evergreen
Desert Oasis: A guide to open PvP and grindspot etiquette in the world of Black Desert
Back in my classic Guild Wars days, I was so happy to have the scrimmage system. It was a great way to solve arguments....
LOTRO Legendarium: The first year of LOTRO’s operation
It was April 24th, 2007. World of Warcraft players were deep into The Burning Crusade, SOE had just launched Vanguard, and the indie MMO...
Lawful Neutral: Mr. Krabs’ Wacky Bucks and currency in online games
I used to watch Spongebob religiously. I loved the days when I could put on Nickelodeon and have Spongebob on for hours. One of...
The Soapbox: The counterproductiveness of limited-time content in online games
While thoroughly enjoying playing Astroneer's special event in honor of Apollo 11's moon landing 50th anniversary that's happening now through August 31st, I was...
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMORPG zones of all time
I once heard it said that a popular studio - I think it was Blizzard - made it a point of asking prospective developers...
Vague Patch Notes: Keeping it simple, oversimplification, and MMO design
People who have read my work for a while know that I really like tabletop roleplaying, and I have copies of two of my...
Perfect Ten: Great MMOs that will run just fine on your old computer
The other day a friend was telling me that he used to play EverQuest Online Adventures very regularly back in the day, but fell...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Why Guild Wars 2 is the ideal starter MMO
When I met my wife, she was a console gamer, but she had never played an MMO. She was interested in giving some of...
Jukebox Heroes: The best of FFXIV Shadowbringers’ soundtrack
I don't see a lot of chatter about it, but from talking with some of my Final Fantasy XIV-playing friends, Stormblood was at best...
Storyboard: Never forget that all MMO lore is made up
Let's take a trip back to the dewy slopes of June 2006, when Chris Metzen addressed the question of how the lore of the...
Into the Super-verse: A possible glimpse into City of Heroes 2
In 2010, popular video game network MTV noted that NCsoft had filed an interesting trademark for a possible City of Heroes 2. While companies...
MMO Cartographer: Riders of Icarus is a very tame MMORPG
I have a few vices, and one of them is a mild to moderate obsession with game pets and mounts. I am pretty sure...
Vague Patch Notes: Datamining, leaks, unforced errors, and messaging
So now that Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers has been released, basically everyone playing the game has completely forgotten that the expansion actually prompted some...
Lawful Neutral: Dance studios, canvas bags, and ‘false advertising’ in the MMO industry
As I was writing our Lawful Neutral expose of Nerd Kingdom a few weeks ago, I was pretty bothered by the conduct of the...
Vague Patch Notes: Why live MMOs struggle to onboard new players
There are, at the time I write this, two basic approaches for getting new players up to speed in existing MMOs. Both of them...
Perfect Ten: Reasons why I quit your MMORPG
We have all been there with subscription MMORPGs, where we go to unsubscribe and after a mild guilt trip, the cancellation screen asks us...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2’s Living World is a barrier to entry
I have really liked Guild Wars 2’s story in the last few years. Quite honestly, I wasn’t crazy about a lot of the base...
Not So Massively: Gaming genre elitism isn’t a good look on anyone
As I noted when I first took over the Not So Massively column this past spring, we live in a time of great change...
Massively Overthinking: Do you even *like* MMO expansions?
This seems like an absurd question on its face, right? MMO players are supposed to like MMO expansions. They're progress. They're content. They're fresh...
Massively Overthinking: Always be achievin’ (in MMOs)
A while back, my husband and I were idly chatting about MMO achievements. Neither one of us is much of an achievement hunter, or...