vanilla
The Daily Grind: Which MMO is *least* focused on fashion wars?
I've been thinking about this topic ever since Blizzard tweeted a joke about "cursed mogs" in World of Warcraft. Honestly, while vanilla WoW definitely...
LOTRO Legendarium: Ranking the new class/race combos by excitement factor
As we trek through the dog days of summer, the most exciting thing on the horizon for Lord of the Rings Online has to...
Middle-earth Enterprises sends cease-and-desist letter to LOTRO rogue server project
Some Lord of the Rings Online players may have been aware of an unofficial rogue server project that was set to release this month...
Massively Overthinking: Is old-school MMO dungeon-camping ever coming back?
A while ago on the MOP Podcast, Justin and I randomly wound up on the topic of camping in MMOs - not pitching a...
WoW Factor: Looking at Dragonflight’s release schedule with math
It's been a really long time since we've gotten to have some math up ins. You know by this point that I really like...
PSA: World of Warcraft Classic prepares to discontinue the character clone service on July 26
The character clone service in WoW Classic was an interesting approach to how the game handled The Burning Crusade Classic vs. the vanilla experience;...
Working As Intended: LFD, community accountability, and the balance of power in classic MMOs
At the heart of the WoW Classic argument over the dungeon finder tool is the professed belief that LFD ruined socializing in part by...
SWG Legends just announced farming, ranching, new houses, and the return of smuggler spice crafting
Maybe dropping a huge teaser for major new content is not the best thing to drop on Easter Sunday, but that's exactly what fan-run...
The Perfect Ten: 10 MMO NPCs as muffins
You’ve all seen those memes or Twitter threads that try to link celebrities or people to food items or other inanimate objects, but I’m...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Guild Wars 2’s open world is not the place for hardcore content
If you're paying any attention to Guild Wars 2, you have, by now, no doubt heard the debate over the Battle for the Jade...
Flameseeker Chronicles: Unpacking Guild Wars 2’s post-End of Dragons roadmap
Last week, we got a tsunami of good news from Guild Wars 2 studio ArenaNet. Studio directors Colin Johanson and John "JT" Taylor, along...
Massively Overthinking: How do alts fit into MMORPGs in 2022?
Last weekend, my play group took a second batch of Guild Wars 2 alts to Cantha, and we found ourselves a bit grumbly about...
WoW Classic’s Season of Mastery server opens Zul’Gurub this week
Thirteen deadly bosses stand ready to make mincemeat out of WoW Classic adventurers -- if said adventurers actually dare to step into Zul’Gurub when...
The Daily Grind: Does Guild Wars 2 need a classic or progression server?
A few weeks back, we had MOP's Colin on the MOP Podcast, and naturally we took the opportunity to talk about Guild Wars 2....
WoW Factor: Is World of Warcraft a good value for the money?
There are a lot of reasons to not be subscribed to World of Warcraft at the moment, although "the current state of the game...
Choose My Adventure: The Elder Scrolls Online welcomes me back with open arms and fun quests
You know that moment in an MMORPG - or even a single-player RPG - where you boot up the game after a long hiatus...
Interview: ArcheAge studios on the move to Kakao, bans, land rushes, and the future of the game
One of the surprises the end of 2021 had in store for MMO players was the move of XLGAMES' ArcheAge and ArcheAge Unchained from...
The Daily Grind: What was the best new zone added to an MMO in 2021?
As a SWG Legends player, I was thrilled to see the launch of Bespin to a Star Wars Galaxies rogue server this year. Not...
WoW Factor: WoW Classic’s Season of Mastery is starting to gall me
So here's a column that might be a bit more woolly than recent installments of this particular column. One of the thing that I've...
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...
