editorial
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...
Five IPs that could tackle ARG gameplay features Pokemon Go lacks
Following the news that Niantic is now in fact working on a Harry Potter AR game, I realized that even as someone who enjoyed the...
The Soapbox: Calling an MMO launch a launch
It's launch.
Can we collectively accept that? Marketing, developers, and players alike? Launch is launch. When your game launches, it has launched. If I can...
The Soapbox: Sharing MMORPGs with my kids
"Dad, can I pilot your ship tonight?"
I turn around to see my seven-year-old son giving me Bambi eyes with his hands clasped because, somewhere...
Working As Intended: Busting up the MMORPG nostalgia party
Last week, a clever Massively OP commenter, SC_Deadline, neatly summed up the ongoing Nostalrius emulator shutdown as Blizzard "bust up someone's nostalgia party," which...
Working As Intended: The fate of the MMORPG genre
I don't think I'm exaggerating to say that this past weekend was a strange one in the MMORPG community, when gamers across the wide expanse...
How Star Wars: The Old Republic won me over with its endgame
I walked away from last week's Star Wars: The Old Republic livestream pretty happy. Considering that I repeatedly say how much I absolutely loathe...
Working As Intended: What Star Wars Galaxies got wrong
If you've listened to Massively's staff and readers talk about Star Wars Galaxies a little bit, you might come away with the impression that...
Working As Intended: The MMOs we lost in 2015
It's become tradition to fare well the MMOs that sunsetted in the preceding year, but that wasn't always the case. At the beginning of 2015,...
The Soapbox: Advertising, blacklisting, and critique – The broken incentives of gaming media
This guest Soapbox was commissioned through Massively Overpowered's Kickstarter campaign and is authored by D. Emery Bunn. The opinions here represent the views of our guest...
The Soapbox: MMOs and the power of habit
I've been reading this book by Charles Duhigg called The Power of Habit. Actually, the full title is The Power of Habit: Why We...