Welcome to ReSpawn (RS) with your host David “Xerin” Piner. We’ll be arriving every Mon / Wed / Fri with an interesting look at what’s going on in the gaming industry as a whole, and relevant topics of interests as it relates to the MMO industry. Considering this your one stop shop for hearing the phrase “one stop shop” on this wonderful cyber Monday.

Black Friday was over this weekend and we've moved into Cyber Monday. I like "Cyber Monday" which is now pretty much "Cyber Holidays" in my book because it covers most of the entire holiday season now. Sites like Newegg don't specifically have any sales of interest (they have a sale every single day of the year) while my favorite MMOs usually have something on sale.

The reason I say "something" is because it's a lot easier to discount imaginary things (like gold, game cash, etc.) vs. discounting a physical item. This means that us gamers get some of the best holiday deals on our games without having to equip plate armor and duke it out in the malls for sales that are not sales but an inventory fire sale, things they don't want to carry over into the next year being discounted at cost (inventory cost plus overhead), in limited quantities.

I don't believe in the holiday shopping season because it takes away the idea of relaxation. If you can't get presents for everyone together at your own convenience then it's just not "relaxing" and the holidays are supposed to be a reprieve from the day to day troubles.

ArcheAge Dolphin

Instead we artificially inflate the difficulty and the stress by condensing everything into a very short small period of time that we must engage each other in hand to hand combat to get stuff for ourselves. If you haven't actually noticed, Black Friday is more about saving all year for stuff you want to buy at a discount (that's for sale cheaper than the stores prices online throughout the year) for yourself.

That's why I love MMOs and the hobby, because it's one of the advantages of understanding that we can get some great deals for ourselves and our friends, while enjoying the comfort and safety of our own homes. That, in itself, is one of the glories of gaming.

ArchAge is in the news again with Dolphin riding. The game will have extensive underwater areas, but really? You can keep 'em. Underwater is the least fun of anything and even in Assassin's Creed 4: Black Flag the areas aren't fun, as a pirate, also an assassin, who is also pretty much on rails during the areas.

I think the last fun underwater segment in the history of gaming was Mario 64 and that resulted in my controller going through the television, followed by the television going out the window, and followed by of course napalm. After which, I went and purchased a few extra N64 consoles to torch with a flamethrower as I laughed manically at the fact that there has never been a single water level to appease me.

I’m looking at you Sonic.

Why I hate Sonic Levels

Anyway, underwater areas suck. Please stop making them. Just focus on pretty water and let our imaginations understand that that there is probably something cool and foreboding down in those waters, but we really shouldn’t have a look.


To read the latest guides, news, and features you can visit our ArcheAge Game Page.

Last Updated: Mar 29, 2016

About The Author

Get in the bush with David "Xerin" Piner as he leverages his spectacular insanity to ask the serious questions such as is Master Yi and Illidan the same person? What's for dinner? What are ways to elevate your gaming experience? David's column, Respawn, is updated near daily with some of the coolest things you'll read online, while David tackles ways to improve the game experience across the board with various hype guides to cool games.

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