Posts tagged karen-bryan 
Enter at Your Own Rift: Conquest PvP
RIFT fans wracked their brains trying to decipher the cryptic message on the forums a few weeks ago, and it turned out they were right: RIFT is on the verge of seeing the arrival of three faction PvP, and the game took its first step toward that with a test session on PTS last week. If you ...
Why I Play: Vanguard, Saga of Heroes
"How is Vanguard?" If there's one question that comes up time and time again, it's that one. It experienced a launch disaster, lack of content post 35+, bugs, duping, exploits, performance issues, and the sad "parking lot layoffs," yet Vanguard: Saga of Heroes always seems to generate buzz any ...
The Tattered Notebook: Peeling back the layers of time
I was watching Shrek with my kids the other day, and one of my favorite scenes is Shrek's stroll with Donkey when they first meet. Shrek tries to explain how Ogres are like onions and how both have layers. When you think about it, EverQuest II is also like an onion because it has layer after ...
The Guild Counsel: Surviving the dreaded plateau
One of the challenges of running a guild is avoiding the emotional peaks and valleys that tend to come up. In fact, one of the scariest times for a guild is when it's just accomplished something big because once the cheers stop, there's a void left and people begin to wonder what's next. It's not ...
MMO Family: The state of the game (at school)
When you think of kids and video games, the question that always comes up is this: What are they getting out of playing them? Usually, MMOs, even MMOs aimed at kids, are big on fun but light on learning. So it was refreshing to see teacher Ben Bertoli launch a Kickstarter project to promote ...
Enter at Your Own Rift: Rift evolution
RIFT has seen a great deal of new content and features over the past year, and each update tends to generate a lot of buzz about things like new raid zones, new warzones, world events, and yes, even fishing. But there have been quite a few subtle (and not so subtle) changes to the core of the ...
The Tattered Notebook: Reading the tea leaves of EQII's May update
The paint has barely dried on the Skyshrine Update, and already we're hearing tidbits about what's planned for this month. On Thursday, EverQuest II Producer Holly "Windstalker" Longdale announced a few highlights that players can expect to see in the May update. The monthly letters are always ...
The Guild Counsel: What makes a guild leader miserable?
Guild-leading can be a very enjoyable and rewarding activity, but it's not always a walk in the park. In many of the columns here and the discussions that follow, the most common theme is how leading guilds is both the best and the toughest role in the game. When things are all falling into place ...
The Tattered Notebook: Skyshrine, mercs, Qeynos, and shields that roar
For those gamers who have been patiently waiting to hear about GU63, the past few weeks have been a treat. We've shown off a few trailers on Massively, the official site has hosted a couple of team interviews, and even the SOE Twitch TV channel has been focused on EverQuest II. In fact, the ...
Fishing, survival, and dragons: The Trion Team talks about RIFT's 1.8 update
As the Carnival of the Ascended draws to a close and the last of the piñatas and balloons are put away from RIFT's first birthday, Update 1.8 is just around the corner. It's full of new content, including the new raid zone Infernal Dawn, fishing and survival skills, and lots of game ...
