for science
The Daily Grind: Should MMO PvP matchmaking focus on challenge or engagement?
MOP's Sam recently stumbled across an MSM article that quotes multiple streamers and esports players essentially complaining about matchmaking systems in competitive games. The...
The Daily Grind: Are you playing a ‘morally disengaged murder hobo’ in MMOs?
The Psychology of Video Games podcast recently did a bit on "murder hobos," and yes, Dr Jamie Madigan does point out that the term...
Activision-Blizzard creeps out the internet with its ‘Diversity Space Tool’ as union-busting continues
Friday afternoon, Activision-Blizzard proudly trotted out a dev blog talking up the creation of a "Diversity Space Tool" that the company has apparently been...
Trove’s new player survey nods to Quantic Foundry’s Gamer Motivation Model
Gamigo did more than just update Glyph this week; it also posted a survey for Trove players to "share thoughts and help shape...
An esports pro is developing an AI system to help game devs track and address in-game toxicity
You'd be forgiven for believing that reporting someone's behavior through in-game tools simply sends that report directly into some unseen void that devs don't...
GDC 2022: Control, revenue, scarcity, ethics, and the human challenges of the gaming ‘metaverse’
While some panels at GDC 2022 have been deeply disappointing, the panel titled "A Brave New (Virtual) World: Ethics and Governance of XR and...
GDC 2022: How ‘game stressors’ mix and match for repeatable content development in MMOs
Continuing our GDC 2022Â coverage of Bungie Principal Technical Game Designer Alan Blaine's talk on building challenges and reusable content in Destiny 2, we're going...
GDC 2022: Learning from the seven game stressors in Destiny 2
GDC 2022 coverage has a bit slow this year thanks to virtual tickets being kind of a misnomer (if the panel isn't live and...
Massively on the Go: How pokedex building could be used for server-wide ‘science’ questing
Well, I'm sorry to report to multiplayer gamers that despite having online features like New Pokemon Snap, Pokemon Legends: Arceus is very much a solo game,...
How video game player data collection processes have expanded outside of gaming
The EULA - aka the wall o' text that we all blitz past in order to get to play the MMORPG or multiplayer title...
GDC’s State of the Game Industry: NFTs, the metaverse, and more than half of game devs want to unionize
Ahead of the annual Game Developers Conference, GDC organizers poll industry workers and release it all in a state-of-the-industry wrapper, which has landed in...
A look back at the MMO and gaming science topics of 2021
It's now become a long-running tradition on Massively OP to track science stories that track with online gaming and MMOs - this is our...
Richard Bartle’s new book seeks to intersect theological thought and MMORPG design
If you're new to our genre, first of all welcome, and second of all you should be familiar with Dr. Richard A. Bartle, a...
Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster explains how feedback loops can create unexpected results in MMO design
What's a feedback loop? And, more importantly, why should MMO players care about them? According to Playable Worlds' Raph Koster, this part of game...
Lawful Neutral: Managing toxicity in the MMO industry
When I'm playing games, I make a lot of use of the reporting function. If I see a moonkin zerg farming a spot in...
Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on gaming’s social design problems masquerading as technical challenges
In case you hadn't noticed, Playable Worlds' Raph Koster is basically handing out a free 101 course in how video games work in his...
Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on the ‘stuff’ inside your virtual worlds
Raph Koster has been penning blogs about the metaverse and how virtual worlds work for several weeks now; his new company, Playable Worlds, has...
Playable Worlds’ Raph Koster on why avatars traipsing across the metaverse are a major tech challenge
Virtual worlds... how the eff do they work? Playable Worlds' Raph Koster has an idea or two, and he's dishing them out in a...
For Science: Men roll more female characters than women roll male toons, new survey shows
Do you play MMO characters who reflect your gender in real life? Apparently, the answer depends a bit on which gender and how old...
The Daily Grind: Do you engage in ‘parallel play’ in MMORPGs?
Thanks to a random Tweet in my timeline a while back, the term "parallel play" has been rattling around in my brain lately. According...
