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Vague Patch Notes: Datamining, leaks, unforced errors, and messaging
So now that Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers has been released, basically everyone playing the game has completely forgotten that the expansion actually prompted some...
The Daily Grind: How do you feel about bots in MMOs?
Let me be up-front with my own feelings: Bots are bad. Not robots, of course; we all know how I feel about robots. No,...
Desert Oasis: Taking a swing with Black Desert’s Tamer and her bō staff
When I first started playing Black Desert, it was because I wanted to play a Dark Knight. From her animations, armors, and that sweet...
Perfect Ten: How Final Fantasy XI shaped my MMO preferences forever
Your first experience with something has an outsized importance. This feels like one of those statements people really want to argue with sometimes but...
The Daily Grind: Which MMO offering is filling your summer hours?
We're only now in the middle of July, but so far it feels as though summer 2019 has been a non-stop rollercoaster of great...
Choose My Adventure: The ‘hard mode’ of City of Heroes in Going Rogue
Disaster! Our plucky Praetorian has plunged into a pit of perilous despair! The challenges of this bold new world are mounting, and the pint-sized...
The Soapbox: Hoping for Amazon to succeed where Lord of the Rings Online failed
It's not often I really get excited about an upcoming MMORPG. Partly this is because of the industry slowing down, and partly this is...
The Daily Grind: What was the last MMORPG you played out of pure nostalgia?
Yesterday, Rock Paper Shotgun penned a piece on video game nostalgia. Editor Brian Caldwell interviewed a pile of game devs about why specifically they're...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV Shadowbringers’ balance issues ahead of the first patch
So, here's the genesis of this particular column: Originally, my plan was to actually just talk about story beats from Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers...
Fight or Kite: Albion Online’s Percival update is for the solo players out there
This week we saw a nice patch released for the world of Albion Online with its Percival update. It’s largely a general quality-of-life update...
The Daily Grind: Which MMO would’ve benefited from early access?
In our mailbag podcast a few weeks back, we answered a question about Wildstar, specifically about whether early access might have helped the game...
The Daily Grind: What bit of MMO control snobbery bothers you the most?
I've been using my mouse for hotkeys for years, to the point that I feel most comfortable doing that for abilities rather than clicking....
LOTRO Legendarium: Five essential roleplaying tools for living in Lord of the Rings Online’s Middle-earth
While you can and will find roleplaying active in many MMOs, there's something very conducive to Lord of the Rings Online's design and community...
The Daily Grind: Which online game has a personality that mirrors yours?
Intentionally designed or not, every MMO and online game exudes a personality, and no two are exactly alike. It might be the cheerful anarchy...
Lawful Neutral: Dance studios, canvas bags, and ‘false advertising’ in the MMO industry
As I was writing our Lawful Neutral expose of Nerd Kingdom a few weeks ago, I was pretty bothered by the conduct of the...
WoW Factor: What would a factionless World of Warcraft look like?
You know, part of me honestly figured that the speculation around World of Warcraft abandoning the faction split would have died out months ago...
The Daily Grind: Which MMO suffers the most from powercreep?
Last month, an MOP reader named Swifty replied to our Daily Grind about the last MMO he'd quit by calling out EverQuest II -...
EVE Evolved: EVE Online’s comms blackout will lead to absolute anarchy
All hell is about to break loose in EVE Online for the territorial alliances waging wars in the depths of space following some the...
Vague Patch Notes: Why live MMOs struggle to onboard new players
There are, at the time I write this, two basic approaches for getting new players up to speed in existing MMOs. Both of them...
The Daily Grind: Do you still have any faith left in Secret World Legends?
We slip on from the second anniversary of Secret World Legends and the game sure as heck looks pretty abandoned from this side of...