Diablonomics: How Diablo 3's Auction House Makes It Feel Pointless

  Enjoying Diablo 3 too much to bother with the Auction House yet? Heard some of the stories about the things you can find on the Auction House? Wondering whether or not you should check it out? DON’T DO IT.

Blizzard and Bioware's MMOs: Telling Stories From Opposite Directions

There’s a lot of presumption out there that MMORPGs can’t or don’t tell stories like their single-player counterparts. Me, I think it’s nonsense. Maybe that was true in the past. It isn’t now.

In fact, I’ve been amazed at how much they’ve evolved from oldschool monster-clubbing. Somehow, some way, MMOs started telling stories. Final Fantasy XI has character-focused missions bound together into a grand narrative, Age of Conan has its early-game switches between single-player and multiplayer, and Guild Wars has its hub-and-instance structure. Dungeons and Dragons Online actually has a narrator. Storytelling’s gotten big, and storytelling choices has become key to differentiation within the genre.

Even World of Warcraft (WoW) has evolved into a story-focused game.

Waiting to Respawn: Know Your Diablo

(Waiting to Respawn is Nightmare Mode’s weekly column in which we crawl out from our secluded fortresses to discuss multiplayer and the social aspects of gaming.) At 12:01 a.m. this morning, Blizzard tightened their grip over our virtual lives (for

Everything old is new: Diablo 3 beta impressions

I have to admit, I expected something with more panache. With access to Diablo 3’s vaunted beta I expected something daring, something world-shaking. What I got was, well, Starcraft 2: a game of incremental improvements. This is not to say

Crafting My Ideal MMO

I’ve never cared much for MMOs. I’ve tried out several different ones, only lasting a few hours in each, among them Age of Conan, Rift, The Lord of the Rings Online, and even the most lauded – or nefarious, depending

Diablo III crafting trailer is crafty, all right

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b3W7V5uv_6g&fs=1&hl=en_US] There seems to have been a subtle shift in strategy at Blizzard over the past few years. Old Blizzard, the Blizzard of Diablo 2 and Warcraft 3, were the type to take some risks, but focus primarily on perfecting

Starcraft 2 Campaign Impressions

Starcraft 2, ten years in the making, arrived today. Well, part of it arrived, at least. Wing of Liberty features, for those of you in the dark, the Terran portion of the campaign, along with a fully featured multiplayer mode.

Starcraft 2 extraordinarily epic

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C_E83GfWM-A&hl=en_US&fs=1] I’ll be honest: no one will probably see me for the next month, what with Starcraft 2 and all. Well, that’s a complete and utter lie, but Starcraft 2 will be a major impact on any productivity I hoped

Diablo 2: Ten Years Later

Some things sneak up on you. The ten year anniversary of the release of Diablo II, a game I bought near launch and have lost and repurchased at least three times, is one of those things. It’s baffling to think