Downtime: A Gameplay Element

A few days ago, having read that Blizzard was forcing a private vanilla server to shut down, I decided for the very first time to join one - another one of course. I started playing an undead mage at vanillagaming.org. To my surprise, the setup was trivially easy.

Divinity: Original Sin, Dragon Age: Inquisition and turn-based combat

I bought Dragon Age 3: Inquisition about a week ago. I started playing it and loved everything about it – except for the combat. I switched the difficulty to super-easy, but the story itself was not enough to keep me playing either, and thus I started thinking.

Healing in Warlords of Draenor and in general

There has been a very nice blue post by Taepsilum yesterday.

World of Warcraft and what has happened

It's been some time that I wrote anything interesting about WoW (or anything at all :). I quit when Pandaria was announced and deleted all my characters. Pandas for a whole expansion, for me, was the proof that Blizzard was finally more about "What could be cool?" than about "What could be great?". I could have accepted pandas being added, but a whole expansion just about them was ridiculous and still is.

Quitting TESO, sorry

I won't continue to play TESO. Zenimax asked me for reasons via mail. Here they are.

Finally, The Elder Scrolls – Online

The first TES game I played was also the first one: Arena. I got it on 3,5'' discs from a friend on a birthday; don't know what birthday, really. Some 15 years ago. I installed it.

Warlords of Draenor

Just a quick note.

Neverwinter

Who wouldn't like a D&D game from a major publisher as an action RPG with WoW-like questing?

Why I don't play Darkfall

At first glance Darkfall looks like a MMO I'd be playing.

I just backed Camelot Unchained

And so should you ;)

Low-level BGs

I’m currently playing warlock BG-PvP at level 40 in WoW. And I love it.

Three Types of Games

There are three types of games.

Imagine

MMOGypsy, alias Syl, has a detailed and beautiful post about why "Storytelling in MMORPGs is overrated."

Is F2P is mandatory now?

MMORPGs are not competitive at fun consumption.

New MMORPG Blogs

Please help me add good MMORPG blogs to the link list.

The Nature of MMORPGs

MMORPGs are declining. This is a rather obvious fact.

World of Warcraft ..

I subscribed to WoW for a month.

If money doesn't make you happy ..

.. then you probably aren't spending it right.

Unpredictability

There is a great article on unpredictability over here. This is my opinion on the matter.

X-Com: Enemy Unknown

Late first opinion

Little bit on Politics

If Obama had been elected by Germans he had scored a 'socialist'-like 95% result.

It lives!

Readers of this blog dropped by about 40% since I stopped writing in March. … This makes me wonder whether those 60% actually ever read my posts, or only the link list. Anyway, I might write a bit again in the future. No promises, though.

The Mass Effect 3 Ending

It doesn't make sense. Of course it doesn't!

A Ragequit at Spiegel Online

A ragequit in Germany's most popular online news site.

Quick Update: Mass Effect 3 Review

I moved to Northern Germany last week, in case you wondered why there's no posts. Since my job doesn't start immediately, I have some time playing games. Fortunately I didn't have to play the 1000th round of Civilization because Mass Effect 3 has been released.

Giannis' Comment

Last week Giannis made a comment on this post. I was tempted to reply in a comment, but decided to make it a blog post.

Blizzard fires 600 employees

I don't get this.

And so it begins

Some foretelling about the Euro crisis.

Gambling?

Imagine a new casino opens in your street. For curiosity's sake, one afternoon, you check it out.

Money is a Flawed Mirror

Imagine the government payed 10% of the population to dig holes and then fill them up again. Would that be bad?

Stimulus and Austerity

I tried to keep it short and focused. I really tried!

Greece

What did happen, what could happen and what will happen.

Credit II

This is a (modified) translation of an existing joke which doesn't seem to be available in English.

Credit

How a tourist makes a whole town happy.

Poor Family Values Make You Poor

Let's have a look at this assertion.

Taxes and Public Duties

Just a graph showing what your obligation towards the government is if you live as a single in Germany.

This Blog's Status

I wrote much less often in recent weeks. Here's what's going to happen in 2012.

Adam Smith on Lobbyists

I find this part of his work rarely quoted ...

Syncaine on the 1%

Just a quote from Syncaine.

'Suffering' in MMOs

I was trying to figure out what I would want to write about next. Then, this morning, Steven C sent me a mail and I decided to answer it publicly.

Intellectual Property, and more

I hope you have fun reading this unfocused post. Just promise me to stay civil in the comments.

Intellectual Property

Like so often, there are two sides to this argument: an ethical/moral one and an economic one. The economic one is the only one that should count.

Stop SOPA

PROTECT IP / SOPA Breaks The Internet from Fight for the Future on Vimeo.

DR on CC

Just making a quick note to myself.

Mr. Koster confuses me

I respect Raph Koster a lot but I really don't understand his latest blog post. And that's the polite way to put it.

No SW:TOR for me

I actually haven't really played SW:TOR since I returned from the new year vacation.

[Economy] Socialist Europe

The US, in many ways, is much more 'socialist' than Europe. And it's good for them!

[Economy] A little bit on the Euro crisis

Basically I just want to encourage you to read this paper by Hans-Werner Sinn and Timo Wollmershäuser. It has also been endorsed by Martin Wolf.

[Personal] LFJ

I am looking for a new occupation this year.

Rift is a better game than SW:TOR

This is a contentious title, I know.

SW:TOR: The Esseles (Flashpoint)

[Spoiler!] I made a Jedi Knight do see if he is more fun than the sage. This is my review of the first Republic Flashpoint, Esseles.

SW:TOR, not a review

Perhaps the most shocking finding is that SW:TOR has exactly the shortcomings that have been predicted by the blogosphere for two years now.

Merry Christmas Everybody

In the coming days you might see some kind of opinion on SW:TOR here. I have very mixed feelings playing this game. But that's because I judge it as an MMO. If you judge it as a normal computer game that costs some 50 Euro it's absolutely worth the money. Just make sure to unsubscribe right after 'subscribing'.

SW:TOR Problems

Last post I assumed that it would be within my capabilities to play the game. How naive.

SW:TOR has just arrived

I'm currently installing it.

[Politics] Ron Paul

I actually watched the last Republican debate. It was interesting.

[Economy] Price and Demand

Most people think that, all other things equal, higher prices lead to lower demand. This is obviously wrong for goods which are bought because they cost a lot of money, like wine. But it can also be wrong for another kind of good.

[Sociology] Civil Liberties Follow Up

Goodmongo has talked to his local senator.

[Sociology] Civil Liberties

The most disturbing recent news I've read was not actually about the Euro. It also wasn't about Iran/Israel or a Chinese recession. It was about Mr. Obama's ability to imprison me indefinitely or even kill me. Just because he desires so.

[Sociology] Global Warming

There's some discussion about global warming going on in another post. So, what harm could a small post by me do, except for increasing the spam in my blog's mailbox :)

[Economy] Markets

Over the last few days I have had a few discussions about the latest attempt to 'fix the Euro'.

Different Opinions

Few things in life are as incredible as the fact that people can hold radically different opinions. It honestly always amazes me. The latest impressive examples were the posts about international politics. But the same phenomenon can be experienced in all parts of life, including of course, MMORPGs.

[Politics] Great Britain

Naturally, I have to comment on the latest developments in Europe.

[Politics] A comment on the last post

This is a comment on the last post that grew pretty long. This is not about MMOs.

[Politics] On The Brink

This post is about everything else.

MMORPG Overview

I just want to make sure you watch this video.
All Your History: MMO Part 4: End Game Content

12,30 %

Is your profit if you invested in the (quite conservative) German DAX last Friday. You remember my last post?

Poker against Mrs. Merkel

I recently bought quite some German shares. Here are my thoughts.

Repost: Skill-Based Character Progression

I was about to write another post about skill-based character progression after reading about the announced Pathfinder MMO and, of course, discussing Skyrim. I then realized that I have already written everything about it before. Here's a repost.

Triumph of the Simulation

In fact, we experience a victory of the simulation right now and Blizzard is maybe the last big company fighting a few rearguard actions to keep the “gameplay first” motto alive.

That Skyrim MMO

In the last ten days there were two kinds of posts. The one kind said that there should be a MMO like Skyrim. The other said that this wouldn't work. I agree with both.

What Keeps the Mind Busy

Analyzing Skyrim allows me to add many new points to what keeps the mind busy.

On Fun, post #2232

A simple model separates every human in his consciousness and his subconsciousness.

On Fun, post #2231

There are countless posts about fun by now. And as long as I think that I make progress at pinning it down, or at least revealing interesting characteristics, I'll probably continue writing about it. That having said, let's jump in.

What is your favorite game design literature ?

Christmas is coming ...

Bug or Feature ?

To make a bit of money I decided to buy daggers, enchant them and resell them. That worked fine and I was feeling like Whiterun's local enchanter for a while.

My Final Attempt

... to convince you to get Skyrim. If you don't like being convinced stop reading now.

Huge, Detailed Open Worlds

Some people claim that it is impossible to create an open world as detailed as Skyrim for a MMORPG because that would be too expensive.

Skyrim Voice Acting

I'm trying not to be too fanboish about Skyrim. Because I hate people who are like that.

The Elder Scrolls: Online

The most interesting topic I really, really want to blog about as soon as Skyrim doesn't require every bit of my free time any more, is how exactly it would have to change to be a MMO, what the main differences to Wowlikes would be, and most importantly: why one would want that to happen in the first place.

Until I get to actually writing this post, feel free to tell me your opinion.

Why you should play Skyrim

In recent posts I pointed out what I don't like about Skyrim. It is much more difficult to point out why I love it.

Bethesda: Skyrim, not a Review

When I got tired yesterday, I decided that it's probably about 11 pm and time to go to bed. It was 3 am.

Skyrim First Impressions

Just my very, very first impressions.

Character Power Progression, again

Exponential CPP is not an aberration. It is the most natural way of increasing character power.

Skyrim Thoughts

The WoW era of this blog is nearing an end. In two days Skyrim will be released.

Transmogrification

Will players continue to use Blizzard's latest style?

Titan Layoffs ?

.. interesting: http://daeity.blogspot.com/2011/11/more-titan-troubles.html

Edit: On related news, WoW subs dropped by 1.7 mio during the last nine months to now 10.3 mio players (source).

A Proposal: Combat

Last post highlighted how important the exact implementation of the combat minigame in Wowlikes is. This post will make a proposal on how to iterate on it.

The Song

But until then the rhythms of the song, that is the combat minigame, kept your mind busy. Intellectually it was boring, but overall it was not.

Blizzard About To Squish Item Levels

Motstandet just wrote the post I wanted to write. Check it out.

Single-Player Games Are Aberrations

But have you ever wondered why we are entering this age of games right now? Why is it that all of a sudden everybody wants to play games?

It's All Games Now

Raph Koster had a well-received talk at GDC some time ago. Yesterday the video went online. I'm left a bit puzzled.

When WoW became Hardcore

Since WotLK, and especially with Cataclysm, WoW did not become more casual. Instead, it became more hardcore. I know this runs contrary to what most players believe. So, please hear me out.

Pet RMT

Blizzard added the new pet which can be bought for € and sold at the AH for in-game gold.

Games, Narratives and Simulations

It is important to judge 'games' for what they are. But if the developer fails at making up his mind about what his 'game' is supposed to be, this can be pretty difficult.

I am not trying to make a point

All I am saying is I like this video.

Ten Minutes Rift

I recorded a ten-minute Rift video. It's a lvl25 area and I am lvl50. This way I can run through and show you the wonderful graphics. I have a few points I want to make.

I'm So Sick Of Narratives

WoW right now is like original Everquest: You are forced to group. But, in contrast to EQ, you don't even decide with whom!

Doone's Titan Investigation

I have nothing to add to Doone's post.

No Return to Rift

I resubscribed to Rift some week ago, but didn't really find the motivation to play it. Yesterday I was finally getting serious and logged in.