Author: Ravious

Last night I bought World of Goo from Steam (it marches on).  I had played the demo quite a while ago, and I really enjoyed it.  Yet, I decided for some stupid reason to pass.  Recently, in a stroke of [marketing] genius 2D Boy released the excellent soundtrack for free!  I spent much of yesterday’s work listening to the soundtrack, and after listening to Red Carpet Extend-o-matic for the 100th time, I resolutely decided that I would buy the darn game as soon as I got home.

Guild Wars did a similar [marketing] thing with the Eye of the North Expansion when DirectSong released the soundtrack for sale nearly a month before the games release.  I remember discussing what content we would get with the expansion based on the titles of the songs and how each song sounded.  As if we weren’t all hyped enough with the imminent release we now had some “content.”

It’s a pretty simple concept.  The content is already there for the game.  Might as well double dip. 

–Ravious
the cage of those meticulous ink strokes

One of the worst things about MMOs, in my humble opinion, is the requirement usually for a block of uninterrupted time to play.  Uninterrupted is the key sticking point.  The pregant wife needs laundry carried up the stairs, a new episode of Fraggle Rock needs to go in to the DVD player, the dog dares you not to take him out, the roommate burns popcorn in the microwave, or your significant other decides to talk to you about the day “right now.”  All of these things are temporary.  The game just needs a pause.

Continue reading The Pause That Refreshes

Plenty of people put forth their forward–looking posts, and I am going to do it as well.  Whether it is from a Steam-driven library of games, an aging MMO population, an economic recession, or plenty of different business models coming in to the MMO world, I believe that the subscription model of today is nearly done being “the way.”  Walk with me a second…

Continue reading Tao of the MMO Gamer

It’s kind of like suspension of disbelief.  Gameplay becomes grind ultimately when the player believes the tasks are artificial and arbitrary rather than naturally incorporated into what the character should be doing.

It is definitely one of the hardest MMO terms to define.  Almost like pornography.  You just know it when you see it (SFW).

–Ravious
It means that we’re just dolls.

p.s. I had an epic “grind” post – that spawned from the comments of Hobby Elements – covering when grind was used to teach, used to make a worthwhile feeling of accomplishment, etc… and I think the only intelligent thing that came out of the entire multi-rewritten post is what is above.