» Where Does Your Tolerance for Grind Fail?
03/15/25 16:45 (13 hours ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
I was thinking about this the other day due to my experiment with the AIR Career Program on one of my characters in EVE Online. I ran th...
» The Recluse Report - March 2025 Part 1
03/15/25 16:27 (13 hours ago) from Endgame Viable
Once again we find ourselves scrambling to catch up with writing a post. It’s never a good sign when I forget to prepare the docume...
» DRIVE-ing Me Crazy – WoW’s New Car Mount and The Zone It Calls Home
03/15/25 15:09 (14 hours ago) from Kaylriene
In my early look post about Season 2 of The War Within and the content of patch 11.1, one thing, or rather two, that I neglected to…...
» Long Story Short(ish)
03/15/25 11:07 (19 hours ago) from Inventory Full
I'm always saying I'd like to do shorter posts. Turns out all I needed to do was not play any games and it happens naturally. EverQuest I...
» These Fragments...
03/14/25 21:04 (1 day ago) from Inventory Full
I have absolutely nothing to write about today because I've been spending every waking minute fiddling around with old cassette tapes and...
» Friday Bullet Points – Steam Spring Sale, BlizzCon, Housing, and more
03/14/25 15:15 (1 day ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
It is the Friday after the beginning of daylight savings time here in the US, the longest week of work of the year. So here are some bul...
» The Sims 4: An unforeseen reboot
03/14/25 13:00 (1 day ago) from Bio Break
As Jake’s writing skill shoots up, his confidence grows in being able to write books. He’s still not making any serious money...
» LOTRO: 64-Bit Server Migration Part 4
03/13/25 22:42 (2 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
It has not been a good week for the MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online and its developer Standing Stone Games. The migration from legac...
» Useless Musings on Virtual Tabletops
03/13/25 22:09 (2 days ago) from Scopique
Adopting a VTT is not an insignificant decision, and I was questioning my loyalties this afternoon. Here's a random thought process to re...
» My Early Season 2 War Within Impressions – Keystone Master, Full Normal Raid, Underpin ? AND ??, and Delves
03/13/25 20:53 (2 days ago) from Kaylriene
I’ve had a busy Season 2 of The War Within, diving headfirst into all the content. What do I mean? Well, in the first 9 days ofR...
» Nightingale City - I Guess It's Not Going Anywhere...
03/13/25 16:26 (2 days ago) from Inventory Full
There was a big surprise for me in today's gaming news - the sudden appearance of Nightingale City . I knew it was in the works but with ...
» The First Stop on the Way to Mordor… The Bank
03/13/25 15:15 (2 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
Didn’t I have a post last week that I opened up with something about not declaring goals for my play time? And yet, here I am decl...
» Game Night: CULTivate
03/13/25 12:04 (2 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
This isn't a picture of the CULT-ivate board game. It's my cat, Midnight, helping me to play "The Plucky Squire". He was really getting i...
» Silo and 3%
03/12/25 23:34 (3 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Season Launch
03/12/25 23:31 (3 days ago) from Going Commando | A SWTOR Fan Blog
» The Stars Reach Kickstarter Campaign Reaches Out to Boost Backer Count
03/12/25 15:15 (3 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
We are now well into the middle campaign doldrums where the initial days of big numbers are well in the rear view mirror and the last min...
» Second Looks Matter – Aloft
03/12/25 14:19 (3 days ago) from Scopique
The demo didn't do it for me, but because I have poor impulse control and more time than I apparently know what to do with, I gave this g...
» Hard Copy
03/12/25 13:25 (3 days ago) from Inventory Full
Given that I've been doing almost nothing else for the last few days, I guess it's time I posted something about the new toy I've cryptic...
» LOTRO: The week the game fell apart
03/12/25 13:00 (3 days ago) from Bio Break
The new LOTRO deed log is out and a lot of players aren’t having it — including myself. It’s a cleaner, more modern loo...
» Cobra Kai and Golden Kamuy 2
03/12/25 04:07 (4 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Experimenting With YouTube Part 2
03/11/25 18:26 (4 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
I spent most of this morning and afternoon editing video content I captured while playing Sniper Elite Resistance. I assembled 26 minutes...
» The February 2025 EVE Online Monthly Economic Report
03/11/25 15:15 (4 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
As I noted last month, I am cutting back on what I post about the MER. All those tables, while generated for me in PowerBI, do take a bi...
» Malifaux: “New Crew” League, Week 1
03/11/25 12:00 (4 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
The local gaming store is running a league this spring for new players or for players who want to play a crew they've never played before...
» Behind the Frame and Them's Fightin' Herds
03/10/25 22:18 (5 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Still Makin’ Them Pants
03/10/25 19:31 (5 days ago) from Scopique
Well, it's working, so here's my rundown of how. Was it worth it? I won't be able to answer that until the whole Vault is ready to use in...
» My Last Best Hope of Getting to Mordor
03/10/25 15:15 (5 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
Maybe more than any other title I post about on the blog, Lord of the Rings Online is a title that demonstrates the idea that I am most c...
» Sir Fluffykins And The Revival Of Interest
03/10/25 14:47 (5 days ago) from Inventory Full
I didn't do much gaming this weekend, thanks to fantastically addictive new toy but I did spend a couple of hours in EverQuest II on Satu...
» World of Warcraft: The Ballad of Johnny Awesome
03/10/25 13:00 (5 days ago) from Bio Break
I’ll admit that upon first glance, Undermine overwhelms the senses. It’s such a different kind of zone than we’re used ...
» Daily Ramble for March 10 2025
03/10/25 13:00 (5 days ago) from Beyond Tannhauser Gate
Today in my BTG Seven, I ramble on about March Mammal Madness, Absolute Batman, Gerrit Cole, and more running, among other things. Baseba...
» How To Fail at Writing A Game in 7 Days
03/10/25 12:00 (5 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
Also, lots of Tunnels & Trolls-adjacent stuff. Related posts: 7DRL: Building an Engine — A Room 7DRL: Building an Engine ̵...
» The Project
03/10/25 11:25 (5 days ago) from Scopique
A short (mental) film about what happens when I lose sight of my original intent.
» LOTRO: 64-Bit Server Migration Part 3
03/09/25 23:45 (6 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
I’ve been busy this weekend, so it wasn’t until late afternoon today that I found time to sit down and attempt to migrate my characters f...
» Annihilation and Transformers: Rise of the Beasts
03/09/25 21:43 (6 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Monster Hunter Wilds
03/09/25 18:55 (6 days ago) from Endgame Viable
I don’t know why I did it. I knew I was going to react to Monster Hunter Wilds in the exact same way that I did to Monster Hunter W...
» TAGN Fantasy Critic League 2025 – Week Nine See Scores Go Up
03/09/25 15:45 (6 days ago) from The Ancient Gaming Noob
We are now into week nine of the 2025 Fantasy Critic League… there is a long way to go, but we got some more games released this we...
» Bio Break Mix Tape: Holly Golightly, Chris Harvey, and more!
03/09/25 13:00 (6 days ago) from Bio Break
It’s the start of the week, so why not start it off right with some great tunes? Enjoy your latest Bio Break Mix Tape, a random collectio...
» Daily Ramble for March 9 2025
03/09/25 13:00 (6 days ago) from Beyond Tannhauser Gate
It’s been a long time coming, but I am finally going to see about getting back into the swing of posting regularly again. Yes, my last po...
» Y'all ever play Coin Master?
03/07/25 23:31 (8 days ago) from The Friendly Necromancer
Back when I was in the vidjagame industry, Coin Master was one of those games the mobile game team would look at and go . . . dang . . . ...
» Blue Notes
03/07/25 17:04 (8 days ago) from Inventory Full
It's been too long since the last one so here's a music post for Friday. For me, Saturday's the better day but this needs to get done and...
» LOTRO: Slicing and dicing in Ered Luin
03/07/25 14:00 (8 days ago) from Bio Break
I’m not exactly burned out on LOTRO at the moment, but I’ve felt a little toasty around the edges. So with Legacy of Morgoth ...
» Obsidian for TTRPG – Forms and Templates
03/06/25 20:32 (9 days ago) from Scopique
Why choose a simple solution when an all-day trial-and-error solution will do 100x worse!
» New Toys Vs Old Games
03/06/25 18:22 (9 days ago) from Inventory Full
There almost wasn't a post today because I've got a new toy and I can't stop playing with it. Two new toys, really. One's real, one's art...
» Grab Bag for the Week of March 2, 2025
03/06/25 12:59 (9 days ago) from Scopique
Discord Nitro, a Blender holiday, TTRPG organization with Obsidian, and my customary Star Citizen sign-off in this week's Grab Bag.
» The Pancake Adventure
03/06/25 02:04 (10 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» LOTRO: 64-Bit Server Migration Part 2
03/05/25 22:39 (10 days ago) from Blog - Contains Moderate Peril
Standing Stone Games were scheduled to open their new 64-bit servers for the MMORPG, The Lord of the Rings Online, today. However, when t...
» World of Warcraft: Going down Undermine
03/05/25 14:00 (10 days ago) from Bio Break
With Update 11.1 arriving, I spent the last few days in a flurry trying to get everyone ready. Mostly that meant getting off my butt and ...
» “YES”, the first cheat code.
03/05/25 12:52 (10 days ago) from Chasing Dings!
Is this blog post worth $3.50 to you? Related posts: ADVENT: Colossal Cave 3D Beyond Shadowgate: a classic reimagined. Games That Defined...
» It's Punk, Jim...
03/05/25 12:06 (10 days ago) from Inventory Full
And so we come to the final demo from the recent Next Fest . I won't say I've saved the best for last but it is the one I spent the longe...
» Elevation and The Mountain Between Us
03/05/25 05:06 (11 days ago) from JVT Workshop
» Catching up with Friendly -- March 2025 Edition
03/05/25 02:00 (11 days ago) from The Friendly Necromancer
Hey readers! Just thought I'd take a second to let you know what's up with me since life's been a little weird. I've got a few thoughts, ...
I don’t think you’re on the lunatic fringe.
Due to the huge amount of sequels spawned by every successful movie or game, we’ve become conditioned to believe that If it’s worth investing time into, it must be worthy of a sequel. The announcement of no sequel seems like giving up, that they know it’s not “worthy”.
The sad thing is that just because it has ten sequels doesn’t mean it’s good. On the flip side, could an incredibly awesome game intended to be a standalone, ever not have a sequel that would most likely tarnish the first?
Not really. I always wait for sales.
Now, if the game were *made* to be a chapter that required a sequel, and then I found that they quit on it… say, like Advent Rising… yeah, I’ll probably not bother with it.
If it’s a good cohesive game on its own with a story that wraps sufficiently, sequel potential is irrelevant to me.
That said, I don’t think it’s lunacy to care as you do. I don’t think that way, but it’s not unreasonable.
I can often be the same way, Tesh’s example of Advent Rising being a prime example of a title I was looking forward to but now will never bother with.
That could work against me, however. I pre-ordered The Saboteur because the pre-launch info looked intriguing and because I have a soft spot for Pandemic. When it was announced that EA was shutting down Pandemic I almost canceled my order. I had my mouse on the button. Not because it wouldn’t get a sequel – who cares? – but because it meant no support in the form of bug-fixes, title updates, or even potential DLC. I chose to keep my order because of the aforementioned soft spot for Pandemic and The Saboteur ended up being the first game I’ve ever gotten all 1000 achievement points for, I had such a blast with it.
I also pre-ordered Alpha Protocol because of the pre-launch info. It actually is a good RPG I suspect too many people are trying to play it as a straight shooter. Oh, it has issues, but what Obsidian game doesn’t? In this case I do wish I’d waited for a sale but absolutely something worth experiencing regardless.
Note that in both cases it was the pre-launch “journalism” that affected my decision to pre-order? For the corporate shills, mission accomplished-the publisher got my $60. But look at the latest victim, Crackdown 2. Every single pre-launch interview mentioned how it was set in the same city but a few years later so it would be both familiar yet different. The “journalists” ate this up, it would be a great thing, etc. Now the game ships and every review says the opposite, that it’s too similar and a new city would have been better. I say shape up the “journalism” and get them asking relevant questions pre-launch.
I was just thinking about this very thing, or the opposite of this very thing actually. I was thinking, wouldn’t it be cool if a game design team that put together the most Awesome Game Ever were allowed to go on to develop a second, completely different, most Awesome Game Ever without it having to be a sequel of the first one. That said really talented team were recognized for their sheer creative genius by NOT forcing them to do a part 2, then part 3, then part 4 etc., but rather were allowed to let that success go and focus on a completely new and different game idea with their genius. How much further down the innovation tracks would we be?
Yeah, that would be great, Gwyn. I guess the economics just don’t support it? The publisher needs to recoup the costs of building all the tools and engine parts and is leery of handing all that off to an untried developer.
The weird thing in the case of Alpha Protocol … I wasn’t even considering whether there’d be a sequel or not. If Sega hadn’t said anything I never would’ve even factored it in. But as soon as they said there wouldn’t be one I thought… “Huh, if they don’t have faith in this IP, why should I?”