Columns

Enjoy a run-down of our recent long-form pieces, both game-specific and more general. You might also be interested in our list of all of our columns and recurring articles. [Follow this category’s RSS feed]

Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s August is leaning into Adventure

0
I must admit that Pokemon Go's traditional Adventure Week events have historically been a minor hit with me as they feature the fossil 'mon...
my head hurts

Storyboard: The fine art of letting your character fail in MMORPG roleplaying

6
Do you know why tabletop roleplaying games use dice? Every game designer ever will lie about the reason. The reason cited is to create...

The Daily Grind: What’s the oldest MMO meme you remember?

15
If you were around in the early days of online gaming, you surely remember how terrible the memes were. I mean, I put on...

Massively Overthinking: How much research do you do before playing a new MMORPG?

22
On this week's MOP Podcast, Justin and I discussed our experiences in No Man's Sky (again), and both of us came to the conclusion...

Global Chat: Looking back at 15 years of World of Warcraft blogging

0
Fifteen years is a huge chunk of time to devote to both a video game and an ongoing blog covering it, but that's exactly...

Working As Intended: The Fridge Poetry game is the latest distillation of MMORPG PvP

4
This morning, MOP's Sam busted into MOP's work chat with a link to the Fridge Poetry game. "It's more like an art project than a...
F'dla

Vague Patch Notes: Everything in an MMORPG is time-limited

8
Today, I want to talk to you about an event that you can no longer participate in within Final Fantasy XIV. It's an event...
Boom!

The Daily Grind: What sort of time-limited content works well in MMOs?

16
Over the years, I have occasionally dunked on Guild Wars 2 for making its story content early on revolve around taking part in continually...

The Soapbox: Why MMOs are the ultimate creature comforts

1
As long as I can remember, I've been an avid fan of re-consuming my favorite forms of media. I used to read the same...

Perfect Ten: 10 times MMOs appeared in TV and movies

14
It's always surreal when real MMOs cross the divide between niche and mainstream to be referenced in television and films. Depending on how you...

The Daily Grind: Which MMOs are the most and least like their launched versions?

11
I'm sure we're all familiar with the Ship of Theseus metaphor for online games -- that of a product that has all of its...

Fight or Kite: Backpack Battles puts your bag sorting skills to the test

7
After the dungeon has been cleared, the boss has been felled, and the zerg has been wiped out, the very next thing we all...

Choose My Adventure: Gleeful space truckin’ through Elite Dangerous

6
This is, for all intents and purposes, going to be a very simple, laid back, and perhaps obnoxiously serene edition of Choose My Adventure....

The Daily Grind: Which MMORPG has the best night experience?

26
One of the things that sets MMOs apart in my book is whether they have a diurnal cycle - and more importantly, whether that...
Pure.

Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s Arcadion brings the noise

4
There has been a question that has kind of been bubbling in the background of the entire premise behind Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail, and...

The Daily Grind: Which MMORPGs are low-key pay-to-win but somehow avoid criticism?

45
A thread on the MMORPG subreddit caught my eye a few weeks ago as the post author suggested that Albion Online was not only...

One Shots: Hey World of Warcraft has housing after all…

13
This just in, World of Warcraft beat Guild Wars 2 to the punch by instituting the most robust, flexible, and creative housing system ever...
Catte

The Daily Grind: What’s your biggest self-inflicted annoyance in new MMORPG content?

22
I have a bad habit of judging myself based on my performance in brand-new content. This is, honestly, exceptionally silly and pointless. I'm not...

LOTRO Legendarium: Is LOTRO’s early game too big and unwieldy?

10
As I was making some personal plans for my future adventures on Lord of the Rings Online's new legendary servers, I was really struck...
This plan sure worked!

WoW Factor: The mulligan problem in World of Warcraft’s narrative

18
In World of Warcraft: The Burning Crusade, Illidan Stormrage gets killed. This isn't actually a surprising end for the character. Illidan as a person...

ADVERTISEMENT