evergreen
The Soapbox: Why I’m OK with ‘missing’ attacks in City of Heroes
The other day in the MassivelyOP work chat, we were talking about City of Heroes. Shocking, I know. But I've mentioned before that I...
Perfect Ten: The 10 phases of MMORPG pre-launch hysteria
One of my private theories about MMO players -- one I'm now making public -- is that we all have the collective memories of...
LOTRO Legendarium: How to walk away from LOTRO (for a while)
Even when you love an MMORPG a whole lot, it's rarely feasible to play it as steadily and at the same intensity over the...
Vague Patch Notes: MMORPGs and the PC gaming market
I find myself thinking a lot about the MMORPG industry lately and the ways in which the gaming industry as a whole has changed...
Perfect Ten: The MMO franchises that can’t count past two
Back in the day, there was a running joke about how Capcom had shown with Street Fighter that the company could not count higher...
Vague Patch Notes: Why we drift away from MMORPGs we still love
Why did I stop playing Star Trek Online? Was it because there was some change made to the game that made it no longer...
Perfect Ten: Why MMOs should never ditch text chat
If you ever want to feel what an MMO is like without any sort of text chat, then spend a stretch of time in...
The Soapbox: Casuals and soloers need challenging MMO content too
In a recent press Q&A around the announcement of Elder Scrolls Online's Gold Road chapter, Zenimax creative director Rich Lambert appeared to dismiss the...
Tamriel Infinium: The history of Elder Scrolls games (before and after Elder Scrolls Online)
There's nothing quite like that feeling when you first dip your toes into a particular game only to discover that it's part of a...
Vague Patch Notes: Early access is just game development as performance art
I was reminded recently about Valheim. I do not own the game and thus have not played it; I cannot tell you if it...
Perfect Ten: The 10 most utterly bizarre Final Fantasy XIV NPC names
A lot of times when I write these columns, I have either a point to make or a higher concept that I am touching...
Vague Patch Notes: What City of Heroes Homecoming means for the wider MMORPG industry
As you have probably noticed from the fact that I have been writing about City of Heroes nonstop since the Homecoming server got its...
Perfect Ten: The weirdest weapons from MMOs of yore
Swords. Staffs. Maces. Spears. Wands. Bows. Crossbows. Double-crossbows. Hammers. Wolverine claws. Daggers. Axes. Deadly? Yes. Fashionable? Not so much. A two-handed sword is so...
Vague Patch Notes: The real question every MMO has to answer
Why am I here?
A lot of times I will slow-roll my column and lead to something unexpected, something that I am sure you are...
End-of-Year Eleven: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures in 2024
As I say every single year and several people ignore every single year: This is not a column about the games that are most...
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs are still just games you rent
When I was a teenager, I accidentally stole a few games from a video rental place. You might wonder how you accidentally steal something,...
Vague Patch Notes: The ever-changing costs of playing an MMORPG
It was a pretty big deal back when I had first started working at original Massively when the trend started, and I can still...
Vague Patch Notes: It’s never cheating in MMOs when you do it
My friend from Final Fantasy XI was, understandably, upset. He had just been suspended for a week, and he had been warned that continued...
WoW Factor: The real reason World of Warcraft’s Cataclysm world revamp was awful
'Tis the season for all of us, once again, to talk about the deeply unpleasant and disappointing expansion that was World of Warcraft: Cataclysm,...
Vague Patch Notes: Waiting for the MMORPG endings that are never coming
It took some real courage for Naoki Yoshida to get up and announce that Final Fantasy XIV was ending. After an enormously successful run,...