game mechanics
The Daily Grind: What moments do you feel people have missed if they haven’t played your favorite MMOs?
When we try to sell people on MMOs, we naturally talk about systems or mechanics. If I wanted to convince someone to play World...
Black Desert revamps Padix Island, brings out a Glimmering Earring, and starts a beach party for beer
It's Wednesday, and that means it's patch day for Black Desert, and in this case that also means you can head down to Terrmian...
Magic: Legends unveils the mechanics and design of the Necromancer class
What is a necromancer to you, aside from "a healer who shows up very late to the party"? If you're familiar with Magic: the...
Crucible’s designers explain how the game’s balance is achieved
So, how does balance work in Crucible? As in any competitive game, balance is important, but it's kind of a vague and nebulous concept...
World of Warships enters into a crossover with Transformers for unique skins and voices
It's time for Transformers to cross over with World of Warships, and that means... ship skins. Like, seriously, that's the thing. You might think...
Final Fantasy XI’s August update includes the first new storyline after Rhapsodies of Vana’diel
It appears that even the claims of Final Fantasy XI's story being finished were greatly exaggerated. That's not news, of course, but it is...
Star Trek Online shows off the game’s summer reward ship, the Risian Weather Control Vessel
Risa is a resort planet. That's its whole thing in Star Trek in general and Star Trek Online in specific. It turns out that...
World of Warcraft changes how Conduits work and has a new type of weekly chest in Shadowlands
The first version of the Conduit system in World of Warcraft: Shadowlands didn't exactly go over well with players. No one was excited by...
Sea of Thieves introduces the Ashen Lords with today’s update
It's all over in Sea of Thieves, because you now have to fight skeletons covered in fire. Yes, the Ashen Lords arrive on the...
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands appears to have PvP world quests returning once more
In World of Warcraft: Shadowlands, players are wandering in the realm of the dead and dealing with afterlife issues. A perfect time to find...
Astellia Online patches out the summer event, improves rewards, and adds more cosmetic slots
Summer has come to an end... well, over in Astellia Online. The game's newest patch removes the summer event, so you'll need to focus...
Albion Online explains the hideouts of Roads of Avalon
Hideouts? In my Roads of Avalon? It's more likely than you might think in Albion Online. Yes, players can definitely stake their claim to...
Fractured starts its next alpha test today
The original plan for Fractured was to kick off its next alpha testing session on July 16th. That didn't happen, unfortunately; bugs cropped up...
Final Fantasy XIV’s patch 5.3 gets a trailer along with more patch details ahead of August 11
Patch 5.3, Reflections in Crystal, arrives in Final Fantasy XIV on August 11th after an unusually long delay. But if you need to see...
Temtem adds in the Kisiwa island tomorrow
It's time to make some friends in Temtem with the next major update coming tomorrow. Not just because players will be tasked with fighting...
The Daily Grind: What’s the worst way to balance things in an MMO?
When I wrote my recent piece about Cosmic Break Universal, I found through a bit of digging into fan coverage that the game had...
AdventureQuest 3D previews the bows coming for the new Ranger class next week
So is archery good or bad? AdventureQuest 3D has decided that it's good, and to that end the game has been developing the new...
Fallout 76 rolls back some challenge completion due to auto-complete bugs
Sometimes you lose a bit of progress in an MMO. It sucks, but it happens. It sucks even more when that progress is related...
Dota 2’s summer event mode, Aghanim’s Labyrinth, is a new roguelike spin on the game
Have you ever been sitting down to play Dota 2 and found yourself saying to an empty room, "This is fun, but I really...
Cosmic Break is shutting down in Japan and relaunching everywhere as Cosmic Break Universal
So Cosmic Break is a game you may never have heard of, but it has definitely kept itself going for a while. Really. The...
