Paeroka’s Ponderings: When is a game worth your money?

I know there are a lot of gamers with a huge backlog of games and a bad conscience whenever they get yet another game even though there is this long list of games they never or hardly played. Most of the time, I compare the money I spent on the game with the amount of …

Paeroka’s Ponderings: Gear and level-advantages in PvP

Some time ago, I read a topic in the German section of the Black Desert Online forum where a player suggested that the game's PvP may be better if there were no level-advantages as a higher level gives better stats, for example. He was laughed at by others and called "carebear" for wanting that. Unfortunately, …

Gaming disappointments of 2015

In general, 2015 has been a really good year for me gaming-wise (or in general even!), but there are also a few negative points that stick out for me. Not games in general, but part of the games that I otherwise liked or was looking forward to. So if you see something on the list …

Diversity in regional design: Spring

I really love spring in "real life". When the sun starts to feel warm on your skin again. The snow is melting (if there had been some). The first birds are chirping again in the morning (as opposed to the cooing of pigeons). The trees and first flowers are starting to bloom. It's just something …

Class names and expectations

I was just baking some bread while listening to a Trove stream (this one, to be precise) when the streamer was asked if Trove was going to add a healing class any time soon. I thought: Oooh, I would love that! But the streamer's reply surprised me. "Yes, the candy barbarian will be somewhat of …

Then & Now: Reliving the newbie experience (1-5)

With the recent feature patch, ArenaNet released the new player experience. There has been quite a lot of controversy around the related changes. For example, your skills unlock one by one when you level up. The last one, your elite skill, is not available until you hit level 40 (it was at level 30 before). …

What about Guild Wars 2’s endgame*?

Two years ago, in July 2012 - and thus, before Guild Wars 2 was released - there was the usual pre-launch discussion that happens with every MMO: What will the endgame be about? Will the game even have meaningful endgame? I had joined the discussion here in our blog and posted my own thoughts about …

Rebuilding Lion’s Arch…?

When the latest patch got released, I headed over to the forum to read the patch notes as I always do, but when I read the part about Lion's Arch, I logged into the game to see it with my own eyes. I can't tell you how disappointed I was - and yes, I may …

The excitement of getting an expansion

If you're following Rift, you may have noticed that they're handling their second expansion, Plane of Water, differently than they did the previous one or than what other MMO developers are usually doing: Instead of giving you everything at once, they are giving us the expansion piece by piece. The reason they stated is that …

Housing in MMOs: Lord of the Rings Online

There are many things I want and expect from MMOs and one thing is housing. I love feeling as if I was in a virtual world and for me, having a little home in there that I can customize is just part of it. I've been what I call a "housing tourist" in some MMOs... …