Well, after having played Lord of the Rings Online for a couple days after my initial reaction, I’ve changed opinions on a couple of points (and I’ve also gained opinions on a couple of new points!).

Read more from " Lord of the Rings Online: Why I like the quests "

Adrian Crook over at freetoplay.biz wrote an incredibly insightful and useful article regarding some strategies that online game designers can use to lower the barriers to entry to their games, as well as keep the players in their games longer while still monetizing a small percentage of them.

Read more from " Removing Barriers and Keeping Players "

Recents posts from Tobold’s and Random-battle have sparked a discussion of sorts on the merits and demerits of player-created content in MMORPGs.

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So I bought Lord of the Rings Online: Shadows of Angmar this past week. I don’t really know why I didn’t buy it at release, other than that I was busy playing Wii and finishing up with the semester right as it came out.
My first impressions of the game are very positive; I’m not really […]

Read more from " Lord of the Rings: The late bloomer "

I’ve been thinking about cross-system gaming lately after seeing some perky advertisements for games for PC that you can play against people on consoles. The whole idea of playing on a computer with a keyboard and mouse against someone with only a controller has been bugging me all week; I’ve come up with a couple points I’d like to share, as well as a couple of questions I’d like to get feedback on.

Read more from " Console and computer games: when they collide "

The fact that Ocarina of Time was such a break-away hit and left such a good taste in so many gamer’s mouths was what I had in mind when I recently sat down and bought all of the Zelda games for sale in my Wii’s virtual console. Reality, however, had other plans.

Read more from " Recapturing the Ocarina (and the Time) "

A recent recommendation from a friend has led to some fun-filled nights recently since I’ve downloaded and started playing Dofus, an MMORPG based on the fundamentals of play that make these games so great.

Read more from " Dofus: innovating the standard procedure "

Citing an increasingly complex economy as well as the wants of major in-game corporations and the need for growth and long-term prosperity for all within the game world, CCP (the company who produces EVE Online) has recently hired a full-time in-game economist.

Read more from " If your economy’s too complex, hire an economist! "

I started talking yesterday about dying in today’s MMO games. I labeled it as “Part 1″, though I wasn’t really sure what I would write for the second part. I knew, however, that writing the first article would get me thinking about it, and I would probably have at least something more to add later on. Well, after stewing on the issue for a little while yesterday and this morning, I have that little extra something to add: Part 2!

Read more from " Death in the RPG: Part 2 "