“The biggest reason they matter is that they [pointless details] are the gears that make emergent behavior possible. But another important reason is that they’re memorable. Interesting. Quirky.” – Eric, at Elder Game

I was when I first encountered it. Things have not improved since. For one, I can’t throw a stone in Moria without hitting an orc that’s carrying a legendary item for me to pick up. (Once I’ve dealt with the angry mob of course. For some reason, throwing stones in Moria or even jumping into […]

“People can buy free-range chickens and baby bottles with no carcinogens. I want to buy games without lawyers.” – Klepsacovic

“Facebook games are invariably free to play. “Free to play” is a clever little phrase which masks the idea that they are possibly not free to enjoy.” – Tim Rogers

The title of this post is full of lies. There are still people who play in groups in MMOs and I don’t really know the reasons as to why the others don’t anymore. What I do know is why I rarely play in a group these days if it isn’t a group of friends. My […]

“The current Design challenge in games…Understanding that Quantity of information from users is not the same as Quality information from users.” – Paul Barnett, Bioware on Google+

I’m deliberately choosing not to engage in the whole difficulty debate. I enjoy difficult games (and will still play MMOs, Spinks!) up to a point and I don’t like much of what has been done in that regard in recent MMOs. That’s all I’ll say about the topic, check all those other awesome bloggers for […]

The other day I got a funky quest reward in Lord of the Rings online: A one-time use item that can be used to snare a monster (supposedly for easy killing.) I don’t know if these are commonly available elsewhere, but I’ve only seen this one so far and find it both curious and problematic.

“No. I am legitimate. The only thing I looked up is that I couldn’t find the last two golden watermelons in the Rio version. I couldn’t find them. I was like, ‘Where are the watermelons?!’” – Yvonne Strahovski, on collider.com

The other day there was a small discussion over on Google+ concerning Orson Scott Card, his homophobia, and the question of whether or not one should still buy the books even if one has a great distaste for the author. This extends to other products, including games as well. Me, I might seem torn on […]