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Category Archives: Uncategorized
Lukewarm [SWTOR]
A few weeks ago, I made some predictions regarding EA’s Earnings call. In particular, I suggested that it would make for an interesting temperature-gauge of the performance of SWTOR. As I mentioned at the time, the health of an MMO … Continue reading
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Tagged EA, earnings call, micro transactions, subscriber numbers, SWTOR
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Second-guessing EA [SWTOR]
The 30th of January 2013 sees EA’s first earnings call since Star Wars: The Old Republic went free-to-play. This is significant for the MMO industry for several reasons: 1) SWTOR is believed to have cost $200+ million to develop, making … Continue reading
Posted in Uncategorized
Tagged cartel market, EA earnings, F2P, monetization, star wars the old republic, SWTOR
2 Comments
Mediocritas
Doone, ever the originator of interesting debates, has spurred me into writing with his latest piece on the ethics of game design. In the comments section of his post, I allowed myself to indulge in nit-picking, selecting the odd sentence … Continue reading
If A Tree Falls In a Forest… [LOTRO]
Another day, another F2P controversy. Syp has engaged in the debate concerning a $50 hobby horse mount being introduced to LOTRO. Turbine went to the unusual lengths of asking for targeted feedback whilst demanding that this excludes all derision. The … Continue reading
A Weak Imagination [GW2]
In September, ArenaNet heralded the age of a new kind of MMO. One that eschewed the leveling game/raiding distinction in favor of horizontal progression. This was lauded as “the endgame reimagined”, an escape from the skinner box carrots of old. Many … Continue reading
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Tagged endgame, endless treadmill, GW2, progression, raiding, skinner box, trinity
1 Comment
The ROI of One Time Events [GW2]
Summary Ever the contrarian, Azuriel has recently been evoking strong reactions with his criticism of Arenanet’s use of one-time events. The Guild Wars 2 Lost Shores event currently being previewed on the PTR, like its predecessor for Halloween, contains a … Continue reading
Room for 2 [Link of the Day]
Despite recently focussing on WoW, I am still convinced that there is room in the market for many more themepark MMOs of different types. In that sense, I consider myself a ‘pluralist’, as opposed to a number of bloggers who … Continue reading
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The More Things Change [MoP]
Tobold is burnt out on WoW and is quitting the MMORPG genre for the foreseeable future. Nils is back, having previously rage-deleted all of his characters and vowing never to play again. Joking aside, it’s great to see this blogger … Continue reading
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The Return to Outland Preview [WoW]
Mists of Pandaria has been out for a few weeks now and is old news. By now you have no doubt cleared all of the quests, blasted through the heroics and are now banging your head against the first raid. … Continue reading
Lettuces [Quote of the Day]
“There are only so many human towns you can defend from centaur attacks before you think — oh, just take over the town, I’m off to pick lettuces.” Spinks
bernardparsnip
Diminishing Returns 