Over the past few years, I’ve tried out more than a few MMOs. Most of them have been of the RPG ilk, a couple have been more of a shooter experience, and a few others have attempted to go for something else entirely. Across all of them, however, I’ve noticed that there are certain things [...]
29Apr10
MMO Expectations
10Oct09
Critiquing The Aion UI
When you’ve seen and worked with game UIs as much as I have, you tend to be able to spot some issues in a UI without even really using it much. Other issues, however, can be a lot more subtle and won’t rear their heads until you’ve actually taken the time to use them for [...]
Traditional computer games don’t tend to change much when they’re released in countries beyond their original target. They typically get the dialogue and interface translated, perhaps a few name tweaks, and occassionally certain specific elements get modified to meet certain countries’ laws (such as restrictions on pandas or skeletons in China). But even those changes [...]
If I were forced to guess, I’d probably be safe with the assumption that cheating has been an issue for nearly as long as online multiplayer games have existed. As more and more games move into the realm of internet play, the question of how to deal with those who choose not to play by [...]
Since this weekend and the coming week has been/will be a bit busy, this latest post from me is something I’ve previously written, but it was sort of hidden away on a different site. I’ve reposted it here for your reading pleasure. There are basically 3 types of endgame elements most modern MMOs have available: [...]
18Aug09
When Will We See REAL Crafting?
Crafting in MMORPGs has always seemed lackluster to me. Even though it varies in exact nature from game to game, it can almost always be summed up as the following: Look up recipe. Get ingredients for said recipe. Press button. Receive finished product. While this process has its benefits (it’s straightforward, for starters), it doesn’t [...]
17Aug09
The UI is a Tool
I witnessed an interesting conversation tonight in the regional chat of one of the MMORPGs I currently play. Most of the conversation was centered around one particular individual and those responding to him, regarding the matter of unit frames. (For those of you not familiar with the term, “unit frames” are the portions of an [...]
Games have to be the ultimate user-driven application: they don’t actually provide any useful service beyond what the player perceives (well, unless you’re in the RMT industry). You’d think that because of this, games would have some of the most well-designed user interfaces out there – but it seems like a lot of the time, [...]
