Tobold's Blog

[...] made sense. Of course the amount of content on the internet quickly exploded, and that business model went out of the window. The next big idea, which led to the dot.com bubble was that you [...]

[...] Carbine announced that they are "rethinking" the business model of Wildstar. Most people interpret that as switching to some sort of Free2Play model. [...]

[...] property. I think games like Dungeons & Dragons have fundamental problems in their business model which makes taking them online difficult. There are unresolved issues between how WotC * [...]

[...] One of the big lessons of the last years in online gaming is that the business model that works for the market leader does not necessarily work for the average game, because [...]

[...] you happy or unhappy. They can help you to achieve your goal, or they can frustrate you. For game companies that poses a problem. They would like to have positive player interaction, because they can [...]

[...] often have contracts that include bonuses based on Metacritic scores, because game companies think that those scores result in sales. I wonder what the bonus for the marketing [...]

[...] you can still get away with. A brand name is a form of capital that shouldn't be wasted. Game companies better rethink their strategies for sequels before they do irreparable harm to their brand [...]

[...] trying to make the best possible game of that genre. That is the secret sauce that game companies making WoW clones for a decade never understood. World of Warcraft isn't successful [...]

[...] it cost to remove the suck. Three decades later and I'm applying the same thought process to Free2Play games. How good is the free version, knowing perfectly well that it is in some way crippled? And [...]

[...] epics would obviously suffice for an Achiever. The main concern that Achievers have with Free2Play games is that they consider the epic gear to be not just the necessary equipment, but also as the [...]

[...] j3w3l claims that Free2Play games are financed by "Joe “I am stuck at the laundromat because the parents cut me off” [...]

[...] much on your familiarity with Free2Play concepts. Whatever semantics you want to use, but Free2Play games definitively do want to seduce / trick / trap you into spending more than you intended. If [...]

[...] In the previous session the Favorites of Selune were on the way to a beholder's cave with a magical spring which [...]

[...] In the previous session the Favorites of Selune were unexpectedly transformed into svirfneblin (dark gnomes) and had [...]

[...] In the previous session the Favorites of Selune killed a dragon in return for the druid Bredel advising them on how [...]

[...] In the previous session the Favorites of Selune arrived in the Underdark and after a fight with some troglodytes [...]

[...] Game design is a big subject on this blog. But my interest in it is not just that of a player of games. I [...]

[...] group has tactical options that don't exist in solo play. But I have to question the wisdom of game design where your level of advancement in the game determines whether you should play solo or play [...]

[...] best players considerably outperforming the average ones. All of this leads to some problems in game design. Games tend to be most enjoyable if they are neither too hard, nor too easy for the person [...]

[...] of human nature, and people having different goals. On the other hand that is a problem of game design, or more specifically the inability of the group finder to actually group people together who [...]

[...] say it is because it is a PvP sandbox game, others say that it is because it is a Free2Play game. I really don't care. I simply don't want to play with assholes all day, regardless of [...]

[...] playing a lot would find access more expensive than the person playing very little. In a Free2Play game, access to the game is given away for free. But that is where free ends. If that is all you [...]

[...] need. I think buying games blindly is a bad idea, and buying virtual goods and services of a Free2Play game blindly without having first played the game is an even worse idea. Tobold's Blog [...]

[...] ;burned by ArcheAge" and asked "How how much time and resource do you waste on a Free2Play game before you realise its Pay2Win?". My answer to that question is that this depends very [...]

[...] by cultural relevance and education value still makes some sort of sense. I was born before computer games even existed, and my childhood was filled with books. A whole lot of my education comes from [...]

[...] NOTHING. :( They left town and decided to do their training with the svirfneblin. Unlike computer games where not resolving a story can totally block you from advancing to the next chapter, in a [...]

[...] different directions. The big advantage and opportunity of tabletop role-playing compared to computer games is that the DM can add elements to the story on the fly. For example in this week's session [...]

[...] those sites weren't really huge, they were big in the niche they operated in: Writing about computer games, and specifically the MMORPG niche. Gone are Joystiq, Massively, and WoW Insider. The overall [...]