Hey folks,

I wanted to let you know about this because some of you might find it interesting.

I was recently hired to write a blog about game design and virtual worlds. I chose to name it:

Muckbeast - Game Design and Virtual Worlds

Roll up your sleeves and dig through the muck. Making games is serious business!

http://www.muckbeast.com



I will most likely post 5-7 articles per week, and the issues I will discuss will mostly be general game design and virtual world design issues. I might occasionally discuss something more specific (like an actual game feature, how I designed it, the problems in design, etc). But mostly I will discuss things that affect the industry as a whole.

If you find that sort of thing interesting, then stop in and visit, read some stuff, and post to your heart's content.

If you all think you might find it interesting, I'll try to discuss how various Threshold things got designed from time to time as well.

You don't have to sign up or make an account to post, which is a bonus. Although I might have to turn on that option if I start getting a lot of spam.

So, check it out if this sort of thing interests you. Oh and don't worry. There's no muck beast head smash anywhere to be found.

Thanks!

The first post is called "Hello World". How appropriate. Ari knows how to name things!

You are motivated, 5-7 articles a week! Good luck!

I can't say I'm knee-deep in the MMO industry, but your insights on the matter are quite interesting and appealing. I look forward to read additional material and of course I would love to read about developing issues in Threshold and Primordiax.

I like the read this far and look forward to some more specific posts in the future.

I seem to remember that you did some articles like this maybe 10 years ago as well. Seem to remember one being about designing a religious system with build in conflicts. Can't remember where though.

Yeah, I wrote some articles many years ago for an online webzine called Imaginary Realities. I really enjoyed it, but the internet was a little new for that sort of thing back then. It lasted a year or so and then folded.

I'm glad a few of you have already found the early posts interesting. I'll keep plugging away and maybe more of you will find the stuff entertaining and elucidating.

I'm enjoying the posts, but I find your rants too logical. You need to throw in some one liners to lighten up the mood from hate to ill-tempered, before you end up like Dennis Miller.

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Originally posted by Khaosai
I'm enjoying the posts, but I find your rants too logical. You need to throw in some one liners to lighten up the mood from hate to ill-tempered, before you end up like Dennis Miller.

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quote:

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Raid encounters feel like crappy community theater to me, not epic game play. I feel like an extra in a low budget Hollywood fantasy movie where the producers are only making the movie for the tax write-off and don’t care about how illogical the directions are. Uwe Bol ’s action scenes make more sense than even the best raid encounters on WoW and most other modern MMOs.

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quote:

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Originally posted by Ilusan
Thanks for sharing this blog with us.

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You're welcome. I am glad you are enjoying it.