science

Game Theory explores the psychological exploitation at work in lockboxes

11
"It's as easy as one, two, insert your credit card number here!" So begins the parody at the beginning of the first of two...

WHO attempts to defend its proposed ‘gaming disorder’ classification

65
At the tail end of last year, we caught wind that the World Health Organization is planning on classifying gaming addiction as a "gaming...

Here’s how one high school teacher uses Lord of the Rings Online in her English class

33
What do you say that we all go and enroll at the Maine School of Science and Mathematics? Hear me out here: It's at this...

HEVGA argues WHO’s proposed ‘gaming disorder’ classification scapegoats and stigmatizes games

14
Is gaming addiction a thing worthy of its own classification? The World Health Organization is thinking about saying yes in its update of the...

Raph Koster on MMO ecosystems, the balance of power, and tennis

44
Most MMORPGs have the core sandbox problem: Whoever gets there first, controls all the toys and has the power to drive everyone else away....
Damn you!

How video game lockboxes use psychology to manipulate you

199
We here at Massively OP can't get rid of lockboxes, but by gum, we're not going to roll over and give up on fighting...
Some day, I will be good about screenshots. That day is not today.

Choose My Adventure Year in Review: DC Universe Online, Shroud of the Avatar, Guild Wars 2, and Secret World Legends

4
As our review of the past year of Choose My Adventure rolls onward (a bit longer than originally planned), we enter what I think...
lol gross

FCC extends accessibility requirement waiver for online games once again

41
Last year, my husband deployed the requisite accessibility tools to the college science lab he runs to accommodate a bright student who happened to...
You aren't going anywhere for a while, right?

ESA pushes back against World Health Organization’s gaming disorder classification

62
In case you missed it over the holiday break, but the World Health Organization announced it would be adding "gamer disorder" and "hazardous gaming"...
Far in the distance

A look back at the MMO and gaming science topics of 2017

3
Over the last couple of years, we've redoubled our efforts on our science-related articles, as you may have noticed from our roundups in 2016 and 2015....
Here we are again, and we're looking at each other as if each other was to blame.

Final Fantasy XIV previews the new dungeons for patch 4.2

0
Dungeons! They're important. They're also not really dungeons in the traditional sense, considering that no one is imprisoned in either of the two dungeons...
What are we even doing here?

Wisdom of Nym: Looking ahead to Final Fantasy XIV’s 2018

1
It's not quite 2018 yet, but it will be next week. That means we have a whole year of Final Fantasy XIV to enjoy,...

Extra Credits on how to win, lose, and measure gamer trust

25
How does a "great series get driven into the ground," eroding player trust? That's precisely the subject tackled in a recent edition of the...

Gaming industry roundup: SWBG2’s poor sales, Gambling Commission, slot machines, and parody games

18
Don't agree that lockboxes, lootboxes, and gambleboxes were the biggest story of the year? We've collected so many news tidbits just on that over...
There's nothing about deriving joy from your waifu being gay.

Exploring the psychology behind losses, gains, and grouping results in video games

10
Getting five batches of 100 gold feels better than one batch of 500 gold, and being forced to spend three separate 100 gold fees...
Nope, not illustrating this. Have a spaceship.

EVE Online uses city urban planning in its design

2
Who would have ever thought that something so mundane and everyday as city urban planning would be of immense inspiration to a game like...
Who lives, who

Researchers document Pokemon Go’s vehicular casualties, Niantic raises $200M for Harry Potter: Wizards Unite

3
Pokemon Go developer Niantic just got enough money to build a second pool in which to put all that money to roll around in....

Enter to win a trio of Star Trek Online console factional starter packs from PWE and MOP

10
In honor of the launch of Star Trek Online Season 14: Emergence on console last week, PWE has granted Massively OP a bunch of goodies to raffle...

For Science! Researchers find link between fluid intelligence and elite MOBA play

23
In a new paper released last week, University of York researchers sought to examine whether research that strategy gaming (like chess and arcade games)...
ROBOTS

Cyberpunk 2077 will include online elements of some sort according to a video interview

13
When science fiction writers pictured the world of tomorrow back in the mid-'80s, they pictured some things that definitely have not caught on in...

ADVERTISEMENT

THE LATEST POSTS

TOP CONTENT