evergreen
Perfect Ten: The 10 best free-to-play MMORPGs
You know one of the reasons I like writing this column? Because one of these days I'm going to be able to make a...
MMO Mechanics: Three game-changing movement mechanics
In order to create the most truly challenging MMOs that connect players with the specific virtual environments they're traversing, developers have always worked on...
Perfect Ten: Why making an Old West MMO would be challenging (but worth it)
The western has been limping along for decades now, occasionally rearing its head to produce a well-loved movie or game smash hit before disappearing once...
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Moral panic and online griefing
Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt’s book The Video Game Debate. As you can guess, the book itself focuses...
Massively Overthinking: Let’s take the classic Bartle test
Here's something you probably didn't know: Online worlds researcher Dr. Richard Bartle didn't actually write the Bartle test.
His original research explored, analyzed, and defined the...
Perfect Ten: Ten really great races from MMOs
Here I go, here I go, here I go again. Girls, what's my weakness? Non-human races. But oh, so many MMOs let me down...
Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Online games and internet addiction
Massively OP's overview of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt's book The Video Game Debate last month was just the beginning of our coverage of the...
Perfect Ten: MMO systems that could be great (but I haven’t seen it yet)
Before I start this column, I want to say two important things. First, my experiences do not extend outward to the limits of the...
MMO Mechanics: Three ways non-MMO IPs could create great mechanics
I really enjoy being a guest on Larry Everett's video series Massively Opinionated, a series in which MMO enthusiasts answer some tough questions and...
Perfect Ten: Weird questions that I want answered before I play an MMO
Jumping into a new-to-me MMO can be a heady, nerve-wracking event. I think there's a reason why we find our "comfort" games and feel...
The Game Archaeologist: The assassination of Lord British
At the end of August 2015, the fledgling Shroud of the Avatar community gathered together for a massive PvP fight. This wasn't to be...
Perfect Ten: Why big MMO expansions are a good thing
I'm not really on board with the trend of saying that big expansions are back. They never left. Sure, we have one coming out...
Massively Overthinking: MMO server merge horror stories
Whether you call them server transitions, evolutions, consolidations, megaservers, or connected realms, server merges are a thing that affects most MMORPGs at some point...
MMO Mechanics: Economic stagnation in MMO economies
MMO economies are notoriously hard to balance, so most MMO players have seen the effects of stagnation and hyperinflation in an MMO economy for...
Perfect Ten: The top 10 craziest skills in Project Gorgon
It's no secret that many of us in the Massively OP office have a little bit of a game crush on Project Gorgon. Personally,...
Massively Overthinking: Building your dream MMORPG
Massively OP Kickstarter donor xenaphex wants to hear about our dream MMOs. What really makes you tick? What would you build with a million-bajillion...
Perfect Ten: The 10 MMO memories we all have
I have been playing MMOs with varying degrees of intensity for the past 12Â years. That is really weird to me. It also means that...
The Game Archaeologist: Star Wars Galaxies’ NGE
It became one of the most infamous moments in MMO history -- and perhaps one of the most misunderstood.
For all that the MMO community...
Perfect Ten: Ten MMO futures that never were
One of the things I spend a lot of time thinking about is Operation Unthinkable. For those of you who don't feel like clicking...
Perfect Ten: Clever features that should be in more MMOs
MMOs are built on the backs of many interlocking systems, some more crucial to the experience than others. While I have great appreciation for...
