An NCsoft studio known primarily for WildStar.
carbine studios
MMO Hype Train: My growing obsession with Stars Reach
As much as I respect Raph Koster for all of his passion and pioneering of MMORPGs, I've rarely crossed paths with his games, notably...
Perfect Ten: Lessons from unsuccessful MMORPGs that I wish designers would learn
I have been writing about this genre for far too long now and seen far too many games with genuinely good elements completely fail...
MMO Hype Train: Wayfinder is a genuinely good little RPG – but a missed opportunity to be an MMO
Look at that: I don't always talk a big talk -- sometimes I actually end up playing the game I said I will. Like...
Massively Overthinking: Has the term MMORPG become toxic?
Back in 2016, when the MMORPG genre had just suffered a brutal one-two punch of losing EverQuest Next and the gutting of WildStar's team,...
Perfect Ten: 10 MMOs that let you bring a whole squad of pets and minions
Pet classes are not really my jam. I don't want my companion to be doing the tanking or damage or healing or whatever, and...
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs without player housing in 2024
Last week, Guild Wars 2 became the latest western MMORPG to finally add proper housing, with pages lifted straight out of Wildstar and RIFT....
Massively Overthinking: Frames of reference in MMORPGs
Last week on the MMORPG subreddit, there was a heated discussion about terminology in MMORPGs (terminology we'll probably talk about in a separate thread...
Battle Bards Episode 233: Epic fight music
For Battle Bards’ penultimate episode, Syp and Syl explore some EPIC battle music across many MMOs. After all, if we’re going to go out...
Perfect Ten: My 10 favorite MMO pet classes of all time
I've had to face the fact that among the MOP team, I'm in somewhat of a minority who actually likes -- nay, passionately loves...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Previewing Guild Wars 2’s Janthir Wilds story, warclaw, and homesteading
It feels like less than a year ago that Guild Wars 2 was launching its last expansion… oh wait, it was! Love it or...
Vague Patch Notes: How widespread free-to-play impacted MMORPGs
In 2009, Dungeons & Dragons Online went free-to-play, which was a pretty big deal at the time. It was especially important to me, since...
Raph Koster’s new MMORPG is called Stars Reach, and yes, it’s basically Star Wars Galaxies 2
It's June 26th, Star Wars Galaxies' 21st birthday, and I'm sitting on Google Meet talking to none other than MMORPG founding father (and SWG...
Guild Wars 2’s new housing looks like WildStar’s islands plus the old Hall of Monuments
Ever since ArenaNet announced Guild Wars 2's Janthir Wilds expansion, there's been considerable debate among core Guild Wars 2 players and dedicated MMORPG housing...
Massively Overthinking: Unfair stigmas that follow MMORPGs
A few weeks back, our team was discussing the intersection of survival sandboxes, MMORPG virtual worlds, and gankboxes - and how hard it is...
Vague Patch Notes: Why do so many MMOs fail?
We talk a lot about MMOs that fail here on Massively Overpowered. I wrote a whole column about how our standards of success are...
Perfect Ten: My top 10 favorite MMOs across two decades
Normally in these Perfect Ten lists, I'm very outward-facing. I like to create lists that are as helpful or amusing as possible for others...
Perfect Ten: 10 favorite features that pairs of popular MMOs share
Even though all MMORPGs compete for our time, affection, and -- above all else -- money, it doesn't mean that they can't get along....
LOTRO Legendarium: 27 practical benefits of LOTRO’s player housing
There's this ongoing common perception in MMOs like Lord of the Rings Online that player housing is good for one and only one purpose:...
Working As Intended: The top 10 hot tubs in MMORPGs
It's been a running joke for a few years that I always put hot tubs in my MMO houses whenever possible, and once that...
Vague Patch Notes: Why in the world do you want the Riot MMO to be a thing?
Let's make something clear right up front: If you came into this column eager to head for the comments section to say, "Well, I...
