You know what’s an interesting trend among MMO bloggers lately? It seems that many of them are heading back to Neverwinter — and enjoying it greatly. Cryptic’s D&D MMORPG seems to be a solid fallback when all else seems dull and tired.
“It never seems to be anyone’s main MMORPG but everyone who mentions it seems to be having a reasonably good time,” said Inventory Full’s Bhagpuss, who said it “scratches the itch” for adventuring. 24 Hours In is about to re-enter the title, saying that it’s “damn good fun” when you want it. And Altar of Gaming wrote up a guide for all of the races for those rolling up new characters.
Read on for more MMO blog essays, including a look at FFXIV’s Patch 5.2, WoW Classic’s worst quests, environmental challenges in online games, and more!
Fashion Ninjitsu: FFXIV Patch 5.2 first impressions
“But the real meat of Patch 5.2’s story content comes from the Main Scenario, as usual, and there is a lot of Main Scenario this time around. Substantially longer than normal, this chapter’s length no doubt played into the overall brevity of the Ruby Weapon story. By the end of things, we have ever more questions, and what will most likely be the final confrontation with the Ascians to look forward to in Patch 5.3.”
World of Warcraft Classic: Top 5 worst Classic quests
“It starts off simple enough, as all these quests do: kill some panthers and tigers to collect claws and a fang. The claws are pretty easy to collect — dropping from Shadowmaw Panthers that you’d normally kill for Hemit Nesingwary anyway. The Pristine Tigress Fang, however, is another story entirely – dropping only from Stranglethorn Tigresses at a measly 6% drop rate (and even THAT sounds too high to me). Be prepared to kill nothing but cats for the next three hours of your life…”
Everwake’s Internet Adventures: EverQuest II’s Thundering Steppes
“Thundering Steppes is a bunch of quests that encourage grinding. The smart way to play is grab as many quests as you can and try to sync them up so that you are constantly always killing what’s in front of you without having to double back too much. When it works it feels great. When it doesn’t it feels a bit like spinning your wheels. It’s still a very old school zone that I don’t think was ever updated in any meaningful way.”
Yeebo Fernbottom: The MMO genre is dying, all hail the dawn of the MMO age
“I would argue that the massively multiplayer shared virtual gaming landscape is larger and more varied than it has ever been. Certainly far larger than I ever would have anticipated a decade ago. As we mourn the decline of traditional MMORPGs, let us also greet the dawn of the era of MMOs!”
Tales of the Aggronaut: The hero genre
“I ended up spending the vast majority of my time playing City of Heroes Homecoming. I’ve had all of this nostalgia creep up on me and attack. I guess in some small way I didn’t realize quite how much I had missed having a super hero genre MMO. Champions Online was a massive disappointment and while CoH is not exactly a ‘modern’ MMO, the core functionality is still extremely enjoyable.”
GamingSF: Environmental challenges in MMOs
“Water can also hide things. Whether it’s a sea cave that gives access to a dungeon portal, a waterfall hiding a tunnel or a sunken ship on the seabed – there can be a lot of reasons to venture into the water. Just keep an eye on your breath meter…”
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.
