game design
Massively on the Go: Pokemon Go Fest’s Finale was a blend of comfort content and bad bugs
Pokemon Go's yearly Go Fest was fairly rocky this year - so rocky that some of us old trainers had to remind people that we've...
Massively Overthinking: The real-world value of MMOs
A while back on the MMORPG subreddit, there was a wildly contentious - one might even say transparently provocative - thread declaring that "f...
Last Oasis vows to improve the current ‘chore’ of traveling, readies Sleeping Giants map
When a game's entire design forces you to always be on the move, you might rightly assume that getting traveling right would be of...
Massively Overthinking: What’s so bad about comfort zones in MMOs?
If you've been following the MMORPG meta for a long time, particularly in World of Warcraft, you know there's corner of the industry convinced...
Vague Patch Notes: No, Little Orbit has not solved the MMO blockchain problem
It looks like we have indeed lived long enough to see the heroes become the villains: Little Orbit, which we once lionized for saving...
Little Orbit talks APB Reloaded’s 64-bit update and new blockchain online shooter STFU
Little Orbit is getting quite chatty these days, which certainly benefits All Points Bulletin: Reloaded desperate to hear about the future of their title....
Massively Uplifting: WoW players break barriers, Bungie and ZeniMax raise money to help children
Summer sweetness is not just for corn and watermelon! No, it's for all the kind and generous gestures of of our fellow gamers and...
Massively Overthinking: Is old-school MMO dungeon-camping ever coming back?
A while ago on the MOP Podcast, Justin and I randomly wound up on the topic of camping in MMOs - not pitching a...
Vitae Aeternum: New World interview on Summer Medleyfaire, solo play, housing, and more
With the launch of New World's Summer Medleyfaire patch and event this morning, we naturally had questions about the new systems and the future...
Unity’s CEO says game devs who don’t include monetization in their design process are ‘f*cking idiots’
Not since Square-Enix president Yosuke Matsuda's notorious letter about pursuing NFTs has someone in the games industry so spectacularly lost the plot that we're...
Vague Patch Notes: Yes, sandbox MMOs need tutorials and guidance, too
I'm going to make some sandbox fans a little miffed right here with my opening premise. Yes, your sandbox MMO needs tutorials and probably...
Game dev flips a panel into an anti-crypto attack, earning applause from attendees and ire from NFT sponsors
Many folks may not have heard of Mark Venturelli, a designer for the turn-based strategy title Chroma Squad and founder of developers Critical Studio...
Family of former Ultima Online lead designer and game academic opens college memorial fund in his honor
Back in October of last year, we reported the news that Mike Sellers, best known to our corner of the gaming universe as a...
Design Mockument: Mocking up Final Fantasy XI-2
"Wait just one cotton-picking minute," you say. "Square-Enix is not hurting for another MMO after Final Fantasy XI. It has one. It's called Final Fantasy...
Massively Overthinking: Making money in MMOs – easy, hard, or in-between?
A few days ago, I was hanging out in a certain MMORPG's Discord when an age-old class fight broke out - and I don't...
18 European countries back a Norwegian government body’s assertion that lootboxes are ‘manipulative’
Clearly, pushback against the lootbox monetization model is not going away, a fact that is once more being brought to light thanks to a...
LOTRO Legendarium: 10 helpful tips to improve your LOTRO experience
Recently, my 12-year-old daughter began playing Lord of the Rings Online for the first time after having watched the movies and read The Hobbit....
Perfect Ten: 10 great ways to lose new players from your MMO
MMOs require new blood. Not exclusively or anything; you can keep an MMO going for quite some time on existing happy players. But existing...
Vague Patch Notes: A look back at my start in Final Fantasy XI, many years later
It is the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy XI this week. Not the 20th anniversary of the game being in the US, and thus...
MMO Business Roundup: China’s freeze, ABK’s new diversity officer, and Sony and Epic’s metaverse
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news.
China has ended its latest gaming-approval freeze after nine months of regulators locking out...
