design
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...
Riot Games sponsors design challenge centered on making online spaces safer
Riot Games is not a gaming company most folks in our industry would consider a paragon of community in or off the court. The...
Vague Patch Notes: Why are mobile MMOs Like That?
If you have read my writing a bunch over the years, you have probably observed me mentioning how much I like Final Fantasy Tactics...
Vague Patch Notes: Mandatory content and game design in MMOs
Let me tell you about my second roommate in college. He was named Kyle, and he was benefiting from the fact that I had...
Vague Patch Notes: The perpetual MMO crowdfunding engine
Do me a favor right now and navigate over to the Star Citizen webpage. It's possible that this has wildly changed in the time...
Vague Patch Notes: Queues do not tell the story of an MMO’s success
It's time to talk about queues to log in to a game, and you know what game we have to talk about in this...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMORPG industry shockwaves that still reverberate
A thought occurred to me the other day regarding World of Warcraft and the way that it deformed the MMO industry: People who are...
Vague Patch Notes: The gating of time in MMO content
People are over the moon about the Island Sanctuaries added in the most recent update to Final Fantasy XIV, and I entirely include myself...
Vague Patch Notes: Novelty is a contradiction in an MMORPG genre that discourages it
The newest member of the Big Five in the MMO space released in the west back in 2015, which was seven years ago now....
Vague Patch Notes: The perils of comparing MMOs to each other
So the other day I read perhaps the worst Tower of Fantasy review I could have possibly read. It was most certainly not the...
Vague Patch Notes: No, Little Orbit has not solved the MMO blockchain problem
It looks like we have indeed lived long enough to see the heroes become the villains: Little Orbit, which we once lionized for saving...
Vague Patch Notes: Why sticking to one MMO is the smart thing to do
I have never been much of a roamer. Some people are, and that's fine; the world needs different sorts of people, and for some...
Vague Patch Notes: The many flavors of ‘boosting’ in the MMO genre
The other day MOP's Bree and I were having a discussion about boosting. This is not entirely unusual, but it was unusual insofar as...
Vague Patch Notes: Themepark MMOs need open spaces, too
Let me start off this particular column with a story about Star Wars: The Old Republic. I've mentioned before how this was a game...
Vague Patch Notes: Yes, sandbox MMOs need tutorials and guidance, too
I'm going to make some sandbox fans a little miffed right here with my opening premise. Yes, your sandbox MMO needs tutorials and probably...
Vague Patch Notes: A love letter to the people going above and beyond in the MMO genre
Let's just lead off with a very simple statement. Hey there, teams out there working on MMOs and doing more than you need to?...
Vague Patch Notes: You are not immune to predatory monetization in MMOs
This week, I want to expand on something I mentioned in last week's Vague Patch Notes as an offhand thing that bears further examination....
