chat about limited-time game modes - specifically, the idea of something like that in World...
Vague Patch Notes: Loving an MMO isn’t the same as having a personality
There's a story that's always stuck with me, relayed by the now-vanished blog Websnark back in the day, so forgive me if I get...
Vague Patch Notes: A wake for the MMOs that were
2022 is nearly over, and for me, at least, it's been an incredibly challenging year full of some really dark points. This is the...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO design is not value-neutral
It's rare for me to find myself actively yelling at my computer screen while watching something, but it does happen every so often. The...
Vague Patch Notes: Alas, poor Crowfall, you’re gone now
Dusty dusty, ashy ashy, Crowfall's plane went crashy crashy. Yes, we are now talking about Crowfall very strictly in the past tense. You could...
Vague Patch Notes: The art of picking winners and losers in MMO design
There's a meme that's gone around the Final Fantasy XIV community sphere for a while, and I'm going to try my best to explain...
Vague Patch Notes: Defining classic servers and progression servers for MMOs
Something that I've been thinking about a lot over the past few days - for no particular reason - is the idea of classic...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO quality and the bandwagon fallacy
Here's a fact that is objectively true but feels objectively false: There's no law stating that the best MMO of all time, to date,...
Vague Patch Notes: Finger-pointing in the MMO and multiplayer games industry
I know for a fact that I've already made the joke at this point about how Babylon's Fall just straight-up Babylon Fell, but the...
