column
Design Mockument: How to make housing work in World of Warcraft
Editor's note: This column was originally published in August 2024, a full three months before we knew WoW is actually getting housing with the...
The Daily Grind: Is there an MMO you wish had never been made?
Before I dig into today's Daily Grind, I want to make clear that I don't seriously wish any MMOs had never been made, not...
Vague Patch Notes: The player-provided guidance problem in MMORPGs
Final Fantasy XIV has a player-based mentor program and an automatic guidance network for new players. The idea is that certain players can volunteer...
The Daily Grind: Do you see your MMO characters as characters or as playing pieces?
There's an interesting element to a lot of games where you have places where the layers of gameplay break down. Your character in World...
Perfect Ten: MMOs with outstanding tutorial sections
Tutorials! They're important. I even wrote an entire column about them recently, talking about how important they are in getting people into a new...
The Daily Grind: Would you warn your past self against getting attached to an MMO that would die?
Is ignorance bliss? Perhaps, but perhaps not -- especially if it might save yourself some time and heartbreak in the end.
Today I want to...
Choose My Adventure: Blowing up rocks for fun and profit in Elite Dangerous
When I first started my run in Elite: Dangerous for this week's Choose My Adventure, I was just barely over the amount of credits...
Vitae Aeternum: Let’s design some New World artifacts
The New World community is currently waiting not so patiently for the big Aeternum update in October. While we're killing time, I thought it...
The Daily Grind: What’s the most difficult MMO crafting profession to master?
I have been a die-hard crafter in a lot of MMOs over my lifetime, but I am also the first to admit that some...
Wisdom of Nym: The actual storytelling issues with Final Fantasy XIV Dawntrail
I'm not exactly surprised that basically any controversy vis-a-vis Final Fantasy XIV's most recent expansion is pretty much completely focused on the story (with...
The Daily Grind: What life lesson did you learn from MMOs the hard way?
I know MMOs don't exist to teach us life lessons, but they definitely have the opportunity to do so, whether we want them to...
The Game Archaeologist: A look back at proto-MMOs through the 1980s
Today I want to try something a little different as we look at MMORPG history. Rather than focus in on a single title or...
The Daily Grind: What sort of cosmetic thing would you like to collect in your main MMO?
Cosmetic items are nice things to collect because while they do not strictly affect your numerical performance in the game, they do offer significant...
The Daily Grind: Are there any old favorite MMOs you’ve simply stopped revisiting?
Most of us know quite well the phenomenon of how beloved MMOs get so deeply entrenched in our psyche that we end up leaving...
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s August is leaning into Adventure
I must admit that Pokemon Go's traditional Adventure Week events have historically been a minor hit with me as they feature the fossil 'mon...
Storyboard: The fine art of letting your character fail in MMORPG roleplaying
Do you know why tabletop roleplaying games use dice? Every game designer ever will lie about the reason. The reason cited is to create...
The Daily Grind: What’s the oldest MMO meme you remember?
If you were around in the early days of online gaming, you surely remember how terrible the memes were. I mean, I put on...
Working As Intended: The Fridge Poetry game is the latest distillation of MMORPG PvP
This morning, MOP's Sam busted into MOP's work chat with a link to the Fridge Poetry game.
"It's more like an art project than a...
Vague Patch Notes: Everything in an MMORPG is time-limited
Today, I want to talk to you about an event that you can no longer participate in within Final Fantasy XIV. It's an event...
The Daily Grind: What sort of time-limited content works well in MMOs?
Over the years, I have occasionally dunked on Guild Wars 2 for making its story content early on revolve around taking part in continually...
