editorial
Vague Patch Notes: Online games are a marathon, but they still need to start running
One of those phrases we like to use a fair amount here is the fact that running an MMO is a marathon, not a...
Vague Patch Notes: On play conditioning and the lecture of experience in MMOs
Yes, it's another week in which we talk about abstract concepts that underpin the way we play video games, this time inspired by a...
The Soapbox: A pre-mortem for Star Wars The Old Republic, a game that never knew what it had
Would you believe that Star Wars: The Old Republic is shutting down? I'm going to bet that you could believe it, and I'm even going to bet...
Vague Patch Notes: Why the social penalty for open PvP in MMOs never works
One of the most important things to have when you're thinking about games and their design is reference material. It's one of the things...
Vague Patch Notes: How to recognize MMO lies from quite a long way away
One of the most consistently weird elements of covering MMOs is that there's a very simple and yet incredibly odd metric of knowing if...
Vague Patch Notes: ‘Gamer’ is not an identity
Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm 36 years old. I've been a professional writer for about a decade now, and...
Vague Patch Notes: Representation in games matters when you don’t see why it matters
This is a story about a boy named Michael. Follow along with me for a little bit, if you'd be so kind.
Michael was born...
Vague Patch Notes: The fads and the curious (and why Overwatch’s star is fading)
So it's beginning to look a lot like the Overwatch fad has faded. It was a crazy couple of years there, but the fact that...
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2018
While we lost several painful MMOs in 2016 and 2015, 2017 was noticeable chiefly because we lost a large number of small MMOs, perhaps signalling a...
Massively on the Go: Smash Bros Ultimate’s online scene, one month later
I love Smash Bros. I love the mascot battles, the random items, the hazards. And in Super Smash Bros Ultimate, I love the new Ultimate meter...
Massively OP’s complete 2018 awards debrief and annual recap
As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 - it's becoming a real tradition here! - today I'm going to recap our annual awards and...
Vague Patch Notes: How to make your points and exit gracefully from online debates
It's 2019, people. Let's do this. And by do this I of course mean learn to actually debate things in a way that might wind up changing...
Vague Patch Notes: The complexity of classic preservation for MMOs
Here's a fun question to kick things off. Should old black-and-white films be colorized? The key word there is "old," because there are a...
Vague Patch Notes: Understanding systems before you talk about them
Here's a fun question to consider. What were Emblems of Valor and Emblems of Heroism designed to do in World of Warcraft? Yes, they were...
Vague Patch Notes: The taxonomy of corporate apologies in video games
Somehow, Bethesda managed to persevere after the Great Canvas Shortage of 2018 to replace the Fallout 76 CE bags that were essentially plastic shopping bags...
Vague Patch Notes: MMO emulation as a paean for the dead vs. a mockery of the living
If you ever need to know why we'll happily cover Star Wars Galaxies emulators and not Ultima Online emulators here on Massively Overpowered, the reason is...
Vague Patch Notes: Having fun in an MMO doesn’t actually mean it’s any good
It appears that Fallout 76 has become the latest in a long line of games that launched too early with ill-defined goals, trying to be...
Massively on the Go: The Pokemon Let’s Go-Go Connection
Yes, we're going to talk about Pokemon Let's Go Eevee (or you can pretend its Pikachu if you just want to experience Pokemon Yellow again). No, it's...
Vague Patch Notes: Accessibility vs. relevance in MMORPGs
You know that old chestnut about how the greatest trick the devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist? The greatest trick...
First impressions of Fallout 76: The confusion that binds all gamers together
When something looks familiar and seems familiar yet is slightly and significantly different, it can really break your stride and cause you to stumble....
