staff roundtable
Massively Overthinking: The worst MMO cash shop trickery
Last week, games psychologist Jamie Madigan tweeted an underrated comment about how psychological tricks used in restaurant menu design are also found in video...
Massively Overthinking: The one about MMO superfans, zealots, and insidious tribalism
We recently received two pieces of mail from longtime MOP readers and commenters that worked together perfectly to form a unified topic. Alex emailed...
Massively Overthinking: Tackling the ‘big four MMOs’ meme
Over the last couple of months, there's been a meme floating around the MMORPG subreddit. Someone will ask that the community recommend a game,...
Massively Overthinking: What are your favorite MMO ‘chores’?
A few months ago, The Outline ran a piece on Red Dead Redemption 2 titled I don't wanna do my video games chores, and...
Massively Overthinking: Unpopular MMORPG opinions
Unpopular opinions: We all have them. In fact we have so many that it's a straight up meme. This week's Massively Overthinking is one...
Massively Overthinking: Do you play MMO characters you like – or characters that are objectively good?
Earlier this week, some Massively OP writers were hanging out in team chat talking about favorite City of Heroes powersets from back in the...
Massively Overthinking: Super wrong snap judgments of MMORPGs
The year was 2004, and the month was May. My guild was growing increasingly frustrated with Star Wars Galaxies' slow development pace, so we...
Massively Overthinking: Is there a ‘do or die’ moment for MMOs now?
This week MOP's Eliot and I were chatting about the wild summer the MMO industry is about to have, what with a whole bunch...
Massively Overthinking: If an MMO item is buyable with gold, does that excuse its presence in the cash shop?
This week's Overthinking topic comes from longtime MOP reader and commenter Sally Bowls. It's about monetization, but it's a nuanced argument we don't see...
Massively Overthinking: Thoughts on the holy trinity in MMOs
One of MOP's bright new columnists, Tyler Edwards, blogs over at Superior Realities, and he recently brought to my attention his pieces on the...
Massively Overthinking: Designed downtime in MMORPGs
In a Daily Grind not long ago, MOP reader Armsbend said something I thought just cried out for discussion. After noting that he had...
Massively Overthinking: MMOs as distraction vs. culture
Earlier this month, there was a fascinating conversation swirling around a Gamasutra article by Bryant Francis, specifically a quote from game dev Patric Mondou. "We're moving away...
Massively Overthinking: The paradox MMO
Back in February, the MMORPG subreddit offered up yet another fun thread: User Friendly_Fire told the MMO community that what it really wants is...
Massively Overthinking: Reconsidering the all-in-one MMO
One of the forever-arguments MMORPG players seem to enjoy having is the one about niche MMOs. There are quite a lot of gamers out...
Massively Overthinking: Contending with the MMO genre’s ‘wowfugee’ crisis
Last week on the MOP Podcast, we read a letter from a listener named Megan who pointed us to a blog post on the The...
Massively Overthinking: Showing up vs. showing off in MMOs
Last week's Daily Grind about ambient sociability got a lot of MMO gamers talking about that desire to have people around, even if they...
Massively Overthinking: The boring MMO development between bookends of hype
If you watch MMOs being developed for long enough, one truth becomes evident: It's kinda boring.
I started thinking a bit about this last week...
Massively Overthinking: Why aren’t you playing the MMO most like your favorite sunsetted game?
This week's Massively Overthinking question comes to us from reader Smuggler-in-a-YT.
"Star Wars Galaxies had its problems, but the sense of community, purpose, and story (through...
Massively Overthinking: What would you want out of a World of Warcraft 2?
Let's pretend for a moment that the reason Blizzard appears to be dropping the ball with World of Warcraft right now is that it's...
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2019
With nearly all of our end-of-2018 content finally and blissfully behind us - seriously, I always breathe a huge sigh of relief when it's...
