With Star Wars: The Old Republic being less than a month away, the game seems to be treading the well-worn path of other top-flight MMOs in charging a subscription. For $14.99 or £8.99 a month you’ll be able to clash lightsabers as much as you like. But is a subscription the right model to be…
Category: MMO Musings
Star Wars: The Old Republic – First Impressions
The NDA for Star Wars: The Old Republic has now been lifted and I’m finally free to share my opinions with you. In theory this would mean that I’d be unleashing a huge mega-post containing details of every single nuance about the game. I’m going to resist the urge and scale back a little bit…
The Supermassive Beta
How many beta testers does it take to change a lightbulb? The rather surprising answer is 89. Fifty to just carry on as if light doesn’t matter and continue killing swamp rats or whatever. Ten to raise a ticket complaining about the complete lack of lightbulb operation and DEMANDING that it be rectified THIS INSTANT….
The Unknown Warcraft Subscriber
There’s been a flurry of commentary recently on the recent earnings call by Activision Blizzard, where they provide some highlights on their third quarter performance. If you’re interested in reading through the entire transcript of the call you can find it at Seeking Alpha. There are a couple of quick facts to pull out: Warcraft…
The Necessity of End Game
Today’s article is a guest post from Honor’s Code. Let me put on my armchair Game Designer hat for a moment. Put yours on as well and join me as we think about AAA MMOs. I think we can agree on the goal. All of us, from the bean counters at production houses, to the…
Mobile MMO Missteps
At the moment I’m on holiday, which probably explains why I’ve been a bit lax on updates. While for some that might mean hitting the nearest beach and putting their head into a good book, for me it means working out just how many of my glorious gadgets I can take with me. What started…
The Declining MMO Market
There’s been a couple of great articles recently about the situation at CCP, publishers of EVE Online. The theory is that the company hasn’t been doing as well as it hoped following the White Wolf Publishing acquisition and has been losing both staff and subscribers ever since. I’d suggest reading Tobold’s summary of the situation…
Hobbyists, Indies and the Doom Moment
Have you ever wanted to change something about your favourite MMO? Maybe write your own questline or create your own models? Perhaps build your own game world or maybe even write your own game? Have you wanted to go from just being a passive consumer to an active creator within the genre? If you do,…
The Kitten Standard Economy?
A while back I wrote about the possibility that Titan, Blizzard’s next MMO, would feature a real money auction house. This followed on from Diablo 3, which introduced the concept in order to provide a safer alternative to the grey market that emerged around item trading in Diablo 2. The main argument at the time…
No Competitions For You!
We all like winning free stuff, right? There’s that warm glowy feeling that we get when we tear open a prize parcel, or the surprise when our numbers come up on the lottery. Even the chance of winning something makes us feel better. It’s also not much of a surprise that competitions help companies to…