While the effects of real-world events on video games certainly isn’t as important as the lives, livelihoods, and freedoms of actual people, it is fascinating to consider how such an event can impact an MMO. The Nosy Gamer looked back over a year of Russia’s attempted invasion of Ukraine and how it’s been affecting EVE Online.
“Back when CCP released subscriber numbers, we knew Russians and other citizens of CIS states made up approximately 10% of the player base. Between Russian cyber-attacks on Ukraine’s access to the internet and the disconnection of Russia from SWIFT, EVE players in the conflict zone were prevented from playing the game. Add in the inevitable losses from players conscripted to fight, those who fled as refugees, and those killed, and the single-shard game was affected greatly.”
Read on for even more MMO essays about SWTOR, WoW Classic, Diablo III, and more!
Parallel Context is struggling to figure out what to do when WoW Classic’s current run is over: “I’m thinking that if I still play WoW Classic, maybe a return to Classic Era servers is a good idea. It’s a known item, and I took advantage of the $5 (or whatever it was) transfer before it ended to move more toons’ Era versions into place. While Classic Era may no longer be ‘progressing’ if an old game can be said to be progressing.”
Words Under My Name admitted that pride gets in the way of asking for help in MMOs: “After picking my jaw up off the floor, it occurred to me, ‘was it literally that easy to ask for help?’ Is this what being normal is like? Like I said, I am a prideful man, I don’t like asking for help. So, to be pushed to the brink, and have to get backup is a huge, massive step for me.”
Going Commando evaluated SWTOR’s Galactic Season 3: “Overall I enjoyed this season, just like the previous one, even if IÂ struggled a little at times to not push myself too hard. Seasons objectives tend to overlap very little with the sorts of in-game activities I usually spend my time on, which are running operations with my guildies and doing story content on alts, but I’m okay with that because I’m fine with the game encouraging me to play a little differently for a few months a year.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob speculated whether or not Diablo III may be ending its seasonal runs: “Which brings us to season 28. Will it be the last season? Somehow I think not. Among other lessons, Blizz has learned over the years that some people will stick with a game and will buy new copies for new platforms as the years wear on.”
Inventory Full shared 10 things he hates about MMOs: “Games that use non-standard keybinds and don’t allow you to change them. Seriously. Why? It’s ridiculous enough that designers and developers feel they have to prove something to the world by re-inventing the wheel and fixing what wasn’t broken but they could at least have the decency to put their crazy notions on a toggle.”
Tales of the Aggronaut sorted through all of Guild Wars 2’s daily activities: “One of the best things about Guild Wars 2 is the overwhelming amount of things that you could be doing on any given day. One of the worst things about Guild Wars 2 is that when I say overwhelming… I mean that literally because there are a truly staggering number of individual activities that are fighting for your attention.”
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.
