evergreen
Vague Patch Notes: Casual no longer means anything in MMOs
Every time I see someone write something about casual players - including me because heavens know I've done it too - I feel a...
Perfect Ten: MMOs with the most needlessly obtuse stats
One of my favorite reviewers of tabletop RPGs at one point opined that percentile systems were one of the best tabletop mechanics possible, simply...
Vague Patch Notes: On scaling and meaningful advancement in WoW and other MMORPGs
It seems like pretty much nobody is happy with how scaling is working in World of Warcraft at the moment. The game's scaling means...
Perfect Ten: Anticipated MMOs I want to know a lot more about
One of the most exciting parts of covering the news here at Massively OP is that we challenge ourselves to stay on top of...
Perfect Ten: 10 MMO features that deserve widespread adaptation
You know what gets me excited about upcoming MMOs? It's certainly not the list of expected systems and features that have since become standard...
The Game Archaeologist: Digging up the history of City of Heroes
For the longest time in the early 2000s, MMORPGs scared me off. They looked too obtuse, too grindy, too ugly, and too unapproachable for...
Perfect Ten: The best expansions for specific MMOs
Looking over the past two decades or so, MMORPGs have grown by leaps and bounds with regular releases, events, and (of course) expansion packs....
Perfect Ten: Endless dungeons in MMOs
Most MMO dungeons are normal songs. You start out and you have a pretty clear picture of the beginning, middle, and end; they don't...
Vague Patch Notes: On balance and differentiation in MMOs
Do you like fighting games? I don't. Let's talk about fighting games. But bear with me because you'll get where this is going.
While I...
‘Magic through serendipity’: Raph Koster on the glorious mess that was Ultima Online
I was a wide-eyed, naive kid when I first stepped into Ultima Online in 1997, and as it turns out, the developers were too.
That's...
Perfect Ten: Ten things you need to understand about MMORPG Rogues
Sometimes I know that I may be a bit too old-school because there's a little twitch in my eye whenever I have to refer...
The Soapbox: Do MMOs still fall victim to the copycat curse?
When Radical Heights launched, I was inspired to put together a whole Perfect Ten about why trend-chasing doesn't work for online games. Obviously, my...
Massively Overthinking: The case for rarity and randomness in MMO monetization
Last week, Guild Wars 2's Crystin Cox gave a monetization interview to Gamasutra during which she made one specific argument I wanted to pull...
Perfect Ten: The unique pitfalls of licensed MMOs
Making a list of the "biggest" MMOs currently running is always an exercise in frustration. It's easy to put a few things on the...
Massively Overthinking: The state of modern MMORPG raiding
Massively OP reader Sorrior recently sent in a question about raiding, a topic we haven't discussed in a while.
"I have noticed raiding tends to...
Perfect Ten: What your MMO quantity says about you
It occurs to me that it is very difficult to find MMOs that I have literally never played before in some capacity. There are...
Massively Overthinking: What we really mean when we talk about ‘difficulty’ in MMORPGs
Massively OP reader Steve wants us to revisit the Daily Grind on making death more meaningful without making it more annoying. His letter was long, so...
Perfect Ten: MMOs that claimed to be the first
We've all been there. We're playing our favorite MMORPG and then self-appointed professors of game history start arguing in world chat about firsts --...
The Soapbox: Three augmented reality game problems (most) MMOs don’t have – and one thing they do so much better
I'd like to think that I'm kind of a healthy gamer. While MMOs take a lot of time, the nice thing is that their...
Perfect Ten: Why trend-chasing doesn’t work at all for online games
Video games have always been a remarkably insular field; that's the nature of development. Someone produces Super Mario Bros, and a few years later...
