WoW Factor is Eliot Lefebvre’s column on an MMO you’ve probably never heard of: World of Warcraft. [Follow this column’s RSS feed]
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WoW Factor: MMO raid design and the antagonistic GM
Last week's column about World of Warcraft prompted some really interesting comments that I think are worth talking about; in fact, I very nearly...
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s exhausting constant hype cycle
When I saw that there was an event happening on Thursday for World of Warcraft's next patch, I had to do a double-take. I...
WoW Factor: What would World of Warcraft ‘Classic Plus’ even look like?
So before I start this column, I want to make something very clear: I do not for one moment, in my heart of hearts,...
WoW Factor: So what is Mike Ybarra teasing for the future of World of Warcraft?
As we are all waiting for Twitter to finish imploding under its current ownership (because nothing is more fun than rich idiots buying things...
WoW Factor: Long-shot potential additions for World of Warcraft’s next expansion
Last time we were here, I wound up just talking about potential class and race additions for the next World of Warcraft expansion. As...
WoW Factor: Potential features for the next World of Warcraft expansion
Last week I talked about potential destinations for the next World of Warcraft expansion, which is actually a pretty short list when you think...
WoW Factor: Potential destinations for the next World of Warcraft expansion
We have a BlizzCon coming up in November. This strikes me as a phenomenally bad idea, like someone proposed it in a meeting to...
Wow Factor: The future of Blizzard is bleak
So yesterday our Massively Overthinking roundtable asked everyone to sound off on the future of Blizzard because... well, the studio had a plan to...
WoW Factor: Overwatch 2’s failure offers a lesson for World of Warcraft
The weird thing about my current position is that for the first time in at least a little while, there isn't a new disaster...
WoW Factor: Infinite (Dragonflight) frustration and the time-travel problem in World of Warcraft
Sometimes, you just gotta rant about lore. And that's the case this week because World of Warcraft has finally wrapped up the long-standing plot...
WoW Factor: And now we ruin the Trading Post
Those of you who have read my work in WoW Factor for a while will know that I tend to be very cards-on-the-table about...
WoW Factor: Hardcore progression, speedrunning, and closed environments
So in one of the least surprising surprises ever, we're getting official support for hardcore realms in WoW Classic. That's not a bad thing,...
WoW Factor: Speculating on compelling future World of Warcraft class specs
With the release of patch 10.1.5, World of Warcraft's Evokers will become the second class to get a new spec added after its introduction...
WoW Factor: Age vs. World of Warcraft vs. player retention
In my time, I have gone from being a young man to an old man on the interwebs. I have gone from being a...
WoW Factor: The WoW Token, selling gold, and institutional power
Last week, I wrote about the addition of the WoW Token to the classic version of World of Warcraft, and I noted at the...
WoW Factor: Blizzard’s week of bad decisions
First of all, before you clever clogs start in down in the comments, yes, I realize that almost any given week in World of...
WoW Factor: Tarisland and the cargo cult of World of Warcraft
We've all made jokes about Tarisland being "we have World of Warcraft at home." That's just a fun thing to make jokes about, and...
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft’s content problems aren’t about quantity
So recently, we asked about what World of Warcraft could do to draw back players that it had lost. To be clear, that's a...
WoW Factor: Dragonflight wasn’t a hit – so now what?
All right, let's be real and acknowledge that the recent Activision-Blizzard earning report did not say outright that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was an out-and-out...
Casually Classic: 20 tips for surviving the WoW Classic community’s hardcore mode
"Just one more hour of WoW Classic. One more hour, then I'll go and play something serious. Or be a productive member of society....
