GameZig

I just had to make this sound like it’s about games but I’m hijacking this post to show off my new addition to the family.  Abigale Grace was born August 1, 2008 at 8:05 AM and is a tiny 6lbs 4oz beauty.  If you’ve been wondering where I’ve been (because I can feel your concern [...]

The GameZig version of Google’s Lively is a good place to come and chat it up with GameZig bloggers and other gamers. We have a big screen up with some of the latest new game trailers and game footage playing and plenty of room for up to twenty people to come in and socialize. Bring [...]

Mark Jacobs announced some good news and some bad news for Mythic’s upcoming Warhammer Online.  Well, he announced some good news and alluded to other good news, heh.  First we’ll start with the good news, the bit he alluded to:  Warhammer Online won’t be delayed, probably.
 
The other good news, the part he actually did announce [...]

You see the ads for these two game economy wreckers all the time - power leveling and gold farming.  Hell you probably see one right now - wink wink.
 
World of Warcraft is a good example of how powerleveling and gold farming damage a games economy.  Now don’t get me wrong, farming in a game for [...]

Happy 4th of July! I’m taking the day off of blogging to spend the day with my wife and daughter and go watch some good old celebration fireworks. If you are a hardcore gamer - I know a lot of MMORPG’s out there have their own versions of holidays, Star Wars Galaxies had a lot [...]

Today Jagex announced that the anticipated high detail version of Runescape is now available to subscribers in a beta release.  Also with this update, for the first time Runescape will be playable in full screen mode within your internet browser window.  The update utilizes new graphics technologies to enhance the games look and bring it up to [...]

Arcade games are a great way to relax and enjoy a little bit of downtime.Most are a coin-operated entertainment machines, typically installed in businesses such as restaurants, pubs, video arcades, and Family Entertainment Centers. These games are often converted into the latest titles, which is why you rarely see older games in your local arcade. [...]

Even though Diablo 3 is not going to be an MMO it is taking on some of the better traits of one.  One of the noteable changes to this version compared to the others is the character customization.  Gamers will be able to create both male and female versions of every class which has never been [...]

 
 
Blizzard did a 180 turn on us and went from ice to fire to announce Diablo III: And the Heavens Shall Tremble.  The game will not be the next-gen MMO Blizzard has been working on, my bet is still on Starcraft for the theme of that title.  But that’s not to say Diablo III won’t [...]

It’s of course all just speculation and educated, or uneducated as the case may be, guessing.  But there are a few things we do know about the Blizzard trailer - most important of which is that this is a teaser for the announcement of an upcoming new game title from Blizzard.  That means what it [...]

In my ever growing quest to see some changes take place in our fast-becoming stale MMORPG template I’m going to publish more and more ideas. Out of the box thinking is what it will take to spice up upcoming titles and give them something different from the World of Warcraft mold so many games seem to be [...]

Major console systems like the Nintendo Wii, the Sony Playstation platform and Microsoft’s X-Box 360 all seemed to be suffering from the same affliction that has hit our beloved MMORPG genre of PC games - no or low risk game design.  Games like the Grand Theft Auto series are to the console as games like [...]

GameSpot just did some research into what it takes to run Age of Conan and what it takes to run it well.  Unfortunately, the page with the full article appears to be down so I can’t get in and read what the post says - but I can read between the lines.  Having played AoC [...]

Oh the great debates we could have!  I hear people complaining in World of Warcraft battlegrounds all the time when a twink kills them.  They complain because he is uber powerful with all that extra gear!  Being that I’m usually playing a twink myself the complaints go in one ear and out the other without [...]

I was just reading an article by Kevin Murnane over at Massively about greed.  Kevin’s right in that there is a lot of greed in MMO’s - friends stabbing friends in the back for epic loot and the like.  With that in mind I started reflecting on end game content and how in most MMORPG’s the end [...]

Warhammer Online is definitely garnering more and more of my attention lately with the let down of Age of Conan and the repetition of World of Warcraft making me look for new horizons.  Yesterday afternoon I was reading some Ten Ton Hammer interviews with WAR developer Mark Jacobs about the way crafting will work in [...]

I just finished reading a post from Syp over at Waaagh about his predictions on how Warhammer Online will fair in the MMO market and what he thinks are the keys to getting it there.  Syp lists 10 points that he believes will influence the outcome of WAR’s fate down the road, starting with number one, [...]

Dice and Electronic Arts are sitting on a virtual gold mine with the battlefield series as a possible candidate for the next big MMO.  Overall the vast majority of gamer’s fall into one of three main categories: MMORPG, FPS and Strategy.  With a title like the Battlefield series that originated in the FPS and already [...]

I remember the thoughts that ran through my head when I first started reading pre-release info about Star Wars Galaxies, my first step into the MMORPG world.  Before this I was an FPS ’stat’ whore and competition shooter.  I only played first person shooters, mostly in the Delta Force series from Novalogic back in those [...]

Getting back to the MMORPG Cookie Cutter topic, to keep MMORPG’s from getting stale and give developers a fresh perspective on things gamers want, I started thinking about some interesting ways to bone up on features in new and even some current MMORPG titles.  Now, these aren’t necessarily a major overhaul on the whole MMORPG [...]

 
The ultimate goal of any MMORPG is to totally immerse you in the game world.  That’s what keeps you coming back, in the game world you can be whoever you want to be.  You are a jedi knight constantly at odds with the Empire or a rich and powerful merchant.  The original SWG didn’t pull [...]

One thing I’ve always talked about and have thought is missing within most major games since my early days of MMO’s have been the ‘game within a game’ idea, or mini-games.  Star Wars Galaxies had the concept in early development with some mini-games but they quickly were moved to the back burner and never made [...]

Trying to build on the popularity of WAR in the Oceanic community, EA announced recently that they’ll be hosting a dedicated Oceanic server on mainland Australia.  The server will be available for play to anyone in the world but is primarily designed to offer gamers in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and other Southeast Asian territories [...]

I’ve heard the cries of many gamers who are unable to login and play Age of Conan due to a authentication failure during login. According to FunCom, this is in large part due to not properly registering your key from the retail box to your account if you were an Early Access player, like me. [...]

As predicted, when I woke up this morning the download client reported download complete and I began installation before heading into work.  Gotta love Funcom, the installation message “This will take a long time” haha.  Anyway, if you haven’t already tried the auto pause/resume method using the AI Robot or some other macro tool, I [...]

If you pre-order Age of Conan you will get one of three bonus items depending on where you order from.  From what I’ve been able to tell so far, pre-ordering from Amazon.com awards the Amazon Curved Bow as your pre-order bonus item.  Gamestop awards the War Mammoth and I assume the War Rhino comes from [...]

Many people have many different feelings about Star Wars Galaxies. Some people love it just the way it is. But for the most part, many of the original players feel it is a dead game. Compared to the number of subscribers now as to pre-NGE, the old players are right. To [...]

I’ve been playing games online since before the internet was a household term.  Guess that kind of ‘dates’ me a bit, but just want to give you an idea of the spectrum of games I’ve played.  I started out with text or ASCII based games on local bulletin boards running on an 300 baud modem.  [...]