If there’s one videogame that’s demanded attention recently, it’s Grand Theft Auto V. Whether you love Rockstar’s exploration of the criminal underworld, or loathe the fictional world they created, it’s undeniably been the catalyst for a massive amount of opinion. Whether you’re interested in game design, interactive narrative or just games as art, GTA V…
Category: Site Stuff
Fork in the Road
Some big changes are afoot. After nearly two years of writing features, conducting interviews and reporting news, I’m leaving ZAM at the end of the week. There are a handful of interviews from Gamescom to wrap up beforehand though, so keep your eyes peeled for them! So what gives? Writing professionally about video games has…
Extended Hiatus
It’s tough to write posts like this, but here goes: Mana Obscura is going on extended hiatus. After two years of having a great time discussing opinions and sharing ideas about MMOs and online gaming, it’s time for me to take an extended break. The past few months have seen a dramatic change. I’ve gone…
And Now We Are Two
Another year, another anniversary! It’s now been two years since I started Mana Obscura, intending to share my views on mages in World of Warcraft. Since then it’s been an adventure through several different MMOs, from Lord of the Rings Online through to the upcoming Guild Wars 2. There’s never been a dull moment! It’s…
Getting Started with MMO Blogging
In the time since I started blogging about MMOs, I’ve learned a huge amount about writing, sharing and being part of a staggeringly huge community. In many respects though I’m still a noob, bumbling around and making mistakes. Things like the blog going offline due to setup or configuration errors because I’m too stubborn to…
Utterly Gobsmacked
This is how I feel at the moment. The last three weeks have left me in a bit of a daze, as I still can’t work out what’s going on. I’m still writing and still producing my fun (I refuse to call what I create ‘my work’ on principle), but there’s been a couple of…
Access Denied?
During the SOPA and PIPA protests of January 18th 2012 this site was blacked out. All content was removed and replaced with the message below. Although the protest is now over (in the UK at least) and signs indicate that voices globally have been heard, your continued support is vital. Thankyou for your understanding. Get…
To The Future!
What a year it’s been! There’s been a couple of major launches with both RIFT and Star Wars: The Old Republic attracting a lot of attention and enjoying success. There’s been a whole series of subscription MMOs switching to a free-to-play model and doing really well with it. And regrettably there’s also been a few…
Rebuilding My Blogroll
If you saw the splash page earlier or read one of the various tweets on Twitter, today there’s been a bit of a change going on at Mana Obscura. I’ve decided that it was high time to move from shared hosting to a virtual private server and save a wedge of cash every month in…
The Finished Next-Gen MMO Machine
Apologies for the lack of updates, but I’ve been a little busy. I’ve previously talked about putting together a new PC to handle the next range of MMO games on the horizon. This hasn’t been some kind of hypothetical question about building something in my mind – I was really planning on building a new…