WoW Factor: Why I genuinely miss World of Warcraft’s old janky Retribution Paladin
So now we've gone through all of the ability unpruning and changing coming with World of Warcraft's next expansion. We know what it's going...
Massively Overthinking: Do MMOs need ‘adult’ character customization?
A Random MMO Fan recently wrote to us with a fun topic, linking to an article about Cyberpunk 2077's ESRB rating, which is apparently...
Desert Oasis: Exploring Black Desert’s guild system, from contracts to drama
Guilds: one of the quintessential social features of an MMO. Along with grinding, crafting, and partying up, guilds are just one of those things...
Vague Patch Notes: Player vs. class in Final Fantasy XI
I had finally hit level 41 on Red Mage in Final Fantasy XI. That was when the world changed, and if you played the game,...
The Daily Grind: Are starter bundles a bad thing for free-to-play MMOs?
The other day, I was talking with a friend who raised an interesting point that's still sticking in my head. She was talking about...
Warframe of Mind: Five ways to make a more splendiferous TennoCon 2020
When Digital Extremes announced the scrapping of all TennoCon 2020 in-person attendee plans, I was understandably pretty bummed. After all, Warframe's event nabbed the...
Working as Intended: The big list of City of Heroes rogue servers, 2020 edition
It's been a weird and wonderful year for City of Heroes fans. In April of 2019, the expose of a secret City of Heroes...
Perfect Ten: Actually useful World of Warcraft toys
Pretty much since its inception, World of Warcraft has made a point to include just-for-fun items that were more about personal expression and enjoyment....
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s class and race restrictions have never made any sense
There are some things that exist in games because they make sense in-universe, and there are some things that exist solely as a game...
Wisdom of Nym: What awaits in Final Fantasy XIV’s relic battleground?
We don't know just how long it's going to be before we're all chilling out in the battlefield for Final Fantasy XIV's next relic weapon...
Not So Massively: Kind Words is one of the most intense games I’ve ever played
In these trying times, I think we're all dealing with a certain degree of anxiety and loneliness. For some of us, feeling worried and...
Jukebox Heroes: Lime Odyssey, Yasunori Mitsuda’s hidden gem
Even the most casual of video game soundtrack fans must know the name Yasunori Mitsuda. The legendary composer is perhaps best known for his...
The Daily Grind: What’s your favorite MMO-specific meme?
Playing lots of MMOs can help you understand the discourse around them... which, as often as not, is crouched deep in the language of...
The Game Archaeologist: The rise and fall of Landmark and EverQuest Next
The year was 2013. Sony Online Entertainment was still a functioning and seemingly robust MMORPG studio, and its yearly SOE Live convention was a...
Betawatch: Population Zero’s early access is here
Yes, it's true, Population Zero marched its way into early access this past week. It then promptly apologized for how the early access launch...
First impressions of Fallout 76 Wastelanders from a true newbie to the game
So I did something completely unexpected: I bought Fallout 76. It wasn't my idea. A few people in my guild had been talking about...
WoW Factor: Examining Shadowlands’ Rogue, Death Knight, and Warrior changes
I do find a certain amount of irony in the fact that in this tour of the World of Warcraft Shadowlands class changes, Warrior...
Massively Overthinking: The oldest MMORPGs we still play
When I was still a teenager in my earliest MMOs, the trend in the communities I ran in was to play MMOs sequentially, due...
Working as Intended: Sparking joy in MMOs
On this week's podcast, I mentioned that I'd just finished off Marie Kondo's The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, something that superficially seems unrelated...
Vague Patch Notes: What causes the preponderance of disconnected MMO endgames?
Yesterday, I wrote a whole column about how WildStar had some really great stuff in it. I did not mention its endgame at all....
