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LOTRO Legendarium: Eight features I’d love to see added to LOTRO
Opinions, as they say, are like social media accounts: Everyone's got at least one and probably a dozen ready to ruin your life. This...
Why I Play: Diablo III – From pre-release to Reaper of Souls
It's hard for me to believe that Diablo III's May 15th, 2012, release was over a decade ago. And despite its reputation of being...
Storyboard: Pros and cons for purely player-driven story experiences in MMOs
What is the right way to tell a story in an MMO? That is a silly question, like asking what the right way is...
Path of Exile’s April 7th update Crucible gives weapons their own skill trees
Spring has sprung, and a new Path of Exile league is about to bloom. Next week -- April 7th for PC and April 12th...
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go’s April schedule is hopefully a joke
While there's always hope for a good April Fools' Day prank, Pokemon Go's April Schedule doesn't have one listed, at least not yet. Unfortunately,...
Vague Patch Notes: Can anyone really cover games objectively when there’s suffering built-in to them?
In July of 2021, we started a roundup tag in our tag cloud that most of us probably didn't expect to still be using...
Activision-Blizzard and NetEase’s breakup was caused by long-brewing disputes and alleged threats
One of the biggest MMO and gaming stories capping off the end of 2022 and spilling over into the start of 2023 was the...
Perfect Ten: 10 features that take Star Trek Online out of this world
In returning to Star Trek Online after a couple of years away, I did something brand-new this time around: I brought my Star Trek-obsessed...
Not So Massively: Second impressions of Diablo IV
My initial impression of the Diablo IV open beta was lukewarm at best, but I did hold some hope that the second beta weekend...
Choose My Adventure: Neverwinter’s Bard rocks
Neverwinter is another one of those MMORPGs that I just put on the shelf and walked away from after being generally bored by it....
Wisdom of Nym: Recurring Final Fantasy XIV systems we could probably get rid of
At this point, Final Fantasy XIV has had a long time to get into a pretty reliable cadence that has not changed substantially beyond...
Not So Massively: Wolcen’s Endgame is one of online gaming’s all-time worst blunders
Speaking as a long-time fan of the game, I think the post-launch management of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been an absolute mess. There...
MMO Burnout: Mass Effect’s Legendary Edition modernizes a classic
Most MMO players will admit to feeling the need to step away from the multiplayer genre from time to time. This seems especially true...
Activision-Blizzard’s diversity and inclusion goals are out of sync with its corporate action
Activision-Blizzard has released a full-year review of its diversity, equity, and inclusion stats for 2022 this week, and the first thing readers will notice...
Vague Patch Notes: The objective truth of ‘objectivity’ in games journalism
All right, folks, real talk: Originally there was going to be a much more sober and depressing column this week, but then this week...
Casually Classic: How permadeath runs are revitalizing WoW Classic
While I don't have any hard data on the subject, just observing the World of Warcraft Classic scene (and ABK's financials) over the past...
For Science: Crit-Rate is another survey-driven attempt to match gamer personalities to games
I have to admit I almost deleted the press release for this story without reading it, but my finger twitched, and let me tell...
Wisdom of Nym: What will a new producer mean for Final Fantasy XI?
So we were pretty surprised yesterday when Square-Enix announced Akihiko Matsui would step away as the producer of Final Fantasy XI after a decade...
Fight or Kite: Faeria is a cross between a card game and skirmishing boardgame
Look, up in the sky! It’s a card game! It’s a skirmishing boardgame! It’s Faeria! Yes, it's Faeria, a strange digital mashup from developer...
Perfect Ten: A primer on 10 very basic MMO fight mechanics
When the first two humans decided to get into a fight, they were just pushing one another and telling the other person to quit...