Heroes of the Storm | Valeera Sanguinar

This post originally appeared on Meta Gamer. Since the website has been closed, I've transferred the post here. The publication date is the original publication date on Meta Gamer. A new hero has arrived in the Nexus - Valeera Sanguinar. A World of Warcraft character, she is a key part of the Rogue Class Hall...

MMO patch promotion: two approaches

Both Guild Wars 2 and World of Warcraft will be launching patches late August by the looks of things (WoW's might end up a bit later).  For GW2 this is the one year anniversary patch entitled 'The Queen's Speech'. For WoW this is 5.4 The Siege of Orgrimmar.  Both have taken different approaches.  Please be aware,...

World of Warcraft | What if … Corgis Unleashed

Again, this is clearly rampant speculation with no basis in reality.  Thats not going to stop me! Setting This will be the first raid.  To free Corgis from their life of luxury. Big Bad The Corgi Dragon New Class Tinker New Race Well, duh! New lore character Captain Corgiwash Apart from these changes I stand...

Group size, challenge and reward, or why do raiders need more powerful gear anyway?

Earlier this week, I was watching Unicorn Duck Shadow Puppet (the Wildstar show) on Gamebreaker.  In the episode, and in chat, there was discussion about how an MMO should cater for different play styles.  A few points from the discussion included: If you aren’t raiding, you don’t need raiding gear. Should an MMO cater for...

Want some carrot with that stick?

When someone behaves badly in a game, players want to see some punishment.  This is true anywhere on line, in fact.  We need to clamp down.  We need to punish. Let me tell you something interesting. Behavioural psychology identifies three methods of reinforcement that can be used to modify behaviour.  Positive reinforcement (reward), negative reinforcement...

When in game stores go bad

In articles recently I’ve defended both ArenaNet and Blizzard against accusations of being money-grabbers out to squeeze you for any penny.  In summary: both companies have to make money in order to make your game.  In the case of ArenaNet, they have kept the store controlled and they repeatedly update things like storage to give...

MMO Guides: Cheating vs Enabling

When new content appears in Guild Wars 2 or SWTOR, there is always a guide on Dulfy to go with it.  The debate every player faces is this: do I use the guide or do I attempt to do the achievement without it?  And when you raid in WoW, do you read up in advance or...

Show me the money

I read this rather interesting blog post from Terra Nova, followed by the Playnomics report on engagement and monetization. Its an interesting read, in particular the information about monetization. First things first – who spent over $7k on a game in one quarter of one year? Do I monetize? Yes and No. WoW has a...

Evolving the guild to enhance social gameplay

I want to talk a bit about guilds and how they enhance or impede social interactions in MMOs. How guilds enhance social interactions When I first started playing WoW it was with my husband and a real life friend of his. Through that friend we discovered other real life friends. Then, after a while, we...

Scum and Villainy Crib Sheet

If you want a detailed guide with pictures, videos, etc. I would suggest Dulfy's guide.  This is a quick run down of what you need to know to kill each boss with no frills.  These are the tactics I have been running - others may also work. Dash'roode (Desert Boss) This boss takes place as...