staff roundtable
Massively Overthinking: The MMORPG class archetypes we never play
A few weeks ago, we did a fun Massively Overthinking on our most on-brand MMORPG classes and archetypes, the character concepts and playstyles we...
Massively Overthinking: How hard should MMOs be?
This past summer, MMO dev Damion Schubert posted an epic tweet-thread about MMOs; in fact, we've already dipped into the part on "load-bearing" playerbases,...
Massively Overthinking: What are your most on-brand MMORPG class archetypes?
A while back in MOP's work chat, we were chatting about Guild Wars 2 End of Dragons and how its elite specs line up...
Massively Overthinking: Our favorite MMORPGs of all time, 2021 edition
Five years ago this week - back in 2016 - the MOP team and readers did an epic Massively Overthinking picking out their top...
Massively Overthinking: Should MMOs have endings – or at least end points?
I suspect most MMO players are going to read that question and immediately balk at it. We think of MMOs as being defined in...
Massively Overthinking: What’s the most painful or memorable bug you ever experienced in an MMO?
Witnessing all the folks upset over losing gear and trades to rollbacks over and over in Diablo II Resurrected made me reflect on some...
Massively Overthinking: Initial impressions of New World
Amazon's Queue World - uh, I mean, New World - is finally upon us. In fact, I imagine that it's been hard to avoid...
Massively Overthinking: Would you play your favorite MMO without its IP?
Nonameplease recently posed us an interesting topic, inspired by a thread on the Star Trek Online subreddit. "It seems most people don't think the...
Massively Overthinking: Overcoming barriers-to-exit in MMOs
About a thousand years ago, I wrote an article on Old Massively called "but I already have that game" about barriers-to-exit: the difficulty of...
Massively Overthinking: MMO ideas that were ahead of their time
I'm gonna say something wild right now: In some ways, CliffyB was ahead of his time. My husband and I came to this realization...
Massively Overthinking: The worst chat in the MMORPG genre
The first rule of MMORPGs is turn off global chat. Think about that for a sec. This is a genre that is expressly multiplayer...
Massively Overthinking: The MMO roadmaps worth following
This week's Massively Overthinking comes to us from longtime reader KenFromChicago. "As MMO reporters covering the MMO field, having some idea what to look for...
Massively Overthinking: What’s your favorite type of MMORPG raid?
Raiding is one of those very simple MMO concepts that has somehow become a contentious one in the broader discourse. A "raid" in MMO...
Massively Overthinking: Are there any ‘blue oceans’ left in the MMO market?
Level Up Labs' Lars Doucet recently penned a blog post practically begging people not to try to compete with ROBLOX by remaking it as...
Massively Overthinking: Load-bearing playerbases in MMORPGs
Game developer Damion Schubert is known to MMO players for his work on everything from Ultima Online to SWTOR, but as it turns out,...
Massively Overthinking: The curious cycle of MMO refunds, tutorials, and reviews
MOP reader Steve recently posed us an intriguing question about the state of tutorials in MMOs and other games - and how those tutorials'...
Massively Overthinking: Which of the summer MMO launches captured your time and attention?
OK folks: We're in the thick of summer now, a summer that's seen an endless parade of MMO launches, mobile ports, expansions, classic servers,...
Massively Overthinking: What’s your favorite MMO house of all time?
You folks know I love MMO housing systems, and in fact, we've been crowning the MMOs with the best housing systems for years. But...
Massively Overthinking: What class is missing from your favorite MMO?
I've been obsessed with Albion Online the last few weeks - it really feels so much like Ultima Online to me. Ultima Online but...
Massively Overthinking: Abysmal MMO launch experiences
Elite Dangerous' Odyssey launch has been a stark reminder to me that not all launches and launch experiences are the same. To hear some...
