Author: Cyndre

.

Промоакции для игроков не только в шутерах — воспользуйся промокодом Vavada от наших партнеров и получи бонусы, которые подарят азарт и атмосферу, сравнимую с игровыми победами.

.

Three Truths…

Three truths have become false this week:

1) I hold a very principled stance firmly against the Micro Transaction based MMO business model.   It is the root of all MMO evil et. cetera…

2) I have played DDO, and it sucks.  It was crappy in Beta and it never improved.   Poor implementation of some decent concepts, coupled with extensive poor choices for the balance of the design, resulted in an overall dry and uninspired game with little good to write about and quite a bit bad.   DDO is doomed to fail, and will never recover.   Period.  De Facto and all that…

3) I have become so disillusioned with MMOs in general, and the diku model in particular, that I am doomed to watch reruns of Two and a Half Men and Mash for the rest of my life.   Until I die.  Old and bored…

Continue reading Three Truths…

A Legend Passes On…

Tuesday, one of the co-creators of Dungeons & Dragons, Dave Arneson, sucumbed to his ultimate battle with cancer.   Mr. Arneson is unquestionably a legend, having in his short 61 years, influenced and touched the lives of millions of faithful fans.  His brain child, D&D is one of the most popular and successful fantasy franchises in history, and the MMO industry draws more from his work than any other source.

Lets celebrate his life and his contributions to our culture by leaving comments related to D&D.  Share a great story or adventure, share how the game influenced you, or just leave a simple Thank You below.

~Cyndre

What a long strange trip it’s been…

Two years ago today, I started blogging about MMOs at my old blog, Existential Worlds, though I haven’t written there since joining the KTR staff, June 9th, 2007.   It really hasn’t seemed like a long time, but it has been rewarding.   I have met so many amazing people, many of whom I now call guild-mates in Casualties of War.

Thanks again to Ethic for welcoming me to his little soapbox in cyberspace, and thanks to all the readers and bloggers who make this hobby so engaging.

~Cyndre

Warhammer Brief: Open Beta

As the Warhammer Online Open Beta winds to a close, it is easy to look back over the relatively short development cycle with all its ups and downs, and form an evaluation of Mythic’s performance from start to finish.   My opinion?  Excellent, although your milage may vary.

One thing is certain…   Mythic moved the game to Open Beta, and unlike the vast majority of their peers, they remained committed to continuing the testing, polish and development of the game.   While many game studios often will say ‘forgive us it’s only Beta’ and yet the bugs persist and go unfixed, Mythic tweaked, patched and improved nearly every single day.

I had a tremendous amount of fun, and I just wanted to thank all of the hard workers at Mythic who have given us long hours, commitment and who have poured their blood, sweat and tears into this project, so that we may have a world to lose ourselves for a while, and share wondrous adventures with our friends.

When the dust settles, raise a pint, take a long nap, and be proud of your accomplishments!

~Cyndre

Warhammer Briefs

My name is Cyndre, and I have a Warhammer Online addiction.

Now that that is out of the way, I will jump right in.  I will not be writing a review of the game or its mechanics, as this has been done ad nauseum in the MMO blogosphere, and a simple Google search would deliver numerous examples.  I just want to target some brief points that have me hooked.

Continue reading Warhammer Briefs

First Look at 38 Studios In-Game Footage!

Sitting down to my morning coffee this weekend, I caught a rare glimpse of the highly classified secret MMO being developed by mad scientists in Massachusetts at Curt Schilling’s new studio, 38 Studios.

You can catch the interview with the Big Schill yourself here in its entirety.  The exclusive first look at the new game title can be seen at 1:16 in the three minute video.   The images are very limited, but we catch a glimpse of a horse and rider, that are graphically appealing, and lead me to believe we are looking forward to a fantasy MMO.   Also, Schilling mentions they will be working with a development budget of ‘greater than sixty million dollars.’   I suggest you watch the entire interview, because it is actually quite good.

P.S. Schilling plays a Tauren in WoW.

~Cyndre

WoW Combat Tactics Saves Real Lives

Via Wonderland:

“…a young boy and his sister were attacked by a moose, and the boy reportedly “taunted” the moose away from his sister, and then feigned death, causing the moose to lose aggro and leave.

“Just like you learn in level 30 in World of Warcraft,” the boy is reportedly quoted as saying.”

Truly Epic.

~Cyndre