evergreen
The Soapbox: I am just about done with MMO epic storylines
I'm not here to flash my MMO credentials at you because (a) you don't care and (b) you probably top me. That's fine. All...
Vague Patch Notes: Level scaling in MMOs with the lateral spread and the temporary shrink
Last week I talked about how MMORPGs use level scaling to accomplish actually useful and important goals. In short, there is an issue with...
Perfect Ten: Early versions of MMOs that were rougher than you remember
Despite our nostalgia goggles and cries for legacy versions of MMORPGs, the real truth is that most 1.0 versions of our online games were...
Casually Classic: How Burning Crusade brought us some of WoW’s best starting zones
There's certainly been a rise of chatter among the WoW Classic community these days regarding The Burning Crusade. This is partially because of a...
LOTRO Legendarium: Should LOTRO players also check out Dungeons and Dragons Online?
You know what's always fascinated me? The connection between Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. These two MMOs are very...
Design Mockument: Which of the healthiest 2025 MMORPGs have space for a sequel?
Every year, Justin and I write all of our End-of-Year Eleven posts, and every year one of those is for the healthiest games going...
Vague Patch Notes: What’s so hopeless about horizontal progression in MMOs?
A few weeks ago, I talked about power creep when it comes to MMOs in general, and one of the things I mentioned as...
Perfect Ten: The wild MMORPGs that came out in 2011
Not every year sees equal releases in the MMORPG genre. We've had years of starvation and years of plenty. Every so often it's fun...
WoW Factor: Evaluating World of Warcraft’s allied races seven years later
At the tail end of an exciting expansion cycle, World of Warcraft: Legion saved one last big surprise for the community. In 2018's Patch...
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO you play isn’t always the MMO that was designed
There was, for a brief period of time, a window when World of Warcraft was moving toward a more deterministic gear structure that de-emphasized...
Perfect Ten: The challenges of running challenge servers in MMOs
So there has been a bit of a kerfuffle over in the World of Warcraft world, which is a bit like saying that the...
Vague Patch Notes: If you have my money, you’d better have my video game
So over the last couple of weeks Lord of the Rings Online has made itself quite a mess to clean up. It's not the...
Perfect Ten: Short but mighty playable MMO races
I like short races in MMOs. Not exclusively, but if there is an option to go small or go home, you can bet that...
MMO Hype Train: Why are Monsters & Memories’ vibes so intriguing?
What attracts you to an upcoming MMORPG project? There are a few factors in my mind that result in a rather quick assessment of...
Vague Patch Notes: Learning to hate the MMORPGs you love
I had to teach myself how to hate Star Trek Online. It didn't come naturally to me.
If you've read the stuff that I've written...
Perfect Ten: The strangest weapons you wind up using in MMORPGs
Human beings have been using things as weapons for about as long as human beings have had hands and needed to hit stuff. That's...
Massively Overthinking: What should MMO corpse runs look like in 2025?
A couple of years ago - yeah, I save weird things in my "ideas bin" folder - MMO designer Damion Schubert tweeted about a...
Perfect Ten: Ranking real-world holidays in MMOs from worst to best
There are really only two categories of MMO festivities: the ones made up for the game itself and the ones "inspired" by real-world holidays....
Vague Patch Notes: The MMO starter experiences that fear new players
Last week, I talked a bit about power creep. But buried in there was something that you could easily miss as a guideline for...
WoW Factor: Six player-created challenges to spice up your World of Warcraft leveling
It seems almost impossible to play video games for extended periods of time and not fall into some sort of rut or routine. We...
