If there’s one thing that the recent MMO betas have shown me, it’s that I need to raise my game. The days where I’d be able to casually stand at the back, throwing out spells and dodging the occasional bad stuff are fading fast. The new world order is in keeping characters moving purely in…
Tag: raiding
SWTOR: So Now What?
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…
The Best Raids: Past, Present Or Future?
Last week a subject cropped up in one of the article discussions: is Warcraft raiding getting steadily better all the time, or has it reached a peak and is in decline. Answering this by itself can go either way – more people than ever are able to experience tier 13 due to the predicted arrival…
Firelands Raid: In Review
The Hour of Twilight is finally upon us and Patch 4.3 has arrived. I’ve already dived into the new Dragon Soul raid instance a couple of times and I’m having fun with it, although I’m very keen to get into the later boss fights there. Before I get too heavily involved in new stuff I…
The Gates of Compelling Rewards
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,…
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…
Looking Through The Mists
This weekend has been a firehose of information. Although I’ve never been to a BlizzCon in-person (something I hope to rectify), I’ve been glued to the internet and live streams for information. There’s nothing quite like getting the latest on a games franchise straight from the source. Like a good meal, it takes a while…
Playing DPS: From Good to Great
It’s been a while since I wrote about actually playing MMOs, rather than just hypothesising about trends, changes and so on. It’s about time I talked about my favourite pastime. You might think that as long as you’re top of the damage charts that you can rest easy. You’re pouring out the pain in your…
Managing Guild Change
“All the world’s a game, And all the men and women merely gamers” With apologies to William Shakespeare This is a tough subject for me and one that comes from recent experience. You see, it’s about how guilds change and how that change is managed by guild leadership. Some change is inevitable, such as when…
Firelands Legendary Staff: Get Ready!
Patch 4.2 is looming towards us at a steady pace, bringing with it a whole truckload of shiny new stuff for us to get stuck into. The current best guess is that it’ll be hitting live servers on 21st June in US and 22nd June in Europe, putting it at less than two weeks away….