staff roundtable
Massively Overthinking: Always-online vs. offline modes in multiplayer games
The Nightingale team's admission that players are clamoring for an offline version of the game - and that Inflexion is now planning to do...
Massively Overthinking: Are MMOs suffering from shrinkflation?
So last week we bought some Girl Scout cookies from a neighbor kid, and I was surprised to find out they were only $5...
Massively Overthinking: The last great year of the MMO genre
I was randomly reading an article about shitposting when I came across a phrase that haunts me. The author referred to 2015 as "what...
Massively Overthinking: When the original MMO is better than the sequel
A few weeks ago, two lovely gamers I follow on Bluesky were discussing how let down they felt by Diablo IV, less because Diablo...
Massively Overthinking: Do you care more about MMO stats or looks?
This week's Massively Overthinking is fully inspired by the unicorn backpack meme, which Black Desert studio Pearl Abyss tweeted out last week with the caption "stats over looks any day." You know we have to talk about this.
Massively Overthinking: Open world difficulty and puzzles in MMOs
During last week's press event ahead of the Gold Road announcement, Elder Scrolls Online's Rich Lambert said something I thought would turn out to...
Massively Overthinking: The slowest and fastest combat in MMORPGs
During a recent podcast discussion about City of Heroes' official revival, the MOP writers were talking about its combat, which - let's be honest...
Massively Overthinking: The 2023 MMO trainwrecks (almost) nobody noticed
This might be one of the most important Massively Overthinkings we do all year, and it's a pretty salty one. We always come away...
Massively Overthinking: Hopes and fears for MMOs in 2024
For our first Massively Overthinking of the year, we're drawing a hard line between what we think will happen, what we mean to make...
Massively Overthinking: Our MMO resolutions for 2024
Stop right there. I know you're about to object and say that you don't do resolutions, let alone MMO resolutions. That's fine. A lot...
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MOP articles of 2023
Every year, we pick out a bunch of narrative arcs and stories that dominated the headlines and emotions of the MMORPG genre, and it...
Massively Overthinking: Our MMO predictions for 2024
It's time once again for the MOP staff and readers to engage in our favorite end-of-the-year MMO: collectively guessing what's going to happen next...
Massively Overthinking: Best and worst MMO developer quotes of 2023
I have to thank all the MMO developers and industry veterans out there for talking long past the time when they should stop talking....
Massively Overthinking: Penalties for failure in MMORPGs (beyond death)
MMOs generally have one big obvious penalty for failure, right? You die. Oh, usually not forever, not unless it's some niche hardcore realm, and...
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs we’re happy still exist – even if we don’t play them
Earlier this month, following the news that Project Gorgon was in dire financial straits as the MMO wasn't making enough for full development and...
Massively Overthinking: Pervasive old MMO ideas that aren’t really true
A while back, Eliot and I were discussing one of his columns, in which he noted that in the eldest of the elder MMOs,...
Massively Overthinking: Did BlizzCon do what it needed to do?
Given the last couple of years, which have been inarguably rocky for both the company and its games, Blizzard needed a big win at...
Massively Overthinking: The ‘elements’ of MMOs
MOP reader Nibbana recently posed us a fun question: "As I play my Scrapper in Guild Wars 2, I thought to myself, man, I...
Massively Overthinking: Are there any MMOs for which a spin-off mode would be welcome?
Pantheon's announcement that its developers are working on spinning out a monetized "247" extraction mode hasn't engendered a whole lot of hope for the...
Massively Overthinking: What’s next for Blizzard under Microsoft?
So the Microsoft acquisition of Activision-Blizzard is basically a done deal. Oh, sure, the FTC is still fumbling around with hapless appeals, but look,...
