editorial
The Soapbox: Your favorite MMO is going to die
Your favorite MMO is going to die. Don't take it personally, though; every other MMO is going to shut down, too. That includes my...
Working As Intended: Why classic Guild Wars matters, 12 years in
The spring season always sees a deluge of MMORPG birthday celebrations: Lord of the Rings Online, City of Heroes, Allods Online, Free Realms last...
The Soapbox: Lessons Secret World Legends failed to learn from Final Fantasy XIV
I've mentioned many a time that I like Funcom quite a bit. I want to like Funcom quite a bit. Heck, I want to...
The Soapbox: Why is Pokemon GO still a tech demo?
I've been a bit frustrated with Niantic lately. I love some of its ideas, but I watched someone else play Ingress prior to Pokemon GO's...
Here’s why everyone’s pissed off about City of Heroes NPCs in NCsoft’s MOBA
Yesterday, NCsoft took the lid off a secret it's clearly been working on for a while: The company means to introduce a notorious and...
The Soapbox: What the Mass Effect Andromeda kerfuffle ought to teach us about games criticism
Today is the official release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, which was preceded by the frankly baffling decision to allow people access to an early...
The Soapbox: Everyone’s being dumb about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s lightsaber
A couple of years ago, The Force Awakens introduced us to (among other things) a lightsaber that looks poorly made, like a little kid...
The Soapbox: Pokemon Go Generation 2 still isn’t a real MMO
Pokemon GO Generation 2 is out now, and it feels a lot like an MMO expansion in a lot of ways:Â We have new features,...
Lost Continent: ArcheAge Revelation’s fresh start servers aren’t doing newbies any favors
It’s been over a month now since ArcheAge’s massive update 3.0 went live, adding oodles of new content to Trion’s expansive fantasy sandbox. The...
Working As Intended: Two decades of Elder Scrolls housing
Massively OP explores Elder Scrolls housing through the ages -- starting with Daggerfall, running through Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and ending with Elder Scrolls Online's Homestead patch, live today.
The Soapbox: The sorry state of ARK Survival Evolved
When ARK: Survival Evolved came on the scene in June 2015, it was met with enthusiasm (dinosaurs!) as well as some skepticism (Early Access)....
Examining the potential for exercise and exploration in Pokemon GO
Just in time for your New Year's resolution, we reported on how Pokemon Go was featured in a peer-reviewed study on getting people to move more. But...
How Pokemon Go should integrate Pokemon Sun/Moon
Say what you will about following tradition, but when I first heard more Pokemon would be added to Pokemon GO, the first thing I thought...
The Soapbox: Asheron’s Call is dead, and Turbine killed it
You'd think recent news about Asheron's Call 1 and AC2 would be easy to swallow. After all, we'd already been warned that Turbine was becoming a mobile...
For Science: A third of our polled social media users quit Pokemon Go over trackers
Pokemon Go has received some large updates recently: the buddy system, medals, some big gym changes (twice), and now we've got dailies. We've been dazzled...
Working As Intended: Westworld is a sandbox MMORPG on your TV
Westworld has emerged this fall as the geek obsession TV show, a gunslinger's LOST about which people can't stop talking and theorizing and debating....
Working As Intended: A tour of 19-year-old Ultima Online
Wanna feel old? Three years ago, I wrote a Second Wind piece for Massively-that-was on Ultima Online, which had recently been turned over to Broadsword...
Exploring real-life PUGs, the Plus, and the antisocial nature of Pokemon Go
Although Pokemon Go isn't advertised as an MMO, both experts and players have noted it does present some interesting similarities: Both have tons of players on servers...
Comparing American and Japanese Pokemon Go culture
My previous article on the culture of Japan's Pokemon Go scene was written before I'd experienced much of the American one to keep my explanations...
Exploring Japan’s Pokemon Go culture
As some readers may know, I've spent the last few years in Japan trying to tackle the local gaming scene, online and off. While...