Category: Gaming

I spent last weekend trying to decide the best way to end it all — in Star Wars Galaxies, that is, which we learned will be shutting down in less than six months. Star Wars Galaxies was and is a brilliant sandbox game, which I loudly proclaimed in “The Uncle Owen Paradox” Soapbox rant column just two days before I…

I want free-to-play games to succeed. The F2P model allows small, untried, risky game companies to produce small, untried, risky games, widening and introducing new ideas and challengers to a market otherwise dominated by slow, lumbering AAA titles that have little incentive to change the system. They also allow players to sample the game before plunking down $50 and finding…

That’s how my husband said I should feel at last night’s Marvel Universe Online event in San Francisco. He meant it as a compliment! Of course, I’d rather be Inara, but I suppose I’m going to have to settle for Kaylee in my big floofy maternity dress, surrounded by geeky dudes all talking shop, several of whom (shout out to…

Anyone who knows me knows I love sandboxes. There’s something about an interactive simulation that’s a lot more engaging and replayable than yet another scripted themepark. And one of the best aspects of the best sandboxes is a strong player economy. The economy game is basically PvP for smart people. No — observant people. It’s as much about anticipation and…

The finished version of RIFT (as finished as an MMO ever is) confirms most of my published pre-launch perceptions: It’s a strong MMO, perhaps even the strongest of the third-gen MMOs. Perhaps it’s even a transitionary fossil, a link between the WoW-era and the incoming SWTOR and GW2. I find it impossible to judge a game independent of what’s come…

Guild Wars owns a permanent position in my top three MMOs of all time. It’s group-friendly and solo-friendly; it’s all about lateral advancement; and it’s one of a few MMOs employing my favorite pay model. So of course I’m watching Guild Wars 2’s development with great interest. And yet nearly every GW2 announcement from “high level cap” to “open world”…

Over the weekend, BioWare announced a highly unpopular decision to enforce their pre-existing rules about fansites and media, and as usual, I seem to be the only one of my too-nice-for-their-own-good colleagues who agrees with the decision (except these guys!). Essentially, BioWare have determined that, to be classed as a fansite (and to receive the associated perks thereof), a SWTOR…

During our trip to Arizona over the summer, Paul and I stayed at the Ritz Carlton at Dove Mountain, a resort and spa that was every bit as glamorous as it sounds. Because of that glamour, I wasn’t quite prepared for the nickel-and-diming that goes on at joints that charge $800 per night for a basic room. The parking lot…

Last autumn, I had my Ultima Online account turned on for old times’ sake. I bought myself a ride to the most populated server and decided to plop down a house. After a few days of looking, I’d found myself a location, but I still had a book of leftover runes to what are known as IDOC houses. In UO,…

Minecraft’s plucky creator has just hit the big million — that’s a million purchases, not bucks. I’ve made money as a modder in my day, and I can with no small amount of envy say that he’s on top of the modding world right now, and good for him. I love to see modders pull off these wild indie games…