https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Sat, 01 Apr 2023 23:46:03 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/29/activision-blizzard-and-netease-split-up-over-long-brewing-disputes-and-alleged-threats/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/29/activision-blizzard-and-netease-split-up-over-long-brewing-disputes-and-alleged-threats/#comments Wed, 29 Mar 2023 18:30:19 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=433110 One of the biggest MMO and gaming stories capping off the end of 2022 and spilling over into the start of 2023 was the dissolution of the Activision-Blizzard-NetEase partnership that governed the publishing of Blizzard’s games in China. The companies’ inability to reach a new agreement at the end of their multi-year contract resulted in […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/29/activision-blizzard-and-netease-split-up-over-long-brewing-disputes-and-alleged-threats/feed/ 22 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/activision-blizzards-diversity-and-inclusion-goals-are-out-of-sync-with-its-corporate-action/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/activision-blizzards-diversity-and-inclusion-goals-are-out-of-sync-with-its-corporate-action/#comments Fri, 24 Mar 2023 16:30:01 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432363 Activision-Blizzard has released a full-year review of its diversity, equity, and inclusion stats for 2022 this week, and the first thing readers will notice is that the data aren’t notably different from the data released a quarter ago, which included all but December from the year 2022. The key addition is further breakdown by race, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/24/activision-blizzards-diversity-and-inclusion-goals-are-out-of-sync-with-its-corporate-action/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2023 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432202 I have to admit I almost deleted the press release for this story without reading it, but my finger twitched, and let me tell you why: One of the most common Reddit threads I see and one of the most common emails we get here at MOP can be boiled down to “what MMO should […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/for-science-crit-rate-is-another-survey-driven-attempt-to-match-gamer-personalities-to-games/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/14/former-trion-boss-scott-hartsman-illuminates-the-rise-and-fall-of-rift/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/14/former-trion-boss-scott-hartsman-illuminates-the-rise-and-fall-of-rift/#comments Tue, 14 Mar 2023 16:30:21 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=430830 Yesterday, we ran an editorial from MOP’s Tyler focused on his reasoning that MMOs are better off showcasing their own special attributes than tearing down rivals. Among the multiple examples he gave was one of the more famous in MMO history: RIFT’s “we’re not in Azeroth anymore” ad campaign. And now today, Scott Hartsman, the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/14/former-trion-boss-scott-hartsman-illuminates-the-rise-and-fall-of-rift/feed/ 27 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2022/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2022/#comments Thu, 12 Jan 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=415765 Perhaps one of our saddest traditions at the turn of every year is taking stock of all the MMOs we lost along the way. Unfortunately, 2022 ensured we said farewell to several good ones – Bluehole’s Elyon and TERA being chief among them. EVE Valkyrie, Crowfall, Forsaken World, Bless Unleashed on console, and Atlas Rogues […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/12/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2022/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/massivelyops-complete-2022-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/massivelyops-complete-2022-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2023 17:00:28 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=416330 As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2021, today we’re going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2022. We gave out 21 formal awards over the span of December 2022, in addition to our annual recaps, roundups, listicles, predictions, golden yachties, oddities, community discussions, and […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/massivelyops-complete-2022-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/14/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2022-predictions/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/14/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2022-predictions/#comments Wed, 14 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=415364 Every year we do an MMO predictions post full of obvious, not-so-obvious, and totally-out-there prognostication for the future of the MMO genre. And every year, we miss something big… and nail something bigger. But what would be the point of making predictions if we didn’t go back and look at laugh at the old ones […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/14/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2022-predictions/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/working-as-intended-my-25-years-of-ultima-online/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/working-as-intended-my-25-years-of-ultima-online/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=407001 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 new thing called Ultima Online that had just launched. I said it looked dumb. (The box did look dumb.) He bought it anyway, and we took it back to his dad’s […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/working-as-intended-my-25-years-of-ultima-online/feed/ 40 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/working-as-intended-mmos-that-wish-they-were-star-wars-galaxies/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/working-as-intended-mmos-that-wish-they-were-star-wars-galaxies/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=396232 “My friends and I would skin someone alive for an SWG 2,” an old Star Wars Galaxies player recently wrote on Reddit, and that sentiment is… gruesome, yes, but also widely shared by gamers who remember that particular golden age of MMOs. It’s not that the game was perfect – it most definitely wasn’t – […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/working-as-intended-mmos-that-wish-they-were-star-wars-galaxies/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/27/working-as-intended-lfd-community-accountability-and-the-balance-of-power-in-classic-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/27/working-as-intended-lfd-community-accountability-and-the-balance-of-power-in-classic-mmos/#comments Wed, 27 Apr 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=385022 At the heart of the WoW Classic argument over the dungeon finder tool is the professed belief that LFD ruined socializing in part by taking away server communities’ ability to govern themselves. LFD destroyed server identity and let toxic players get into dungeons, these players say, when before LFD the community was able to punish […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/27/working-as-intended-lfd-community-accountability-and-the-balance-of-power-in-classic-mmos/feed/ 54 https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/23/seedinvest-portalarium-shroud-of-the-avatar-investors-accountability/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/23/seedinvest-portalarium-shroud-of-the-avatar-investors-accountability/#comments Wed, 23 Feb 2022 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=376230 Shroud of the Avatar has been a black mark on the MMORPG genre, Kickstarted MMOs, and genre founding father Richard Garriott for years, and the story has only gotten more weird and frustrating over time for folks who haven’t completely tuned out of the plot. Allow us to tune you back in for today’s news, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/02/23/seedinvest-portalarium-shroud-of-the-avatar-investors-accountability/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/massively-ops-2021-awards-recap/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/massively-ops-2021-awards-recap/#comments Fri, 07 Jan 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=359711 As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, and 2020, today we’re going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2021. We gave out 21 formal awards over the span of December 2021, in addition to our annual recaps, roundups, listicles, predictions, golden yachties, oddities, community discussions, and retrospectives. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/07/massively-ops-2021-awards-recap/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/06/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2021/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/06/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2021/#comments Thu, 06 Jan 2022 17:00:50 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=367821 This is always one of the most depressing roundups I do around the turn of every year, and this year… well, we lost some good ones. Gamigo’s gamepocalypse took out four games, including Defiance; that Cryptic’s sunset of Magic Legends before it’d even left beta, was the highest-profile sunset of the year. The year also […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/01/06/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2021/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2021/12/10/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2021-predictions/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/12/10/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2021-predictions/#comments Fri, 10 Dec 2021 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=365175 Last year’s MMORPG predictions didn’t exactly go to plan, since in 2019, we weren’t really expecting 2020 to play out the way it did. But at the end of 2020, we actually did have a pretty good idea how 2021 was going to look in terms of the gaming industry being somewhat OK in spite […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/12/10/working-as-intended-the-hits-and-misses-of-massivelyops-2021-predictions/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/01/working-as-intended-brute-forcing-the-mmo-industry/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/01/working-as-intended-brute-forcing-the-mmo-industry/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2021 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=356002 If you’re a music fan, and you probably are since you’re a human, you’ve probably come to grips with the sense that somehow the music you grew up with felt different, maybe even better, than modern music. It’s tempting to bin those suspicions under nostalgia. But a few years ago, I watched the Thoughty2 video […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/10/01/working-as-intended-brute-forcing-the-mmo-industry/feed/ 36 https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/camelot-unchained-boss-rebuts-theory-that-its-studio-finances-are-in-disarray/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/camelot-unchained-boss-rebuts-theory-that-its-studio-finances-are-in-disarray/#comments Fri, 16 Jul 2021 14:00:57 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=345229 Dedicated readers of MassivelyOP already know that Camelot Unchained has become an MMO saddled with controversy over the last couple of years. Originally Kickstarted in 2013, it has seen multiple major delays, the founding of a second studio, and the announcement of a second game using its custom-built engine. It’s also run some pretty impressive […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/07/16/camelot-unchained-boss-rebuts-theory-that-its-studio-finances-are-in-disarray/feed/ 224 https://massivelyop.com/2021/06/03/palia-is-a-new-community-simulation-mmo-from-former-blizzard-and-riot-devs/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/06/03/palia-is-a-new-community-simulation-mmo-from-former-blizzard-and-riot-devs/#comments Thu, 03 Jun 2021 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=337941 A few weeks ago, I attended a press event for a new game assuming I would not be impressed by the offerings. Instead, I came away thinking that not only do I want this game, but my kids are going to want this game, and a lot of our readers are going to want this […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/06/03/palia-is-a-new-community-simulation-mmo-from-former-blizzard-and-riot-devs/feed/ 67 https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/21/working-as-intended-touring-my-new-swg-legends-houses-and-looking-at-bespin-deco/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/21/working-as-intended-touring-my-new-swg-legends-houses-and-looking-at-bespin-deco/#comments Fri, 21 May 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=336643 If you’re a fan of MMORPG housing, Star Wars, Star Wars Galaxies specifically, or just chatter about MMOs, then this very self-indulgent Working As Intended video is for you. By popular demand (OK, it was like five people and I was going to do it anyway), I’ve put together an updated video that tours my […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/21/working-as-intended-touring-my-new-swg-legends-houses-and-looking-at-bespin-deco/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/11/hands-on-with-amazons-new-world-first-expedition-amrine-excavation/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/11/hands-on-with-amazons-new-world-first-expedition-amrine-excavation/#comments Tue, 11 May 2021 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=335128 The funny thing about our ongoing pandemic is that it didn’t really change the way video game previews are done. It turns out that the problem with preview events wasn’t the travel expenses, the noise of the crowds, the limitations of a new PC setup, or the exhaustion of the developers. The problem is just […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/05/11/hands-on-with-amazons-new-world-first-expedition-amrine-excavation/feed/ 31 https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/working-as-intended-there-is-no-good-reason-for-mmo-gamers-to-fund-dreamworld/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/working-as-intended-there-is-no-good-reason-for-mmo-gamers-to-fund-dreamworld/#comments Thu, 08 Apr 2021 18:00:56 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=330774 Not quite a month ago, we covered the Kickstarter for a wildly ambitious MMORPG, Dreamworld. We were, uh, pretty skeptical about the game’s chances. As we noted, the game’s 2.5 developers demonstrated no outreach in the MMORPG industry, no MMO dev pedigree or experience, and no understanding of modern Kickstarter failures. The website and Kickstarter […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/04/08/working-as-intended-there-is-no-good-reason-for-mmo-gamers-to-fund-dreamworld/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2021/03/05/interview-camelot-unchained-lays-out-its-innovative-alchemy-system/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/03/05/interview-camelot-unchained-lays-out-its-innovative-alchemy-system/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2021 20:15:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=325751 One of the major slices of content being worked on in this current 90-day quadrant of Camelot Unchained development is its crafting system, specifically and initially the design of alchemy. During City State’s afternoon stream, the studio explained that the alchemy craft will essentially allow players to mix “an almost unlimited number of combinations” using […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/03/05/interview-camelot-unchained-lays-out-its-innovative-alchemy-system/feed/ 62 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/08/massively-ops-2020-awards-recap/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/08/massively-ops-2020-awards-recap/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2021 17:00:12 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=313474 As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2019 (whee!), today I’m going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2020. We gave out 21 formal awards this past year, all in addition to dozens of other recaps, roundups, listicles, predictions, yachties, oddities, polls, provocations, and retrospectives. It comes […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/08/massively-ops-2020-awards-recap/feed/ 6 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2020/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2020/#comments Thu, 07 Jan 2021 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=310936 I’m happy to report that the list of MMOs that sunsetted in 2020 was shorter than in previous years, but I’m sure you’ll join me in wishing the list were even shorter – or better yet, entirely empty. Most notably, Nexon sunsetted MapleStory 2 after less than two years of operation in the west, plus […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/07/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2020/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/i-saw-a-city-in-the-clouds-previewing-star-wars-legends-bespin-expansion/ https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/i-saw-a-city-in-the-clouds-previewing-star-wars-legends-bespin-expansion/#comments Mon, 04 Jan 2021 16:00:03 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=316928 There are very few MMORPGs that can plausibly compel me to sit down and log in the weekend of a big real-life move, seeing as I am surrounded by grumpy family members, boxes of everything I own, and disassembled furniture, but here I am doing just that, so you know it’s worth it. And it’s […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2021/01/04/i-saw-a-city-in-the-clouds-previewing-star-wars-legends-bespin-expansion/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2020/07/09/working-as-intended-decorating-mmorpg-houses-in-swg-legends-and-beyond/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/07/09/working-as-intended-decorating-mmorpg-houses-in-swg-legends-and-beyond/#comments Thu, 09 Jul 2020 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=289209 I’ve been mulling over how to do a piece about MMO housing for a while now, spurred on by colleagues and readers who’ve said they wanted a tour of my house in Star Wars Galaxies Legends. I didn’t want to just dump out a video of my latest house as if to beg for compliments, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/07/09/working-as-intended-decorating-mmorpg-houses-in-swg-legends-and-beyond/feed/ 26 https://massivelyop.com/2020/06/08/star-wars-galaxies-fans-debate-legends-pvp-the-economy-and-more-on-community-podcast/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/06/08/star-wars-galaxies-fans-debate-legends-pvp-the-economy-and-more-on-community-podcast/#comments Mon, 08 Jun 2020 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=285880 When fellow Star Wars Galaxies Legends player, YouTuber, and friend of MOP Napyet asked me to join him for a podcast last week, I don’t think he quite realized I was going to talk his ear off for almost three hours, but that’s exactly what happened. Fortunately, Nap’s got editing skills: The final version of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/06/08/star-wars-galaxies-fans-debate-legends-pvp-the-economy-and-more-on-community-podcast/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/13/working-as-intended-the-big-list-of-city-of-heroes-rogue-servers-2020-edition/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/13/working-as-intended-the-big-list-of-city-of-heroes-rogue-servers-2020-edition/#comments Wed, 13 May 2020 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=281706 It’s been a weird and wonderful year for City of Heroes fans. In April of 2019, the expose of a secret City of Heroes private server blew up, prompting the player developer to hand over the code – itself a gift from an elusive former Paragon Studios dev – to the entire community. It’s been […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/13/working-as-intended-the-big-list-of-city-of-heroes-rogue-servers-2020-edition/feed/ 10 https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/07/working-as-intended-sparking-joy-in-mmos/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/07/working-as-intended-sparking-joy-in-mmos/#comments Thu, 07 May 2020 16:00:49 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=281328 On this week’s podcast, I mentioned that I’d just finished off Marie Kondo’s The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, something that superficially seems unrelated to MMOs but (as I’ll eventually get to, I promise) actually is, with a bit of tugging and stretching. Most everyone is now familiar with Kondo and her “KonMari” method of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/05/07/working-as-intended-sparking-joy-in-mmos/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2020/03/19/working-as-intended-deep-diving-star-wars-galaxies-endgame-crafting/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/03/19/working-as-intended-deep-diving-star-wars-galaxies-endgame-crafting/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2020 15:00:48 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=273601 When I leaped back into Star Wars Galaxies via the SWG Legends rogue server mid-2018, I didn’t really truly think I’d stay all that long, since the earlier, more classic SWG Emu hadn’t held my attention consistently. But I was wrong. Legends has since become my MMO home as its original version once was, and […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/03/19/working-as-intended-deep-diving-star-wars-galaxies-endgame-crafting/feed/ 30 https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/10/massively-ops-2019-awards-recap/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/10/massively-ops-2019-awards-recap/#comments Fri, 10 Jan 2020 16:00:23 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=258257 As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2018, today I’m going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2019. We gave out 19 formal awards this past year, plus our separate MMO music awards, all in addition to dozens of other recaps, roundups, listicles, predictions, bloopers, oddities, polls, provocations, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/10/massively-ops-2019-awards-recap/feed/ 8 https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/03/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2019/ https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/03/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2019/#comments Fri, 03 Jan 2020 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=254951 The good news is that our sunsetted MMO list from 2019 is shorter than in most years. The bad news, of course, is that it’s not empty. The worst news is that several of the games that departed were fairly highly regarded. Most notably, Gamigo shuttered Atlas Reactor, Neowiz put Bless Online’s last version out […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2020/01/03/working-as-intended-the-mmos-we-lost-in-2019/feed/ 1 https://massivelyop.com/2019/10/10/guild-wars-2-studio-arenanet-chased-the-2016-gaile-gray-account-hacker-all-the-way-to-germany-and-lost/ https://massivelyop.com/2019/10/10/guild-wars-2-studio-arenanet-chased-the-2016-gaile-gray-account-hacker-all-the-way-to-germany-and-lost/#comments Thu, 10 Oct 2019 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=245847 Back in 2016, MassivelyOP covered an odd story about the Guild Wars franchise and a hack that seemingly involved the account of then-ArenaNet employee Gaile Gray. As we reported at the time, someone had accessed and logged into Gray’s Guild Wars account and trashed it rather publicly, which prompted a statement from Mike O’Brien that […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2019/10/10/guild-wars-2-studio-arenanet-chased-the-2016-gaile-gray-account-hacker-all-the-way-to-germany-and-lost/feed/ 69 https://massivelyop.com/2019/09/10/working-as-intended-what-it-means-to-be-an-mmorpg/ https://massivelyop.com/2019/09/10/working-as-intended-what-it-means-to-be-an-mmorpg/#comments Tue, 10 Sep 2019 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=243034 I am amused and somewhat bewildered to admit that I have my very own pet troll. He follows me around on Reddit to hassle me, and from time to time he rolls a new account here on MassivelyOP, all to inform me that I, personally, am stupid and do not know what an MMORPG is. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2019/09/10/working-as-intended-what-it-means-to-be-an-mmorpg/feed/ 78 https://massivelyop.com/2019/08/06/working-as-intended-were-all-full-up-on-moral-panics-right-now-but-thanks/ https://massivelyop.com/2019/08/06/working-as-intended-were-all-full-up-on-moral-panics-right-now-but-thanks/#comments Tue, 06 Aug 2019 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=237335 It’s no great secret that MMORPG fans fall toward the middle of the age spectrum, given the history and peak of our genre. This means that most of our readers, the people who care the most about these virtual world games we call home, have long seen video games scapegoated by both the technologically ignorant […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2019/08/06/working-as-intended-were-all-full-up-on-moral-panics-right-now-but-thanks/feed/ 69 https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/09/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2018/ https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/09/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2018/#comments Wed, 09 Jan 2019 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=196928 While we lost several painful MMOs in 2016 and 2015, 2017 was noticeable chiefly because we lost a large number of small MMOs, perhaps signalling a shift in the market. In 2018, it was been another mixed bag, with the biggest MMORPG to call it quits being WildStar, which I think most of us would agree got […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/09/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2018/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/04/massively-ops-2018-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/ https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/04/massively-ops-2018-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/#comments Fri, 04 Jan 2019 16:00:57 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=201959 As we did in 2014, 2015, 2016, and 2017 – it’s becoming a real tradition here! – today I’m going to recap our annual awards and other meta articles from the end of 2018. We gave out 19 formal awards this past year, all in addition to dozens of other recaps, roundups, listicles, predictions, bloopers, oddities, polls, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2019/01/04/massively-ops-2018-awards-debrief-and-annual-recap/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2018/11/01/working-as-intended-the-gamification-of-the-workification-of-games/ https://massivelyop.com/2018/11/01/working-as-intended-the-gamification-of-the-workification-of-games/#comments Thu, 01 Nov 2018 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=191492 Last weekend, my husband made the bold choice to let our young son play The Stanley Parable. I am not entirely sure the kid can articulate the subtext, but he’s definitely understanding bit by bit. For example, when he got to the infamous “baby game” – where the player is told to press a button […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2018/11/01/working-as-intended-the-gamification-of-the-workification-of-games/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2018/08/28/working-as-intended-returning-to-star-wars-galaxies-in-2018/ https://massivelyop.com/2018/08/28/working-as-intended-returning-to-star-wars-galaxies-in-2018/#comments Tue, 28 Aug 2018 16:00:54 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=181975 If you’ve followed the Massively OP Podcast this summer or read any of my ramblings in Daily Grinds and WRUPs, you probably know that I fell into a nostalgia trap, the best kind of nostalgia trap because it’s not really nostalgia at all. In fact, it was one of you lovely readers who suggested during […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2018/08/28/working-as-intended-returning-to-star-wars-galaxies-in-2018/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2018/06/14/magic-through-serendipity-raph-koster-on-the-glorious-mess-that-was-ultima-online/ https://massivelyop.com/2018/06/14/magic-through-serendipity-raph-koster-on-the-glorious-mess-that-was-ultima-online/#comments Thu, 14 Jun 2018 16:00:45 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=170983 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 my takeaway from reading through the Ultima Online chunk of Raph Koster’s new book, Postmortems. Koster, as any dedicated MMORPG fan will recall, went by “Designer Dragon” back then as […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2018/06/14/magic-through-serendipity-raph-koster-on-the-glorious-mess-that-was-ultima-online/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2018/01/03/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2017/ https://massivelyop.com/2018/01/03/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2017/#comments Wed, 03 Jan 2018 16:00:00 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=147494 It’s true that we lost a lot of MMOs in 2016 — bigger and more important ones than in 2014 and 2015. 2017, however, has been a different sort of beast. The list is long, and while it’s painful for those whose games are gone, the genre didn’t lose many major MMOs this past year. And […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2018/01/03/the-mmos-we-lost-in-2017/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2017/11/08/working-as-intended-guild-wars-2s-new-mount-licenses-are-still-lockboxes-but-theyre-not-the-worst-lockboxes/ https://massivelyop.com/2017/11/08/working-as-intended-guild-wars-2s-new-mount-licenses-are-still-lockboxes-but-theyre-not-the-worst-lockboxes/#comments Wed, 08 Nov 2017 19:00:00 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=140027 Pretty much everyone assumed that back when Guild Wars 2 planned out mounts, it did so with its cash shop in mind. The game is already not-so-jokingly known as “Fashion Wars,” so it’s got a playerbase primed and ready to splash out for sparkly mounts, especially cosmetic upgrades to what is very likely the best […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2017/11/08/working-as-intended-guild-wars-2s-new-mount-licenses-are-still-lockboxes-but-theyre-not-the-worst-lockboxes/feed/ 85 https://massivelyop.com/2017/09/29/working-as-intended-the-best-and-worst-of-guild-wars-2-path-of-fire-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2017/09/29/working-as-intended-the-best-and-worst-of-guild-wars-2-path-of-fire-so-far/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2017 16:00:17 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=133311 I’ve spent a chunk of the last week moving through the first part of Guild Wars 2’s Path of Fire, finishing up the Crystal Oasis zone into which a character is deposited right off the airship. Obviously, it’s far too early to give a formal stamp of approval until I’m fully through it, but so […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2017/09/29/working-as-intended-the-best-and-worst-of-guild-wars-2-path-of-fire-so-far/feed/ 56 https://massivelyop.com/2017/05/01/working-as-intended-why-classic-guild-wars-matters-12-years-in/ https://massivelyop.com/2017/05/01/working-as-intended-why-classic-guild-wars-matters-12-years-in/#comments Mon, 01 May 2017 16:00:52 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=109674 The spring season always sees a deluge of MMORPG birthday celebrations: Lord of the Rings Online, City of Heroes, Allods Online, Free Realms last week and TERA and EVE Online this week. Lost in the din, however, is Guild Wars — classic Guild Wars, ArenaNet’s original MMO, which released in 2005 against World of Warcraft, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2017/05/01/working-as-intended-why-classic-guild-wars-matters-12-years-in/feed/ 45 https://massivelyop.com/2017/03/22/heres-why-everyones-pissed-off-about-city-of-heroes-npcs-in-ncsofts-moba/ https://massivelyop.com/2017/03/22/heres-why-everyones-pissed-off-about-city-of-heroes-npcs-in-ncsofts-moba/#comments Wed, 22 Mar 2017 15:00:46 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=103840 Yesterday, NCsoft took the lid off a secret it’s clearly been working on for a while: The company means to introduce a notorious and well-known City of Heroes NPC as one of the characters in its upcoming MOBA, Master x Master. Here’s the thing. Master x Master is actually pretty well-liked around here. The writers we’ve […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2017/03/22/heres-why-everyones-pissed-off-about-city-of-heroes-npcs-in-ncsofts-moba/feed/ 275 https://massivelyop.com/2017/02/06/working-as-intended-elder-scrolls-housing-through-the-ages/ https://massivelyop.com/2017/02/06/working-as-intended-elder-scrolls-housing-through-the-ages/#comments Mon, 06 Feb 2017 17:00:20 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=97290 Massively OP explores Elder Scrolls housing through the ages -- starting with Daggerfall, running through Morrowind, Oblivion, and Skyrim, and ending with Elder Scrolls Online's Homestead patch, live today.]]> https://massivelyop.com/2017/02/06/working-as-intended-elder-scrolls-housing-through-the-ages/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2016/11/11/working-as-intended-westworld-is-a-sandbox-mmorpg-on-your-tv/ Fri, 11 Nov 2016 17:00:01 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=84985 Westworld has emerged this fall as the geek obsession TV show, a gunslinger’s LOST about which people can’t stop talking and theorizing and debating. Don’t worry; Massively OP is not suddenly becoming an entertainment website, but I hope you’ll indulge me for a round of Westworld in this edition of Working As Intended because in every episode of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2016/10/14/working-as-intended-a-tour-of-19-year-old-ultima-online/ Fri, 14 Oct 2016 16:00:38 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=80292 Wanna feel old? Three years ago, I wrote a Second Wind piece for Massively-that-was on Ultima Online, which had recently been turned over to Broadsword and was celebrating its 16th birthday. “The ‘old things suck’ snobs can scoff all they want,” I concluded, “but feature for feature, UO surpasses far too many modern games to be […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2016/04/13/working-as-intended-busting-up-the-nostalgia-party/ https://massivelyop.com/2016/04/13/working-as-intended-busting-up-the-nostalgia-party/#comments Wed, 13 Apr 2016 16:00:00 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=55092 Last week, a clever Massively OP commenter, SC_Deadline, neatly summed up the ongoing Nostalrius emulator shutdown as Blizzard “bust[ing] up someone’s nostalgia party,” which stuck with me all weekend as I mulled over how to approach this piece. I sympathize with emulator players, of course; I’ve been tooling around on emulators since the earliest days […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2016/04/13/working-as-intended-busting-up-the-nostalgia-party/feed/ 156 https://massivelyop.com/2016/03/14/working-as-intended-the-fate-of-the-mmorpg-genre/ https://massivelyop.com/2016/03/14/working-as-intended-the-fate-of-the-mmorpg-genre/#comments Mon, 14 Mar 2016 14:00:54 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=51243 I don’t think I’m exaggerating to say that this past weekend was a strange one in the MMORPG community, when gamers across the wide expanse of MMO worlds came together to collectively mourn, fear, rage, and regroup after a day that shook the foundation of the genre. Daybreak, itself one of the founding studios of MMORPGs, finally […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2016/03/14/working-as-intended-the-fate-of-the-mmorpg-genre/feed/ 431 https://massivelyop.com/2016/01/20/working-as-intended-what-star-wars-galaxies-got-wrong/ https://massivelyop.com/2016/01/20/working-as-intended-what-star-wars-galaxies-got-wrong/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2016 17:00:53 +0000 http://massivelyop.com/?p=42309 If you’ve listened to Massively’s staff and readers talk about Star Wars Galaxies a little bit, you might come away with the impression that the now-sunsetted, pre-WoW Star Wars sandbox was perfection in every way — that classic SWG was all fun, all the time, with no bugs and no problems, and that all MMORPGs should aspire […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2016/01/20/working-as-intended-what-star-wars-galaxies-got-wrong/feed/ 113