rant
The Soapbox: Will Diablo IV’s Vessel of Hatred be a sufficient answer for Path of Exile 2?
Everyone loves a good enrage timer, right? It puts pressure on everyone involved in a raid or boss fight to pull their weight and...
The Soapbox: The real cost of breaking trust with gamers
There's a quote going around these days in gaming spheres about trust being like a broken vase that can be fixed but will never...
The Soapbox: How Vanguard’s diplomacy system could be revived and improved
Once upon a time there was an MMORPG called Vanguard: Saga of Heroes. It wasn't the most popular MMO, but it did cultivate a...
The Soapbox: Why Cryptic’s MMOs are the epitome of comfort gaming
They say you never forget your first kiss. I honestly can't recall much about mine, but I do vividly remember the day that I...
The Soapbox: The day my son lost his first online video game to a sunset
It was a few weeks back that I walked into our family room and saw my 14-year-old son crouched over the iPad with a...
The Soapbox: Why The Secret World really failed
We're back with part two of my long-overdue post-mortem of The Secret World, my favourite MMORPG of all time. In the first part I...
The Soapbox: A belated The Secret World post-mortem
This weeks marks the eleventh anniversary of the launch of The Secret World. While the game is still playable (for those with existing accounts),...
The Soapbox: Raiding isn’t the problem with World of Warcraft
It is by now clear that World of Warcraft's Dragonflight expansion hasn't exactly set the world on fire. This has set off another round...
The Soapbox: MMO housing is so much more than a frivolous feature
When The Sims launched in 2000, what seemed like a dull and laughable concept on paper proved to be one of the most compelling...
Not So Massively: Wolcen’s Endgame is one of online gaming’s all-time worst blunders
Speaking as a long-time fan of the game, I think the post-launch management of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem has been an absolute mess. There...
The Soapbox: Hating on the competition is no way to promote an MMO
Recently, RIFTÂ was back in the news, offering free subscription time to new and returning players. While I salute Gamigo's generosity here, whenever the topic...
The Soapbox: Subscriptions might actually be the next big innovation in digital card games
What started earlier this week as a rant on how bad an idea a subscription model in Hearthstone would be evolved into something more:...
The Soapbox: Comparing the monetization of physical and digital card games
Earlier this week, we reported on the recent Blizzard survey about a possible Hearthstone sub. When I read the news, I almost choked on...
The Soapbox: Why diversifying your MMO gaming is the smart thing to do
Allow me to indulge in some retrospection for a moment as I sit back on my rocker, squint into the fading afternoon light, and...
The Soapbox: WoW’s talent trees don’t deserve your nostalgia
As World of Warcraft's Dragonflight expansion marches into alpha testing, we're getting more glimpses at its new/old talent system, which harkens back to the...
The Soapbox: Fallout 76 absolutely needs better social tools to thrive
Unpopular opinion time: I have to say that Fallout 76... is kind of a great game right now. I know that the launch and...
The Soapbox: Are modern games more disposable than ever?
Atlas Rogues went out not with a bang but a whimper. I forgot it even existed. And after it closes July 5th, it's gone....
From the Depths: Everything we know about Wargaming’s exit from Russia
Mixing gaming and politics is rough. Think back to the Blitzchung fiasco for Blizzard back in 2019. Or when Daybreak was (and then wasn’t)...
The Soapbox: SWTOR’s Legacy of the Sith is bad, but not for the reasons you’ve heard
I've never been a big Star Wars fan, but I am a big BioWare fan, and after many failed attempts to get into the...
The Soapbox: Single-player open worlds will never equal those of MMORPGs
These days it seems like sprawling open worlds are becoming an ever more popular choice for single-player games, from the newer Assassin's Creed titles...
