game design – Kaylriene

The Misfires and Shortcomings of The War Within’s First Season

Something I mentioned in my last post about my alt-leveling journey (43 level 80s now, btw) is that the experience of Season 1 of The War Within… Read more “The Misfires and Shortcomings of The War Within’s First Season”

Yesterday, I was able to cross off a major goal for the opening window of Season 1 of The War Within – I accomplished Keystone Master, getting… Read more “The War Within’s First Mythic Plus Season – Some Early Thoughts and Commentary After Getting Keystone Master”

The War Within’s endgame activities have the usual focus of a WoW expansion – dungeons, raids, PvP seasons, and all of it tied to gear progression. There’s… Read more “The War Within and the Novelty of Rewarding World Content”

(Up top warning – this one breached 10,000 words. It’s 20% of a Nanowrimo novel! Get comfy if you wanna read this one.) On Monday, July 1st,… Read more “A Comprehensive, Spoiler-Laden Discussion Of My Experience With Dawntrail”

Picture this: you’re healing a dungeon in World of Warcraft, and things are going well, when the boss stops to cast a huge party-wide damage hit. You’ve… Read more “Healing Dungeons in World of Warcraft Dragonflight is a Broken Gameplay Design, and Here’s Why”

When Blizzard mentions that they want something to both have flavor and also be a source of player power, it is usually a sign of trouble. Hero… Read more “The Struggle of Flavor, Gameplay, and Long-Term Prospects of The War Within’s Hero Talent System”

Dragonflight Season 3 has been something of a return to form for me. I set a lot of ambitious goals for Season 2, and I accomplished only… Read more “Dragonflight Season 3, 4 Weeks In”

One of the expected bits of news out of Blizzcon, after confirmation that 10.2 would be the last major content patch of Dragonflight, was that we would… Read more “What Could Come In Dragonflight Season 4 (or 5?)”

(Edit after the EU Fan Fest Opening Ceremony – putting predictions to paper is fun, even when your list gets totally shot to pieces! I’ll be back… Read more “Final Fantasy XIV EU Fan Fest 2023 Predictions and Wild Speculation”

Aberrus is an interesting raid for a few reasons. Firstly, I think I should say this up front – I enjoyed this tier overall. It’s certainly not… Read more “Aberrus in Review – Dragonflight’s Second Raid Tier”