Posts tagged skill 
A Mild-Mannered Reporter: The obligations to the useless
I'm going to let all of you in on a secret. Actually, it might not be a secret; everyone might have figured this out by now independent of any admission on my part. But here it is, just the same. I'm not actually a very good City of Heroes player. I mean, I'm "good" in the sense that I play ...
Drakensang announces 'massive content updates'
Bigpoint Games has announced that its free-to-play hack-and-slash title Drakensang Online is receiving a "massive content update." Between now and December 25th, Drakensang players will be receiving a couple of large updates, plus a few smaller changes as well. The updates will introduce ...
Leaderboard: Level-based vs. skill-based
When you think about it, the concept of "levels" in MMOs is downright strange -- and contrary to how we live life. I mean, do you suddenly "ding" to a new, arbitrary level after gaining a whole bunch of generic XP for killing spiders because your spouse/roommate/sibling is too scared to do so? Or ...
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs offer respecs?
MMOs last for so long that you're almost guaranteed to get bored or make a mistake at some point during character development. Most games know this and allow you a do-over, be it through unlearning skills in sandboxes like Glitch and Ultima Online or respecing talent point choices in World of ...
The Firing Line: Getting into Global Agenda
OK, so you've heard about this whole Global Agenda thing, and you've talked yourself into giving it a shot. It's completely free-to-play from start to finish these days, and the Unreal graphics, sci-fi setting, and strange mixture of hyper-competitive PvP and ultra-accessible PvE have always held ...
New Dragon Nest videos show off Saint's Haven, new abilities
Nexon's dungeon-crawling beat-'em-up MMO Dragon Nest is gearing up for its launch in just a couple of days, and the company has released a pair of videos to help pump up some excitement for the official release. The first trailer welcomes players to Saint's Haven, the new city to which players ...
The Daily Grind: What is player skill, anyway?
Today it's time to tackle the somewhat touchy subject of player skill in MMORPGs. With Guild Wars 2 touting its active dodging system and TERA just on the horizon with its action-based combat, many games seem to be attempting to force individual player skill to weigh more heavily in overall ...
EVE Evolved: Learning to let go
Bombarded by the epic stories emerging from EVE Online's colossal social sandbox, thousands of MMO addicts per month give in to temptation and pick up a free trial. Most drop the trial for one reason or another, but those who continue on to a full game subscription often fall into a common trap. ...
The Soapbox: Grinding skill instead of gear
Disclaimer: The Soapbox column is entirely the opinion of this week's writer and does not necessarily reflect the views of Massively as a whole. If you're afraid of opinions other than your own, you might want to skip this column. One of the most troubling things I see in gamers these days is ...
Firefall dev blog talks skill vs. progression
If you're a bit apprehensive about the balance between progression mechanics and skill-based gameplay in Red 5's upcoming Firefall title, you're not alone. You're also in luck since senior designer Dave Williams has just posted a new dev blog on that very topic. So what's the answer to this ...
