A Sierra Online MMORPG set in Tolkien’s world and canceled in the early 2000s when the license was transferred away. Further reading: The Game Archaeologist’s post-mortem on Middle-Earth Online
middle-earth online
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v7.0
Once again we put a wrap on another year of MMORPG news, opinions, and -- most pertinent to this column -- history. In a...
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v6.0
And that's a wrap on this year in history! While everyone says farewell to 2022, here at TGA we're always looking way back at...
LOTRO Legendarium: 23 LOTRO facts I learned from Scenario’s Casual Stroll video series
Your mileage may vary, but as both a journalist and a gamer, I absolutely love hearing about how my favorite titles were made. It...
LOTRO Legendarium: Is LOTRO’s PvP game worth salvaging?
The funny thing about Lord of the Rings Online's PvP scene is that I truly believe most players are either unaware or uncaring that...
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v5.0
It has been another thrilling year of exploring the relatively unknown or forgotten lands of MMORPG history here in The Game Archaeologist. From projects...
The Game Archaeologist: Dragon Empires, Codemasters’ abandoned MMO
The name "Codemasters" is far more familiar to European players than North American ones, as the British developer and publisher was active on the...
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v4.0
By far, my favorite column to write here at Massively OP (and the one that always takes the longest) is The Game Archaeologist. I've...
The untold story of Lord of the Rings’ cancelled MMORPG
Considering how popular the Middle Earth IP is, it is no surprise that there have been multiple stabs at creating a Lord of the...
The Game Archaeologist: Super-early versions of MMORPG websites
One of the absolute best things the internet ever generated has been the Internet Wayback Machine. Through this site, snapshots of millions of websites...
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v3.0
Behind history are people and stories, some of them well-known and some of them obscure. It has been my mission in The Game Archaeologist...
LOTRO Legendarium: A timeline of Lord of the Rings Online from 1994 to 2019
When I wrapped up writing my previous LOTRO column on the game's first year of live operation, I felt that I had left this...
The Game Archaeologist: Ironman modes and elective permadeath
One facet of video games that's been around almost since the very beginning is difficulty levels. This allowed the player to choose how hard...
The Game Archaeologist’s ultimate MMO archives v2.0
While The Game Archaeologist columns take up the most time of any project I do here at Massively OP, I absolutely love doing them...
The ultimate guide to The Game Archaeologist’s MMO archives
When we moved over here to Massively Overpowered, some of us transplanted our long-running columns to the new space. I perhaps felt most devastated...
Perfect Ten: MMOs that changed their names
Names and titles fascinate me. While sometimes they have no deeper meaning than to sound pleasant and be memorable, a label can indicate purpose,...
LOTRO Legendarium: Playing second fiddle to the Fellowship
Back when Lord of the Rings Online was being developed as Middle-earth Online in the late 1990s, the original concept was to plop players...
The Game Archaeologist: Six videos from MMOs that never launched
Whenever I compile lists or run articles on MMOs that never made it out of the gate, it seems as though talking about it...
The Game Archaeologist: Middle-earth Online
I suppose there will always be a special place in my heart for Lord of the Rings Online. Not only is it one of...
The Game Archaeologist: Puzzle Pirates
Up until this point in my life, Puzzle Pirates has always been that "Oh yeah, that actually exists!" game to me. Even when I...
Jukebox Heroes: Six soundtracks from MMOs that never launched
As an MMO fan, there are few things as sad as a promising game being killed in development without seeing the light of a...
