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Also, a tip for the future: never fucking do that. Do NOT bring up an ex or any other guy for that matter as if you feel inferior. I don"t care if she"s gawking at some dude on the sidewalk or something when she"s with you. You do that too much and you become less and less attractive in her...

Tough it out if she"s really what you want. If you have the time you can do things like watch shows together over the net. I know it sounds lame, but it works. I dated a girl that loved doing that when we couldn"t see each other. We"d just both get online (hulu or netflix or whatever) and watch...

Well, it is looking like I can continue to help Kenny out without divulging the information. Things are sort of taking the right course without me doing it. He asked me to have a few beers earlier this evening and as we talked I could tell he was really on the fence about the whole thing. To...

Yeah, she"s pretty unwound and on various drugs. She has actually showed up at the office screaming and throwing shit whenever she and Kenny had fights in the past. She depends on him for money and general care even though she draws a check (it isn"t enough to sustain her habits) so if she knows...

This is correct and is definitely part of my dilemma. I worked with him and we got along well, but he"s not someone I hang out with regularly or even see anymore now that we aren"t working together. My only contact with him is IMing. That said, I still hate holding info that could wake this guy...

Need some advice my dear FoH companions. Not so much for my own relationships, but my role in someone elses drama here. The backstory: I"ve worked with this guy, Kenny, for nearly a year. He"s an all right dude, and has been married to this chick we"ll call Casey for the past 10 years...

I say that because in 2005 WoW was still new, the literal explosion of popularity hadn"t quite happened yet. Sure it was huge with MMO gamers, but it was awhile after that when it really started to penetrate the mainstream. I think a lot of female gamers came in after the word of mouth really...

I wasn"t saying it would make or break it, but having wider appeal is certainly something to consider. Usually, if a casual gamer (gender aside, not trying to be sexist here) can just sit down and enjoy your game, you have something good on your hands. I don"t know if its something...

This is exactly what I was saying needs to be avoided. I certainly think there"s room for a big ground-based sci-fi game, but I would hope it wouldn"t be done like this. WoW is great, yes, but copying its gameplay does not equal success. WoW"s success is beyond the design, beyond the...

There"s no way a Starcraft MMO would have the same mass market appeal that WoW does. I"m sure it"d be popular, but not nearly on the same level. Keep in mind that a large part of Starcraft"s success was its level of balance and highly competitive play. Could they recapture that in an MMO? People...

Precisely, and that"s the problem with all of these games that look at WoW as their design bible. I"m not saying WoW didn"t do anything right, far from it, it"s the best designed MMO ever made and I can say that even through my EQ nostalgia. But it"s far, far from perfect at the same time...

WoW is just an absolute phenomenon. I don"t think you can relate subscription rates to design choices at this point. I"m pretty sure they could do anything they wanted, terrible design or great design, and the subs will just keep rising. It"s unlike anything else at this point. It"s grown to the...

I hated this. It was one of the worst things about EQ2. "Here, try this dull, generic archetype for 20 levels so you can be sure whether or not you wanted to roll a Ranger!" It just doesn"t make sense to me to assume that people don"t know what they want or would like, so you try to ease...

Agreed. If nothing else, you should have a free trial of some sort right at launch. Nothing shows confidence in your product more than "Don"t take our word for it, try it for free." If your tutorial is interesting and story driven, ending on a high note that conveys how huge the world is...

They were boring, but the concept itself is a good one. Most tutorials act like the person is an absolute retard, which isn"t necessary. I get that you might feel that shooting for the lowest common denominator is the way to go with something like that, but it often just makes it feel...

I think tutorials are good, but the way they"ve been done in every MMO so far is pretty meh. I agree the pop up boxes are the worst conceivable way to do it. No one wants to read that nonsense, they want to play. The LOTRO ones are almost good, but they still rely too much on the text boxes...

It would be if gnome players actually got to start there and sort of see the events that cause Gnomeregan to be evacuated. That"d actually be an awesome starting instance. Then when the player sees it in game later on it resonates with them much more than it does in the game now where just start...

While that"s an understandable argument James, it goes back to the whole balance thing. For me, I"d rather see fun put before that. I want different flavors in a tank, from both a roleplay and gameplay point of view. It doesn"t matter to me if they all tank the same mobs just as well as the...

Glad to hear it. I think it"s definitely worth giving each race a unique starting experience that really ties the player into the lore and history of their race. One thing I"ve always wanted to see was a starting area that was actually in a high level, dangerous zone. You"d start out and be...

It"s not just about more survivability, though. That comment was in reference to solo play and leveling - people would find it appealing to level up as a solid DPS class with the ability to keep itself going far easier than something like a Rogue that has no healing. This means incentive to roll...

Where"s the issue with it? Seems like trying to make everyone completely even causes more problems than it solves and is a total balance nightmare of constant tweaking and retweaking. I would love for a game to come along and say " Properly played Rogues and Wizards are going to be the top...

Not really. I brought up the Cleric example earlier for how one could play like a more traditional healing class, still targeting people and casting normal heals. That would be for the people who enjoy that style of play. In this case, the DPS side of the class would be automated while the...

But that"s exactly what the hybridization that we discussed earlier solves. That"s the entire point I"m trying to make here. What do you always have too much of? DPS. What if 3 out of 4 healersplayedlike DPS, and did respectable DPS only below pure Rogues/Mages? Suddenly a lot more people...

I guess my stance on it is there"s no need to reinvent the wheel here. You could try, and it might turn out great, or it might turn out awful (see AoC"s attempt to make combat more "involved", that probably sounded great in the meeting room) and spell the doom of your game before it even gets...

Agreed. I think "remove healers totally" is a sledgehammer solution to a problem that needs looked at by a fine scalpel. There"s nothing wrong with healing itself, imo, it"s just a problem with the class mechanics most of the time. Basically, if you"re designing a healer, after asking "is...

Yeah, its for funneling purposes. Imagine if you zoned into South Karana from god knows what part of NK and had to find a quest hub. Not an easy task. With the mountains they can be sure to sort of guide you where you need to go or at least stick points of interest in your face as you move...

Yeah, I like that more causal games like Free Realms and Wizard 101 let you summon friends to your side, and its particularly handy when doing RAF on WoW. I think I came up with a pretty good system last year that sort of combines elements from various travel systems I"ve liked in other games...

I"m personally over flying mounts. It was cool for awhile but now I really feel like I could take it or leave it. The only thing I love about them is the speed in which they get me where I need to go, and that can be replaced fairly easily. I hate flight paths though. I mean, sure, it"s...

It doesn"t have to be that much different from the standard model, it"s mostly tweaking how the classes are played. For example, you might have a Healer/DPS who can place a buff on a target, and that target will be healed for X amount of the damage done by the healer. In addition, anytime the...

Sure, some balance is necessary, but there"s no reason to constantly change and rearrange everything seeking some semblance of true balance which can likely never be achieved anyway. Paladins never should"ve been main healers. What if they were inferior to Priests in healing, yes, but got to...

I pretty much agree with this. I wouldn"t go so far as to say I hate balancing and it shouldn"t be attempted, but it is overrated and, especially in Blizzard"s case, it is often overdone. I think their main issue is 1.) too many specs, and 2.) too many buffs/debuffs. Homogenizing a lot of...

I"d also suggest keeping your art style consistent throughout the life of the game, with enhancements being very subtle. WoW for example, you can look at any zone and recognize it as WoW, even though some of the models have improved or textures have become more complex. It has a solid...

Big Huge Games still exists in Maryland, and while we don"t know exactly how things might shift around, I believe it"s safe to assume they will still be working on their own titles as well. It doesn"t mean that the entire company is now working on Copernicus. As for the "Oblivion people"...

Yep, making mounts that important would shape the entire game towards it. It"d be too much of a focus. I"m fine with them just being speed buffs, makes it easier to include super rare mounts without anyone crying too much about if they"re just cosmetic.

Yeah, a lot of it is going to be personal taste. I think Zangarmarsh is one of the prettiest zones, some of my friends hate it. Caliane lists Netherstorm/SMV as ugly, but I thought they were gorgeous and fantastic in effectively conveying the feel of dangerous areas on the edge of the map...

Yep, not to mention it"d be an itemization nightmare unless you had scaling items too. Loot is already boring enough in WoW with the 10/25 man versions, this would just make it worse. Pass.

This might be a controversial statement to make, but I don"t think you should ever design something with the intent of curbing gold farmers unless there"s no way it would affect a normal player. In fact, I might go so far as to say if gold farming is rampant then your game is probably pretty...

Because the tooth (or whatever the dropped item might be) is a component that can be used to make multiple items. It"s up to the crafter what he or she chooses to make with it (or what the guild asks them to make), whereas if just the item itself dropped that is the only choice. Yeah, it"s a...

True, but I think it would have a significant effect on that initial vanilla leveling experience and allow crafting to really solidify early on. It"d be important, it"d be rewarding, and a lot of people would be interested in doing it. This is essentially the opposite of how crafting feels in...

Another random thought here, inspired by the interview with Salvatore above which got me thinking back to my early EQ days, within the first weeks the game launched when people thought Bronze Armor was amazing. In WoW, you can basically find a magic weapon lying around in the bushes. You kill...