design
Vague Patch Notes: There’s nothing wrong with being a niche MMO
So Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen doesn't want to be seen as a niche game. Visionary Realms' recent interview saying so was clearly bewildering to...
Vague Patch Notes: When ex-World of Warcraft fans become Final Fantasy XIV partisans
There is a certain stripe of Final Fantasy XIV fan that is exceedingly prevalent at this point, and that type is the rigid partisan... against World of...
Vague Patch Notes: NFTs in gaming are a bad, dumb idea
This is going to be a little more ranty than usual. Apologies for that in advance, but... well, we're talking about NFTs. NFTs are...
Vague Patch Notes: The fuzzy reality of MMO expansions
So for some reason right now, I'm thinking a lot about expansions. It might be because we've got Final Fantasy XIV's next major expansion in...
Vague Patch Notes: All MMO play and no work makes Jack a dull boy
Here is my hard-hitting New World review: I haven't played it and don't have any urgent impetus to do so, but maybe it's great. It...
Vague Patch Notes: Anonymity is not why people are awful online
One of the intentions of the Vague Patch Notes column is to have a place to share things that we're going to need to...
Vague Patch Notes: The problem with flight and flying maps in MMOs
The other night, I found myself inevitably funneled into a mistake. There wasn't much I could do about it, sadly;Â Guild Wars 2 had decided...
Vague Patch Notes: Returning MMO players need tutorials too
One of the nice things about Final Fantasy XIV is that it is explicitly designed by someone who thinks that it's not just reasonable but expected...
Vague Patch Notes: The taxonomy of liars in the MMO development space
We have talked before in this column about lies and the lying liars who tell them. Those rotten, rotten liars. But the other day,...
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are useless, and that’s completely fine
When you play an MMO, you are developing a skill. That skill is playing that MMO. It's not a skill with a great deal...
Vague Patch Notes: Why the depth of an MMORPG’s world matters
The world doesn't need first impressions from me when it comes to Elyon. Why not? Well, for one thing, basically anything and everything I would have...
Opinion: Free Guy is a great watch – particularly for MMO fans
I don't wind up writing a whole lot of movie reviews. This isn't because I don't watch a lot of movies or don't think...
Vague Patch Notes: The lesson hidden in the Astellia shutdown
A couple years ago, an MMO launched named Astellia. It was fine. It wasn't bad. It wasn't good. It was just fine. It was...
Vague Patch Notes: Blizzard may live on, but it will never be Blizzard again
If you want to chart the moment when Blizzard stopped being Blizzard, you got a really nice data point when J. Allen Brack stepped...
Vague Patch Notes: Hating an MMO isn’t the same as having a personality
There was a friend I had at one point who had a particularly annoying habit. Whenever I would bring up something obnoxious that was...
Vague Patch Notes: Playerbase size doesn’t have to be everything in MMOs
I'm already worried about Crowfall. Not because of personal experiences, mind you; I haven't yet played it or anything, and all I have to...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO players are a bad substitute for professional testers
Test servers are, let's face it, kind of a terrible idea that just keeps getting trotted out there in the MMO space. And the...
Vague Patch Notes: Bugs are hard in MMOs
So apparently it's been pretty hard to play Phantasy Star Online 2: New Genesis. I don't know from personal experience (fool me once, shame...
Vague Patch Notes: The specter of MMO burnout and what it means
Lately, I've been thinking a lot about burnout. This is due in no small part to the fact that I am majorly burnt out...
Vague Patch Notes: Money makes the MMO world go round
I had some thoughts after the most recent bit of news we got from Star Trek Online about how, you know... the game costs...
