It’s hard to deny the fact that this July, half of the online gaming population seems to be immersed into FFXIV’s Shadowbringers expansion. And it also seems like everyone is talking about nothing but the excellent tale.
“This might be the best storyline that Square Enix has produced for this game so far,” wrote MMO blog Shards of Imagination. And Kaylriene is inclined to agree, saying, “Shadowbringers is the absolute pinnacle of MMO storytelling, as far as I am concerned, and it beats a lot of single player games I have played in my life.”
“I hear a lot of people say Shadowbringers was the best Final Fantasy game we’ve had in a very long time,” said Aywren Sojourner. “I’m inclined to agree – from start to finish, it is a full, whole and wonderful offering to players and fans alike.”
Inventory Full: Running Shai in Black Desert Online
“The Shai are too small to ride horses so they get a choice of three donkeys, all of which as an MMO Blogger I am contractually required to describe as “adorable“. Mine has tiger stripes and a blonde mane that reminds me of Billy Idol in his pomp. You get to name your mounts and I almost called mine “Billy” but fortunately I thought better of it.”
Going Commando: Lessons learned from Elder Scrolls Online
“Some of my favourite ESO memories simply have me thinking back to those days of wandering around aimlessly and marvelling at the beautiful trees in Auridon. Without wanting to change the game into something it isn’t, this does make me wish that SWTOR rewarded random exploration like that a bit more too.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob: That EVE Online starter pack controversy
“It is hard to stand up to any incremental change because it can be argued away as not being radically different from what you had accepted before. But in the face of an ongoing march of incremental changes that set a pattern that appears to lead to an unhappy conclusion, it doesn’t seem exactly radical to reach a point where you can see the pattern and feel the need to push back on it. At some point the frog realizes that boiling is in its future.”
Superior Realities: Astellia impressions
“It’s also probably worth noting that the Astels didn’t really seem to do much. Maybe they feel more impactful when you’re in more challenging content and/or have leveled them up more, but in the time I played it felt like I could have ignored them entirely and nothing really would have changed. Not a good sign considering this feature is the Astellia’s chief claim to fame.”
Virtual Bastion: Thirty hours and counting in Fallout 76
“Speaking of which, at several hours in, we finally encounter another random player. We had just discovered a farm when they showed up. It was little jarring at first, but no funny business occurs. They’re just there looting along with us. We go off on our merry way and so do they. It bears mentioning that I can count on one hand the number of other players we’ve encountered in thirty hours, and we’ve never had an issues. They’ve all been high-level, helpful players.”
Yeebo Fernbottom: The Secret World is a fantastic horror RPG that happens to be online
“In SWL I have found an absolutely fantastic single player horror/adventure RPG that happens to require you to be online. Despite playing largely solo, I know I wouldn’t enjoy it as much if it were offline. The other players I randomly run into make it feel more real to me than an offline game would. The presence of a functional player economy also helps a lot.”
Mailvatar: I love scavenger hunts in MMOs
“While that probably doesn’t sound like a lot of fun it actually was, at least to me. It shouldn’t have surprised me either because I’ve always liked scavenger hunt type quests in the games I’ve played. The main reason for this is that they make me look at those worlds with different eyes. When I have to search for something I see so much stuff I’d never noticed before.”
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.
