http://www.nerfbat.com Game design, development, and industry commentary by MMO Game Designer Ryan Shwayder. Thu, 03 Jul 2008 22:00:13 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en This month's local game developer meeting (open to everyone!) promises to be a good one. I'll have to see if I can come even though I have family out. The authors of Grand Theft Childhood will be presenting! The gathering will take place at The Skellig in Waltham on Wednesday, ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/07/03/boston-post-mortem-july-2008/ Two addendums to the latest podcast... First, we know there has been little to no meat in the podcasts so far. Now that we have our podcast legs, the next one will have some good stuff in it. Second, we left off the donation plea at the end! Thanks again ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/07/03/podcast-addendum/ There's a stigma about bards. People seem to picture them as buffoons with funny hats, high-pitched singing voices, and lutes. Only one of those is really true in my view of them; the lute. I get made fun of a lot for enjoying bards more than any other class, and ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/07/01/the-remarkable-bard/ The third episode of "Massive Guys on Massive Games" has finally hit the shelves! Within this glorious podcast, you can learn where the heck hosts Ryan "Blackguard" Shwayder and Steve "Moorgard" Danuser have been and what games they've been playing since the second episode. [podcast]http://www.nerfbat.com/podcasts/massive3.mp3[/podcast] Show Notes: - You can find future episodes ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/29/massive-guys-on-massive-games-episode-3/ THQ, EA, White Wolf, Disney, Marvel, DC. What do all of these have in common? Thom Ang! He's joined us at 38 Studios as Director of Art, where we'll be welcoming him with... an open invitation to play some ultimate frisbee with us! Oh, and to do some rockin' art ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/27/thom-ang-joins-38/ Richard Bartle is irrelevant, but many of his opinions are not. That's right, I'm getting involved in the storm that began with an interview on Massively and continued everywhere else on the interwebs. The fact is, whether Bartle is a senile old man with no true understanding of what it ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/24/richard-bartle-is-irrelevant/ Even as I venture to Canada or Hyboria, the Nerfbat Forums continue to thrive. There are still great threads about massively multiplayer games and other related goodness, and since AoC has come out, Draegan has been lass of an abrasive jerkface. Let's take a look at some of the most ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/23/tales-from-the-tavern-volume-xiii/ More than 50% of Age of Conan subscribers are on PvP servers, as noted by Funcom themselves. If WoW Census is accurate, more than 40% of World of Warcraft subscribers are on PvP servers. And yet, Player-versus-Player is sometimes neglected even in modern MMOs. What's with the stigma? PvP has been ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/17/the-necessity-of-pvp/ Ever since I saw The Incredible Hulk on Saturday (which is a pretty good comic movie. It's no Iron Man, but it's better than most), I've wanted to make a really crappy Photoshop image. I've decided to deliver that unto you, a public that should absolutely be fearful of my ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/16/its-an-obamanation/ "This s*%t comes in waves." A quote from a coworker is the best way to put it. I'm looking for inspiration for topics to talk about on Nerfbat. While I've been playing a lot of Age of Conan lately, it usually doesn't take me too long to write up a ... http://www.nerfbat.com/2008/06/15/looking-for-inspiration/