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]

The Game Archaeologist: Perpetual’s Star Trek Online

36
If you're among the legions of Trekkies, then you are almost certainly aware of Cryptic Studios' Star Trek Online. Since early 2010, players have...
In the grim darkness of the future there's only oh really who cares any more.

Betawatch: Eternal Crusade’s entry into early access (January 29th, 2016)

11
In the grim darkness of the future, there is no more launch or beta or alpha testing, just early access for eternity. Fortunately, Eternal...
This is not hard to do.

WoW Factor: Why Legion’s alpha/beta label is a hair worth splitting

62
The Legion alpha is back, and it is still an alpha. And I want to to stress, not for the first time, that I...

Chaos Theory: The Secret World’s golden grind

21
Hello. My name is is MJ. And I have a golem problem. Boy, The Secret World got me good -- hook, line, and sinker. By the...

Global Chat: Oculus Rift, GW2’s philosophy shift, and emulator exploration

34
The high cost of Oculus Rift brought a lot of discussion to the MMO blogosphere recently, with writers taking sides for and against the...

Perfect Ten: How to play MMOs on a limited time budget

40
One of the most frequent questions I'm ever asked here at Massively OP or on my own blog is, "How do you do it?...

Tamriel Infinium: Six features Elder Scrolls Online’s level-scaling system needs

67
I have a terrible confession to make: I was about to write off Elder Scrolls Online. I was going to consider it dead to...

Flameseeker Chronicles: Hands-on with Guild Wars 2’s Shatterer Unleashed

10
In the last edition of Flameseeker Chronicles, I discussed the Guild Wars 2 Winter 2016 update that releases today in great detail, so I'm really...
Why must you disappoint hopes?

Wisdom of Nym: Potential jobs for the next Final Fantasy XIV expansion

44
We're going to be hearing about the next expansion to Final Fantasy XIV in... several months, actually. We're in no kind of rush here....

EVE Evolved: Should CCP start developing Walking in Stations again?

75
In all the time that I've been writing about EVE Online, one of the most common recurring comments is that the game badly needs...

The MOP Up: Metal Gear Online comes to PC (January 24, 2016)

2
The MMO industry moves along at the speed of information, and sometimes we’re deluged with so much news here at Massively Overpowered that some...

One Shots: The zen of jumping puzzles

82
Even my most casual acquaintance will always know two things about me: that I have more hair than is healthy for a human male...

Chaos Theory: Figuring out The Secret World in 2016

26
Behind you, it's totally dark and the way has closed off. There's simply no going back. Up ahead, everything is in shadows. You creep...
Set sail, etc.

Perfect Ten: Ten MMO tropes we don’t need in 2016 (but clearly aren’t going anywhere)

122
All right, we've had just about a month of 2016 now, and I'm writing this on my birthday. Odds are good that I'm going...

Choose My Adventure: Exploring Shroud of the Avatar’s (not so) open wilds

13
Hello, friends, and welcome to the penultimate installment of Choose My Adventure: Shroud of the Avatar. Last week, in addition to giving the game's...

Working As Intended: What Star Wars Galaxies got wrong

113
If you've listened to Massively's staff and readers talk about Star Wars Galaxies a little bit, you might come away with the impression that...

Jukebox Heroes: The top 10 EVE Online music themes

20
One of the great things about the EVE Online soundtrack, other than its perplexing popularity despite being mostly an ambient synth score, is that...

Hyperspace Beacon: Is SWTOR losing its MMORPG cred?

100
One of the recurring gamer complaints about Star Wars: The Old Republic is that it's becoming less and less an MMORPG over time. With Knights of the...
Somewhere, across the sea, somewhere.

Wisdom of Nym: The next stop on Final Fantasy XIV’s magical expansion tour

17
The next expansion for Final Fantasy XIV will be announced this year. We all know it. I suppose there's a chance it won't happen,...

MMO Mechanics: MMORPG mechanics predictions for 2016

89
In the last edition of MMO Mechanics, I looked back on 2015 and the mechanics I managed to squeeze into the column: We looked...