staff roundtable
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,...
Massively Overthinking: What do you wish gamers knew about the games industry?
I was surfing the comments of another gaming site's article earlier this week when I stumbled upon a scathing note about games industry QA...
Massively Overthinking: What’s the most chaotic behavior you’ve seen from MMO players?
A week or two ago, I found myself discussing Ultima Online by way of trying to convince our work chat that players often do...
Massively Overthinking: Do you sub to MMOs you’re no longer playing?
Over the summer, an MMO did something I've never seen an MMO do before: It stopped taking my money for no discernable reason and...
Massively Overthinking: The dumbest deaths in MMORPGs
This past week has been amusing for everyone in the MMO community and beyond who loves to watch people die stupid deaths in video...
Massively Overthinking: Does reused content in MMOs bother you?
One of the big complaints I saw on the Guild Wars 2 subreddit right before Secrets of the Obscure launched was the grump that...
