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: What uncommon crafting skills would you like to see in MMOs?
Just as how MMOs tend to skew toward a standard array of generic classes, so to do these games' crafting systems seem to be...
The Daily Grind: Are MMOs suffering from the ‘tyranny of IP’?
Back in May, a Sony Pictures executive did a one hell of an interview on Deadline that, among other things, complained about the "tyranny...
The Daily Grind: Can you give (another) example of MMO developers failing to read the room?
These days, New World is kind of the whipping boy of the week when it comes to tone-deaf attempts at managing its community. It's...
The Daily Grind: What are some of your MMO housing must-haves?
With the word that Guild Wars 2's next expansion will feature player housing -- homesteads in the game's parlance -- everyone seems to be...
The Daily Grind: What do you expect out of MMORPG roadmaps?
So as we wait for New World's promised Q&A for PC players today following the botched Aeternum reveal at Summer Game Fest, New World...
The Daily Grind: What are the scariest words in the MMORPG genre?
The other day I was chatting up a friendly MMO dev who - in the context of the then-still-fresh Elder Scrolls Online rollback -...
The Daily Grind: What was an MMO system you liked better in the beta?
More often than not, the beta defense is deployed for MMOs when they're in testing to defend janky and unpleasant systems. Sometimes, this is...
The Daily Grind: Do your MMO characters get into the summer spirit?
Without our express permission, June is here -- and with it the warmer, sunnier days of summer. It may not be as jam-packed with...
The Daily Grind: Would you trade places with any of your MMORPG toons?
Most of my MMORPG characters do not live gentle or safe lives. My Lord of the Rings Online hobbit Hunter is constantly being set...
The Daily Grind: What were you looking forward to from the Final Fantasy XIV: Dawntrail media tour?
So, hey, Final Fantasy XIV is about to launch a new expansion! Did you hear about that? I might have heard some rumors. We've...
The Daily Grind: What MMO task or objective has you saying, ‘Yeah, screw that!?’
There's a quick and efficient mental calculation that happens anytime I'm in an MMO and I'm presented with an attractive goal to pursue (usually...
The Daily Grind: What part of MMO design seems much easier to MMO players than it really is?
A while back, I saw someone make an offhand comment about how to save New World. According to this commenter (no names, not dunking),...
The Daily Grind: Ships, mounts, or vehicles – do you have a preferred mount type in MMOs?
MOP's own Chris inspired today's Daily Grind as last week he was drooling all over the newly revealed Elite Dangerous spaceship. "Seeing this new...
The Daily Grind: How much does the metagame influence your MMO picks?
A lot of people like to lie to themselves and say that the metagame in a given MMO does not influence any choices they...
The Daily Grind: Do you prefer predictable or proc-based classes more?
I've been having such a blast in Pandaria Remix these past couple weeks, in part because it's allowed me to reconnect with one of...
The Daily Grind: What’s the worst whaling in a multiplayer game you’ve seen in the last year?
This week, mainstream MOBA gamers flipped alllll the tables over Riot Games' gambit to sell a $450 League of Legends cosmetics bundle themed around...
The Daily Grind: Who’s the best fictional leader still kicking around in MMORPGs?
For once, it's probably good that we don't have a Transformers MMORPG because otherwise the answer to this question would just be Optimus Prime....
The Daily Grind: Are there MMOs where you absolutely love the visuals – but that’s it?
As much as we like to tell ourselves that we are deep and mature people of substance, sometimes all it takes is a little...
The Daily Grind: Do you bring any habits from one MMO to the next?
So a few weekends ago, I was doing overworld questing on my Hobbit Hunter in Lord of the Rings Online when I caught myself...
The Daily Grind: Has an MMO ever inspired your real pet’s name?
I love naming stuff. Not just my characters, but when allowed, I name my crafted items, housing plot, and of course, my virtual pets....