Skycandy

A few months ago I promised to upload the second of a pair of antique and frankly low-res MMORPG videos I had rattling around on my hard-drive, both of sunsetted, much-beloved MMORPGs. This second video was actually a public stream. In 2010, one of my guildies, Zaphir, won a major architect mission contest developed by City of Heroes’ Paragon Studios,…

I’ve got a long video covering Ultima Online releasing on Massively OP today. I’m essentially touring all my favorite places and activities in the game while discussing the game’s development history as a lesson in sandbox design. It’s one of my favorite soapboxes. And making the video was so much fun that I thought I’d go back through my video files…

Last week, I finally got caught up on this season of Game of Thrones, though not without having been mercilessly spoilered by the internet. “Spoilers?” one of the MOP writers asked me. “Didn’t you read the books?” I did, fervently, in college and a few times since, usually whenever a new installment was released. (George Martin even signed my A…

I’ve already spilled plenty of ink about the Massively sunset saga, so here’s the short version: AOL decided to dump a ton of quality, profitable pro blogs last week, tried to keep it a secret until almost the last minute, and then cut us all loose without the slightest sorrow, merging our years of work into a mess  that I can…

MMORPGs have a rags-to-riches problem. It’s one found in the roots of the pen-and-paper games that inspired the MUDs before them. Life for characters in these games is a progression ladder. They start as young, skilless, penniless adventurers, over and over. They’re told to climb that ladder to improve their skills and fortunes and fame. Get experience. Level up. Practice….

Occasionally, my realities collide, and I find gaming inspiration in strange places. My daughter, Coraline, was born earlier this summer (which should partly explain why I’ve been quiet here lately), and consequently I’ve been consumed by the joy of consulting parenting blogs when I’m awake at 4 in the morning. This is how I bumped into Alfie Kohn’s new book,…

Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is going to be a terrible game, and I hope it gets made. I’ve heard this same phrase echoed around the Massively virtual offices a lot over the past week. I’ve uttered it myself, even though I’ve also taken to calling the game’s lead Brad “Designed Downtime” McQuaid because he’s touted that exact term as…

Here’s how to tell whether you’re an old-school MMORPG player: Tell me what character archetypes make up the holy trinity, that fabled core combination of classes that makes or breaks a dungeon group. If you said tank, healer, and damage, you’re adorable and I love having you as a fellow player and you’re half right, but no. That trinity, what…

If, like many MMO fans, you’re planning on embarking on a Tamrielic journey in The Elder Scrolls Online next spring, you might be wondering whether single-player Elder Scrolls titles are worth a playthrough in the interim, especially if you’ve never dipped into them before. I’m a huge fan of the series, having started with Daggerfall back in the days of…

Karen Bryan, Massively’s wonderfully level-headed guild and family columnist, recently wrote about the problem of absent guild leaders in modern MMOs. I certainly have no plans to quibble with her conclusion; she is absolutely correct when she says that modern MMOs have created complicated systems of ranks and privileges and achievements for guilds without also creating effective tools for dealing…