Nerfbat - Grouchy Gnome
Game design, development, and industry commentary by MMO Game Designer Ryan Shwayder.
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1 hour 41 min agoAugust 28, 2008
01:07
In most of the opinions about Warhammer Online I’ve seen so far, people have commented about how amazing Public Quests (PQs) are. They talk about how every traditional MMO from here on needs them because they are so ridiculously fun in WAR. What I haven’t seen mentioned is how incredibly unfun they are going to [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 27, 2008
13:50
Mythic should really make that a bumper sticker. Despite my ranting about non-current Mythic employees not getting credit for helping create Warhammer Online, I’m excited about the game after the preview weekend. I’ve been messing with the Road to WAR site, and now I’m collecting the heads of my enemies.
Road to WAR is a fun [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 26, 2008
13:52
If you didn’t hear last week, Mythic is only including current employees in the credits for Warhammer Online. This is a terrible idea; everyone who worked on the game should get the credit they deserve. Sure, some of their work may have been completely removed from the game, but that doesn’t mean they didn’t help [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 21, 2008
23:45
I’ve been a game designer for a little under 2 years now. I have a lot of ideas. Some of them are good, some of them are bad, some of them are further to the extremes. As I continue making games, I must acknowledge that someone somewhere has had or will have the same idea [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 18, 2008
13:43
I’ve made no secret that I’m looking forward to checking out Warhammer Online. I have the game pre-ordered for in-store pickup and I’m a member of a wish-we-were-still-hardcore casual guild called Casualties of WAR. Mythic recently launched a fun little site called Road to WAR in which players acquire real life territories for gold and [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 17, 2008
22:40
Lucky episode #5 of the Massive Guys on Massive Games podcast is now available. Hosts Ryan “Blackguard” Shwayder and Steve “Moorgard” Danuser discuss the Olympics, Michael Phelps, Alicia Sacramone, and PvP in the latest episode.
Show Notes:
- You can find future episodes via the podcast feed or by hitting up MMOPodcast.com.
- If you’d like to download [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 14, 2008
16:51
We’ve taken the 5 pieces of concept art we revealed over the past couple weeks and made wallpapers out of them. They’re available in the most 5 most common screen resolutions of people who visit the 38 Studios website, so I apologize if the resolution you use isn’t available. I’m sure someone out there will [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 13, 2008
13:52
There’s a raid in Final Fantasy XI that is intended to take 18 hours to defeat. It’s called Absolute Virtue. This is, at best, a very ill-informed design flaw, but I believe it to actually cross the line into being truly unethical and outright dangerous. If that wasn’t enough, there is also a more difficult [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 12, 2008
15:18
“A quiet reverence hung within the grand chamber as the ministers of justice debated their verdict.” Along with a brief interview with Todd McFarlane, IGN has revealed the final piece of concept art that we unveiled at Comic-Con. If you missed any of the other four pieces, you can check them out at Ten Ton [...]
Categories: Bloggers
14:47
I joined a guild for Warhammer Online called Casualties of WAR. It’s founded by and comprised of bloggers and friends of bloggers, and is off to a great start. We’ll have branches in both Order and Destruction (I’m planning on going Order), and you’ll see many familiar faces from the blogosphere like Genda, JoBildo, Ethic, [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 11, 2008
00:26
I’ve talked before about recapturing the magic in games and trying to replicate it from a design standpoint, but recently I’ve decided to relive some old games. I picked up all of the Thief and Fallout games, both of which occupy places in my top three or so games of all time. But, I already [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 5, 2008
15:37
Fury is closing down. It’s not a big surprise, but it’s still sad to see a game go both for the players who enjoyed it and for the developers who worked hard on the game. 48 hours is pretty short notice, but I guess it’s a bit like the band-aid theory (shut down the game [...]
Categories: Bloggers
August 4, 2008
22:38
Ever want to meet the man who invented the home video game console? You can! Ralph Baer is the very special guest speaker at tomorrow’s (that’s a Tuesday, NOT a Wednesday) Boston Post Mortem. It begins at 7:00PM on Tuesday, August 5 at The Skellig in Waltham, MA. Devs and non-devs are welcome. More info [...]
Categories: Bloggers
July 31, 2008
15:22
Paul Barnett discouraged developers from playing WoW? The thought is that playing other games, especially market leaders like World of Warcraft, can corrupt a designer into copying them to some degree. I agree that the game is a work of flawed genius, but I don’t really agree with not playing other massively multiplayer games for [...]
Categories: Bloggers
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