The design and business of gaming from the perspective of an experienced developer

Month: April 2005 (Page 2 of 2)

The Eight Inevitable Stages of the Permadeath Debate

1. Inquiry. “Hey, I know we’ve been talking about MUDs and permadeath for 25 years, but I bet no one’s thought of this angle!!”

2. Despair. “Please, Not the Permadeath Debate Again”, “Permadeath debates always drive me crazy”, “So I was going to stay the hell out of the permadeath discussion Damion started for no apparent reason other than, perhaps, that we were boring him.” ” I’m rather tired of recurring topics that do not go anywhere”. Funny, everyone hates the debate, but no one can resist jumping into it. Continue reading

The Problem with MMOs

This made me laugh.

You want to know why MMORPGs all suck so much? I’ll tell you why: in a word, players. The fucking players are single-handedly  responsible for fucking up every MMOG since Everquest. Until they are silenced or eliminated, MMOGs will continue to be the bastion of mediocrity they have always been.

I’m Watching Too Much TV

Dave Rickey has something to say about the panic that television executives are feeling about the rise of computer games as an alternative life diversion. By his count, MMO players who used to watch the 28 hours of TV that most people watch now play MMOs for 20 hours a week and watch TV for 8. Which is to say, they’re not necessarily socially more degenerative than the norm. Hell, they’re the ones actually interacting with other people!

All that being said, I’m watching too much TV right now. Getting a DVR will do this to you. I go through phases with hobbies, and currently, I’m playing MTGO on a laptop while my fiance watches TV. A DVR helps a lot – erasing the commercials makes it much easier to justify wasting any amount of your life on TV. Here’s what I’m watching. Continue reading

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