In this November rain, at least some news is ripping through the MMO ‘sphere’s apathy. Mythic has decided on giving players the option to buy levels. At $10 a pop, all characters on an account get a War Tract, which when used will advance the character one full level. Players can only use this once … Continue reading The $10 Level
Can we agree to call them “achievements”? I know we mostly do, but some games seem to re-name things in the interest of being special snowflakes. Now that the largest systems in the North American market are using the same term, let’s accept that as the proper English word for those gaming account celebratory decorations. … Continue reading Achievement Nomenclature
The hoarding and collecting impulse is deep in the gamer heart, driving us to get that last achievement or finish out a dungeon, character, or game after it has stopped being fun. One tool I like for reducing my meatspace clutter is having an online distribution channel. As long as I can trust them to … Continue reading Online Game Backup
I see more games trying to avoid having their earlier content become completely irrelevant while improving their endgame. You do this by having a version of the old content that scales to the new level cap; games without levels have this mostly baked right in anyway. Feel free to comment with your favorite game; World … Continue reading Nothing and Everything as Endgame Content
Thanks to a guildmate I came upon this interesting blog run by David Edery, who has his fingers interwebbed throughout the gaming world. Â The post of interest was an argument for “aggressive” monetization of games. Â He wrote that Western game developers were wary of Asian games, especially F2P games, where a player could buy everything … Continue reading $omething for Everyone
I am interested in seeing more factors tied to the account rather than the character and in the form of unlocks rather than items. Most MMO elements are tied to the character. Your level, skills, reputation, achievements: all of these are character-specific. You may be able to trade money and equipment between characters. Some games … Continue reading Account-Level Rewards
There is a thread on Guild Wars 2 Guru forums titled “Go away! You are upscaling my event!â€Â It is rife with a deconstruction, from the available knowledge, of the Guild Wars 2 event system. It’s a pretty good thread detailing possible pitfalls of the event system, but most importantly it shows with all the … Continue reading Guild Wars 2 Event Pitfalls
Should I blame CRPGs for grinding, or do we want to go back further? I remember long ago in the original Final Fantasy, seeking out wandering encounters so that I could get that bit more experience or treasure for taking on the next boss. I suppose I should not be surprised to find it in … Continue reading Grinding as Achievement and Extender
Thanks to Arkenor, over at Ark’s Ark, I learned that Games Workshop had sued Warhammer Alliance for mostly trademark issues. First off, Games Workshop is not really the bad guy.   They have a very strong trademark with Warhammer, and with trademarks, if you don’t protect your ranch, the fences start to erode. Disregarding whether Games … Continue reading Orphaned Warhammer Online