for science
MMO Business Roundup: MY.GAMES’ CEO, Valve’s antitrust fine, and research on China’s gaming regulations
Welcome back to another quick roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent business news. Numbers numbers numbers. In fact, this edition has the whole trifecta: business,...
Hunters lead the pack for deaths on World of Warcraft Classic’s hardcore realms
All right, how many of you found out the hard way that Feign Death turns into actual death if you don't interrupt it before...
EVE Fanfest 2023: EVE players will help cure cancer with new Project Discovery minigame
Back in 2016, EVE Online developer CCP Games announced an unusual partnership with scientific research organisation MMOs and the Human Protein Atlas. They created...
Unity adds AI tools to its asset store while Electronic Arts reasons AI generation is a ‘co-pilot’ for artists
The fresh blood in the games industry water continues to be AI generation tools for art assets and writing. This time we zero in...
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...
World of Warships kicks off ocean conservation charity collab with Popeye for Force Blue
This might just be the weirdest thing we've ever gotten in the mail at MOP, and I say this as someone who once inexplicably...
Preserving Worlds is an indie TV docuseries about preserving classic MMORPGs
So here's something fun we just learned about thanks to a friendly tweet: Preserving Worlds is a 2021 indie TV show on Means TV...
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...
Raph Koster predicts the future of the metaverse is a ‘virtual Machu Picchu’ – that you can leave
If you're not exhausted of seeing the word "metaverse" just yet, MMORPG developer Raph Koster has published a blessedly brief whitepaper on the evolution...
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...
Could an AI bot do a better job as a games company CEO than an actual human?
That headline's not an idle question: Chinese gaming company NetDragon decided to give it a try. Last August, NetDragon, which runs multiple MMOs including...
The Daily Grind: Do you experience MMO ‘expansion endorphins’?
Back in December, MOP's Justin wrote an article about being excited to play World of Warcraft Dragonflight, and in that piece, he wondered whether...
Leaderboard: Do you prefer first-person or third-person perspective while gaming?
Quantic Foundry, the team behind the Gamer Motivation Model and the modern gamer profiling test, put out a dev blog at the end of...
GDC’s State of the Games Industry survey once again demonstrates dev skepticism for metaverse and blockchain hokum
This year's State of the Game Industry from GDC - its 11th since beginning the project - delivers a range of insights from the...
For Science: New research tries to link game choices, soft skills, and career paths
I suspect most long-time MMORPG gamers can point to a useful skill, contact, or experience in gaming that helped them in their careers or...
A look back at the MMO and gaming science topics of 2022
It's hard to believe, but 2022 is actually the eighth year in a row we've been tracking science stories relevant to the MMO genre....
Activision-Blizzard releases its year-to-date diversity statistics showing an increase in underrepresented groups
Activision-Blizzard's general issues with diversity and representation have prompted a number of changes within its corporate structure, and one of those is the company's...
For Science: New study finds positive association between excessive gaming and kids’ cognition
Academics offered up another good reason to play video games this past October: A new study of around 2000 kids found that video game...
Lawful Neutral: How extremism and terrorism slither into online gaming
Back in 2014, something happened in the gaming space, something whose impact was so damaging that even almost 10 years later, I realize that...
Riot Games sponsors design challenge centered on making online spaces safer
Riot Games is not a gaming company most folks in our industry would consider a paragon of community in or off the court. The...
