Monthly Archives: March 2011
The Cult of the Valve
If there’s a gaming studio that still seems to enjoy unmitigated goodwill from players, it’s probably Valve. Blizzard has long since been removed from being seen as even remotely friendly (as Zubon humorously notes, there was a time when the … Continue reading
The Aftermath Slump
I don’t know quite why this is the case, but BioWare games always put me in a funk after the ending. Maybe it’s inevitable, really – Dragon Age II was the only new game I’ve been looking forward to for … Continue reading
Filed under Bioware, Craziness, Dragon Age, Star Wars: The Old Republic
“I design best when I design least.”
I say it a lot, I know I like to overstate it, but I’m still always happy to see more posts advocating the need for simplicity in design. Sara’s post here is focused on design for amateurs, but I think … Continue reading
Filed under Design
Dynamic Content Will Not Save Us All
I couldn’t tell you exactly why – something in the water, I’d guess – but MMO fans seem to love two things. The first is proclaiming that MMOs are suffering from a massive design rut, which is something I can … Continue reading
Filed under Design, Design Direction, Guild Wars, RIFT
Dragon Age II Travelogue: Skipping ahead
While I had been trying to keep a more steady pace through Dragon Age II, due in no small part to the fact that I knew what would happen when that changed… well, I couldn’t keep it up forever. Over … Continue reading
Filed under Bioware, Dragon Age, Recurring Bits
The Moderate Impass
If you’ve been following the reviews of Dragon Age II via aggregate sites such as Metacritic, you’ve probably noticed an interesting phenomenon. Critics have produced reviews that fall within the high end just below the perfect scores – you know … Continue reading
Filed under Bioware, Craziness, Dragon Age
Slay and Pray
One of the potential items you can unlock in Dragon Age II (I promise, this is not another travelogue entry) is the belt Hindsight, a rather clever item that (in-universe) evolves protection that would have saved its master after its … Continue reading
Filed under Broken Parts, Design
PAX East 2011: People are Neat
The original PAX East kicked off my media career insofar as con attendance went. Longtime readers of this blog, aside from being fictional entities, will remember that I wasn’t super-jazzed after the dust had settled. Part of that is just … Continue reading
Dragon Age II Travelogue: Into the Depths
Whilst I’ve been doing my level best to avoid any real spoilers here in the very visible space, I’ve reached a point where it’s no longer realistic to keep doing these updates without any spoilers whatsoever. As a result, I’ve … Continue reading
Filed under Bioware, Dragon Age, Recurring Bits
PAXpression
I am back from PAX, and it was a great time, even with the bouts of running around like a madman. I’ve also got quite a store of posts saved up as a result, extolling the virtues of my Massively … Continue reading
Filed under Administrative, Dragon Age, Star Wars: The Old Republic
