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The Soapbox: Defining the word "grind"

Jeremy Stratton — Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, The Soapbox, Miscellaneous

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.

Ravious has a post about grind and content over on the blog Kill Ten Rats, which started a great discussion that immediately attracted me like a rare earth magnet. Ravious presented a fake quest example and asked readers whether it equated to grind. Like he says, grind isn't a new concept, but revisiting it has the word-nerd in me hashing it over.

Can we all agree on the term? On some level I think we can, but when it comes into use as a way to describe specific details about the grind itself or other aspects of MMOs that are affected by grind, confusion can easily set in. What I wanted to do was congeal my thoughts about this term, what its purpose is or should be, what I think it should mean, and why I dislike Wikipedia's entry on grinding. Maybe in the end we can all come to terms with it.

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The Soapbox: Defining the word "grind" originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 25 Jan 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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The Game Archaeologist's fear and loathing in the Kingdom: Joshing with Jick

Justin Olivetti — Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST

Filed under: Fantasy, Interviews, Browser, Humor, The Game Archaeologist

Here at the Game Archaeologist Labs, we've been dissecting just what it takes to make a hit MMO that defies normal conventions -- a homemade startup that loves its wordplay long time even in an age when only about 12% of internet forum posters are fully literate. Kingdom of Loathing is an anomaly for all these reasons and more, and yet it's succeeded when MMOs boasting $100+ million budgets have bit the dust.

Like Batman and Robin, Tweedledee and Tweedledum, Taco Bell and grease, and "That's what" and "she said," the two creators of Kingdom of Loathing are absolutely inseparable. Where there is Jick, there is Mr. Skullhead, and vice-versa. The pair comprise the public face of the game and are so adored by Kingdom of Loathing's fans that I received a ransom note the other day telling me that I'd never see my cat again if I didn't lavish enough praise on the duo. This was weird to me, as I don't own a cat, but that's neither here nor there.

In our final week of plumbing the depths of Kingdom of Loathing, I had the pleasure of probing Zack "Jick" Johnson's mind, and I haven't quite recovered yet. I have looked into the abyss, and it looked into me -- and winked. Oh, you flirty abyss!

So let's do this thing -- hit the jump and find out just what makes KoL tick from the inside out!

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The Game Archaeologist's fear and loathing in the Kingdom: Joshing with Jick originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 16 Nov 2010 10:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Hyperspace Beacon: Don't be surprised if your website is mentioned here

Larry Everett — Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, Podcasts, New titles, Opinion, Star Wars: The Old Republic, Hyperspace Beacon

The Hyperspace Beacon is your guide through the various twists, turns, and barrel-roles of the yet-to-be-released game Star Wars: The Old Republic, which is being produced by the super-duper developers at BioWare-EA.

As we all wait anxiously for the open scroll of Star Wars: The Old Republic, more fansites are donning their Jedi robes and igniting their lightsabers. Some have have been around for a while now, and others are just getting off the ground, but all these holocrons of SWTOR lore are finding their true destiny in webspace. Some of these websites stand out as potential Jedi Masters, and I would like to take a moment to take note of them.

A few months back, the first Hyperspace Beacon was launched. It recognized sites like Darth Hater and the Jedi Archive. Since then, more have proven to be beacons of light in the blackness of cyberspace. So, in an effort to keep the SWTOR community page up to date, I have explored the reaches hyperspace to find beacons of new hope.

Set your navicomputer to follow me after the break. As Matt from TOROCast may say: Don't be surprised if your website is mentioned here.

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Hyperspace Beacon: Don't be surprised if your website is mentioned here originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 17 Aug 2010 12:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Evolved: A community guide to EVE Online

Brendan Drain — Sun, 02 May 2010 18:00:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Hands-on, EVE Evolved, Guides

Some time ago, Massively started up a whole slew of new weekly columns, each covering a specific MMO. Each week, they bring guides, editorials, interviews and community news in a similar way to what I've been doing with EVE Evolved over the past two years. Each of the new columns started with a definitive community guide showcasing handy links to useful websites, blogs and tools. This week it's my turn to give EVE Online the community guide treatment. This article will be updated periodically with new links as they make themselves known. If you have a useful EVE link you think would belong in the community guide, leave a comment with it.

Skip past the cut for a breakdown of some of EVE's most important community links.

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EVE Evolved: A community guide to EVE Online originally appeared on Massively on Sun, 02 May 2010 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MUD history gets a wiki for itself

Seraphina Brennan — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, News items, Massively Meta, MUDs

When we last talked about multi-user dungeon (MUD) history here on Massively, it wasn't for good reasons. Wikipedia had been slowly removing some of the more memorable games from its archives, causing a response from a few of the resident experts here in the multiplayer genre. Since that story was published, many readers here offered a suggestion, "Why not go put the history on your own wiki?"

Well, that suggestion has recently become a reality with the creation of MUD Wiki. MUD Wiki, a Wikia gaming wiki, will be holding all of the MUD history and information that Wikipedia has been slowly losing/removing. The wiki launched on January 11th, and is slowly filling up with all kinds of information relating to MUDs, including a growing entry for the recently Wikipedia-deleted Threshold RPG MUD. If you have anything to contribute, stop by and add what you have to the new home of MUD history.

MUD history gets a wiki for itself originally appeared on Massively on Fri, 16 Jan 2009 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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MUD history dissolving into the waters of time

Seraphina Brennan — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST

Filed under: Culture, MMO industry, News items, Opinion, Academic, Virtual worlds

While many modern MMO users may never have looked at a screen of white text on a black background and typed "go north," multi-user dungeons, or MUDs, were the forerunners to modern graphical MMOs. Without their appeal and gameplay concepts, we wouldn't be playing World of Warcraft or even EverQuest. So, logically, we should make sure to preserve the histories behind the many MUDs which began our conquest of the online playing field, right?

Well, it appears Wikipedia does not think the same way we do on this matter. The online encyclopedia powered by user contributions has begun cracking down and removing articles on MUDs, citing inability to provide verification along with reliable sources. Currently on the chopping block is the entry for Threshold, one of the oldest MUDs still active to this day. This isn't the first time Wikipedia has put online games under fire -- already pulling out the entries for BYOND, LegendMUD, and even removing the article on dragon kill points (DKP) for a time. The removal for the entry of LegendMUD is particularly painful, as there are other articles on Wikipedia that reference the LegendMUD entry, yet are still apparently viable on their own.

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MUD history dissolving into the waters of time originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 06 Jan 2009 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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CCP Games launches EVElopedia beta

James Egan — Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Game mechanics, Guides, Tips and tricks, News items

As anyone who's ever tried to use EVE Online's item database knows, it's woefully out of date. Given the complexity of EVE, and the fact that the collective knowledge of the players is a resource unto itself, the developers announced they would create a sort of Wikipedia for EVE.This player resource, dubbed the "EVElopedia", would also be available via EVE Online's in-game web browser, as confirmed in July. Indeed, CCP Games is putting more emphasis on making EVE into a game that's better integrated with the web and social networking in general.

What we didn't know, however, was when this would actually start to happen. At least, not until today. EVE developer "CCP VonSometime" announced this afternoon that a beta version of the EVElopedia is live, and already has over 6000 pages of content. The official EVE wiki is still in its infancy, but already it's looking to be a useful resource that EVE players didn't have before (beyond combing the forums.) Have a look at the EVElopedia and see for yourself. Or, in the words of CCP VonSometime, "Go forth, explore, and grow the EVE universe. Your community awaits it."

CCP Games launches EVElopedia beta originally appeared on Massively on Wed, 10 Dec 2008 19:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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EVE Online dev blog details new player resource

James Egan — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:30:00 EST

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, News items

Massively touched on the CCP Games announcement back in April of having a 'Wikipedia' of EVE Online, definitive and accessible from within the EVE client. We also mentioned that a new volunteer Interstellar Services Department (ISD) branch, known as YARR, would be responsible for setting up and maintaining the player-driven wiki, which bears the unwieldy moniker "EVElopedia."

EVE Online developer CCP Fear has updated the community on EVElopedia's status and the phases it went through on the way to becoming a useful resource. While EVElopedia isn't quite ready to be rolled out for general use, it's very near completion and will feature an updated item database. CCP Fear states that the database will automatically be updated with each new patch, ensuring that players have up-to-the-minute information at their fingertips upon logging in on patch days. Lastly, it's been confirmed that EVElopedia will be compatible with the in-game browser (IGB) for viewing text and images within the wiki. However, CCP Fear says that editing the wiki will need to be done in a browser out-of-game. Check out this latest dev blog for the full rundown on the EVElopedia project, which is already being discussed on the EVE Online forums.

EVE Online dev blog details new player resource originally appeared on Massively on Thu, 10 Jul 2008 20:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Corum Online's leveling dungeons

Mike Schramm — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST

Filed under: Corum Online, Interviews, MMO industry, PvP, Free-to-play, Casual

MMOFury has a short interview up with Elliot Coward of Corum Online, a free-to-play, microtransaction-funded MMO (from the same company that runs Flyff and a few more originally Korean games). Corum has a nice little twist though -- in this game, not only do players level up, but so do dungeons. During the week, dungeons that have more players going through them will "level up," and get harder monsters to join, and players can even take over dungeons and gain rewards for their control. The Wikipedia page on the game says that things inside are pretty much taken over by high powered groups and guilds, but considering the size of the game, there's still quite a few dungeons that are uncontrolled. Sounds interesting.

To that end, Coward says that the devs are currently working on beefing up the guild system, including building up some systems for guild vs. guild play, and they're always trying to push out more dungeons -- Coward says that "MMOG players can burn through content like a hot knife through butter." Sounds about right to us.

Corum Online's leveling dungeons originally appeared on Massively on Tue, 18 Mar 2008 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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