Posts tagged design 
The Nexus Telegraph: Unpacking WildStar's big reveals
There are times I both love and hate being a journalist. Case in point: the recent WildStar hands-on that Bree got to play with. I knew about it a while ago, and got a peek at most of the reveals, which was great. But I had to sit on that knowledge, which was not so great. Also I couldn't go ...
The Soapbox: Joy in the little things
Some people play MMOs because they love the challenge. Some are there for the social aspects. Still others stick with their favorite titles because they're deeply in love with the content or lore. Every single gamer reading this post has a different reason for logging into their MMO of choice ...
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: Farewell for now, Champions Online
So I've spent a month in Champions Online, and I've taken enough time to understand most of how the game fits together on a conceptual level. This is from equal parts playing and reading about the game in various places because I just do that for fun. Those of you who were here for my first ...
The Soapbox: What MMOs could learn from social gaming
I mentioned a couple of months ago that social gaming isn't going to destroy MMOs. That's good news for everyone other than Richard Garriott and Zynga stockholders. But I think taking this as a sign that we can ignore social gaming for now and forever as an aberration would be... a mistake, to ...
Where Guild Wars 2 goes wrong
I'm not going to lie to you, people: Guild Wars 2 is a darn good game. Hard-hitting truths, I know. The game won our 2012 Game of the Year award for good reason. There's a lot to praise within that package, from the art direction to the game mechanics to the flexibility. Many parts of it push ...
The Daily Grind: Would you like games to remember your character's birthday?
It's a little thing, but I've always been endlessly fond of the fact that Guild Wars keeps track of the day my characters were created and sends them presents. I'm rather attached to my characters, and even though I don't actually collect minis I still like to know that there's a little marker ...
First Impressions: Marvel Heroes isn't a heroic marvel
Despite my best efforts, I couldn't get into Diablo. I tried several times, but whatever strange alchemy kept turning me off from other roguelikes was still in full effect. Despite that, I can respect that the game has made an enormous impact on gaming as a whole -- even disregarding the effect ...
Guild Wars 2's data and design in detail
MMO player and writer Ravious over at Kill Ten Rats knows how to ask the hard questions. Questions that other journalists are afraid to ask. Questions like, "If you were omniscient with regard to all corollary Guild Wars 2 data (including player emotion, all chat including voice chat, current ...
The Daily Grind: What do you consider a lockbox?
I've never been a fan of lockboxes in games, but it occurs to me that there are really two variants to the whole concept of annoying random item packs. The first variety, as seen in Star Wars: The Old Republic, is essentially like a pack of trading cards. You pay money and get a random pack of ...
DUST 514 video diary explores the nuances of vehicles
When you're shooting your way across the planets in DUST 514, you don't want to be walking everywhere like an animal. You want to be riding in style, especially if you can be riding in something that also has armor plating and variable thrusters. That's where vehicles come into the game. A new ...
