Generally used to describe MMOs from before World of Warcraft’s launch in 2004, though sometimes shortened to describe just the first few MMOs launched prior to 2000.
classic mmo
The Game Archaeologist: Digging up the history of City of Heroes
For the longest time in the early 2000s, MMORPGs scared me off. They looked too obtuse, too grindy, too ugly, and too unapproachable for...
Massively Overthinking: Random acts of MMORPG kindness
Last week, down in the comments of an innocuous post about gamers being nice in Fortnite, a couple of MOP commenters requested a column...
RuneScape delays its newest elite dungeon for more polish while Old School RuneScape grows its team
RuneScape is excited about its new elite dungeons, but the team isn't quite satisfied with the performance of the second one to push it...
Perfect Ten: The best expansions for specific MMOs
Looking over the past two decades or so, MMORPGs have grown by leaps and bounds with regular releases, events, and (of course) expansion packs....
RuneScape preps player-owned farms, pushes forward with mobile MMO testing
Time for a huge RuneScape progress update, so let's cover all our bases with one energetic post, shall we? Starting with the signature game,...
Ultima Online plans rentable storage vaults for F2P players, plus new castle and keep designs
With the game's 100th patch in the rear-view mirror, Ultima Online's developers are already hard at work on the 101st patch due out in...
The Game Archaeologist: Kesmai’s Air Warrior and Legends of Kesmai
Most studios would be overjoyed to have pioneered one significant advancement in video game history, but then again, most studios aren't Kesmai. While it's...
The Game Archaeologist: A history of EverQuest’s expansions
I don't know if EverQuest holds the crown title for the MMO with the most expansions, but I'm sure it's among the top three...
Battle Bards Episode 124: Old MMOs, new music
It’s a catch-all, catch-up episode for the Battle Bards as they dig through new soundtrack releases from MMORPGs that they’ve covered in the past!...
Black Desert launches a cross-regional ‘Global Lab’ test server
So many games have test servers of one form or another that we seldom even need to spell out the acronym PTS - and...
Interview and excerpt: The ‘Braving Britannia’ book preserves Ultima Online’s oral history
Earlier this week, we wrote about the launch of a new book that's right up MMORPG fans' alley. Dubbed Braving Britannia: Tales of Life,...
Dark Age of Camelot answers player questions about damage reduction and defensive actions
When a game has been running as long as Dark Age of Camelot has, it stands to reason that the players remaining are going...
New Ultima Online book gathers developer and player interviews to document oral history
Old-school MMORPG players, heads-up for you: If you're a fan of Ultima Online or wanted to hear more about the seminal MMORPG after reading...
Old School RuneScape’s mobile port is effectively heading into Android open beta today
You might think that people who'd play the "Old School" version of a game like RuneScape might not be the right demographic for a...
The Daily Grind: What’s the best MMORPG skill system that avoids the ‘illusion of choice’?
Over the weekend, my husband and I were chatting about playing on a Star Wars Galaxies emulator again, probably the Legends one that people...
The MOP Up: EverQuest II’s scorched sky policy (July 1, 2018)
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...
The Game Archaeologist: Raph Koster on MUDs and Privateer Online
The release of Raph Koster's monster book of game essays, Postmortems, was of high interest to Bree and me for different reasons. For her,...
Happy 17th birthday, Anarchy Online – Funcom is celebrating with a free-play week
If your first memory of playing Anarchy Online consists of a horrifying slog through alpha, as mine does, then you might be wondering how...
Perfect Ten: The best MMO debuts by year, 1997-2006
By now, many of you probably know that I'm the curator of the MMO Timeline on my personal blog. On this page, I've attempted...
Ultima Online is getting shared bank storage after 20 years, making F2P play more viable
There's exciting news for the 20-year-old Ultima Online this week, as the game's latest newsletter announced an account-wide bank storage system.
"Between Publish 100 and...
