Isarii and the Eldritch Horror of Ikea

I awoke this morning of heavy mind. Though my night’s rest had amounted to the perfunctory level of sleep demanded by a human body, the events of the day to come had taken their toll upon my resting psyche. In the waning hours of the preceding day, a sinister presence had invaded my living space, its cubic form the specter of labor future. As I gazed upon its shadowed visage, the cube, antagonized by the insolence of my resentful gaze, carried out a vicious attack upon my muddled mind. I would require supplies for the events ahead.

What are eSports like live? A layman’s trip to Heroes of the Dorm

Competitive gaming and eSports have emerged from their pupal shells as a burgeoning industry over the last few years, quickly carving out a space for themselves in the mainstream entertainment media. It’s hard to believe it was only a year ago when America was collectively baffled by Heroes of the Dorm, Heroes of the Storm’s collegiate level competition, debuting on ESPN2. Since that groundbreaking moment, eSports from around the world have progressed by leaps and bounds, with the market now attracting high profile investors like Mark Cuban who are ready to capitalize on the growing potential.

Curious to learn more about the emerging eSports phenomenon, I hopped in my truck and headed for this year’s Heroes of the Dorm finals in Seattle to answer the titular question: what are eSports like live?

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

I’ve always been wary of games that try to tackle historical events, because they rarely seem to get their subject matter right. There’s something disrespectful about historical games like the early Call of Duty titles, which placed players into real wars that real people fought and died in, exploiting those experiences by transforming them into mindless entertainment for the…

Playing Alone Together and Pay-to-Win

Possibly the best defense of pay-to-win games I’ve come across, if you can even call it that, is simply that the player in question “doesn’t care”. No elaborate sophistry about the existential nature of a win state in an MMO, no invention of obfuscating terminology like “pay-for-convenience”, just the simple statement that they don’t care.…

MMO Monetization Gone Wild

Not this again! I know, I know – there’s nothing the MMO blogosphere likes to talk about more than MMO monetization, and while a lot has been said on the topic, I think there’s still value in adding to the cacophony of public opinion. MMO Monetization used to be so simple. At first we had subscription…

Star Citizen and the Importance of Collaborative Accomplishment

This article touches on probably the biggest and most important thing I don’t fully understand. What will groups of players come together to accomplish in Star Citizen? Not on the small-scale – I understand exploration, mining, etc… but what will guilds have as long-term goals? How will they leave their mark on the face of the ‘verse? In today’s article, I wanted to explore that idea.