EQII Extended: Will it save or ruin EverQuest II?

Carefully avoiding the words “jumping” and “on the” and “bandwagon” here, is it true that the “freemium” business model can save the ENTIRE MMO INDUSTRY? Aside from WoW, the only MMO that doesn’t need saving? A couple of years back, you had your free to play MMOs (AKA “cheap Asian games”) and your subscription MMOs … Read more

Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale

If I could, I’d be playing Recettear right now. (It’s pronounced Reh-keh-teer, not RACKETEER! How could you even think such a thing?) It’s only out as a demo right now, and I’ve played the heck out of that. Now and again you come across a game that turns the whole standard RPG tropes on their … Read more

Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning

(This game will absolutely hook me if it becomes the first game to ever look anything like its concept art. Alas.) We’re going to get our first look behind 38 Studios’ veil of secrecy this week when the gaming studio teases their non-MMO, Action RPG-ish game “Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning“. This is not the MMO … Read more

EQ2: Toadsong, the Not-a-Bard

When I start a new MMO, I want to be dazzled — right up front. I know that MMOs want you to start out weak, with few abilities and few decisions to make, and introduce new abilities to you as you progress through the levels…. But I don’t care about all that. Drop me in … Read more