vpn aphorisms
Vague Patch Notes: Why procedural generation doesn’t solve the content problems of MMOs
Just yesterday, MOP's Justin ran down the various features that the long-canceled EverQuest Next promised before its demise - including the promise of all...
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: 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: 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: The MMO term ‘pay-to-win’ is a red herring
It probably hasn't escaped anyone who has been reading my writing over the past several years that I have something of a vendetta against...
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: 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: What we mean when we talk about MMO maintenance mode
I've mentioned before that this column's title was inspired by the vague patch notes of Final Fantasy XI, and here we are diving into that...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO sunsets and the myth of meritocracy
A few weeks back, I talked about why a given MMO might have failed even when it possessed good qualities. It was a response...
Vague Patch Notes: Why PvP is a cheap way to fill out a game’s content compared to PvE
It feels like about four years ago when I laid down the first in a semi-regular series of columns I see as "useful notes"...
Vague Patch Notes: How to read games industry investor reports as a player
The old adage goes that diplomacy is the art of saying "nice doggy" until you can find a rock. By extension, marketing is the...
Vague Patch Notes: Why the social penalty for open PvP in MMOs never works
One of the most important things to have when you're thinking about games and their design is reference material. It's one of the things...
