evergreen
Perfect Ten: More anthropomorphic MMO studio conversations
A while back, you may recall that I posted some of my conversations with anthropomorphized concepts of MMO studios. If you don't remember this,...
The Hunter’s Arsenal: Massively OP’s guide to the weapons of Monster Hunter World
Throughout their time in Monster Hunter World, players will have to make a lot of decisions, but none of them are as important -- or...
MMO Mechanics: The Fair Play Alliance and mechanising fairness
News of over 30 gaming companies taking a united stand against unfairness and toxicity in online game communities sprung out of GDC 2018 a...
Perfect Ten: Why MMO progression servers are a brilliant idea
Over the past couple of weeks, I have been enjoying the journey through RIFT Prime, the game's first progression server. Trion Worlds surprised and...
The Game Archaeologist: World of Warcraft’s Corrupted Blood pandemic
It began with an exploitable glitch. It exploded into an uncontained nightmare of death. It established a meme as strong as Leeroy Jenkins. It...
Perfect Ten: MMO missteps that didn’t have to happen
Around the time I started working at Massively-that-was, there was an article that I quite liked talking about how four high-profile MMO failures were...
Perfect Ten: A dozen MOBAs that didn’t make it
With the insane success -- both in terms of popularity and finances -- that Dota and League of Legends spawned, you can easily understand...
The Soapbox: Six responses to the ‘gaming is wrong/evil/an addiction’ argument
I recently went on a rant about gaming, but it wasn't directed at gaming. It was in defense of gaming. I am so weary...
Perfect Ten: The tabletop GMs behind MMOs
One of the advantages to computer RPGs, I've always thought, is that you don't need a friend who you can alternately sucker or bribe...
Perfect Ten: Ten more World of Warcraft races fans would like to play
Sometimes, you write a column more or less as a mental exercise, and then World of Warcraft drops an expansion pre-purchase that makes it...
Re-examining Asheron’s Call’s Shard of the Herald event on its first deathiversary
Although the Asheron's Call series has now been dead for exactly one year today, it's far from forgotten by fans. It was admittedly a cult classic, and...
The Soapbox: Confessions of a serial hoarder (in MMORPGs)
How much is too much?
To some, that might seem like a reasonable question. But I knew. I knew. There is no such thing as...
Trademarks, copyrights, and patents: What they mean for you and for video games
Has the pace of news moved so quickly that we've already forgotten about Brendan "PlayerUnknown" Greene's statement that video games lack any IP copyright...
Perfect Ten: The MMOs with the most uncertain futures in 2018
This is, bar none, the column I hate doing most on a regular basis. None of the games I highlight in here is something...
Massively Overthinking: What’s the smallest MMO you’re willing to play?
A comment on Reddit about the current size and viability of Kritika Online got me thinking about MMO playerbases in general lately. We all...
Perfect Ten: 10 tips for crafting a unique MMO character name
Tell me if you've ever been here: You just finished spending way too much time pouring over options in the character creation screen and...
The Game Archaeologist: Revisiting the first three months of World of Warcraft
Were you there?
Many of us were. Many weren't. Either way, November 23rd, 2004 was a watershed date for the MMORPG industry and one watched...
The Game Archaeologist: Vanguard Saga of Heroes
The significance of Vanguard's development, release, long-running drama, second chance, and eventual closure should be of great interest not just to game historians but...
The Soapbox: Inconvenience is not immersion in MMOs or anywhere else
Inconvenience is not immersion.
This strikes me as something rather ridiculous to type; to mildly paraphrase Dan Harmon, it seems like should be one of...
The Soapbox: The long tail of game development isn’t an excuse for gouging
Don't be too mad at Star Wars: Battlefront II. It's a symptom of a problem, not the cause. I mean, be mad at people...
