Archive for the 'Industry' Category
Funding ‘Free to Play’ MMOs
A couple of weeks ago I picked up a copy of the Guild Wars 2 Art Book…
… and for the hell of it threw one of the better looking Guild Wars t-shirts in with my order. Hell, why not? There’s some odd pleasure to be found in being such a devoted fan. I imagine people [...]
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Tags: Guild Wars, merchandise
The Death Of Traditional MMORPGs
So right now there is an interesting debate going on between Tobold and syncaine, on whether the next Blizzard MMO has a shot at getting over one million subscriptions. Syncaine thinks it doesn’t, because WoW’s success is largely down to timing and the sheer amount of work put into it over the years. Tobold does, [...]
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Tags: elephant statue, Hardcore Casual, MMO, MMORPG, syncaine, Tobold, WoW
Casualty of Warhammer
Jeremy Monken (former CSR, Mythic) tells his grim tale to the Escapist.
The story struck a chord with me, having also worked for an MMO developer that circled the drain. Thankfully Mythic is still holding on, and WAR isn’t going anywhere yet.
The article does a wonderful job of describing the school-boyish glee that hits you when [...]
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Tags: CSR, Jeremy Monken, MMO, Mythic, Warhammer Online
Valve Skeptical of Natal
I’m glad to see I’m not the only one who isn’t all that pumped about Natal just yet.
You have to ask yourself exactly how many gamers want to get up off the couch and dance around like an idiot when they play a game? Not too many, I’ll wager…
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Tags: Natal, Valve
GLAAD
A swift post on this issue, because I’m joining the party late and it’s pretty much all been said. Joshua Meadows summarized some of my thoughts pretty well: Making any kind of crusade against homophobia in MMOs is only ever going to result in a backlash.
I differ significantly from the many that have raised their [...]
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Bigger Picture
A blog article by one Eric Heimburg has been floating around my circle of online amigos over the past few days, with rather mixed reactions. Some have hailed it as a realistic and well grounded take on forum communities, and naturally others disagree.
I got into a discussion with a friend about the content of the [...]
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Tags: Asheron's Call 2, Community Management, Eric Heimburg, Forums
iPhone Games
Over the past few weeks I’ve been experimenting with the available iPhone games, getting an idea for the capabilities and constraints of the platform. Having spent some time with the best looking games on the app store I thought I’d put up some mini-reviews of my favorites so far:
Fieldrunners
Tower Defense Strategy from Subatomic Studios, LLC.
Fieldrunners [...]
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Tags: Assassin's Creed, Fieldrunners, Game Design, Hero of Sparta, iPhone, ZENONIA
Stagnation Pt. 3 – Innovation
In my previous post I talked about the inability of some community managers to shrug off old clichés and start customizing their practice to the needs of their community.
The inability to recognize those needs runs in parallel to the inability to innovate for your community. If you can’t recognize and meet their needs in one [...]
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Tags: Community Management, feedback, Game Design
Stagnation Pt. 2 – Old Rules
To help illustrate my issue with stagnation in community management, I’ll offer a frustrating cliché as an example:
Don’t talk about things in development, because should they change (and inevitably they will) you will only disappoint and aggravate your community.
This is a fine rule of thumb for the inexperienced, someone in the first few months of [...]
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Tags: Community Management, feedback
