[ESO] Preorders and the "Imperial" Edition

My foray into the Elder Scrolls series began with Oblivion. Put away your pitchforks, I’ve nothing against Morrowind it just wasn’t my first step. Since Oblivion I’ve been in love with the series and have spent until hours in Skyrim living my fantasy of being a wizard, knight, thief, assassin, and occasionally “weirdo that fills the house with cheese wheels.” I am reasonably sure anyone who has ever played Skyrim has at some point been in a dungeon or on an adventure and said to themselves, “Wow, I wish I could bring my friends with me.” So naturally I was intrigued by the idea of an Elder Scrolls Online. It being an MMO I have been skeptical and held it at an arm’s length. My personal feeling about IPs going the MMO route, as I have said before, is that “an MMO is where a series goes to die.”

[Wildstar] Why 40-mans are a bad idea

I have fond memories of Vanilla WoW. I remember the feeling of awe when I first walked into Molten Core as part of a 40-man group. It made such a mark that I can even remember in detail how I ended up in the group; I can remember the first time we killed Ragnaros; I remember rushing home from class to make it home in time for the raid. There are plenty of fond memories but that is because I blocked out most of the negative ones. Like the dozen times the raid almost shattered over loot or strategy disputes. The times we had to cancel because we couldn't get 40 keyed people. Spending hours standing at the beginning of the raid while we tried to fill spots. The list goes on.

[WoW] Gatekeeping and risk aversion

I was reading Liore's post, a response to the posts of two other bloggers, about gatekeeping in MMOs, and I found myself pondering. The issue is that gaming is leisure time, and thus we want to ensure we have fun, which for most of us means success or at least a feeling of progress. In a game involving multiple people that means ensuring that each person in our group is as dedicated and skilled as we are.