game mechanics
The Daily Grind: How do you pick a mount in MMOs?
In some games, like Guild Wars 2, there's more going on with mounts than just "run faster." Frequently, you'll have more important choices to...
Crowfall shows off the Cleric powers in action
The Cleric of Crowfall is not solely a healer. That's not to say the Cleric doesn't heal people, of course; in fact, several of...
Overwatch brings Moira to the test server
Fans of certain Blizzard games are going to be waiting a while - possibly even a year - to start playing the cool stuff...
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft Battle for Azeroth’s allied races, the knockoff factor, and future hopes
Every so often, when I can think of no better introduction, I put some genuine musing into the opening of What Are You Playing....
Eternal Crusade deploys challenges and the Eldar campaign in its newest patch
Do you long to get your Eldar on in Eternal Crusade? We're unsure of exactly how the Eldar get themselves on, but we assume...
WoW Factor: Understanding World of Warcraft’s upcoming Heart of Azeroth system
The release of World of Warcraft: Battle for Azeroth is going to bring with it a lot of core system changes. This is neither...
Final Fantasy XIV brings back its Final Fantasy XI celebration event
This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of Final Fantasy XI, and Final Fantasy XIV wants to celebrate that milestone. But how? Why, with a...
BlizzCon 2017: World of Warcraft gameplay and systems panel liveblog
The gameplay and systems panel is always very important to World of Warcraft. You found out long ago (well, a few hours ago) about...
EVE Online expands its free-to-play offerings in the wake of studio instability
Good news, EVE Online fans! CCP is pretty happy with how the game's Alpha clone system has worked out, all things considered. In fact,...
Path of Exile discusses what Harbinger league content should be added to the main game
The release of patch 3.0 for Path of Exile brought along the Harbinger league, and it turns out a lot of people liked to...
WildStar patches in Primetime and preps November booster events
The most recent patch for WildStar is Primetime, and it is indeed all about making it the time for Prime. The Genetic Archives raid...
Kritika Online’s Psion has arrived with murder on her mind
The Psion of Kritika Online is a formidable foe because she can kill you just by thinking about it. So it's probably a good...
Wisdom of Nym: Musings on Final Fantasy XIV’s current crafting game
Crafting is really important in Final Fantasy XIV. That much can't be denied; the game places so much emphasis on the options available to...
Rend is changing up its base system to offer more personal ownership
Your home base in Rend is important; defending it is one of the central parts of the game, after all. However, the structure of...
Dark and Light embraces uncertainty with its new Chaos server type
If the PvP of Dark and Light feels too regimented and orderly for you, you'll be happy to take part in the game's upcoming...
The Daily Grind: Which MMOs would be better off without crafting altogether?
I've opined before that the best way to deal with World of Warcraft's current crafting system is to scrap the whole thing and start...
Age of Wushu adds a new free-for-all battle royale mode to its China version
There are two ways to look at the new battle royale mode added to the Age of Wushu Chinese servers. The first is with...
Shroud of the Avatar acquires fan-made map software for zone mapping
The original plan for Shroud of the Avatar was to have all maps be hand-drawn, found by players, and generally hard to find. This...
Wisdom of Nym: Final Fantasy XIV 4.1’s squadron dynamics, alliance roulette, and materia
Final Fantasy XIV patch 4.1 fell into a pretty solid cadence right away, from my experience. It's not one of those patches where absolutely...
The Daily Grind: What one character option would you remove from your favorite MMO?
Good news, MMO fans! You're getting to redesign your favorite MMO's entire combat system. The bad news is that you're doing so by removing...
