Some of my thoughts on game development, mostly geared toward online and social (social meaning interacting with others, not candy crushing and virtual farming) gaming. All just observations based on my experiences working in the gaming industry. I may be right, I many be crazy… I just may be the lunatic you’re looking for. Enjoy. 🙂

Seeing Red: A Palatable PK System Arrives in Wizardry Online

Seeing Red: A Palatable PK System Arrives in Wizardry Online November 28, 2012  / John Albano Learning from the past to build a better PK future When the topic of Player Killers (PKs) comes up, the reaction is often split between “worst pa...

Sandboxes, Game Design and the Stigma of TOY

Sandboxes, Game Design and the Stigma of TOY March 15, 2012 / John Albano  The term sandbox has been around for years now and there is a general understanding of what it means but no concrete definition. It is generally accepted in the industry ...

2003: A Look at the Golden Age of Diversity in MMOs

2003: A Look at the Golden Age of Diversity in MMOs October 23, 2011 / John Albano 2003 seemed to be both the apex and the end of diversity in MMOs. It was a year when not only were many titles released but each was significantly and uniquely...

Open World PVP – It's that 80/20 thing...

Open World PVP – It's that 80/20 thing... August 31, 2011 / John Albano "One way to kill PvP servers is to introduce PvE servers. What are you going to prey on if all the lambs are gone? Wolfs hunting wolfs…" That quote is from a poster name...

Virtual Worlds for Real Life People - Part 2

Virtual Worlds for Real Life People - Part 2 October 17, 2009 / John Albano  SOCIAL TOOLS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY PLAYER 2010 is the year for social interaction to regain focus in MMOs. I make proclamations like that as frequent as NEVER ...

Virtual Worlds for Real Life People - Part 1

Virtual Worlds for Real Life People - Part 1 October 12, 2009 / John Albano ME AND MY 140 BEST BUDDIES When designing the social and interactive gameplay of a virtual world, a lot of developers seem to be putting a lot of effort into creating...

Single-Shard/Server Gameworlds - EVE Online

Single-Shard/Server Gameworlds - EVE Online February 22, 2009 / John Albano  EVE Online Title: EVE Online Developer: CCP Games Publisher: CCP Games (originally SSI) Release Date: 06 May 2003 Single-Shard Universe One ...

Will A Monthly Sub Make It in the Age of Free to Play?

January 14, 2009 / John Albano  (Archive of related news articles from 2009-2013 at the end of article) It’s only been recently on this side of the globe that item malls have started to catch on. Several years ago Puzzle Pirates sailed ou...

Improving Travel in MMOs

January 10, 2009 / John Albano  While I’m a fan of UO’s on-the-spot recall system, there’s just a ton of resistance to that from players and devs so I won’t even go there. I revisited a few MMOs to take a look at the various ways that they hav...

Engaging Missions - Auto Assault

October 20, 2008 / John Albano  Auto Assault Title: Auto Assault Developer: NetDevil Publisher: NCSoft Release Date: 13 April 2006 Done Right: Engaging Mission Content It wasn’t that Auto Assault had some magnificent de...