evergreen
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...
Wandering Wraeclast: The wonderful world of Path of Exile’s Hideout housing
When I first started playing Path of Exile, I never envisioned that housing would become available. And not just housing, but good housing with...
Perfect Ten: The MMORPGs boasting the most expansions
In 2018 alone, the MMORPG industry saw no less than 14 major expansions release for various titles, and in 2019 we've had at least...
Tamriel Infinium: Getting the most out of your Elder Scrolls Online box and sub in 2019
One of the most confusing things about any game that chooses a hybrid business model is figuring out what you need to buy in...
The Daily Grind: Which problems is the MMO industry never gonna solve?
Earlier in June, Wilhelm of The Ancient Gaming Noob posted a provocative article about the three problems MMORPGs are never going to solve. Fighting...
Massively Overthinking: The worst MMO cash shop trickery
Last week, games psychologist Jamie Madigan tweeted an underrated comment about how psychological tricks used in restaurant menu design are also found in video...
Into the Super-verse: A quick-and-dirty guide to picking the right City of Heroes archetype – Blueside edition
What's amazing about the unexpected City of Heroes revival (and does that ever feel good to type) isn't just that old players are eager to go...
Perfect Ten: The most poorly managed MMO sunsets of all time
MMOs shut down. This is just kind of a reality. It's an unpleasant one, but we also are collectively aware that it happens and...
Jukebox Heroes: The best of vanilla World of Warcraft’s soundtrack
With half the MMO community in a frenzy about the coming of World of Warcraft Classic this summer, many a gamer's mind has turned...
Perfect Ten: How WoW Classic could advance beyond its phased content rollout
It's far too early to say that World of Warcraft: Classic will get more updates beyond the planned phases of vanilla content. It could be...
Storyboard: Exploring religion in MMOs
One of the things I wanted to do in bringing back Storyboard was to expand a little bit beyond just roleplaying to the stuff...
Vague Patch Notes: The curious case of the esports bubble
I've been thinking a lot about esports lately. This is not actually something I like to think about, mind you; my general attitude toward esports...
Into the Super-verse: Why didn’t Champions Online do better?
A while back I was flipping through the backlog of my personal gaming blog, looking at the history of my gaming trends, particularly in...
Massively Overthinking: Does the MMO genre have too many games for its own good?
Last month I saw a video from YouTuber Josh Strife Hayes with an eyebrow-raiser of a thesis: He essentially argues that we have too...
