Last week, we posted a rundown of the most popular MMORPG articles of 2017, calculated strictly by the number of pageviews they got. Today, we’re going to take a look at the most popular articles of 2017 as measured by comments, which provides an entirely different overview of the year and the genre.
This list is a little wonky as we couldn’t keep a lot of our January comments when we were booted off Livefyre. (Some of the old comments were restored, but others were simply lost because Livefyre wasn’t properly saving them back. Long story.) So technically, we lost a month. Still, I think we have a pretty good picture of what people really truly want to talk about (which isn’t always the same thing you like to click on!).
Blizzard’s Mike Morhaime ‘troubled’ by latest US immigration policies
Massively OP comment system switchover FAQ
Cloud Imperium rejects wild claim that Star Citizen is ‘owned by a bank’
Star Citizen followers react to server capacity, star system count news
Crytek sues Star Citizen developer Cloud Imperium, alleging copyright infringement
Star Citizen’s Chris Roberts is ‘fed up’ with giving 3.0 release estimates
Star Citizen’s 3.0 to ‘simulate a first-person universe with almost no limits’
Star Citizen’s 3.0 alpha appears to have been delayed yet again
Here’s why everyone’s pissed off about City of Heroes NPCs in NCsoft’s MOBA
Star Citizen addresses its latest delay, studio is ‘working feverishly’ on 3.0
Funcom is ‘relaunching’ The Secret World in 2017, but it’s maintenance mode for Anarchy Online and Age of Conan
Move over, pixel ships: Star Citizen is now selling pixel land claims
Valve is working on three VR titles, feeling effects of travel ban
But seriously, lockboxes suck, even if the ESRB doesn’t think they’re gambling. Stop buying lockboxes.
The Daily Grind: Should video game developers unionize?
Secret World Legends beta leaks show a vastly changed game [Updated]
The Daily Grind: Why are you not into virtual reality?
Funcom reboots The Secret World as Secret World Legends, a ‘shared-world action RPG’
The Daily Grind: Do you feel crowdfunded MMOs ‘owe’ you something?
Star Citizen’s latest concept ship sale has already raised almost half a million bucks
The Daily Grind: Will you be playing World of Warcraft’s Classic servers?
Star Citizen’s latest concept ship isn’t a ship, and it’s pushed the game to $155M funding
Raph Koster on the cost of making games from the industry side
Old School RuneScape players threaten to riot over LGBTQ pride event
BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft’s classic server will be a ‘massive effort’
The Daily Grind: How can individual MMO players combat toxicity?
Disney has canceled Marvel Heroes, Marvel has ended its relationship with Gazillion
Massively Overthinking: Gathering our thoughts on Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire
Massively OP Exclusive: Hard questions about Secret World Legends
EA claims Star Wars Battlefront II’s business model aims to ‘provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment’
The Daily Grind: Are you Kickstarting Ashes of Creation?
The Daily Grind: What do you think about slavery as a concept in MMORPGs?
I think you’ll see the pattern immediately: People really want to talk about Star Citizen. Even innocuous Star Citizen articles started deep discussions and fiery flamewars – though this year, with 3.0 delayed and dragging on for so long, there were plenty of controversies to talk about too. It was easily the most dominant in terms of comments, and that fascinates me because Star Citizen was absolutely dwarfed by quite a lot of other MMOs in terms of hits.
Socio-political stories also factored in toward the beginning of the year as video game studios and conventions found themselves dramatically affected by new government policies that hampered travel and hiring. Likewise, RuneScape’s LGBTQ pride kerfuffle and discussion about in-game slavery and toxicity floated to the top.
NCsoft’s move to add City of Heroes characters to Master X Master was unpopular, but our explainer piece on the drama traveled far and wide.
The Secret World may have been a small and underrated MMO prior to 2017, but its conversion to less-of-an-MMORPG Secret World Legends was a major ongoing story throughout the year, contributing to lots of hits and comments alike.
It won’t surprise you that World of Warcraft’s classic servers have become a big story since the fall too, pushing those comment threads toward the top even late in the year.
Marvel Heroes’ cancellation, Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire, and virtual reality also made it into the top block of conversations. And finally: money. Y’all love to talk about money. We argued over lockboxes, dev unions, the cost of making MMOs, Ashes of Creation’s Kickstarter, and crowdfunding in general. But mostly? Lockboxes.
Here’s to an equally chatty 2018!
