https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Thu, 20 Apr 2023 13:20:40 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/20/vague-patch-notes-if-theres-any-sort-of-metaverse-its-already-here-and-its-not-what-you-think/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/20/vague-patch-notes-if-theres-any-sort-of-metaverse-its-already-here-and-its-not-what-you-think/#comments Thu, 20 Apr 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=436387 We’ve had a lot of fun here having a good little giggle about the whole saga (if you want to call it that) of the metaverse, the bugbear of so many half-baked projects that don’t seem to be really going anywhere. It’s also become the favorite talking point of a lot of people who insist […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/20/vague-patch-notes-if-theres-any-sort-of-metaverse-its-already-here-and-its-not-what-you-think/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/06/vague-patch-notes-e3-is-gone-but-its-only-half-a-victory/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/06/vague-patch-notes-e3-is-gone-but-its-only-half-a-victory/#comments Thu, 06 Apr 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=434375 So E3 is dead, and we’ve already shared some of our thoughts on the matter earlier this week. But as someone who literally wrote a whole article about how much I loathe trade shows, I have even more I want to say on the matter. And that starts with an extension of the premise floated […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/06/vague-patch-notes-e3-is-gone-but-its-only-half-a-victory/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/30/vague-patch-notes-can-anyone-really-cover-games-objectively-when-theres-suffering-built-in-to-them/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/30/vague-patch-notes-can-anyone-really-cover-games-objectively-when-theres-suffering-built-in-to-them/#comments Thu, 30 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=433202 In July of 2021, we started a roundup tag in our tag cloud that most of us probably didn’t expect to still be using nearly two years later. It’s just “blizzard-scandal,” but that kind of says everything we need to. I wrote about it at the time, but since then it has only gotten worse. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/30/vague-patch-notes-can-anyone-really-cover-games-objectively-when-theres-suffering-built-in-to-them/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/vague-patch-notes-the-objective-truth-of-objectivity-in-games-journalism/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/vague-patch-notes-the-objective-truth-of-objectivity-in-games-journalism/#comments Fri, 24 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432306 All right, folks, real talk: Originally there was going to be a much more sober and depressing column this week, but then this week happened, and while I don’t really want to talk in detail about my personal life, it took a lot of the wind out of my sails. Not in the sense that […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/vague-patch-notes-the-objective-truth-of-objectivity-in-games-journalism/feed/ 20 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/16/vague-patch-notes-how-wildstars-first-dungeon-killed-me/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/16/vague-patch-notes-how-wildstars-first-dungeon-killed-me/#comments Thu, 16 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=431080 This is the story of a girl who ran a dungeon in WildStar’s world, and while it looks all right in photographs, I absolutely hated running that. As much as I would like to be able to recruit Josh Hampton to write a new version of the song just for this column introduction, I am […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/16/vague-patch-notes-how-wildstars-first-dungeon-killed-me/feed/ 41 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/09/vague-patch-notes-being-there-or-getting-there-in-mmorpgs/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/09/vague-patch-notes-being-there-or-getting-there-in-mmorpgs/#comments Thu, 09 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=430073 Here’s an interesting fact to consider: It took me ages to hit the level cap in Final Fantasy XI. Absolute ages. And no, it’s not because the game was more challenging than modern MMORPGs (because it wasn’t, and there’s a whole column to be written about that some day), nor was it because I played […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/09/vague-patch-notes-being-there-or-getting-there-in-mmorpgs/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/03/vague-patch-notes-why-im-anticipating-blue-protocol/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/03/vague-patch-notes-why-im-anticipating-blue-protocol/#comments Fri, 03 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=429234 My anticipation for Blue Protocol is something that I cannot adequately explain because at the end of the day it’s more based around a feeling than it is actual evidence. But sometimes those feelings can actually contain some evidence, and so I’m going to be talking about that too while I talk about this game. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/03/vague-patch-notes-why-im-anticipating-blue-protocol/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/23/vague-patch-notes-mmo-events-are-not-for-the-high-level-playerbase/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/23/vague-patch-notes-mmo-events-are-not-for-the-high-level-playerbase/#comments Thu, 23 Feb 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=427973 Let me start with a statement of fact: I actually really like limited-time events in MMORPGs. I don’t like them as a means of conveying major story beats (looking at you, Guild Wars 2; it took you way too long to correct that error). But as a chance to give you something to different to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/23/vague-patch-notes-mmo-events-are-not-for-the-high-level-playerbase/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/16/vague-patch-notes-the-three-kinds-of-sunset-in-the-mmo-space/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/16/vague-patch-notes-the-three-kinds-of-sunset-in-the-mmo-space/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426967 Not all sunsets are the same, no matter how much you may like a given game. This is one of the things that tends to be hard to understand. Maintenance modes, too. There is a world of difference between the state of affairs with Guild Wars – a title that entered maintenance mode after years […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/16/vague-patch-notes-the-three-kinds-of-sunset-in-the-mmo-space/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/09/vague-patch-notes-diversions-are-what-makes-the-mmo/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/09/vague-patch-notes-diversions-are-what-makes-the-mmo/#comments Thu, 09 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426045 I am going to put forth a theory today in the Vague Patch Notes column. It is potentially an odd theory, and as sometimes happens, it is not a theory I have thoroughly workshopped or even a theory I am wholly convinced is accurate. But it’s an interesting theory to consider, and I think it […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/09/vague-patch-notes-diversions-are-what-makes-the-mmo/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/27/vague-patch-notes-floaty-samey-and-janky-a-treasury-of-mmo-terms-for-bad-combat/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/27/vague-patch-notes-floaty-samey-and-janky-a-treasury-of-mmo-terms-for-bad-combat/#comments Fri, 27 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=424130 Any time you bring up The Secret World or Secret World Legends‘s bland, floaty combat, at least one person is going to chime in insisting, “Well, it seemed all right to me! What does ‘floaty’ even mean in context?” And I sympathize with these people. Usually what’s really going on here is that they wanted […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/27/vague-patch-notes-floaty-samey-and-janky-a-treasury-of-mmo-terms-for-bad-combat/feed/ 12 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/19/vague-patch-notes-fractured-online-deserved-better-even-if-you-think-it-looked-bad/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/19/vague-patch-notes-fractured-online-deserved-better-even-if-you-think-it-looked-bad/#comments Thu, 19 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=422891 When it comes to upcoming MMOs, there’s always a sense of uncertainty in terms of what the final product is going to look like. You cannot actually tell me that you like or dislike the gameplay of Blue Protocol unless you’ve been in one of the handful of Japanese tests, and odds are you have […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/19/vague-patch-notes-fractured-online-deserved-better-even-if-you-think-it-looked-bad/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/vague-patch-notes-stop-taking-your-released-mmos-back-to-the-drawing-board/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/vague-patch-notes-stop-taking-your-released-mmos-back-to-the-drawing-board/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=422115 This is not a column about Kingshunt, but it is. It’s not a column about Crowfall or Deathverse: Let it Die or even Crucible. But it’s about all of those games and more besides. And it’s about a myth that irritates me to this day based on a misunderstanding of something that happened to one […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/vague-patch-notes-stop-taking-your-released-mmos-back-to-the-drawing-board/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/05/vague-patch-notes-embracing-limited-time-content-modes-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/05/vague-patch-notes-embracing-limited-time-content-modes-in-mmos/#comments Thu, 05 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=421181 Today’s column was inspired by a discussion in work chat about limited-time game modes – specifically, the idea of something like that in World of Warcraft. Not something as ultimately pointless as the palimpsest paean to elitists as the whole “Season of Mastery” nonsense, but actual time-limited challenge modes. Create an alt on an ironman […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/05/vague-patch-notes-embracing-limited-time-content-modes-in-mmos/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/30/vague-patch-notes-loving-an-mmo-isnt-the-same-as-having-a-personality/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/30/vague-patch-notes-loving-an-mmo-isnt-the-same-as-having-a-personality/#comments Fri, 30 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=420661 There’s a story that’s always stuck with me, relayed by the now-vanished blog Websnark back in the day, so forgive me if I get the details wrong. But the meat of the story is what’s important, and frankly, none of the details matters. With me so far? This is about the Stan Lee created reality […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/30/vague-patch-notes-loving-an-mmo-isnt-the-same-as-having-a-personality/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/23/vague-patch-notes-a-wake-for-the-mmos-that-were/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/23/vague-patch-notes-a-wake-for-the-mmos-that-were/#comments Fri, 23 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=420098 2022 is nearly over, and for me, at least, it’s been an incredibly challenging year full of some really dark points. This is the first time that my holidays have be structured like they are in over a decade. I lost something important to me, an element of my life that I assumed was immovable, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/23/vague-patch-notes-a-wake-for-the-mmos-that-were/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/08/vague-patch-notes-mmo-design-is-not-value-neutral/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/08/vague-patch-notes-mmo-design-is-not-value-neutral/#comments Thu, 08 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=417833 It’s rare for me to find myself actively yelling at my computer screen while watching something, but it does happen every so often. The recent Folding Ideas video about World of Warcraft managed to accomplish something very close because it is a well-researched video on the surface with a lot of citations… and a shocking […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/08/vague-patch-notes-mmo-design-is-not-value-neutral/feed/ 12 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/10/vague-patch-notes-alas-poor-crowfall-youre-gone-now/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/10/vague-patch-notes-alas-poor-crowfall-youre-gone-now/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=413756 Dusty dusty, ashy ashy, Crowfall’s plane went crashy crashy. Yes, we are now talking about Crowfall very strictly in the past tense. You could argue that technically it’s just sleeping, but that would be inaccurate, for reasons that I am about to elaborate upon. The point is that the game is going offline toward the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/10/vague-patch-notes-alas-poor-crowfall-youre-gone-now/feed/ 21 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/03/vague-patch-notes-the-art-of-picking-winners-and-losers-in-mmo-design/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/03/vague-patch-notes-the-art-of-picking-winners-and-losers-in-mmo-design/#comments Thu, 03 Nov 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=412774 There’s a meme that’s gone around the Final Fantasy XIV community sphere for a while, and I’m going to try my best to explain it to you without requiring you to understand the game’s lore. There’s an area of the game that is explicitly a recreation of an ancient city, but since it’s an open-world […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/03/vague-patch-notes-the-art-of-picking-winners-and-losers-in-mmo-design/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/27/vague-patch-notes-classic-servers-vs-progression-servers-and-why-the-difference-matters/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/27/vague-patch-notes-classic-servers-vs-progression-servers-and-why-the-difference-matters/#comments Thu, 27 Oct 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=411704 Something that I’ve been thinking about a lot over the past few days – for no particular reason – is the idea of classic servers for Final Fantasy XIV’s launch version. Not progression servers, though. The former would make sense, but the latter wouldn’t, and it’s worth unpacking what the difference between them actually is […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/27/vague-patch-notes-classic-servers-vs-progression-servers-and-why-the-difference-matters/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/20/vague-patch-notes-mmo-quality-and-the-bandwagon-fallacy/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/20/vague-patch-notes-mmo-quality-and-the-bandwagon-fallacy/#comments Thu, 20 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=410421 Here’s a fact that is objectively true but feels objectively false: There’s no law stating that the best MMO of all time, to date, was ever one of the MMOs with the highest subscriber counts. Now, lest you start scurrying off in defense, keep in mind that this column is not actually about determining the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/20/vague-patch-notes-mmo-quality-and-the-bandwagon-fallacy/feed/ 22 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/13/vague-patch-notes-finger-pointing-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/13/vague-patch-notes-finger-pointing-in-mmos/#comments Thu, 13 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=409384 I know for a fact that I’ve already made the joke at this point about how Babylon’s Fall just straight-up Babylon Fell, but the wordplay amuses me. That’s not what this column is about, though. This column is about the fact that the CEO of Platinum Games decided to say a few words that sounded […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/13/vague-patch-notes-finger-pointing-in-mmos/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/vague-patch-notes-why-are-mobile-mmos-like-that/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/vague-patch-notes-why-are-mobile-mmos-like-that/#comments Thu, 06 Oct 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=408393 If you have read my writing a bunch over the years, you have probably observed me mentioning how much I like Final Fantasy Tactics over the years. You have probably also heard my mention once or twice that I most definitely do not like Final Fantasy Tactics Advance. There are a lot of reasons for […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/06/vague-patch-notes-why-are-mobile-mmos-like-that/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/29/vague-patch-notes-mandatory-content-and-game-design-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/29/vague-patch-notes-mandatory-content-and-game-design-in-mmos/#comments Thu, 29 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=407409 Let me tell you about my second roommate in college. He was named Kyle, and he was benefiting from the fact that I had a PlayStation 2 (which tells you a lot about when this was happening.) Whether or not he derived any benefit from the existence of my Metal Gear Solid 2 demo disc, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/29/vague-patch-notes-mandatory-content-and-game-design-in-mmos/feed/ 24 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/vague-patch-notes-the-perpetual-mmo-crowdfunding-engine/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/vague-patch-notes-the-perpetual-mmo-crowdfunding-engine/#comments Thu, 22 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=406455 Do me a favor right now and navigate over to the Star Citizen webpage. It’s possible that this has wildly changed in the time between writing this and when you reading it, but it’s highly unlikely, so I want you to tell me the first thing you see when you go to this page. Well, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/22/vague-patch-notes-the-perpetual-mmo-crowdfunding-engine/feed/ 30 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/15/vague-patch-notes-queues-do-not-tell-the-story-of-an-mmos-success/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/15/vague-patch-notes-queues-do-not-tell-the-story-of-an-mmos-success/#comments Thu, 15 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=405448 It’s time to talk about queues to log in to a game, and you know what game we have to talk about in this context. I mean, it’s pretty obvious. If we’re talking about login queues right now, what other MMO is there to talk about? That’s right, we’re talking about New World! In retrospect […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/15/vague-patch-notes-queues-do-not-tell-the-story-of-an-mmos-success/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/08/vague-patch-notes-the-mmorpg-industry-shockwaves-that-still-reverberate/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/08/vague-patch-notes-the-mmorpg-industry-shockwaves-that-still-reverberate/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=404409 A thought occurred to me the other day regarding World of Warcraft and the way that it deformed the MMO industry: People who are claiming that it’s the reason that the industry has changed so dramatically are right, but they’re not right about why or how. If you’ve followed MMOs for long enough, you know […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/08/vague-patch-notes-the-mmorpg-industry-shockwaves-that-still-reverberate/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/01/vague-patch-notes-the-gating-of-time-in-mmo-content/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/01/vague-patch-notes-the-gating-of-time-in-mmo-content/#comments Thu, 01 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=403509 People are over the moon about the Island Sanctuaries added in the most recent update to Final Fantasy XIV, and I entirely include myself in that lineup. I’m enjoying the content, it’s fun, and it’s reached a comfortable place for me of just slowly waiting and accumulating resources over time. And this is fine, but […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/01/vague-patch-notes-the-gating-of-time-in-mmo-content/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/vague-patch-notes-novelty-is-a-contradiction-in-an-mmorpg-genre-that-discourages-it/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/vague-patch-notes-novelty-is-a-contradiction-in-an-mmorpg-genre-that-discourages-it/#comments Thu, 25 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=402502 The newest member of the Big Five in the MMO space released in the west back in 2015, which was seven years ago now. The oldest one released in 2004, which means that it’ll be old enough to vote this year despite its best efforts to get knocked out of any kind of top spot. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/25/vague-patch-notes-novelty-is-a-contradiction-in-an-mmorpg-genre-that-discourages-it/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/18/vague-patch-notes-the-perils-of-comparing-mmos-to-each-other/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/18/vague-patch-notes-the-perils-of-comparing-mmos-to-each-other/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=401480 So the other day I read perhaps the worst Tower of Fantasy review I could have possibly read. It was most certainly not the very good one our own Chris turned in, but it was a negative review. But that in and of itself doesn’t make it a bad review. Sometimes two people play the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/18/vague-patch-notes-the-perils-of-comparing-mmos-to-each-other/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/11/vague-patch-notes-little-orbit-blockchain/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/11/vague-patch-notes-little-orbit-blockchain/#comments Thu, 11 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=400430 It looks like we have indeed lived long enough to see the heroes become the villains: Little Orbit, which we once lionized for saving APB Reloaded and bringing out an entirely free version of Fallen Earth to the masses, is now trying to make a blockchain game happen with its upcoming title Ships That Fight […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/11/vague-patch-notes-little-orbit-blockchain/feed/ 25 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/03/vague-patch-notes-why-sticking-to-one-mmo-is-the-smart-thing-to-do/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/03/vague-patch-notes-why-sticking-to-one-mmo-is-the-smart-thing-to-do/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=399307 I have never been much of a roamer. Some people are, and that’s fine; the world needs different sorts of people, and for some people the lure of going to exotic locations or exploring the unknown will always be right there and too intoxicating to ignore. But that’s not me. My favorite place to be […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/03/vague-patch-notes-why-sticking-to-one-mmo-is-the-smart-thing-to-do/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/28/vague-patch-notes-the-many-flavors-of-boosting-in-the-mmo-genre/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/28/vague-patch-notes-the-many-flavors-of-boosting-in-the-mmo-genre/#comments Thu, 28 Jul 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=398479 The other day MOP’s Bree and I were having a discussion about boosting. This is not entirely unusual, but it was unusual insofar as the reality is we were talking about multiple totally different kinds of boosting that have entirely different causes, effects, and expectations. This of course prompts the reasonable commentary that there are […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/28/vague-patch-notes-the-many-flavors-of-boosting-in-the-mmo-genre/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/21/vague-patch-notes-themepark-mmos-need-open-spaces-too/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/21/vague-patch-notes-themepark-mmos-need-open-spaces-too/#comments Thu, 21 Jul 2022 16:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=397467 Let me start off this particular column with a story about Star Wars: The Old Republic. I’ve mentioned before how this was a game I deeply wanted to love and was all ready to be deeply engaged with, and to be honest, the first few hours were great even on launch. You got introduced to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/21/vague-patch-notes-themepark-mmos-need-open-spaces-too/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/14/vague-patch-notes-yes-sandbox-mmos-need-tutorials-and-guidance-too/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/14/vague-patch-notes-yes-sandbox-mmos-need-tutorials-and-guidance-too/#comments Thu, 14 Jul 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=396113 I’m going to make some sandbox fans a little miffed right here with my opening premise. Yes, your sandbox MMO needs tutorials and probably a main story or thrust of events in some fashion to get new players on board and interested. Yes, I am talking about directed content that players can engage in for […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/14/vague-patch-notes-yes-sandbox-mmos-need-tutorials-and-guidance-too/feed/ 12 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/01/vague-patch-notes-a-love-letter-to-the-people-going-above-and-beyond-in-the-mmo-genre/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/01/vague-patch-notes-a-love-letter-to-the-people-going-above-and-beyond-in-the-mmo-genre/#comments Fri, 01 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=394619 Let’s just lead off with a very simple statement. Hey there, teams out there working on MMOs and doing more than you need to? We see you, and you’re awesome. You deserve kudos, and we notice you out here. The fact of the matter is that MMOs in general are not an insanely high-profit venture […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/01/vague-patch-notes-a-love-letter-to-the-people-going-above-and-beyond-in-the-mmo-genre/feed/ 4 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/23/vague-patch-notes-you-are-not-immune-from-predatory-monetization-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/23/vague-patch-notes-you-are-not-immune-from-predatory-monetization-in-mmos/#comments Thu, 23 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=393373 This week, I want to expand on something I mentioned in last week’s Vague Patch Notes as an offhand thing that bears further examination. It comes up usually from the defense squad of any game whose predatory monetization is being criticized, and it’s a song you can find being recited word-for-word right now when discussions […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/23/vague-patch-notes-you-are-not-immune-from-predatory-monetization-in-mmos/feed/ 40 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/16/vague-patch-notes-examples-of-predatory-monetization-in-the-mmo-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/16/vague-patch-notes-examples-of-predatory-monetization-in-the-mmo-industry/#comments Thu, 16 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=392269 So, if you’ve been paying attention to this column over the past few forevers, you will have no doubt noticed by this point that I’m not really a big fan of talking about pay-to-win because that’s a fuzzy term you can argue against. I much prefer talking about predatory monetization because that’s a much less […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/16/vague-patch-notes-examples-of-predatory-monetization-in-the-mmo-industry/feed/ 59 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/02/vague-patch-notes-mobile-mmos-free-to-play-mmos-and-the-path-of-microtransactions/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/02/vague-patch-notes-mobile-mmos-free-to-play-mmos-and-the-path-of-microtransactions/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=390464 When I first started playing Magic: the Gathering, Revised was the new hotness and I got used to the idea that Serra Angel was considered to be an overpowered creature. We’ve come a long way since then, but I remember when I started buying Mirage cards and found that they weren’t just a little better […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/02/vague-patch-notes-mobile-mmos-free-to-play-mmos-and-the-path-of-microtransactions/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/26/vague-patch-notes-the-specter-of-mmo-persistence-in-single-player-games/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/26/vague-patch-notes-the-specter-of-mmo-persistence-in-single-player-games/#comments Thu, 26 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=389642 Recently, we got a great letter from a listener asking about an issue that he’d been having with single-player games compared to MMOs. Essentially, Justin S. noted a persistent problem… with persistence, because MMOs last forever and single-player games just don’t. So how do you keep playing and get into a game when you know […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/26/vague-patch-notes-the-specter-of-mmo-persistence-in-single-player-games/feed/ 31 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/19/vague-patch-notes-a-look-back-at-my-start-in-final-fantasy-xi-many-years-later/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/19/vague-patch-notes-a-look-back-at-my-start-in-final-fantasy-xi-many-years-later/#comments Thu, 19 May 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=388557 It is the 20th anniversary of Final Fantasy XI this week. Not the 20th anniversary of the game being in the US, and thus not my own personal 20th anniversary of playing MMOs in general; that’ll be next year because the game launched in Japan with a notable lead time compared to its localized release. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/19/vague-patch-notes-a-look-back-at-my-start-in-final-fantasy-xi-many-years-later/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/06/vague-patch-notes-the-negatives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/06/vague-patch-notes-the-negatives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/#comments Fri, 06 May 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=385439 Last week, we began a discussion about the ups and downs of rogue servers in the MMO space, by which I actually mean we talked exclusively about the positives because I found out after I started writing that this was big enough to split into two columns. (Yes, that happens more often than I might like […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/06/vague-patch-notes-the-negatives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/29/vague-patch-notes-the-positives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/29/vague-patch-notes-the-positives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/#comments Fri, 29 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=385431 Here at MassivelyOP, we have a complicated relationship with rogue servers for MMOs. We have some pretty firm rules about when covering them is totally fine and when it’s a bad idea, and we’ve covered some of the more popular ones in depth in Choose My Adventure and elsewhere. Rogue servers are kind of awesome! […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/29/vague-patch-notes-the-positives-of-mmorpg-rogue-servers/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/14/vague-patch-notes-stop-giving-rich-people-money-to-make-failed-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/14/vague-patch-notes-stop-giving-rich-people-money-to-make-failed-mmos/#comments Thu, 14 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=383222 Richard Garriott has been to space. I’m going to repeat that a lot for emphasis, just because I feel like it’s important. Richard Garriott has been to space. He was a celebrity tourist going to space at an estimated cost of $30 million. (Here’s a source on that.) The man is in no way poor […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/14/vague-patch-notes-stop-giving-rich-people-money-to-make-failed-mmos/feed/ 87 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/08/vague-patch-notes-when-mmos-pit-their-playerbase-against-itself/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/08/vague-patch-notes-when-mmos-pit-their-playerbase-against-itself/#comments Fri, 08 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=382324 Today’s Vague Patch Notes is about something weird that I feel like someone should definitely done something about a long time before now. It’s a strange decision because in a litany of games that have offered similar splits it is somewhat unique, and yet it also seems to have long been encouraged and embraced despite […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/08/vague-patch-notes-when-mmos-pit-their-playerbase-against-itself/feed/ 34 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/vague-patch-notes-community-workarounds-dont-excuse-broken-pieces-of-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/vague-patch-notes-community-workarounds-dont-excuse-broken-pieces-of-mmos/#comments Thu, 31 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=380881 It’s many years in the rear view now because these days it’s someone else’s show, but there was a time when Choose My Adventure was frequently my jam. And back then, at one point I popped back into WildStar during the time I personally think of as the game’s long, dark tea-time of misery. I […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/31/vague-patch-notes-community-workarounds-dont-excuse-broken-pieces-of-mmos/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/25/vague-patch-notes-when-you-like-the-idea-of-an-mmo-more-than-the-game-itself/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/25/vague-patch-notes-when-you-like-the-idea-of-an-mmo-more-than-the-game-itself/#comments Fri, 25 Mar 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=380224 So I was reading Chris’ recent CMA entry on The Secret World, and I found myself in a curious state. I definitely agree with his initial assertion that this is a good game, that this is a game I like, a game that should be celebrated and remembered and deserves praise and lots of memories. And yet […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/25/vague-patch-notes-when-you-like-the-idea-of-an-mmo-more-than-the-game-itself/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/18/vague-patch-notes-pretty-is-boring-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/18/vague-patch-notes-pretty-is-boring-in-mmos/#comments Fri, 18 Mar 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=379494 So NCsoft unveiled Throne and Liberty and it looks… pretty? I guess? But it looks pretty in the worst way. It looks pretty in the way that makes “pretty” sound like an insult because… well, it kind of is. It looks like exactly one of those games where people are going to fawn over it until […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/18/vague-patch-notes-pretty-is-boring-in-mmos/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/11/vague-patch-notes-bro-do-you-even-play-your-mmo/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/11/vague-patch-notes-bro-do-you-even-play-your-mmo/#comments Fri, 11 Mar 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=378527 So Guild Wars 2 had some problems with the process to unlock its siege turtle mount. As launched, it required players to take part in a supremely challenging large-scale event that was subject to griefing behavior. It wasn’t great, which is why a week later, ArenaNet announced significant changes to it. But the situation evokes the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/11/vague-patch-notes-bro-do-you-even-play-your-mmo/feed/ 20 https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/03/vague-patch-notes-so-why-do-mmo-developers-gender-lock/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/03/vague-patch-notes-so-why-do-mmo-developers-gender-lock/#comments Thu, 03 Mar 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=377560 Last week’s Vague Patch Notes on MMO lore and its impact on design decisions produced a lot of good comments along with a smattering of bad comments, as is usually the way. But there was one reader who essentially asked for another column by asking a very specific question: If gender-locking and all this are […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/03/03/vague-patch-notes-so-why-do-mmo-developers-gender-lock/feed/ 47