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S.A.R.: Exploring the Drug Culture in World of Warcraft
Welcome back to a special edition of Some Assembly Required. This week, we talk with a WoW player whose guild is founded on one thing: a common love of gaming under the influence of drugs. We explore...
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SAR: Hitting 80 Two Years In
Welcome to this edition of Some Assembly Required, where Syeric looks at being a new 80 in World of Warcraft at the end of an expansion. He’s been there before with his mage, but this time he looks...
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SAR: Warcraft – Merging With the Network
It's finally happened, Facebook is coming to Azeroth If you’ve been online in the past week, then you know about the WoW forum RealID business. The idea that Blizzard will mandate the use of real names...
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SAR: A Gamer’s Life [a Tale of Ten Glimpses]
This week, join Syeric as he looks through the eyes of one online gamer through the years. From MUDs to Warcraft, these are the days of our lives. === I. A boy sits down at a computer in the local...
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SAR: Making the Most of Multiple Games
As a self-proclaimed MMO Nomad, I make it a point to spread my playtime out over multiple titles. The problem is that most MMOs aren’t designed to be anything other than a main game; MMO designers...
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SAR: From the Theme-Park and Into the Sandbox
Me, after a tour of the theme park Over the last couple of years, I’ve had the opportunity to pop back and forth between a lot of games. I’ll admit, most of these are theme park games, so I’m just...
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SAR: Appreciating the Industry
Jeff Kaplan - Blizzard I have a confession to make. Sometimes, I’m a little snarky. I can be quick to judge. And, you know what happens? A developer comes along and decides to comment on my blog. The...
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SAR: On Hype and Satisfaction
If there’s one common thread that ties American MMOs together, it’s their unfailing ability to hype their product beyond all reasonable expectations. MMOs are saviors and inasmuch as games like Guild...
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SAR: The Top X Things to Know About FFXIV
Raise your hand if you realized we have a blockbuster, AAA MMORPG releasing in the next month. Don’t be shy, I’d bet a lot of people didn’t raise their hand, but it’s true. On September 22nd, pre-order...
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SAR: The Rumors and Facts of FFXIV
FFXIV went into open beta this week and I was lucky enough to get a spot. It wasn’t without its challenges though, as you might have guessed. When the beta went live, Square Enix servers promptly fell...
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SAR: PvP is a Loser’s Game
PvP in a nutshell Here’s the deal: over the past couple years, we’ve seen a clamoring of hopeful ex-Counter Strike-turned-WoW players clamoring for “the next great PvP game.” These voices are bad for...
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SAR: Solo or Die (and Other Lessons I Learned in WoW)
I like to think that everything in life is a learning experience; the good, the bad, and the ugly all go into shaping how we see the world – or virtual world, as the case may be. When I sat down to...
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SAR: A Case of Skill
My column on PvP wasn’t very well received. I guess that’s the risk you take speaking out against the main play style of your whole audience. Unlike a lot of people conjectured, though, I hadn’t...
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SAR: The War on the Subscription
Two years ago: we’re all happily playing WoW or LotRO, set with our surcharges and pre-paid time cards. Cash shops will destroy the industry! we cried. I don’t want to be gimped because I can’t pay as...
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SAR: The Hits and Misses of Final Fantasy XIV
Alright, internet, I get it. You’re not very happy with Square Enix. Those big poo-poo heads went and released a game “in shambles” that’s “unfinished” and “doomed to fail.” Holy hyperbole, Batman!...
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SAR: Innovation and Russian Roulette
Innovation. It’s the call that brings players back to roost. Nearly every major release has featured a community joyously proclaiming that their approach was the approach to re-enliven the industry....
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SAR: Richard Foge and the Future of MMOs
Richard Foge. You probably don’t know who he is by him name, but you more than likely have loved his work. He’s the guy behind combat in the God of War franchise, systems designer in Guild Wars, and...
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SAR: TOR – The Next Warhammer Online?
Developer Dispatch: Everything you know about MMOs is wrong. Developer Diary: This is our idea; yes it’s as cool as you think it is. Class Profile: See this? That’s the definition of epic. Your dreams,...
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SAR: Consoles vs. MMOs – Who’s Influencing Who?
Raph Koster has an interesting conversation taking place on his blog. The crux of it is this: are MMOs influencing consoles or consoles influencing MMOs. It’s hard to argue that there’s not some...
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SAR: Things To Be Thankful for in the MMO World
Sometimes we get focused on the negative. We’re probably the worst of all gamer-types, if truth be told. We don’t just play MMOs, we make them a part of our lives; they become a hobby, and yes, in some...
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SAR: You Got Your [BLANK] In My Rift!
The Rift beta is upon us, ladies and gentleman, and if you haven’t gotten a key yet, I’d start scouring now. As we’ve moved ever close to its impending, yet undated, release, I’ve found myself...
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SAR: 5 Tips to Get the Most Out of Cataclysm
That time has come again, boys and girls, and another World of Warcraft expansion is upon us. The lands of Azeroth have been torn asunder and a very upset black dragon is flying the skies, hungry for a...
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SAR: Cataclysmic Thoughts for Cataclysmic People
Wow. Look at this. He’s back. Poor old Syeric takes off for two months, no word, no foul, and here he is again just when we thought he was dead. Well, the good news is that I’m not dead. Only mostly....
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Love in a Time of Text
What follows is Part I of a two part tale. Stay tuned for the conclusion, Monday! In the spirit of this week’s holiday, I thought I’d share a story on love forged in the fires of 1990’s text-based...
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Love in a Time of Text (Part Two)
This is the second part of a two part tale beginning Valentine’s week. It is about a love formed in the early days of online gaming between two souls only known by their names in a full-text world....
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