evergreen
WoW Factor: Speculating on compelling future World of Warcraft class specs
With the release of patch 10.1.5, World of Warcraft's Evokers will become the second class to get a new spec added after its introduction...
Vague Patch Notes: Examining the MMO tiers, from the Big Five to maintenance mode
I've mentioned many a time that one of the ideas behind the Vague Patch Notes column here on MOP is to have a place...
MMO Burnout: Lessons MMOs can learn from The Legend of Zelda Tears of the Kingdom
Like most MMO players, I am, first and foremost, a PC gamer. However, like many gamers born in the '80s and '90s, I also...
Perfect Ten: What good MMO logos say about their games
Back when I was taking a smattering of business classes in college, one of my favorite electives dealt with marketing. It wasn't that I...
Vitae Aeternum: Touring New World’s housing system
Whenever I've talked about player housing in New World, my coworkers have requested tours of my in-game homes. Being a lazy worker looking to...
Into the Super-Verse: What made Marvel Heroes so special?
This month we mark a particularly sad anniversary in the MMO space: The 10th anniversary of the launch of Marvel Heroes. By all rights,...
Vague Patch Notes: So why didn’t crowdfunded MMOs save the genre?
The past few weeks we've been following this freakin' thing because... well, obvious reasons. But that has me thinking about crowdfunding in general, because...
Perfect Ten: MMORPGs as Jell-O flavors
During last year's April Fools' Day, I wrote about the important topic of MMO NPCs as muffins. At the time, I felt my work...
Lawful Neutral: How might the so-called AI revolution affect the MMO genre?
This article has been rolling around in my head since ChatGPT rocketed into the public awareness a few months ago, and just in the...
Perfect Ten: MMOs that ghosted us after talking a big game
There's nothing worse as a fan of games to buy into all of the hype and previews of a promising-looking project only to see...
LOTRO Legendarium: Is level boosting in LOTRO worth it?
While I make my way through the new King's Gondor zone in Lord of the Rings Online -- impressions coming next week, hopefully --...
Vague Patch Notes: Why we should evaluate MMO systems based on how they break
Back before Final Fantasy XIV's reboot launched, Naoki Yoshida talked about how the developers had plans to make certain primals be world bosses. Players...
Perfect Ten: Get out of my dreams and get into my (MMO) car
Cars. They go vroom-vroom, and then they go really fast, and how do we live in a country where you basically need a car...
Vague Patch Notes: Why do people remember an MMO past that didn’t exist?
Let's just start with the premise out of the gate. World of Warcraft launched to sales of 240,000 units on its first day. The...
Perfect Ten: 10 old MMO promises that never happened
Developers like to talk a big game. It's expected, it's encouraged by all parties, and it's part of the fun. When a game or...
Vague Patch Notes: The power of perspective in MMOs
So now that Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom is out, there is a very funny meme that is going around, but it...
The Soapbox: Raiding isn’t the problem with World of Warcraft
It is by now clear that World of Warcraft's Dragonflight expansion hasn't exactly set the world on fire. This has set off another round...
WoW Factor: Tarisland and the cargo cult of World of Warcraft
We've all made jokes about Tarisland being "we have World of Warcraft at home." That's just a fun thing to make jokes about, and...
LOTRO Legendarium: A look back at Lord of the Rings Online’s Fate of Gundabad
When Lord of the Rings Online released Mines of Moria in November 2008, the expansion became one of the most amusedly divisive in the...
Some Assembly Required: Red Dead roleplay servers succeed where Red Dead Online failed
One of my all-time favorite single-player game experiences was Rockstar’s Red Dead Redemption 2. The underserved Western genre is beautifully realized in this open-world...