rant
The Soapbox: I have a bad feeling about Anthem
As I watched Nick Tarabay stand on stage hype up the audience in the Main Theater for PAX West 2018, I thought it was...
Vague Patch Notes: On balance and differentiation in MMOs
Do you like fighting games? I don't. Let's talk about fighting games. But bear with me because you'll get where this is going.
While I...
The Soapbox: The western port of Bless Online feels like a curse
To say that the development of Neowiz’s high-fantasy MMO Bless has been somewhat beleaguered would be an understatement. Since the Korean import’s Western release...
The Soapbox: Do MMOs still fall victim to the copycat curse?
When Radical Heights launched, I was inspired to put together a whole Perfect Ten about why trend-chasing doesn't work for online games. Obviously, my...
The Soapbox: Three augmented reality game problems (most) MMOs don’t have – and one thing they do so much better
I'd like to think that I'm kind of a healthy gamer. While MMOs take a lot of time, the nice thing is that their...
The Soapbox: Six responses to the ‘gaming is wrong/evil/an addiction’ argument
I recently went on a rant about gaming, but it wasn't directed at gaming. It was in defense of gaming. I am so weary...
The Soapbox: Confessions of a serial hoarder (in MMORPGs)
How much is too much?
To some, that might seem like a reasonable question. But I knew. I knew. There is no such thing as...
The Soapbox: Evaluating gaming monetization through the lens of Nintendo’s mobile history
Bloggers and journalists throughout the online gaming industry have been talking about monetization a lot lately. It's not just lockbox/gachapon scandals, or their relationship...
The Soapbox: Inconvenience is not immersion in MMOs or anywhere else
Inconvenience is not immersion.
This strikes me as something rather ridiculous to type; to mildly paraphrase Dan Harmon, it seems like should be one of...
The Soapbox: The long tail of game development isn’t an excuse for gouging
Don't be too mad at Star Wars: Battlefront II. It's a symptom of a problem, not the cause. I mean, be mad at people...
The Soapbox: NCsoft’s bizarre silence on Aion’s server merges says everything you need to know
NCsoft done messed up. Again. Yes, I know the studio has already had a few black eyes for other things throughout the years, but...
But seriously, lockboxes suck, even if the ESRB doesn’t think they’re gambling. Stop buying lockboxes.
So, MMO players. Are you tired of hearing about lockboxes and gambleboxes? It feels like we've been complaining about them for like six or...
The Soapbox: Getting to the heart of toxicity in MMOs
So we've gotten another post from a developer saying that they're going to really 100% be better about rooting out toxic players from their...
The Soapbox: The disastrous Pokemon Go Fest was just Niantic being Niantic, and that has to stop
I know I complain a lot about Pokemon Go in my articles here, but there's a reason for this. I'm a huge fan not just of the...
The Soapbox: Your favorite MMO is going to die
Your favorite MMO is going to die. Don't take it personally, though; every other MMO is going to shut down, too. That includes my...
The Soapbox: Lessons Secret World Legends failed to learn from Final Fantasy XIV
I've mentioned many a time that I like Funcom quite a bit. I want to like Funcom quite a bit. Heck, I want to...
The Soapbox: Why is Pokemon GO still a tech demo?
I've been a bit frustrated with Niantic lately. I love some of its ideas, but I watched someone else play Ingress prior to Pokemon GO's...
The Soapbox: What the Mass Effect Andromeda kerfuffle ought to teach us about games criticism
Today is the official release of Mass Effect: Andromeda, which was preceded by the frankly baffling decision to allow people access to an early...
The Soapbox: Everyone’s being dumb about Star Wars: The Old Republic’s lightsaber
A couple of years ago, The Force Awakens introduced us to (among other things) a lightsaber that looks poorly made, like a little kid...
The Soapbox: Pokemon Go Generation 2 still isn’t a real MMO
Pokemon GO Generation 2 is out now, and it feels a lot like an MMO expansion in a lot of ways:Â We have new features,...