Posts tagged instancing 
Free for All: Taking my turn in Ecol Tactics
Last weekend, I spent some time with Ecol Tactics, a new turn-based MMO brought to us by Games Campus. It features a lot of the same mechanics we have seen before, similar art design to other titles, and a browser-based, Flash-based accessibility that is always welcome. Sure, I was able to enjoy ...
Anarchy Online gearing up for more major updates in July
Anarchy Online is still going strong several years after release, due in no small part to several rolling upgrades from the development team. The latest monthly developer update makes it clear that the team is nearly done with another major update -- after spending April through June getting the ...
Anarchy Online celebrates 10 years this weekend
It seems like there's an MMO anniversary happening every other day around these parts. While it's indeed commendable for some of these games to last a year or three, Funcom's Anarchy Online has just reached the lofty summit reserved for the likes of EverQuest and Ultima Online: Yep, Rubi-Ka is 10 ...
The Anvil of Crom: Server merges, separation, and why both are potentially swell
Last week I mentioned that the Age of Conan Unrated announcement has given us a lot to talk about. There's the 800-lb. free-to-try elephant in the room, there's a bunch of new content that's both coming soon and already here, and there's also an endlessly fascinating quote from Funcom game ...
The Daily Grind: Why don't you like PvE?
You might know that it's not real. You might be reminding yourself that all you're fighting are lines of computer code sitting on a server somewhere with no connection to a real heroic struggle. But if you're even remotely a fan of fantasy, when you find yourself drawing your weapon of choice ...
GDCO 2010: Spacetime Studios' Cinco Barnes talks mobile design
Spacetime Studios, the developer of the popular mobile MMO Pocket Legends, was started back in 2005 to create large-scale MMOs. Its founders decided to make a mobile platform MMO upon seeing the obvious marketing opportunity that the iPhone provided. After all, the players would already be ...
The Mog Log: We interrupt this broadcast for a conversation
The verdict on our Chains of Promathia trial is... postponed for a little bit. (I did warn everyone.) With the revelations of E3 and the new Final Fantasy XIV benchmark, not to mention the upcoming June version update, we've had plenty to talk about in the community of late. There's news about how ...
The Daily Grind: Want a private server?
When someone says 'private server' with respect to MMORPGs, it's hard to avoid mentally swapping a few letters and coming up with 'pirate server.' Rarely, if ever, have game companies licensed their software to individuals or groups, preferring instead to maintain tight control over the end user's ...
GDC10: Land of Chaos Online interview
MMOs are a strange genre without many of the clearly-defined borders for something that is or isn't a part of the field. Not surprisingly, there's a lot of innovation in the field that's confined strictly to the absolute edges of what could be considered an MMO. Games such as MAG and Global Agenda ...
Anti-Aliased: Yu rack disriprine pt. 2
CasualLolz player, meet OMGHARDCOREBBQ player The last part of odd group dynamics comes from how much our genre has grown since the days of EverQuest and Final Fantasy XI. Back in the days pre-Warcraft, the MMO community was a small group of gamers who, for the most part, had the same play ...
