editorial
Vague Patch Notes: Lore is not an excuse for bad MMO design decisions
In a previous column, I wrote about how gender-locking classes is bad. This is because it is bad. It is bad in all conceivable...
SeedInvest tells Shroud of the Avatar investors that Portalarium eluded its accountability efforts
Shroud of the Avatar has been a black mark on the MMORPG genre, Kickstarted MMOs, and genre founding father Richard Garriott for years, and...
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go halts PvP season ratings to reassess PvP, and that’s a good thing
Niantic recently revealed that Pokemon GO's Season 10 will be a bit different. For those of you who've forgotten, POGO PvP leagues work both off a ranking...
Vague Patch Notes: The metaverse doesn’t exist and isn’t a good idea either
You can't swing your arms at this point without hearing about "the metaverse" in some capacity, which is supposedly the reason why Facebook changed...
Pokemon Go’s Johto Event adds twist to shadow issue, plus new Community Day dates revealed
While we're still waiting for Pokemon Go's hourly pokemon spawns for February 26th's Johto Tour event, Niantic released a surprising update concerning the Masterwork...
Why I Play: Examining why Lost Ark has me so hooked
Lost Ark has hooked me pretty deeply. I’m just over 30 levels and five or so days into the game right now, which sometimes...
February’s Nintendo Direct shows Nintendo further embracing multiplayer online play
No Man's Sky coming to the Switch wasn't the only big announcement at February 9th's Nintendo Direct. Nintendo will be further beefing up Mario Kart 8 with...
Vague Patch Notes: Looking back on the MassivelyOP magic, seven years in
As of tomorrow, we're seven years out from the launch of this site. This means that we're actually into the point when I've been...
Hands-on: Lost Ark is a solid MMO that falls just short of true greatness
After years of waiting, the MMOARPG Lost Ark launches in the west today, at least for those who bought founder's packs. The rest of...
Vague Patch Notes: MMOs taking inspiration from one another is not a bad thing
Back when Guild Wars 2 announced the Bladesworn elite spec for Warriors, I had a little fun with the idea because... well, let's not...
Massively on the Go: February Pokemon GO events are a love/hate relationship
Some things are staying the same in Pokemon GO this February: weekly 1 coin Remote Raid Passes, the return of old Mega and Tier 5 raid pokemon, a...
Vague Patch Notes: Why play-to-earn is a garbage idea
Good afternoon, readers. Do you remember not so long ago when I talked about the fact that MMOs are perfectly fine as just games...
Massively on the Go: Orna’s a definitive MMOARG – but it keeps you at home
Twice now I have suggested a theoretical Earthbound ARG, and a central idea of such a game would be having a chosen safe spot for...
Vague Patch Notes: Unpacking the Riot MMO’s group-centric philosophy
Well! It has been a week, that's for darn sure. And amidst everything else going on this particular week, it would've been easy to...
Vague Patch Notes: Star Citizen is not going to live up to your dreams
So the other day, we were reminded that Squadron 42 - which was supposed to be released back in 2014, if you can believe that...
Massively on the GO: How to catch up in Pokemon GO for 2022
Despite my concerns about player safety in Pokemon GO, especially in terms of stalking and the anemic response to it by Niantic's support, one of...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO term ‘pay-to-win’ is a red herring
It probably hasn't escaped anyone who has been reading my writing over the past several years that I have something of a vendetta against...
MassivelyOP’s complete 2021 awards debrief and annual recap
As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, today we're going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the...
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2021
This is always one of the most depressing roundups I do around the turn of every year, and this year... well, we lost some...
Massively on the Go: How to fix Pokemon Go’s longstanding player safety failures
This article is part four of a four-piece series on safety in Pokemon Go as well as other Niantic games. You can read all...
