Massively Overpowered

It will probably come as no surprise to those of you reading that I've been taking part in a weekly tabletop roleplaying game for the past several months, but that ended this past Wednesday. Ended with a fun and fitting conclusion, yes, but still ended. I am a bit unsure about how I ended up turning my character into...

Poor dwarves. Generic humans aside, I've always had a fondness for dwarves in fantasy literature and games. They feel less Mary Sueish than those arrogant elves and more serious than the goofy takes you often see with gnomes and goblins. The dwarf I know and respect is one who exudes capability, strength, loyalty, and brute fighting force. Unfortunately, dwarves have all but...

A Massively OP reader has tipped us off to trouble brewing over in TheWorld, an ultra-indie MMORPG we've never before covered. Staff and moderators working on the game have raised the alarm that the lead developer -- and the man holding the keys to the website, latest code, servers, and $20,000 in player donations -- has seemingly been MIA since...

It seems like The Division was going to forever be the title that didn't quite make its way to an actual beta test, but that's finally changing. After rumors that its beta was coming this month, it was confirmed that the tests will start right around the end of January... and stop very soon thereafter. So it's more of...

Titled "To free, or not to free," TUG's second vlog highlights the subject of monetization. While discussing the free-to-play topic, Nerd Kingdom CEO Peter Salinas emphasized that there are two important factors to the game that go against free-to-play as players know it: "TUG will always be playable offline, and TUG will always be modifiable." Instead of gating content like...

H1Z1's developmental plans have long included adding a variety of zombies into the mix, from different looks to different skills. Female zombies were added last October -- now get ready for a new one. Remember that undead abomination in a straight jacket that you got a glimpse of in last week's video? That's the upcoming screamer zombie. Bound up...

We live in a world where Winning Putt exists. It is a golf MMO. There are no epic endgame raids against the Grand Wrath-Beast that lurks behind Hole #14; it's just golf. Golf with short skirts, flouncy female characters who offer exaggerated pouts on missed shots, detailed character creation, and classes. It's also in open beta right now if...

PWE and Cryptic Studios have just announced that Champions Online's latest content update will land on the public test server today. It's called Teleios Ascendant, and if you're a gold subber to the game, you and your group of level 40 superheroes can preview it on the PTS. "In the wake of Supervillain Onslaught and the resulting rampage of super-powered...

So far in our exploration of the topics in Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt's book The Video Game Debate: Unravelling the Physical, Social, and Psychological Effects of Video Games, we've tackled the state of modern game research, online games and internet addiction, moral panic and online griefing, and the role of games in education (and vice versa). Today, we'll focus on video games...

Black Desert rep Belsazar has posted a lengthy missive from the Pearl Abyss developers explaining the details of the game's cash shop and announcing that the date for closed beta 2 will be posted next week. Black Desert will actually have two cash shops: The Cash Shop (for Pearl purchases) and the Mileage Shop (for miles purchases). Pearls are the...