No, it’s not a slow news day; it’s just The Daily Grind, a long-running morning feature in which the Massively Overpowered writers pose gaming-related questions to the MMORPG community. [Follow this feature’s RSS feed]
the daily grind
The Daily Grind: How do you plot your gameplay in an open-world sandbox?
Quantic Foundry's series of blog posts in support of its Gamer Motivation Model continue with its most recent piece on open world games, which...
The Daily Grind: What MMOs have unexpectedly hooked you?
My roommate expected to like Star Trek Online because, well, she likes Star Trek. That was a given. What she didn't expect was to...
The Daily Grind: How do you handle MMO burnout?
We've all been there: You're playing your favorite MMO(s) continually until you log in one day and find that the joy of the game has...
The Daily Grind: Do cutscenes in MMORPGs annoy you?
The last few months, I've been playing a lot of Diablo III, and last week I jumped into Devilian. One thing both games do...
The Daily Grind: What untapped survival sandbox theme needs love?
Zombies. Dinosaurs. Other people. Pygmies, for some reason. They've been done. But plenty of themes haven't been tapped for survival sandboxes.
Joking in the Massively...
The Daily Grind: What do you love about your MMO?
According to our Hallmark overlords, this is the season for love and fattening chocolate bites. I do not know what it is about February...
The Daily Grind: How do you absorb lore in MMOs?
I have a troubled relationship with lore in MMOs. On one hand, I am a narrative junkie and deeply appreciate detailed and interesting game...
The Daily Grind: Does your age impact your MMO gameplay preferences?
We've been following gaming research firm Quantic Foundry the past few months as it's been hammering out its Gamer Motivation Model. This week, it...
The Daily Grind: What makes an MMO old?
MMOs have a longer shelf life than other games do. We talked about this not so long ago, even, and you can see it...
The Daily Grind: Is early access to content a good thing in MMOs?
Because I was subscribed at the right time, I had access to Star Wars: The Old Republic's next major story chapter two days early....
The Daily Grind: Which survival sandbox are you most likely to play?
Over the weekend, Justin wrote about the deluge of major online multiplayer survival sandboxes hitting us lately. First there was DayZ and its early...
The Daily Grind: Which MMO monetization schemes don’t piss you off?
Gamasutra argued last week that there are three effective in-app purchase strategies that mobile gamers don't hate:
the classic demo, where players can try the...
The Daily Grind: Are you reluctant to test MMOs you’re excited to play?
Am I excited, with some reservations, about World of Warcraft's next expansion? You bet. Am I happy to be involved with the testing? Yes....
The Daily Grind: What’s the appeal of survival games?
It hasn't escaped my attention that survival games have become an insanely popular video game market over the past few years. Titles like ARK:...
The Daily Grind: Does gender play a role in your MMORPG class selection?
We've been covering Nick Yee-founded Quantic Foundry's game analytics research as it's fleshing out the Gamer Motivation Model, which seeks to create a modernized...
The Daily Grind: What’s the most disheartening loss you’ve had in an MMO?
Losses aren't fun in any game. No one ever wants to lose. But in a single-player game you usually can reload from a save...
The Daily Grind: What’s your favorite MMO easter egg?
The other day someone pointed me to the direction of a big ol' page of EverQuest II Easter eggs. As someone who only lightly...
The Daily Grind: Are OARPGs the future of the MMORPG genre?
Toward the end of 2014, genre academics popularized the idea that the MMORPG genre was becoming "unbundled" -- that MMORPGs were splintering, "with sociality,...
The Daily Grind: Does powergaming ruin the MMORPG experience?
A recent article on Kotaku tells the author's tale of being powerleveled by a friend through Diablo III. "You might think that there's no 'wrong'...
The Daily Grind: How frequently do you want events in an MMO?
I have a mixed set of feelings about the various Star Wars: The Old Republic reputation events. On the one hand, it annoys me...
