Columns

Enjoy a run-down of our recent long-form pieces, both game-specific and more general. You might also be interested in our list of all of our columns and recurring articles. [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Perfect Ten: How MMOs explain away our infinite resurrections

27
Why? Why do we die in MMOs and keep coming back to life? Are we in a type of hell defined by endless combat...

Choose My Adventure: Avorion affirms that I am not a very good shipwright

2
Entering into Avorion for this month's Choose My Adventure column had me assuming a few things. First off, since this game was very much...

Flameseeker Chronicles: Should Guild Wars 2 delete leveling?

34
Leveling is one of those things that you just have to have to count as an RPG, right? It’s expected. At this point, the...

Not So Massively: Lost Ark is a promising MMOARPG with a poor first impression

39
Like many ARPG fans, I have long-awaited the Western release of Smilegate's MMOARPG, Lost Ark. Though the launch has been delayed to next year,...
Nairs your Thav.

Wisdom of Nym: Coping with the Final Fantasy XIV Endwalker delay

28
Sigh. So by now even if you didn't watch the live letter, you've heard the bad news. Final Fantasy XIV: Endwalker was just in sight,...

Interview: Crowfall’s freemium update, small-scale PvP, new players, and the future of the game

13
Another month has passed, and another meaty patch is coming to Crowfall. That's right, today we'll see the latest update (7.300) arrive on the...

The Daily Grind: Are you still waiting for the ‘perfect’ MMO?

57
When new MMOs come out, I sometimes have to talk myself out of judging them on a dramatically different standard from existing MMOs -...
catte

Tamriel Infinium: Should Elder Scrolls Online increase its landscape difficulty?

84
In so many ways, One Tamriel reinvented the Elder Scrolls Online experience by freeing players to pursue their own paths through the game. I...

One Shots: Double double the firepower

25
As we all know, while one weapon is good, it's never as good as two. Preferably you'd want to have three or four going,...
Void where prohibited.

The Daily Grind: Do you pay close attention to MMO studio financial reports?

28
Investor reports are bland, boring, and usually not what anyone finds to be gripping reading even if you're an investor in a given company....
Where is it?

Betawatch: Lost Ark surges for its closed beta week

2
We're hoping that you're going out there to find the ark! It is assumed that this is the main goal of Lost Ark because why else...

Massively on the Go: First impressions of the multiplayer Mario Party Superstars

4
We've talked about Mario Party a few times on MassivelyOP, but only recently, as the Mario Kart series is both older and probably more familiar to...

Desert Oasis: Unearthing the origin story of Black Desert studio Pearl Abyss

4
On our side of the pond, the exploits of various popular video game companies and their founding are well documented. But when it comes...
Opposition.

WoW Factor: The player council is not the solution to World of Warcraft’s ills

52
So World of Warcraft is going to establish a player council to offer feedback to the developers. What a terrible idea with already poor implementation...

The Daily Grind: Do you support MMOs that you don’t like or play?

34
Last month when Book of Travels launched, I caught a comment from a MOP reader, Kothoses, who said something that really grabbed me. He...

Hyperspace Beacon: SWTOR’s Charles Boyd on BioWare, newbie acquisition, economy, and beyond

11
So it’s been two years since I wrote a piece on Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’m sorry. You’ll have to tell me what...

First Impressions: Lost Ark’s beta version feels like the MMOARPG for folks who are bad at ARPGs

22
I’ve probably started and restarted this impressions piece about three different times now, primarily because I’m not entirely sure where to begin with Lost...
Do you really want to hurt me?

WoW Factor: Blizzard’s investment call was all bad news for World of Warcraft

39
Tuesday's investor call for Activision-Blizzard was not what I would generally call good news for the company across the board, but the reality is...
It's a fooler.

Perfect Ten: 10 enemies we need to fight more in MMORPGs

24
When I wrote up the contents of every MMORPG bestiary, I stuck mostly with concepts rather than specifics, aside from dragons and slimes. There...

LOTRO Legendarium: Returning to LOTRO after seven years away

13
It’s a strange feeling, returning to a place that holds a special meaning to you after many years have passed. When my high school...

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