We’ve now published 429 podcasts since the very dawn of Massively: 331 on the old site, 98 on the new. Justin and I have now been co-hosting together for five years, to say nothing of the years of earlier casts on which we’ve built our modern legacy.
That is a lot of talking. Fun fact: The first show I was on was #109, and I was petrified!
We’d like to thank the many thousands of you who listen to us every week, especially those of you who chip in to Patreon to listen a day early. Let’s take a look back at the most popular Massively OP Podcast episodes of 2016!
#10 – Episode 68, the community show
While it was probably our discussion of Landmark’s launch date and ArcheAge’s Ascension that brought people to this particular podcast (I mean really, it’s a day that ends in Y, so you knew there was going to be ArcheAge catastrophe and drama), I’d like to think it was the 20-minute segment on community negativity, streaming, and our commenters that kept this one in the top 10 for the year.
#9 – Episode 48, the Blade & Soul show
January was a big month for the site, with the western launch of Blade & Soul, and in this episode, we covered the launch hoopla, in addition to our scoop-heavy reveal of Hero’s Song (sigh) and the release of the Black Desert character creator, which got even more attention from players than actual games.
#8 – Episode 76, the Firefall sad trombone show
In August, the news that the few remaining Red 5 Studios employees working on Firefall had been laid off and the game’s future was in serious jeopardy headlined our show and brought Firefall fans out of the woodwork. We should really have given a podcast host credit to Justin’s son this week; he really had a lot to say during the recording!
#6 and #7 – Episode 53 and 54, the Black Desert shows
Black Desert charged into March and pretty much owned the season as well as the podcast. This pair of episodes, focused on the launch period itself, piqued the interest of more listeners than usual who were considering leaping into the next big thing, especially once we brought MOP columnist Matt Daniel onto the show to talk about his pre-launch experiences with the game.
#5 – Episode 55, the EverQuest Next cancellation show
This podcast was recorded just a few days after the cancellation of EverQuest Next, the cancellation of WildStar’s China launch, and massive layoffs at Carbine. We had, uh, a few thoughts about the future of the genre and what it all meant.
#4 – Episode 88, the endgame rant show
Halloween is definitely the MMORPG industry’s time to shine, but I think folks tuned in for news on the big expansions, Scott Hartsman’s quotes, that time we made Camelot Unchained and Shroud of the Avatar fight, and the fourteen minutes I ranted and ranted and ranted about the state of the MMORPG endgame. I’m told it was one of my best rants of the year!
#3 – Episode 60, the Nostalrius show
The Nostalrius vanilla WoW emulator saga of 2016 was easily one of the biggest ongoing stories of the year and continues to this day, and though we dedicated a large part of this podcast to hashing out the pros and cons of emulators, not many people had a clue back then that it was going to continue plaguing MMOs the whole year. My favorite part is where a commenter posted that Nostalrius was a small story that nobody would be talking about in a week. That was last April when it had only just begun. Joke’s on all of us!
#1 and #2 – Episodes 57 and 58, the double Mark Jacobs show
While our infrequent “interview” shows are sometimes maligned by listeners who for some wacky reason just want to hear us ramble, it’s hard to deny that some devs have more star power than we ever will. In this pair of podcasts, our most popular of 2016, Camelot Unchained’s Mark Jacobs joined us to talk — exhaustively! — about the game, answering our and your questions alike. Anyone interested in the game (or for that matter, in great interviews and community management) should really make time to listen to Jacobs explain the details of what’s easily one of the most anticipated western MMORPGs on the modern horizon.
We’re on to 2017 now with our annual roundtable under our belts just this past week. What was your favorite show — or rant — of the year?
