Vague Patch Notes is a meta design column by Eliot Lefebvre. [Follow this column’s RSS feed]
vague patch notes
Vague Patch Notes: Control archetypes in MMORPGs are dead, but also they aren’t
Recently, we got a very fun podcast question from Merp asking if control/debuff archetypes in MMORPGs were dead. This is a good question! It's...
Vague Patch Notes: MMORPG development is a guessing game
So the next update for Warframe is a couple of weeks away, and I have to say, the promise of Duviri but with my Warframe...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO fans create divisions that do not exist
There is a constant debate in the World of Warcraft fan space that you have no doubt seen at this point, but it is...
Vague Patch Notes: What makes MMO monetization predatory?
I am really, really excited to be writing our limited series over in Gachapwned because I feel it's going to be an interesting deep-dive...
Vague Patch Notes: Challenge and rewards in MMOs are made up
All right, folks, pop quiz. I want you to name for me the first major raid in Ultima Online. That was the first game...
Vague Patch Notes: Maybe chill out about the metagame in MMORPGs
Today, we're going to do a thing. But it's going to be a kind of unusual thing. I want you to find a piece...
Vague Patch Notes: Not every MMO mechanic you dislike is a bad one
There is a category of responses to any column about mechanics, and it came up with the recent couple of columns about level scaling,...
Vague Patch Notes: Level scaling in MMOs with the lateral spread and the temporary shrink
Last week I talked about how MMORPGs use level scaling to accomplish actually useful and important goals. In short, there is an issue with...
Vague Patch Notes: The problem with level scaling in MMOs
Last week, as I talked about the problems with horizontal progression, long-time commenter Rick Mills asked if I would write a column about level...
Vague Patch Notes: What’s so hopeless about horizontal progression in MMOs?
A few weeks ago, I talked about power creep when it comes to MMOs in general, and one of the things I mentioned as...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO you play isn’t always the MMO that was designed
There was, for a brief period of time, a window when World of Warcraft was moving toward a more deterministic gear structure that de-emphasized...
Vague Patch Notes: If you have my money, you’d better have my video game
So over the last couple of weeks Lord of the Rings Online has made itself quite a mess to clean up. It's not the...
Vague Patch Notes: Learning to hate the MMORPGs you love
I had to teach myself how to hate Star Trek Online. It didn't come naturally to me.
If you've read the stuff that I've written...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO starter experiences that fear new players
Last week, I talked a bit about power creep. But buried in there was something that you could easily miss as a guideline for...
Vague Patch Notes: Talking about power creep in MMOs
"Power creep" is a nasty term when talking about video games, and usually whenever it gets brought up, it gets brought up as a...
Vague Patch Notes: How long should you wait before opining on major changes in MMORPGs?
Earlier this week, I had a column about a major change in Final Fantasy XIV's content delivery schedule that had some pretty big effects....
Vague Patch Notes: Understanding what you understand in MMOs
One of the most dangerous and yet often-used phrases to say to anyone when it comes to pretty much any media is to claim...
Vague Patch Notes: How long do online games truly get to live?
I'm going to start this article by asking a question I don't actually want an answer to: How long has Minecraft been popular?
Objectively there...
Vague Patch Notes: Bad MMOs happen – but not because nobody cares
When I first started working at Massively-that-was, I got a bit of a wake-up call pretty early on when I made a joke about...
Vague Patch Notes: The war of the MMO builds
Talking about your build in an MMORPG can be oddly contentious with people. On the one hand, you are inevitably going to have people...
