New year, new game. Back in December, I mentioned that I’d be giving Final Fantasy XIV a try, with the Japanese MMO getting three months to win me over. Surprisingly, it’s managed to hold my attention in a magitek grip ever since I created a new character earlier this month. If my Twitter feed is…
Looking around the blogsphere today reminds me of battle re-enactment. I can see the same people pulling on the same uniform and dusting off the same weapons to have the same good-natured scrap over something. The sheep-skin drums are beating, the blue and red overcoats are being pulled on. The beer tent is filling up…
Last weekend I finally managed to hit the level cap on my Sith Smuggler (edit: Sorcerer) in SWTOR and complete the class quest chain. Darth Gazimoff is now pottering around Illum and doing the occasional bit of space combat, but I’m realising it’s not enough to keep me interested for more than a few weeks. Once the…
Have you ever had that moment when you’ve been playing an MMO for so long that you lose track of time completely? Where the darkness outside slowly gives way to grey sunlight? Where you mistake the dawn chorus for someone playing Angry Birds nearby? When I started playing Star Wars: The Old Republic with my…
Do you ever get the feeling that you’re somehow missing something when you read a particular piece of news? That’s how I felt when I was reading over Ghostcrawler’s latest blogppost where he talks about item stat inflation and the problem it presents. While it’s a great article that hints at some difficult choices ahead,…
There’s an argument kicking round at the moment that MMOs require no skill in order to play them. This statement is both completely correct and utterly wrong. How can a statement contradict itself? Let me try to explain. If I take a carving knife to an MMO then the prime rump is usually the levelling…
I find being a gamer these days is pretty tough. There are a ton of good quality titles out there that I’m desperate to try out. I want to get my teeth into every single one of them and wring them dry of every single droplet of Fun Essence. I want to be able to…
I find it funny how the word “trial” can be taken in two ways. There’s the positive side – being able to sample something or try it out before you commit to it. After all, we all want something for free and being able to try a bit of it for free sounds almost as…
It’s ironic that almost a year ago I was writing about the same topic and how to cope with it. Back then, players were complaining about being burned out with Wrath. They’d done everything they wanted to, achieved what they wanted and were ready to throw in the towel. I was as well, which is…
It’s incredible to think that we’re days away from the next expansion. In less than a week, we’ll be doing the new quests, entering the new dungeons and collecting the new gear. Expansions are the great equaliser – everyone starts at the same position again. Newer mages get a fresh chance to join raidgroups at…