MassivelyOP’s 2023 Golden Yachties: Best Worst MMO Transmedia Synergy

Welcome back to MassivelyOP’s not-so-serious end-of-the-year awards as we present our award for Best Worst MMO Transmedia Synergy. Yes, it’s the Golden Yachties series, named in honor of those bright sparks absolutely convinced that video game blogging is a lucrative career and we’re all sailing ’round the world on ships of gold. (Stay in school, kids.)

And the winner is…

DIABLO IV’S CATHEDRAL ART

No matter what you think of Diablo IV and its shaky future, you have to admit that Blizzard went all out on promoting the game before its launch. And so I have no choice but to give this award to Diablo IV, which got Tywin Lannister to narrate a video in which Blizzard’s artists painted a giantic Diablo-themed gothic mural in Chapelle de Jesuites in Cambrai, France, an effort that apparently took 30 days of hand-painting. We called the whole experience “easily the most terrifying paintings since Vigo the Carpathian.” And we still mean it, in every sense of the phrase.

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Of course I have runners-up. There’s an endless list of these suckers.

• Frozen Flame x Clerk’s Jason Mewes (this is actually my favorite one of the year, even if it’s totally obscure)
• Lost Ark x The Witcher and Destiny 2 x The Witcher
• Diablo IV x KFC and Final Fantasy XIV x KFC and PUBG x KFC (what’s with the chicken, folks?)
• ArcheAge’s collab with a designer furniture boutique
• World of Warships x Popeye (this one was at least original!)
• FFXIV x Puma (as in, the shoes)
• Roblox x Hamilton (this was an official collab, seriously)
• MTGA x IHOP (what?)
• EVE Online x Microsoft Excel (lol)
• SMITE x RuneScape (again), Fortnite x Alan Wake, World of Warships x Heroes of Might and Magic (so many game-to-game crossovers that make no sense)
• Diablo IV’s demon meat shake (gross)

Want to nominate another winner? Let us know in the comments, and don’t forget to check out our serious MMO awards while you’re at it.