Confession time: I like to take my time when levelling characters. I’ve tried levelling at breakneck speed and it just isn’t for me. Nowadays I prefer to take things at my own pace – I have a bunch of alts that still aren’t at level cap in Warcraft, while in Rift I’m only about two…
Tag: development
Cheering the Armchair Designer
The Warcraft community is huge. There are literally hundreds of thousands of people writing, drawing, sharing or discussing something about the game every single day. That’s a staggering amount of people all talking about one game made by a single company. Having such a vocal community can be a bit of a double edged sword….
An Appreciation of Developers
Earlier this week I stumbled on a brilliant idea from Scarybooster. For a couple of years now he’s been running Developer Appreciation Week, a chance for us to say thanks to all those in the video games industry who make our lives that little bit better. I know I’ve been a grouchy malcontent recently, poking…
The Impending Release
There’s currently a lot of theorycrafting about the upcoming release of Cataclysm. Almost all commentators are agreed that it’s going to be out soon, but none of us quite agree on when exactly it’ll happen. Add to it the amount of work that still needs to be finished in the current beta, and you begin…
Will My Computer Run Cataclysm?
The most common question I get asked about Cataclysm is “will it run on my computer?” Not something about mages, not what the new zones are like. Not even how I’m finding it, or how much testing I’ve done. It seems the biggest worry I come across is if people have to buy a new…
The Quest Converyer Belt
Spoiler Alert: Discussion of the phasing technology used in Cataclysm, it’s history, application and the problems surrounding it. Some allusion to in-game events/quests, although no specific details. Back in Vanilla, Warcraft was mainly a scattering of quest hubs, each with their localised set of quests. Sure there may have been prerequisites such as a minimum…
A Good Beta Tester?
I started writing this topic in response to a blue post from Ghostcrawler. It seems that while the beta programme is proceeding at pace, the quality of feedback they’re getting is dropping. Rather than trying to paraphrase the Crab himself, I’ll let you read his words directly. I hate to go all forum moderator on…
The Growing Yet Shrinking World
One of the signs a game is on the decline is when servers are switched off. It doesn’t matter if they’re called realms, shards or any one of a number of different descriptions – mergers and closures are a sure-fire sign that a MMO’s playerbase is shrinking. No game is immune to the effects of…
Under the Hood
Spoiler alert: In-depth discussion of the planned changes to Cataclysm, primarily focusing on mechanics and core engine changes, leveling experience and endgame experience. All information here is public knowledge unless specified. Over the weekend an avalanche of news came out about how development on Cataclysm is progressing. In an interesting change the majority of information…
Getting Real About Idents
Social gaming has been kicking around for a while. Anyone with a Facebook account knows what it’s like to be flooded with requests to join some game or another. Usually these games are joy-stealing fun vampires, purely designed to drain away any thought you had that they’re designed to entertain you. They thrive on being…