editorial
Pokemon Go’s second anniversary report card sees high marks for content and innovation
Today is Pokemon Go's second-year anniversary. Last year's report card had to grapple with things like the game's rapid rise and fall as a fad,...
Vague Patch Notes: On balance and differentiation in MMOs
Do you like fighting games? I don't. Let's talk about fighting games. But bear with me because you'll get where this is going.
While I...
The Soapbox: The western port of Bless Online feels like a curse
To say that the development of Neowiz’s high-fantasy MMO Bless has been somewhat beleaguered would be an understatement. Since the Korean import’s Western release...
E3 2018: Hands-on with Pokemon Let’s Go
You know with my being the one at this year's E3 that this would happen. A console Pokemon game that also connects to Pokemon Go?...
‘Magic through serendipity’: Raph Koster on the glorious mess that was Ultima Online
I was a wide-eyed, naive kid when I first stepped into Ultima Online in 1997, and as it turns out, the developers were too.
That's...
The Soapbox: Do MMOs still fall victim to the copycat curse?
When Radical Heights launched, I was inspired to put together a whole Perfect Ten about why trend-chasing doesn't work for online games. Obviously, my...
Generation 3 is basically Pokemon Go’s One Tamriel: How Niantic has actually improved POGO
A lot of critical things have been said about Pokemon Go and Niantic in the past. Professionals that tried to defend certain UI elements still had plenty...
The Soapbox: Three augmented reality game problems (most) MMOs don’t have – and one thing they do so much better
I'd like to think that I'm kind of a healthy gamer. While MMOs take a lot of time, the nice thing is that their...
The Soapbox: Six responses to the ‘gaming is wrong/evil/an addiction’ argument
I recently went on a rant about gaming, but it wasn't directed at gaming. It was in defense of gaming. I am so weary...
First impressions of ‘wizarding world’ MMOARG Maguss
If it weren't for my promise to write this article, I would have given up on Maguss in less than 15 minutes had I been...
Taking a tour of the global Monster Hunter World community on PS4
While I'm not nearly the hardcore veteran our illustrious hunter Matt Daniel is, I can at least admit to physically living among the Japanese hunting...
The Soapbox: Confessions of a serial hoarder (in MMORPGs)
How much is too much?
To some, that might seem like a reasonable question. But I knew. I knew. There is no such thing as...
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2017
It's true that we lost a lot of MMOs in 2016 -- bigger and more important ones than in 2014 and 2015. 2017, however, has...
Pokemon Go’s EX Raid invite system still baffles core players
Niantic's recent Pokemon Go event succeeded where the Pokemon Company failed, with POGO players catching over 3 billion Pokemon well before the end of the event....
The Soapbox: Evaluating gaming monetization through the lens of Nintendo’s mobile history
Bloggers and journalists throughout the online gaming industry have been talking about monetization a lot lately. It's not just lockbox/gachapon scandals, or their relationship...
Slay-to-win: Massively OP’s hands-on with the Dauntless closed beta
The end of September marked a major milestone for Dauntless, the upcoming monster-slaying action-MMORPG from indie developer Phoenix Labs, as it officially concluded its...
The Soapbox: Inconvenience is not immersion in MMOs or anywhere else
Inconvenience is not immersion.
This strikes me as something rather ridiculous to type; to mildly paraphrase Dan Harmon, it seems like should be one of...
The Soapbox: The long tail of game development isn’t an excuse for gouging
Don't be too mad at Star Wars: Battlefront II. It's a symptom of a problem, not the cause. I mean, be mad at people...
Divining the details of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite from a Pokemon Go player’s perspective
When we first heard rumors about a Harry Potter version of Pokemon Go, I said I could barely imagine what the game might be like before...
Working As Intended: Guild Wars 2’s new mount licenses are still lockboxes, but they’re not the worst lockboxes
Pretty much everyone assumed that back when Guild Wars 2 planned out mounts, it did so with its cash shop in mind. The game...
