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 many MMO toons can you juggle at once?
I may have overdone it with the City of Heroes toons.
I'm currently working on a project to level several dozen characters up so I...
The Daily Grind: How good do you think you are in your MMO of choice?
If there's one thing that I've learned over the years in which I have played MMOs, it's that people who are quick to point...
The Daily Grind: What could MMOs put into a dungeon to give you cold sweats?
We all have different fear triggers in real life -- and some of these make horrible cameos in video games.
Don't like arachnids? Welcome to...
The Daily Grind: Do you engage in ‘mapping’ in explorable MMORPGs?
A while back, we did a Daily Grind on "vestigial organ" design in MMOs, and I mentioned Guild Wars 2's leveling system as being...
Vague Patch Notes: Mandatory content and game design in MMOs
Let me tell you about my second roommate in college. He was named Kyle, and he was benefiting from the fact that I had...
The Daily Grind: How do you handle bad players in MMO group content?
You queued up for a dungeon and got matched with Trab Godslayer, and you start the dungeon to discover that he is wildly misnamed....
The Daily Grind: How can MMO devs make tank classes more interesting?
Sometimes Daily Grind topics blossom from extended conversations in the Massively OP office. And indeed, the other day we were tossing back and forth...
The Daily Grind: Which MMOs have had the most successful monetization turnarounds?
Up until the last couple of years, I would've said Lord of the Rings Online's monetization was... not good. In fact, even though plenty...
The Daily Grind: Should MMOs push players through different content types?
MOP reader Slava recently wrote to us with an interesting question about wildly different content types and the MMOs that either nudge or force...
The Daily Grind: What things do MMOs do pre-launch that look like a red flag to you?
Working in this industry for more than a decade has not, in fact, given me the ability to see the future. But it has...
The Daily Grind: What makes for a good MMO shindig?
Originally I wrote, "What makes for a good MMO party?" but that can obviously be construed in a more business-like, less get-down-and-funky sense. In...
The Daily Grind: What’s the most unloved class in your favorite MMO, and how would you fix it?
I was trundling around playing on my Lord of the Rings Online server the other night when someone advertised for a Burglar for some...
The Daily Grind: Which MMO with flight would be better without it?
Flight is one of those movement tricks that a lot of MMOs use because let's be honest, flying is awesome. We are naturally land-bound...
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer costumes over transmog in MMOs?
You know what's an interesting feature that both Elder Scrolls Online and Guild Wars 2 share? They both offer two different approaches to dressing...
Massively OP Podcast Episode 389: Grinding out them dailies
Justin and Bree discuss ArcheAge 2, WoW Classic Cataclysm, Fractured Online, LOTRO's 2023 ocean expansion, and the Wizard101 hack, with adventures in Guild Wars 2 and WoW Classic, plus meta discussion on how The Daily Grind works and how game studios handle pesky journos like us.
The Daily Grind: Are isometric-ish viewpoints in MMOs a turnoff?
When we did our roundtable on the biggest MMORPGs in 2022, I included Albion Online among them, and I stand by that inclusion. Regardless...
The Daily Grind: Is there a mod for an MMO that you just can’t play without?
I've been back in Lord of the Rings Online a bunch lately, and as part of my return I went through and made sure...
The Daily Grind: What’s the wildest thing you’ve done just to get an achievement in an MMO?
Who doesn't love achievements? It's fun being able to tick off the box for doing something difficult or at least non-trivial and show off...
The Daily Grind: Are there MMOs where you’ve never hit the level cap?
In this day and age when MMO developers all but get out of the car and push you to the level cap whether you...
The Daily Grind: Did you buy a Steam Deck, and are you playing MMOs on it?
A couple of my guildies got their Steam Decks over the summer, and I have to say, I'm a bit jealous. I blew it...
