If you don’t have a console but were still interested in hearing whether or not Destiny: Rise of Iron was any good, fret not: MMO bloggers have you covered with some hands-on first impressions from the expansion.
“Destiny always hints at its incredible universe of lore, and Rise of Iron is no exception,” Sagacyte notes. “References to warminds that could be much more, challenges to come, and secrets yet to be revealed, all forming the year that will lead up to Destiny 2 (or whatever it’s called). For now, I am still gearing my other characters and am having a blast doing it.”
Belghast generally liked it but had one critique: “The only disappointment is that the new story elements were pretty short […] The truth is the amount of content contained within Rise of Iron feels like a DLC addon and not an ‘expansion’ in the terms I am used to think of it from my MMO roots.”
We’ve got more MMORPG discussions and blog posts after the jump, including the debate around WildStar’s raid lockboxes, a trip back to the first Guild Wars, and something called “social dungeoneering.”
MMO Gypsy: The 11 commandments of great MMO player housing
“Player housing should be an integral part of MMOs these days and yet over and over, players are being let down in this department. When will this long-awaited ‘future of better player housing’ finally arrive?”
Healing the Masses: Public service announcement — Ember
“Erratic is an understatement when it comes to Mark Kern and this has been easily witnessed over time both by the development of Firefall and his interactions elsewhere. The development of Firefall saw numerous complete overhauls of its various systems.”
Endgame Viable: Bonding with characters
“It’s only been two days and I already regret changing my main FFXIV character’s gender. Who is this total stranger running around in Eozera now? What happened to the free-spirited girl who rode to Gridania in search of fame and fortune, and ended up conquering titans and dragons? This new guy is an imposter. He hasn’t earned the right to be there.”
Nerdy Bookahs: When is a game worth your money?
“I know there are a lot of gamers with a huge backlog of games and a bad conscience whenever they get yet another game even though there is this long list of games they never or hardly played. Most of the time, I compare the money I spent on the game with the amount of time I played it.”
Leo’s Life: When the shark got jumped
“And what’s the escalation point after this?  Lockboxes will now contain all the items from the game, regardless of where they come from.  What exactly will people be buying after this?  What could be better?  I don’t see any carrots left.”
Ravalation: SWTOR’s Dark vs. Light event three months later
“Writing this blog post makes me think about the event, though. What do I want from it? I’m not terribly interested in the cartel market cosmetics, the title, or the overpowered legacy gear (the game is easy enough as it is). The answer is: the companion. Having played SWTOR as my main game for so has made me a bit of a completionist. Although I don’t expect too much content attached to the character, I’m still curious at what she’ll be like.”
In An Age: Social dungeoneering
“Hey, remember when all of this was solved by hitting need or greed? I do. Seriously though, if Blizzard is going to add all of this tradable personal loot nonsense, they should probably invest in an UI element that asks if you want to pass on the loot.”
Ten Tentacles: Elite Dangerous — So you want to play a…
“Elite Dangerous: Horizons’ win scenario is, in fact, having fun. I’m serious. Stop laughing! Look, if you’re having fun zipping around the galaxy in the Sidewinder you start out in, running missions or blowing stuff up, then you’re winning; there’s no over-arching goal, no big-bad to kill, no one, all-powerful relict or artifact to find, and no raid tier to gear up for and clear. One could argue the goal is to get the biggest, baddest ship, but the biggest, baddest ship may not be very good at doing what any one particular player likes to do.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: A brief history of Station Cash complete with tirade
“Anyway, SOE had to have a Station Cash austerity program (did the Virtual World Bank step in?) for a while, going so far as to suggest they might stop giving out the monthly 500SC stipend for subscribers at one point, as they worked out how to get people to spend their giant piles of cheap Station Cash. Â I think they actually got a few useful items in the various stores after that, plus some mounts in EverQuest II that were not hideously ugly.”
I’m Not Squishy: Revisiting Guild Wars (the first one)
“So I rolled up a Mesmer, a class I never really got around to playing, and was hit by a wave of nostalgia as I entered the Pre-Searing. With Guild Wars being in maintenance mode for years now, I’m really surprised that there are so many people still running around in Pre-Searing towns, and by so many people I mean like five.”
Every day there are tons of terrific, insightful, and unusual articles posted across the MMO gaming blogosphere — and every day, Justin reads as many as he can. Global Chat is a sampling of noteworthy essays, rants, and guides from the past few weeks of MMO discourse.
