I love video games. You probably do too or you wouldn’t be reading this (but hey, everyone is welcome). So what if I told you that your passion could make you rich? No, I’m not suggesting you enter the competitive streaming market, sell virtual gold, or start an e-sports career. What I’m suggesting is much … Read more
Honesty time: I have had enough of gear. The concept of continually acquiring new and better equipment lies at the heart of virtually all MMORPGs, but I’m just sick of it. It’s an easy way for developers to provide a carrot for players to chase, but I don’t think it’s healthy for the genre in … Read more
Let’s not mince words. MMO communities are in a bad way. Trolling, toxicity, extreme vulgarity, and cyber-bullying ran rampant, and there doesn’t seem to be any serious effort being made to curtail any of this. I doubt it would ever be possible to entirely eliminate toxicity in online gaming. Human nature is what it is, … Read more
A few weeks ago, we looked into ideas that Western MMORPGs would do well to borrow from their Eastern counterparts. Now, it seems only fair to do the reverse, for there are also areas where the East would do well to take some cues from us. To address an elephant in the room, a lot … Read more
I’m not a fan of the favoritism some people have when it comes to Eastern versus Western MMORPGs. Historically, I’ve spent more time in Western games, but I’m not going to write off a whole hemisphere because of it. Ultimately, I think both regions’ design philosophies have their pros and cons, and both could benefit … Read more
When World of Warcraft achieved a heretofore unknown level of success for an MMORPG, everyone and their monkey wanted a piece of the action. As a result, the MMO industry experienced a long stretch where nearly every big name release sought to copy most of the core mechanics of Blizzard’s juggernaut. “WoW clones,” they were … Read more
