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Shortcut to awesome
Ever hear the phrase “common sense isn’t very common”? It’s true. Arguments from common sense are logical fallacies because there’s really no such thing. We’re all terribly susceptible to the idea that...
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It belongs in a museum!
Ultima Online wasn’t the greatest game of all time, and it’s not even my favorite, but because it was first, and because it’s so old, it’s had a long period of time to make mistakes and learn from...
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The sausage grievance
When I look over some of my past Daily Grind posts on Massively, I notice a recurring theme: I’m apparently subconsciously interested in the ways people try to influence the design of the games they...
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Bully for you
I’m almost afraid to talk about EVE. And that makes me beyond livid. By now, everyone’s heard about Mittens’ apology, resignation, and temporary ban from EVE for comments he made during a drunken...
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We can go home again
I want to go home again, and I’m not alone. When Ultima Online launched in 1997, its housing system was both wonderful and terrible, like much of the rest of the game. If your keys were stolen or...
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We drop stuff
When Tiny Speck announced that it was closing its weird and beautiful browser MMO, Glitch, studio founder Stuart Butterfield famously blamed it at least in part on the game’s lack of guidance — there...
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Horizon gaming
Massively’s Mike Foster coined this lovely phrase last week. “EVE Online offers me many opportunities to engage [a] sense of curiosity and my love for ‘horizon gaming,’ which is my term for playing...
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Ignots 4 sell
Last Sunday, I partied with colleagues Eliot and Matt in Allods Online, which refused to cooperate with our simple desire to group. We were complaining over Skype about petty annoyances like not being...
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Designed downtime
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...
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Rags to riches
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...
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