game mechanics
Revelation Online shows off the Occultist
The Occultist in Revelation Online is a complicated sort. Sure, a given Occultist is capable of delivering devastating ranged attacks, because what's life without...
Shroud of the Avatar plans improvements to tropical island towns and the economy
Player-run towns in Shroud of the Avatar have had the option of being on a tropical island since May. Of course, that option was mostly...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV’s unenhanced dungeons
One of the many things I like about Final Fantasy XIV is the fact that its scaling difficulties for dungeons don't simply mean more...
The Daily Grind: Are puzzles in MMOs a good thing?
I have a mixed relationship with puzzles in MMOs, because they can easily be a huge distraction from a game that's otherwise proving to...
TERA adds civil unrest with its next update
Who would willingly travel back in time to a period of civil unrest and danger? The answer is you, if you're playing TERA after...
WoW Factor: Assessing WoW after two weeks of Legion
All right, so it's actually closer to a week and a half. I'm torn between an eye-rolling "it's only been a week and a...
Escape from Tarkov shows off its extensive weapon customization
What's your goal in Escape from Tarkov? At a glance, the title might suggest that your goal is to, well, escape, probably from somewhere...
Riders of Icarus shows off the Lair of Ienos, live in today’s patch
Deep within his lair off of Parna's Coast, the demon Ienos is chilling and lamenting how few people come over to his home. He...
Final Fantasy XIV previews the main scenario and dungeons of patch 3.4
The Dragonsong War is over in Final Fantasy XIV. Seriously, that's done; we players emerged victorious and we can all move on. So that...
Skyforge streamlines the Order system with its next patch
Players in Skyforge are deities. That's sort of the entire premise behind the game. Of course, one of the usual benefits of being a...
World of Warcraft answers player questions regarding the new Legion companion app
World of Warcraft players can now make use of the Legion companion app, allowing players to manage missions and followers remotely. It's the best...
Tree of Life turns PvP into a factionalized affair
If you're not a fan of open PvP, you'll probably be quite happy that Tree of Life has waved farewell to open PvP as...
Overwatch’s Jeff Kaplan on team size and development time
There are around 100 developers working on Overwatch right now. That number comes from director Jeff Kaplan directly in a thread on the game's...
Final Fantasy XI adds new item rewards, new mount areas, and easier crafting
You're probably tired of hearing at this point how Final Fantasy XI's maintenance mode is more active than many game's live-with-normal-updates mode. Is you...
Shroud of the Avatar’s release 33, Richard Garriott’s AMA and new book
The final wipe is receding into the horizon for Shroud of the Avatar, but the game is hardly finished patching and adding in big...
The Daily Grind: How should long-running MMOs help new players catch up?
Expansions for MMOs are really made for the veteran player. A bump of the level cap from 60 to 70 seems reasonable if you're...
First impressions of World of Warcraft: Legion, part three
One of the things that bothered me about Warlords of Draenor was how bad it felt to play. It was unexpected. I don't inherently...
TERA’s next big update is all about guilds
Guilds are a pretty big deal in TERA, but let's be fair, they're a pretty big deal in most games. Of course, they're going...
Albion Online introduces the Hell artifacts
A new batch of artifacts is arriving in Albion Online, and it's hellish. These are literally called the Hell Artifacts, you see, and are...
The Division is opening a public test server
There's nothing quite like putting a patch out into the wild. Sure, you can do your best to test something internally, but until players...
