Welcome to a new year of Global Chat — and with it, the anticipation of a great assortment of MMO blog essays, questions, guides, and fan analysis. One of the reasons I like doing this column is to give some attention and love to passion projects out there. And in that spirit, here are the blogs you should be reading in 2023:
24 Hours in MMOs, A Green Mushroom, A Missioneer in EVE, Ace Asunder, Aeternus Gaming, Ardwulf’s Lair, Ash’s Adventures, Aywren Sojourner, Backlog Crusader, Battle Stance, Beyond Tannhauser Gate, Blessing of Kings, Book of Jen, Can I Play Too?, Chasing Dings, Coffee Cakes and Crits, Contains Moderate Peril, DDO Central, Digital Visceral, Dragonchasers, Dragons and Whimsy, ECTmmo, Endgame Viable, Everwake, Fashion Ninjutsu, FibroJedi, Galactic Antics, Galumphing, Gamer Girl Confessions, Gamer Reverie, GamingSF, Gnomecore, Grand Order of the Lost Mathom, Hardcore Casual, Hundstrasse, and I Have Touched The Sky.
But wait, there’s more! There’s I’m Not Squishy, In An Age, Indiecator, Inventory Full, Jinxed Thoughts, Johnny B Gamer, JVT Workshop, Kamalia Et Alia, Kaylriene, Killed in a Smiling Accident, Knifesedge Blogs, Later Levels, Laurel’s LOTRO Den, Leaflocker, Leo’s Life, Lina’s Biscuity Burrow, Mailvaltar, Many Welps, Matt Fossen, Me vs Myself and I, Micki’s Delirium, MMO Bits, MMO Casual, MMO Fallout, MMO Folklorist, MMO Juggler, MMORPG Blog, My Life in Azeroth, Nerd Girl Thoughts, Nerdy Bookahs, Neverwinter Thoughts, Nomadic Gamers Eh, Not Too Serious Gamer, Occasional Hero, Parallel Context, Perks N Peeves, Pixel Fairy, Pugnacious Priest, Recollections of Play, Retro MMO Gamer, and Secrets of the Spiral.
And if you order now, you’ll receive for no cost Shadowz Abstract Gaming Blog, Shards of Imagination, Spot of Mummery, StarShadow, Superior Realities, Swordroll’s Blog, Tales from the Backlog, Tales of the Aggronaut, The Ancient Gaming Noob, The Friendly Necromancer, The Grumpy Gamer, The Last Chapter, The Nosy Gamer, The Parent Trope, This Week in Aurebesh, Through Wolfy’s Eyes, Thyanel Plays, Time to Loot, Tobold, Tome of the Ancient, Unidentified Signal Source, Virtual Bastion, Vulkk, Why I Game, Words Under My Name, and WoW Misadventures!
Going Commando goes into depth on SWTOR’s 7.2 storyline: “In general, breadth is more fun to replay than length – which is not to say that you can’t have both, but realistically it seems that Bioware investing in one always leads to cuts in the other area. In line with this, Showdown on Ruhnuk is a reasonably long story update, but it doesn’t have a lot of breadth.”
MMO Folklorist has a list of the best Star Wars Galaxies servers for every type of player: “Whether you’re looking to try the game for the first time, or a returning player, finding the server that’s right for you can make getting started a difficult proposition. Suffice it to say, there’s a Star Wars Galaxies server for every kind of MMO gamer, and this guide is here to help you figure out which ones you should try out for yourself.”
The Ancient Gaming Noob took stock of EVE Online as it enters its 20th year: “So it is a time of mixed emotions. A big expansion and things looking better after a couple years of struggling seem like reason enough to be optimistic. But the player count being down… and not knowing how much of that expansion bump was due to CCP giving away a week of Omega time to every account… gives one pause.”
Gnomecore discovered the joy of FFXIV’s tribal quests: “Not only the traditionally awesome storytelling, but they happen in a certain spot, which improves as you progress through reputation and storyline (like Halfhill farm or Garrison in WoW). Even if I don’t benefit from XP anymore, I plan to see them till the end with all alts for that reason alone. And of course, by achieving the high ranks of reputation you get access to multiple goods, including mounts – can’t say no to that.”
The Lazy Goldmaker has eight tips to help you make gold in WoW’s Dragonflight: “Profession tool enchants are incredibly powerful. Get the Quality 3 one always, inspiration for inspiration builds and resourcefulness for anything else. It will pay for itself over the course of this expansion.”
Nerdy Bookahs looked back at an MMO journey in 2022: “My biggest surprise was getting back into LOTRO. Again. I never uninstalled the game because I have been returning several times over the past years, at least for a few hours each time. I kept trying to play a Beorning because the class is fun to play. But it’s no Hobbit. And it’s no Warden.”
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.
