trammel
Vague Patch Notes: Why people can’t just ignore things they don’t want in MMORPGs
As I often do, I'm going to start this column with a bit of history. But in this particular case, it's a bit of...
The Daily Grind: Is it ever too late to save a gankbox MMO?
Back in July, Pearl Abyss raised eyebrows by announcing plans to curb Black Desert guilds abusing wardecs to murder rival players with impunity. "It...
Massively Overthinking: How to alienate your MMORPG playerbase
I am not a Pokemon Go player, but I can't help but stare at its many trainwrecks thanks to the detailed coverage of our...
Working As Intended: My 25 years of Ultima Online
Twenty-five years ago my boyfriend, Paul, and I walked into a shop to find a new game to play together. He picked up this...
The Game Archaeologist: The legacy of Ultima Online
Last week in The Game Archaeologist, we traced the history of Ultima Online’s origin, development, and testing -- not to mention one pesky in-game...
Massively Overthinking: The real-world value of MMOs
A while back on the MMORPG subreddit, there was a wildly contentious - one might even say transparently provocative - thread declaring that "f...
Ultima Online rolls out Treasures of Fey Wrath event to the live shards
Ultima Online has kicked off another artifact-laden server event in the form of Treasures of Fey Wrath. This particular version of the "treasures of"...
The MOP Up: Elder Scrolls Online’s cranky priest
As all Elder Scrolls Online fans know, whenever a new chunk of content comes out, they'll be encountering some new figures in the game's...
Wanna feel old? Ultima Online launched 21 years ago today
Ultima Online is officially old enough to drink. It's older than I was when I first started playing it all those years ago!
Yep, the...
The Daily Grind: What major blunders in MMORPG history should future devs study?
A week or so ago, Justin penned another entry in his long-running City of Heroes historical pieces, and down in the comments, a reader...
Interview: Worlds Adrift’s Bossa Studios on giving, griefing, and gittin’ gud
After the launch of Worlds Adrift but prior to E3, we sent off an interview to Bossa Studios and recently received our answers, complete...
‘Magic through serendipity’: Raph Koster on the glorious mess that was Ultima Online
I was a wide-eyed, naive kid when I first stepped into Ultima Online in 1997, and as it turns out, the developers were too.
That's...
Tale of Toast is giving up on being a free-for-all PvP MMO
We've been keeping an eye on Tale of Toast since last year in the lead up to its early access launch back in February....
GDC 2018: The Legends of Aria devs talk closed beta, gankbox PvP, and the MMORPG genre
One thing I love about GDC compared to other conventions I cover is how many actual developers I get to talk to, especially without...
Ultima Online’s 99th update preps free-to-play conversion, adds new official forums
Before the free-to-play conversion for Ultima Online launches this spring, Broadsword is hard at work updating the early game experience for the newbies and...
The Daily Grind: Why does EVE survive where other PvP sandboxes stumble?
MOP reader Tobasco da Gama pointed us to a recent Reddit thread about why EVE Online persists, even in a weakened state, where other...
Happy 20th birthday, Ultima Online! Here’s how to get caught up on the OG MMORPG
Just about 20 years ago, my boyfriend and I were wandering through Media Play (heh) when he picked up this box for some new...
Perfect Ten: Conversations with anthropomorphic concepts of MMO studios
Every so often, a man needs to have a conversation with some anthropomorphized concepts. I do that every few years. In the past, I've...
Perfect Ten: Terminology the MMORPG genre needs
MMOs, like any other hobby, have their own terminology. We have the term "newb" for new players, "noob" for players who aren't actually new...
Massively Overthinking: The many ‘NGE’ moments across MMORPG history
Eleven years ago this week, the New Game Enhancements patch descended on Star Wars Galaxies, forever changing the trajectory of the game, SOE, and...
