https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Mon, 10 Apr 2023 15:48:50 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=434658 “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. Promise.” I’ve been saying a lot of this over the past few weeks as time and time again, I’ve been logging into WoW Classic to play the community’s highly addictive hardcore […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432214 While I don’t have any hard data on the subject, just observing the World of Warcraft Classic scene (and ABK’s financials) over the past couple years leads me to the conclusion that this massive phenomenon from 2019 to 2021 has started to slow. Enthusiasm is down, engagement seems to be following the law of diminishing […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/feed/ 24 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 17 Mar 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=431213 As I implied in a recent post about the most recent Ion Hazzikostas interview, the line about making sure that there was a narrative justification for adding “missing” class/race combinations in World of Warcraft irked me. Part of this is because it’s not like we had some important narrative justification for making Gnomes able to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/#comments Fri, 10 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=430207 So at this point, we actually have a remarkably clear picture of what’s going to be in the first major content patch for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Well… it’s actually being pushed as the third patch, and it is the third patch this year, but we’re probably not getting this until May, which is a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/#comments Thu, 02 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=429078 In November 1994, Marvel Comics launched a new comic book spin-off from the main X-Men series. Generation X, written by Scott Lobdell, was in many ways a return to a more foundational point in the franchise, with the team being a group of students under teachers Sean Cassidy and Emma Frost learning to use their […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/feed/ 49 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=428156 So how many classes are there in World of Warcraft? There are wrong answers, but there’s more than one right answer. If your answer was “13,” you are right. There were nine base classes when the game launched in 2004, and in the intervening 19 years we have received… four more. That’s an average of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/feed/ 57 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426204 On one level, the most interesting thing that came out of the most recent earnings call for Activision-Blizzard was how much stuff the company stayed silent about. It’s perhaps not surprising when you consider that by the report’s own admission the studios are happy to keep things kind of low-key while hoping that the Microsoft […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 40 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=424985 On Monday, I talked with MOP’s Bree about the idea of doing a piece this week about how World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was doing after two months of release. It’s ahead of the first post-Dragonflight financial release, but it seems like a useful thing to consider when we’ve gotten the first significant patch and have […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=423975 Talking about this company is always so exhausting, but let’s do a quick recap: Brian Birmingham was, up until recently, one of the top software engineers at Blizzard working on the classic version of World of Warcraft as its technical lead. He was pretty well liked, which means somehow people had apparently forgotten his responses to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/feed/ 29 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=421315 For a long time, World of Warcraft has suffered in the crafting department. Basically every single expansion for the game has promised overhauls and restorations of crafting to a position of utility and prominence, and none of them has gone over (with crafters) well. And you can tell with Dragonflight that the designers sat down […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/feed/ 57 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=420586 Hey gang, who wants to go explore new zones in Dragonflight? Does that sound exciting to you? That’s great, and for the past several expansions World of Warcraft has made a tradition of adding new zones for players to explore mid-expansion, so it makes perfect sense. But before we go, you’re going to have to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=419962 So, last week there was a bit of unusual timing. I had finished my column about World of Warcraft’s Trading Post, and on the same day we got the announcement that Chris Metzen would be returning to Blizzard after all as a “Creative Advisor” for the Warcraft team. This was, of course, a surprise, but […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 27 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=419062 I could, in theory, spend today’s WoW Factor talking about the launch of the first endgame season in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, but quite frankly there’s nothing interesting there to talk about. Primal Storms are back, which are still kind of underwhelming but at least offer a path to some gear, especially if you’re willing […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=418238 So now that first impressions are out of the way and I can focus on other things like making sure that my alts get up to Dragonflight in World of Warcraft, I realized something unusual. It was a very minor thing at first, but as I started doing a bit more planning it became clearer […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/feed/ 25 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=416398 For most of 2022, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was so far down my list of “most anticipated releases” as to be falling off the page entirely. I figured there’d be the usual undertow of hype that’d pull at me, but the focus on (sigh) dragons and the lack of a “must have” feature kept my […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/feed/ 18 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/03/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-three-combat-content-concerns/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/03/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-three-combat-content-concerns/#comments Sat, 03 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=417213 Eventually, you are going to have to fight something in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Of course, by “eventually” I actually mean “more or less immediately” because this is WoW and someone heard MC Chris ranting about Kingdom Hearts 2 ages ago and has never ever forgotten it. Why are you going into the menu to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/03/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-three-combat-content-concerns/feed/ 44 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/02/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-two-dragonriding-and-dragging-crafting/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/02/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-two-dragonriding-and-dragging-crafting/#comments Fri, 02 Dec 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=417002 As is always the case with these World of Warcraft impressions, there was no way to stop with just part one. There’s other stuff to talk about, after all. And the first other thing to talk about is one of the big features on the back of the box: dragonriding. Well, at least it would […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/02/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-part-two-dragonriding-and-dragging-crafting/feed/ 29 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/01/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-direction-and-narrative/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/01/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-direction-and-narrative/#comments Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=416837 While it’s not really what will serve as a foundational component of my evaluation of World of Warcraft: Dragonflight as a whole, I think the clearest impression of the expansion’s overall narrative and focus comes from a small sidequest at the Ruby Life Pools. And it’s a moment a lot of people are probably going […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/01/first-impressions-of-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-direction-and-narrative/feed/ 24 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/25/wow-factor-what-works-and-what-doesnt-about-dragonflights-primalists-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/25/wow-factor-what-works-and-what-doesnt-about-dragonflights-primalists-so-far/#comments Fri, 25 Nov 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=415871 The whole plot with the Primalists in World of Warcraft could turn out to be a very interesting overall course… or it could turn out to just be rehashing one of the endlessly repeated things that this game seems to be unable to get over. I’m hoping for the former but worried about the latter. […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/25/wow-factor-what-works-and-what-doesnt-about-dragonflights-primalists-so-far/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/18/wow-factor-first-impressions-of-the-dracthyr-evoker/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/18/wow-factor-first-impressions-of-the-dracthyr-evoker/#comments Fri, 18 Nov 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=414752 With the second part of the Dragonflight pre-patch live, I have now been granted an ability I did not particularly want in World of Warcraft: the ability to create and play a Dracthyr Evoker. My reasons for not particularly wanting this have, of course, already been put front-and-center before, but the central problems have not […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/18/wow-factor-first-impressions-of-the-dracthyr-evoker/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/17/wow-factor-so-blizzard-just-lost-china/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/17/wow-factor-so-blizzard-just-lost-china/#comments Thu, 17 Nov 2022 17:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=414929 Sometimes it’s not fun to work in this particular industry. Not in the sense that it’s horrible, but in the sense that you’ve written a column, you’re all set, and you aren’t worried about it… and then late at night Blizzard and NetEase sever ties, and you realize that you now have to scrap your […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/17/wow-factor-so-blizzard-just-lost-china/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/wow-factor-welcome-the-desert-of-the-real-blizzard/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/wow-factor-welcome-the-desert-of-the-real-blizzard/#comments Fri, 11 Nov 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=413868 This entire column came about because our team was discussing World of Warcraft at work and I observed something kind of odd: The Dracthyr just don’t look cool. Obviously, everyone’s going to have different thresholds for what is and is not cool, but to me, it seems like the Dracthyr have somehow assiduously evaded everything […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/11/wow-factor-welcome-the-desert-of-the-real-blizzard/feed/ 50 https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/04/wow-factor-lemon-gummi-bears/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/04/wow-factor-lemon-gummi-bears/#comments Fri, 04 Nov 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=412976 We are, at the time of this writing, less than a week out from the second part of the Dragonflight pre-patch for World of Warcraft. And if you were considering going back to the game despite everything for reasons that do not involve professional obligations, the big and much-ballyhooed set of interviews with Preach and […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/11/04/wow-factor-lemon-gummi-bears/feed/ 30 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/wow-factor-the-dragonflight-pre-patch-talent-trees-fix-a-lot-of-problems-in-wow/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/wow-factor-the-dragonflight-pre-patch-talent-trees-fix-a-lot-of-problems-in-wow/#comments Fri, 28 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=411891 If you don’t want to read an entire column in which I talk about the new talent trees in World of Warcraft… good gosh, why are you here? Why do you read the title and maybe the first two lines and then comment? Seriously, reading comprehension can be difficult, but it’s not that difficult. But […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/28/wow-factor-the-dragonflight-pre-patch-talent-trees-fix-a-lot-of-problems-in-wow/feed/ 12 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/21/wow-factor-thoughts-on-the-two-pronged-pre-patch-rollout-for-dragonflight/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/21/wow-factor-thoughts-on-the-two-pronged-pre-patch-rollout-for-dragonflight/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=410773 So we now know exactly how World of Warcraft is going to handle the Dragonflight pre-patch. We’ll be getting the initial launch of systems but not Evokers or the special events on October 25th, with the actual events and the new class being brought in a little bit later. This is a rather different approach […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/21/wow-factor-thoughts-on-the-two-pronged-pre-patch-rollout-for-dragonflight/feed/ 11 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/14/wow-factor-was-the-faction-split-ever-good-for-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/14/wow-factor-was-the-faction-split-ever-good-for-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 14 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=409727 Before I had played World of Warcraft and back in the time when I allowed myself to speculate more freely on what games would be like rather than just actually researching them, I had an image of the interesting situation the game would likely put me and one of my friends in. I knew he […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/14/wow-factor-was-the-faction-split-ever-good-for-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 69 https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/07/wow-factor-is-dragonflight-the-last-chance-for-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/07/wow-factor-is-dragonflight-the-last-chance-for-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 07 Oct 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=408566 Human beings love narratives. We love stories too, but narratives are like the arch version of that. You don’t need an elaborate story about how Thag had trouble finding food but then found a big dumb mammoth he could easily kill to feel satisfied and go, “Hey, good for Thag.” We want life to arrange […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/10/07/wow-factor-is-dragonflight-the-last-chance-for-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 27 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/wow-factor-updating-our-world-of-warcraft-expansion-data-set-with-the-dragonflight-release-date/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/wow-factor-updating-our-world-of-warcraft-expansion-data-set-with-the-dragonflight-release-date/#comments Fri, 30 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=407564 Aw yeah, who likes math? I like math. I really like math, and you all know it, and you have to consistently sit there and read as I math things out with World of Warcraft expansion release data. This stuff is useful to keep track of! And since we literally just got a release date […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/30/wow-factor-updating-our-world-of-warcraft-expansion-data-set-with-the-dragonflight-release-date/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/23/wow-factor-just-be-honest-about-what-wow-classic-is-now/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/23/wow-factor-just-be-honest-about-what-wow-classic-is-now/#comments Fri, 23 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=406600 So here’s something funny to consider: No matter what happens, Blizzard has collectively backed itself into a corner with World of Warcraft expansions over on WoW Classic. Not in the sense that it has no path forward, and not in the sense that I honestly expect anyone in power is going to have a hard […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/23/wow-factor-just-be-honest-about-what-wow-classic-is-now/feed/ 65 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/16/wow-factor-how-much-does-world-of-warcraft-matter-to-blizzard/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/16/wow-factor-how-much-does-world-of-warcraft-matter-to-blizzard/#comments Fri, 16 Sep 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=405669 My initial plan this week was to write about whether or not World of Warcraft was successfully creating an echo chamber in which everyone still invested in the game was basically complicit in parroting bad arguments about how the game’s content should be developed. This is still a true statement, and I think it’s the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/16/wow-factor-how-much-does-world-of-warcraft-matter-to-blizzard/feed/ 27 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/09/wow-factor-what-makes-world-of-warcraft-in-particular-appealing/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/09/wow-factor-what-makes-world-of-warcraft-in-particular-appealing/#comments Fri, 09 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=404556 I’ve been covering MMOs professionally for about 13 years now. That’s a long while. And it’s kind of strange to me that I’ve been doing so basically covering World of Warcraft’s long slide from grace. Consider this: While I have noted that the game’s batting average of expansions over the entirety of its life cycle […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/09/wow-factor-what-makes-world-of-warcraft-in-particular-appealing/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/02/wow-factor-when-your-mmo-design-is-hooked-on-a-feeling/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/02/wow-factor-when-your-mmo-design-is-hooked-on-a-feeling/#comments Fri, 02 Sep 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=403646 To start this off, I want you to summon up a feeling. I want you think back to the first time you can remember getting a gift from someone that you really wanted. Picture that moment when you remember unwrapping the gift and holding it in your hands, the best and most shining moment of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/09/02/wow-factor-when-your-mmo-design-is-hooked-on-a-feeling/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/26/wow-factor-why-trying-to-draw-back-former-mmo-raiders-doesnt-work/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/26/wow-factor-why-trying-to-draw-back-former-mmo-raiders-doesnt-work/#comments Fri, 26 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=402635 World of Warcraft has gone harder on its raiding focus in recent years in a lot of ways, starting with Warlords of Draenor and moving on from there. It’s pretty clear that the game’s designers consider LFR a chore that they are obligated to continue updating rather than something they actually want to support (witness […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/26/wow-factor-why-trying-to-draw-back-former-mmo-raiders-doesnt-work/feed/ 63 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/19/wow-factor-optimal-choices-in-talent-trees-dont-justify-removing-them/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/19/wow-factor-optimal-choices-in-talent-trees-dont-justify-removing-them/#comments Fri, 19 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=401600 So there’s this funny persistent thing that goes around when it comes to talent trees in World of Warcraft. A certain coalition of players gets very passionate about defending them, wanting them back, and so forth, and they’re very happy that they’re coming back in Dragonflight. You have probably long since ascertained that I fall […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/19/wow-factor-optimal-choices-in-talent-trees-dont-justify-removing-them/feed/ 48 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/12/wow-factor-the-problem-with-borrowed-power-was-never-new-systems/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/12/wow-factor-the-problem-with-borrowed-power-was-never-new-systems/#comments Fri, 12 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=400557 There’s a bit of cognitive disconnect that I notice is still tripping up some particular fans of World of Warcraft even at this point. Let’s put it succinctly: Most people were pretty happy with Artifact Weapons in Legion for various reasons, yet those were in fact the definition of the borrowed power systems that most […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/12/wow-factor-the-problem-with-borrowed-power-was-never-new-systems/feed/ 26 https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/05/wow-factor-dragonflight-wrath-classic-and-trying-to-stop-the-bleeding/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/05/wow-factor-dragonflight-wrath-classic-and-trying-to-stop-the-bleeding/#comments Fri, 05 Aug 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=399611 So if you somehow missed it, Activision-Blizzard posted its most recent earnings report this week. It was not good for the company as a whole, and it was definitely not a good look for Blizzard, which saw a QoQ revenue drop and only barely managed to gain more users thanks in no small part to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/08/05/wow-factor-dragonflight-wrath-classic-and-trying-to-stop-the-bleeding/feed/ 39 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/wow-factor-how-blizzard-squandered-the-potential-and-desire-for-wow-classic/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/wow-factor-how-blizzard-squandered-the-potential-and-desire-for-wow-classic/#comments Fri, 29 Jul 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=398579 With the upcoming release of Wrath of the Lich King Classic, I think it’s now completely fair to say that World of Warcraft took the idea of WoW Classic and completely failed to capitalize on it. Front to back. No, this is not going to be a column laughing about the still-idiotic decision to torch […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/29/wow-factor-how-blizzard-squandered-the-potential-and-desire-for-wow-classic/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/wow-factor-so-whats-the-actual-prediction-on-dragonflights-quality/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/wow-factor-so-whats-the-actual-prediction-on-dragonflights-quality/#comments Fri, 22 Jul 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=397662 I was briefly considering doing another math column now that we actually have a date when World of Warcraft: Dragonflight started alpha testing, but… well, let’s be real, that would be kind of redundant. My first column about math wasn’t all that long ago, and while the very next day did not in fact see […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/22/wow-factor-so-whats-the-actual-prediction-on-dragonflights-quality/feed/ 79 https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/15/wow-factor-dragonflights-talent-trees-dont-feel-like-a-speedrun-slam-dunk/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/15/wow-factor-dragonflights-talent-trees-dont-feel-like-a-speedrun-slam-dunk/#comments Fri, 15 Jul 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=396400 So we’ve seen some of the talent trees being unveiled for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight at this point. Five of the 12 extant classes have gotten previews, not counting the fact that the final count is going to be 13 different classes because of Evokers. That’s not the greatest speed at this point as we […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/07/15/wow-factor-dragonflights-talent-trees-dont-feel-like-a-speedrun-slam-dunk/feed/ 23 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/30/wow-factor-looking-at-dragonflights-release-schedule-with-math/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/30/wow-factor-looking-at-dragonflights-release-schedule-with-math/#comments Thu, 30 Jun 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=394320 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 having math-centric columns when it comes to expansion release dates and what-not, but I didn’t actually do one when Dragonflight was first announced because… well, because World of Warcraft had given […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/30/wow-factor-looking-at-dragonflights-release-schedule-with-math/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/24/wow-factor-all-right-so-were-going-to-speedrun-to-dragonflight-after-all/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/24/wow-factor-all-right-so-were-going-to-speedrun-to-dragonflight-after-all/#comments Fri, 24 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=393565 Well all right, then. This was unexpected. I honestly did not expect that Blizzard’s need for content would overwhelm basic needs of testing and maintenance, but it turns out that the company is at least now stating the expansion is totally going to come out this year and World of Warcraft will not have an […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/24/wow-factor-all-right-so-were-going-to-speedrun-to-dragonflight-after-all/feed/ 29 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/wow-factor-how-greater-scope-villains-harm-world-of-warcrafts-storytelling/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/wow-factor-how-greater-scope-villains-harm-world-of-warcrafts-storytelling/#comments Fri, 17 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=392543 Sargeras was really trying to stop the Void Lords. The Jailer was really fighting against some anonymous bigger enemy. Sylvanas was really trying to help the Jailer because she thought that a dude called “The Jailer” is actually a good guy for some reason. The list goes on and on and some days I honestly […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/17/wow-factor-how-greater-scope-villains-harm-world-of-warcrafts-storytelling/feed/ 19 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/10/wow-factor-the-shrinking-landmass-of-world-of-warcrafts-azeroth/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/10/wow-factor-the-shrinking-landmass-of-world-of-warcrafts-azeroth/#comments Fri, 10 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=391628 Last week in this column, I told y’all a bit of a bluff. Well, all right, that’s not true. Last week’s column was about what the point of Shadowlands ultimately was when it comes to World of Warcraft, and I stand by it as a breakdown of what clearly was the intention from a narrative […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/10/wow-factor-the-shrinking-landmass-of-world-of-warcrafts-azeroth/feed/ 17 https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/03/wow-factor-what-was-the-point-of-shadowlands/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/03/wow-factor-what-was-the-point-of-shadowlands/#comments Fri, 03 Jun 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=390737 Do I have another column or two in me about World of Warcraft: Dragonflight? I mean, probably, even though we clearly have a long, long man time until the expansion actually comes out. But with patch 9.2.5 having been released and the door thus being pretty definitively closed on Shadowlands as a whole, my brain […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/06/03/wow-factor-what-was-the-point-of-shadowlands/feed/ 41 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/27/wow-factor-so-lets-talk-about-world-of-warcrafts-evoker/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/27/wow-factor-so-lets-talk-about-world-of-warcrafts-evoker/#comments Fri, 27 May 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=389842 I should have more of an opinion about Evokers than I actually do. Maybe that’s an overreaction at this point; the newest hero class being added to World of Warcraft has not yet been presented to players in anything approaching a playable form, and so my experience of it is chiefly governed by what’s available […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/27/wow-factor-so-lets-talk-about-world-of-warcrafts-evoker/feed/ 25 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/12/wow-factor-excitement-and-trepidation-about-world-of-warcraft-bringing-back-talent-trees/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/12/wow-factor-excitement-and-trepidation-about-world-of-warcraft-bringing-back-talent-trees/#comments Thu, 12 May 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=387557 So you probably don’t need me to tell you at this point that I’m looking forward to having talent trees back in World of Warcraft, if for no other reason than the simple fact that I’ve been saying that for ages and thus it isn’t a particular surprise. I’ve been agitating for a return to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/12/wow-factor-excitement-and-trepidation-about-world-of-warcraft-bringing-back-talent-trees/feed/ 34 https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/05/wow-factor-is-dragon-riding-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-borrowed-power/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/05/wow-factor-is-dragon-riding-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-borrowed-power/#comments Thu, 05 May 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=384932 So there’s a whole lot of stuff to talk about right now when it comes to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight; that’s not under debate. Heck, I have about four or five topics that all sprang to mind just from the initial presentation alone, and then there was another topic based off of a particular interview […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/05/05/wow-factor-is-dragon-riding-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-borrowed-power/feed/ 26 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/28/wow-factor-blizzards-excuse-for-not-adding-housing-to-wow-convinces-no-one/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/28/wow-factor-blizzards-excuse-for-not-adding-housing-to-wow-convinces-no-one/#comments Thu, 28 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=385414 One of the things I noted in my initial reactions to the World of Warcraft: Dragonflight announcement was that I had not expected to get an announcement of player housing, and of course we didn’t get it. To me, this just seemed like something obvious. Blizzard was not going to do that much of a philosophical […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/28/wow-factor-blizzards-excuse-for-not-adding-housing-to-wow-convinces-no-one/feed/ 113 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/21/wow-factor-good-job-torching-wrath-of-the-lich-king-classic-my-dudes/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/21/wow-factor-good-job-torching-wrath-of-the-lich-king-classic-my-dudes/#comments Thu, 21 Apr 2022 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=384696 All right, this is… actually just hilarious to me. Like, seriously, I caught this particular detail after I’d already finished writing my initial reaction to World of Warcraft’s next expansion, and then as soon as I did I realized I was going to have to write an entirely new column about this. This is because […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/21/wow-factor-good-job-torching-wrath-of-the-lich-king-classic-my-dudes/feed/ 396 https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/20/wow-factor-initial-thoughts-on-the-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-reveal/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/20/wow-factor-initial-thoughts-on-the-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-reveal/#comments Wed, 20 Apr 2022 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=384338 First things first, I want to clarify something: This is being dubbed an early response to World of Warcraft: Dragonflight because… well, it’s a new expansion. We’re going to be talking about it a lot until the next year when it probably gets released (the total lack of a release date, combined with Wrath of the Lich King […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/04/20/wow-factor-initial-thoughts-on-the-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight-reveal/feed/ 41