evergreen
Massively Overthinking: ‘Every MMO inconvenience is someone else’s game’
A while back, someone in our comments (I can't find it again, so I can't remember who!) dug up a quote from Raph Koster...
Perfect Ten: The stupid reasons I have had for sacrificing sleep for MMOs
One of the most useful pieces of advice that I've gotten regarding making decisions for the future is also the simplest: Imagine yourself taking...
LOTRO Legendarium: Which LOTRO race is the best to play?
Sometimes column topics come from idle inner dialogue, while other times they may arise from a desire to do some personal research that ends...
Vague Patch Notes: Mobile MMOs, free-to-play MMOs, and the path of microtransactions
When I first started playing Magic: the Gathering, Revised was the new hotness and I got used to the idea that Serra Angel was...
Perfect Ten: Weird ways we heal each other in MMORPGs
One of the most important implications of the virtual worlds we visit is that they all boast medical care far above and beyond anything...
LOTRO Legendarium: 10 helpful tips to improve your LOTRO experience
Recently, my 12-year-old daughter began playing Lord of the Rings Online for the first time after having watched the movies and read The Hobbit....
Vague Patch Notes: The specter of MMO persistence in single-player games
Recently, we got a great letter from a listener asking about an issue that he'd been having with single-player games compared to MMOs. Essentially,...
Perfect Ten: 10 great ways to lose new players from your MMO
MMOs require new blood. Not exclusively or anything; you can keep an MMO going for quite some time on existing happy players. But existing...
LOTRO Legendarium: Exploring the bounds of Yondershire
As I write this, I'm coming down off of the buzz that was Lord of the Rings Online's 15th anniversary. All in all, I...
Vague Patch Notes: A look back at my start in Final Fantasy XI, many years later
It is the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy XI this week. Not the 20th anniversary of the game being in the US, and thus...
Perfect Ten: MMO critters so cute it makes your teeth hurt
I vividly remember a conversation I had with my then-girlfriend's parents back in 1996 about the potential of this growing "internet" phenomenon. With my...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV and the grim specter of continuity lockout
This particular column was inspired by a question by regular reader, commenter, and friend to man and beast alike Scott Leyes, who originally posed...
Perfect Ten: The many-colored dragon rainbow of the MMO sphere
Dragons are ubiquitous. When I wrote a Perfect Ten describing every single MMO bestiary, I noted that no matter what game you're playing, no...
Wisdom of Nym: Deep-diving Final Fantasy XIV’s new adventurer plates
One of the things that I think is important to note about Final Fantasy XIV's new adventurer plates is that they are in an...
LOTRO Legendarium: Remembering 15 amazing years of Lord of the Rings Online
Server performance issues aside, Lord of the Rings Online's 15th anniversary has been a smashing success. It's been far greater an event than I...
Vague Patch Notes: The negatives of MMORPG rogue servers
Last week, we began a discussion about the ups and downs of rogue servers in the MMO space, by which I actually mean we...
Perfect Ten: Why we need more post-apocalyptic MMOs
Ever since playing the original Wasteland back in the late '80, I've had a high fascination with post-apocalyptic settings. Yet it's not been the...
The Game Archaeologist: Six cancelled MMOs that I wish had launched
In my lengthy tenure writing The Game Archaeologist -- which dates back to May 2010, if you can believe it -- I've covered MMOs...
Vague Patch Notes: The positives of MMORPG rogue servers
Here at MassivelyOP, we have a complicated relationship with rogue servers for MMOs. We have some pretty firm rules about when covering them is...
Massively Overthinking: Bots in MMOs – but not the bad bots
A while back on the MMORPG subreddit, there was a provocative thread about bots - no, not those bots. Essentially, the Redditor asked whether...
