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Posts with tag anti-aliased

Anti-Aliased: Scare tactics

Filed under: Horror, Culture, Game mechanics, MMO industry, Opinion, Anti-Aliased


Our MMOs are filled with all sorts of emotions -- the excitement of getting to the next level, the surprise of the item you desperately wanted dropping off of a boss, the intense rush of a player vs. player encounter, and the joy of exploration of these fantastic worlds.

But there is one very specific genre and emotion that goes regularly unnoticed in our massively multiplayer gaming experiences. The genre in question isn't anything new to our gaming culture in the slightest, but it just seems that no MMO developer can make a game centered around it.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Scare tactics

World of Warcraft
Anti-Aliased: Pourin' out one for all my guildies

Filed under: World of Warcraft, Fantasy, Culture, Guilds, Opinion, Anti-Aliased


The Twilight Empire of World of Warcraft's Ravenholdt (PvPRP) server is a very diverse guild. They're active roleplayers, dabbling in raids and gearing for 70, frequently aid their members in running instances, and meet often to both roleplay different storylines and just be together. Their leader, Empress Aerana, has high hopes and aspirations for the guild she's built from the ground up at level 20 and has continued to run until this day; almost a year of keeping the guild active on Ravenholdt.

If you're looking at the above picture, you might recognize the paladin standing in the middle of the photo -- that's me, feeling kinda short at the moment. If it wasn't for Twilight Empire, I wouldn't be standing there in that room. The kindness of Aerana and the other guild members persuaded me to pick up my World of Warcraft disc and get back into the game -- something I've never done before for any other guild. With the frequent events, active membership and relaxed nature of the guild, I've felt right at home since I've jumped back in to the game. If it wasn't for the guild, the game wouldn't be half as fun. That's why this edition of Anti-Aliased is devoted to the concept of guilds and how critical they are to online gaming.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Pourin' out one for all my guildies

World of Warcraft
Anti-Aliased: Dr. Podlove, or how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy EVE Online

Filed under: Sci-fi, EVE Online, Culture, Game mechanics, Opinion, Anti-Aliased


I've really been stuck in a rut lately. The only game that really appeals to me anymore is World of Warcraft because of the polish and spit shine that Blizzard put into it over the past few years. When you look at the pinnacle of game design that is WoW, most other games sadly pale in comparison. That, or they blatantly rip off of WoW in such a spectacular fashion that it makes the game almost unplayable due to the fact you will constantly compare it to the original, better source material.

Lucky for me that a month back, Valve struck a deal with CCP and put EVE Online on sale for a weekend via Steam. With cash in my pocket and a song in my heart, I finally dropped the cash to pick up a game that I played at least 10 two-week trials of. It's here that I'm going to finally introduce the catch to this entire article -- I, up until about a week ago, absolutely, positively, hated EVE Online.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Dr. Podlove, or how I learned to stop worrying and enjoy EVE Online

Anti-Aliased: Fourth Edition and the Kamehameha Fallacy

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Anti-Aliased


I've wanted to do a post on Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition for a while now, but I just couldn't put my finger on what I wanted to talk about with it. The rules are very much made in the vein of World of Warcraft -- you can tell that by just opening up the book, going to the classes and seeing all of the various powers that you can obtain by leveling -- and the whole system feels a bit more MMO-ish than normal. The funny part is, if you're expecting a "D&D Fourth Edition blows" rant, you're not going to get one.

Instead, let me entertain your opinions on the way we design our MMOs. This column is dedicated to something I like to call the "Kamehameha Fallacy," otherwise lovingly known as the "Mine's Bigger!!!!!11one" syndrome. This fallacy is the reason you're addicted to MMOs, the reason you hate Dungeons and Dragons Fourth Edition, and the reason today's MMO leader (World of Warcraft) is doomed to fail all wrapped up into one little ball.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Fourth Edition and the Kamehameha Fallacy

Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Anti-Aliased


I'll be blunt -- I hate grouping. Nothing pains me more than grouping up with four of the "internet's finest" and going into a dungeon to kill some monsters. 95% of the time, it seems I'm doomed to find 4chan (NSFW) rejects or screaming 10-year-old kids (NSFW). Of course, these are the parties that take an hour and a half to assemble and only last two rooms into the dungeon. Someone inevitably screws up and gets six mobs on them, and then they instantly turn around and blame the priest for "not being able to heal properly". Of course they don't actually say "not being able to heal properly"; it comes out more like "u suck n00b priest".

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: There's other people there too, ya know.

Anti-Aliased: Don't worry, no one will read it anyway...

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Academic, Anti-Aliased

Kill pathfinders and windtalkers. Forge a new blade. Look in an old library for a man's son. How many quests have we done in our careers in MMOs? Too many, right? That's usually the answer. But when I ask you, "Well, how many quest texts have you read?" Well... that's another story entirely.

We complain about many things... the grind in our favorite games, raids and endgame content, nerfs... People are more than willing to spend time reading patch notes and outside guides for their favorite games, but there's one thing that apparently most gamers don't want to take the time to read. And, ironically enough, it's one of the few few things that spends the most time in front of a player's face - quest text boxes.

Developers, you spend alot of time making sure your content is perfectly tuned into your lore and your history, but be rest assured, very few of your players will take the time to read it or care.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: Don't worry, no one will read it anyway...

Anti-Aliased: I wear funny hats and I'm proud of it

Filed under: Culture, Opinion, Roleplaying, Anti-Aliased


Since when did role-playing become a dirty word? Apparently even mentioning the initials of the dreaded "RP" is enough to make people want to prove John Gabriel's Greater Internet Dickwad Theory as loudly as possible. Players go out of their way to make others feel uncomfortable and to ruin any sort of fun some people may have. Is it because it's the internet? Or have we forgotten the history of the role-playing game?

Because I can't exactly spend a whole column talking about the horrors of the internet (NSFW) I'm going to be focusing on the place of role-playing and how it got interjected into these online games of ours.

Continue reading Anti-Aliased: I wear funny hats and I'm proud of it

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