game mechanics
TERA launches its Valkyrie patch Honorbound today [Update: It’s live now!]
At first it was called the Paragon. Then, players revolted, and it was renamed to the Valkyrie. But whatever you call the newest class...
World of Warcraft’s command center is up on US servers
As players fight through the Broken Shore in World of Warcraft, it's important to know which of the various support structures are up at...
Gigantic discusses impact changes for respawns, summons, and Guardians
This is the end... of the week. But for Gigantic, it really is the end... of smaller patches during open beta. While there still...
Neverwinter details the mechanics of loadouts
One character build cannot be used for everything in Neverwinter if you want to be the best at what you're doing. Certain situations require...
Darkfall: Rise of Agon deploys a major patch with new spawning mushrooms and Champions
The most recent patch to Darkfall: Rise of Agon does a lot of things for spawning. For one thing, it introduces the game's dynamic...
Final Fantasy XI’s April update arrives with a new Ark Angel ally
It's been a very long time since the Ark Angels have been a going concern in Final Fantasy XI, but they were most definitely...
Path of Exile discusses the fine art of templating item descriptions
Odds are good that you spend very little of your day thinking about how an item's stats are templated in your game of choice....
Crowfall answers questions about stuff that doesn’t exist yet
The latest video Q&A from the Crowfall team answers a whole lot of questions about things that don't exist in the game at this...
Cloud Pirates releases fully on April 19th with the Stronghold launch
Why would you try to steal a cloud? What possible advantage could that confer? Even when you ignore the obvious logistical difficulties of getting...
Dauntless discusses the looting of enormous monsters
You are not slaying giant monsters in Dauntless for your health. Sure, it's probably a great full-body workout, but there are ways to do...
ARK: Survival Evolved adds in underwater housing and laser-equipped mosasaurs
Would you like to be under the sea in a technological garden in the shade? ARK: Survival Evolved has you covered with its latest...
The Daily Grind: What MMO April Fools’ Day joke makes you sad it’s just a joke?
It's not really difficult to tell when an announcement is an April Fools' Day joke; they're usually pretty obvious. Final Fantasy XIV's announcement of...
Shroud of the Avatar launches Release 40 and its next few update plans
It's the end of the month, and that means that there's another Shroud of the Avatar patch available right now. The bad news is...
Why World of Warcraft’s item level scaling is really, really, dumb
This has been a very stupid week. I know this because any other week, World of Warcraft completely destroying the reason for acquiring new...
World of Warcraft implements undocumented item level scaling in patch 7.2
The reward scaling in World of Warcraft has always been pretty straightforward. At the start of the expansion, everything at max level is a...
Final Fantasy XI previews its April version update
The monthly update cadence of Final Fantasy XI is continuing into April, but this time around the game is actually moving backwards a little...
Wisdom of Nym: Speculating on the healer skills Final Fantasy XIV could delete
Tomorrow, we're getting the end of the Heavensward story quests in Final Fantasy XIV, which means I need to start looking at Heavensward as...
The Exiled launches Season 2 with a trial extension and a big patch
The second season of The Exiled is arriving, and while that sounds like the preamble to some critically acclaimed drama series starting up again,...
Frostkeep Studios explains the ‘why’ behind the game and the studio
If you've ever been responsible for interacting with a toddler for any length of time, you'll probably have some idea of the nature of...
Lord of the Rings Online sends players to the Black Gate with today’s Update 20
The path of Lord of the Rings Online has always pointed, inevitably, toward Mordor. Update 20, live today in the epic MMORPG, brings players...
