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]

Betawatch: Crowfall is heading on to beta land

12
Oh, Crowfall, you've missed many a milestone for your planned test phases, but there's good news. The next major patch is apparently when the...
Do this differently.

WoW Factor: There is (not) much to do in World of Warcraft

47
Here's a fun question for you: How do you count discrete activities in World of Warcraft? It's a more complex concept than you might...
Not the chess maneuver.

Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMORPG bugs ever

17
This week's Massively Overthinking discussion topic is inspired by Crowfall's J Todd Coleman, who last fall tweeted about the time playable spiders almost became...

The Survivalist: My top 20 survival game goals for 2020, part the second

6
With so many survival titles out there, it's no wonder I couldn't contain my full list of new year goals in a single Survivalist!...
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.

Vague Patch Notes: Guild Wars 2 might be the MMO that defined the last decade

28
It's been about a week or so since we did our Overthinking on the best MMO of the decade, and I ultimately rattled off...
Time?

The Daily Grind: Which MMO do you always think is older or younger than it is?

11
If you ask me what year Guild Wars 2 released, I'll think for a moment and then respond "2009" with a firm nod indicating...

Desert Oasis: First impressions of Black Desert’s new Guardian class

13
Remember that Futurama episode where Fry, Kip, and Zaf Branbigan got stranded on a planet full of amazons and were sentenced to death by...
movies

Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures at the start of 2020

65
This annual column always inspires a certain amount of debate, which is intentional. Outside of the office, a good chunk of that debate is...

The Survivalist: My top 20 survival game goals for 2020, part the first

1
You might say that I like survival games. You should say it because I really, really do. Especially games that let me explore and...

Choose My Adventure: The juggling act of Black Desert Mobile’s many advancement systems

6
Last week’s edition of Choose My Adventure had me genuinely impressed by how much stuff I had to manage in Black Desert Mobile, so...
Obviously silly dances are already universal.

Wisdom of Nym: The little-explained lore bits in Final Fantasy XIV

5
This column, in part, is in honor of a random party member who had never realized that the currency you're picking up in dungeons...

Fight or Kite: Griefing! What is it good for? Absolutely nothing.

83
Here we are at the very first Fight or Kite of the New Year and of the decade. With it, let’s discuss something that...
Not so close.

Global Chat: How fast should combat be in MMOs?

25
The speed of combat engagements in MMORPGs -- as rare as they may be -- was the topic du jour on a couple of...

One Shots: Worse homes and gardens

14
Probably the only thing that is holding me back from embracing a career as a lifelong mega-villain is that I can't conform to the...
won't you let me live

The Daily Grind: What ‘dormant’ MMO do you think would benefit the most from some patches?

27
There are live games, there are games that have shut down, there are games in maintenance mode... and then there are dormant MMOs. Dormant...

The Game Archaeologist: That time when MTV made a virtual world

4
For the music trendy in the '80s and '90s, MTV was a huge source of fascination and audio discovery. It was the edgy channel...
Sheewax.

Betawatch: Magic Legends is our Magic MMORPG except in how it’s not

6
The first few days after the end of the year are a bad time for betas, but we came roaring back this week with Magic:...
A journey already taken.

WoW Factor: What Warcraft’s Old Gods were and how we lost it

32
At one point, I loved the Old Gods of World of Warcraft. At this point, they disappoint me. And since we're not that far away from the game's next raid that brings them into center focus again, it seems like it's time to talk about them a little bit and why the dang things have not just become so endlessly boring but so misused.
Paws for impact.

Massively Overthinking: The best MMOs of the decade

70
A few years back, we did a cheeky Massively Overthinking about our five favorite MMORPGs of all time. It was quite a potent list...
No belts

Vague Patch Notes: No, MMO lore does not excuse design decisions

17
There are a lot of problems with how people tend to use lore when it comes to MMOs. I've talked about one side of...

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