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The Soapbox: Red Dead Online is just not as fun as it should be
A few weeks ago, I detailed my newfound adventures in the single-player title Red Dead Redemption 2. More relevant to our interests here on MassivelyOP, when I purchased the game it came with an MMO...
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The Soapbox: Pet battles are one of the best things WoW ever did (which is...
Pokemon first burst onto the scene when I was in elementary school. I’ve always been lukewarm at best toward anime and “cute” things, so it never really interested me. My friends at the time, however,...
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Why WB Games should make a new Asheron’s Call game in 2021+: The lore
So we recently brought up how Asheron’s Call 2 died twice during the winter seasons, with the second one being a double funeral with the original AC. But WB Games still holds the trademark and...
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Why WB Games should make a new Asheron’s Call game in 2021+: The mechanics
Just based on lore alone, WB Games should make a new Asheron’s Call game. As I argued last time, AC has the qualities of an underutilized Marvel Comic IP but the modern fantasy sensibilities of Game of...
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The Soapbox: What I want to see in Riot’s League of Legends MMO
It’s finally happening, y’all! League of Legends is getting an MMO! And boy howdy am I excited. While I didn’t follow the game in its infancy, over the past three years I’ve slowly become a fan of the...
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The Soapbox: Would Asheron’s Call make a good battle royale game?
With the recent announcement of Crayta coming to PCs, I was reminded of some discussions on the Asheron’s Call subreddit about making a battle royale fan server. While I’ve always hoped fan would...
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The Soapbox: How Magic Legends went wrong with the Dimir Assassin class
Cryptic and Perfect World Entertainment are known for their love of lockboxes as a monetization strategy. Therefore it was not wholly surprising when Magic: Legends open beta launched with a whole...
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The Soapbox: Lies I was told about World of Warcraft
A few months back, I was feeling restless in my MMO routine. Guild Wars 2 is my MMO “home,” so I’m always in that one, but I like to have one or two other MMOs to play on the side. For a while, that...
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The Soapbox: If you want innovation in MMOs, stop worshiping polish
Gamers often lament that the world of MMORPGs lacks innovation. It’s a frustration I share; this a genre that could be much more than it is. But I fear that the source of the problem is misunderstood....
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The Soapbox: Reconsidering social media as an MMORPG
At GDC 2011, Raph Koster gave a talk in which he said, “Games are fundamentally social media and always have been.” You can watch starting at around 58:18 in the video from back then, and it’s...
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The Soapbox: MMO monetization that complements poor game design makes us all...
I have a problem: As much as I enjoy games, I can see that many online and multiplayer games are becoming designed more poorly in order to sell themselves as a service, and they’re getting better at...
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The Soapbox: Abusing MMO community reps over design decisions is not only...
Recently, an online video game community rep was run off Twitter by “fans.” The CM’s fellow game dev shared how upset she was that said employee friend had been harassed. It’s sadly not uncommon in our...
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The Soapbox: Pokemon Unite’s monetization is gross and threatens a competent...
By now, you’ve probably seen several articles about the poor monetization in Pokemon Unite, often based on Reddit posts or streamer hot takes. Most talk about pay-to-win play, though the better ones...
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The Soapbox: World of Warships’ aggressive monetization incited a mass-exodus...
Gaming monetization has been a topic of intense conversation ever since box copies of software diminished in favor of persistent online experiences. Subscription services entered the scene but...
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The Soapbox: #DayOffTwitch illustrates how good intentions break under bad...
Those of you reading this probably know me as someone who wears one of three hats here at MOP: a news writer, the Choose My Adventure columnist, and one of MOP’s streamers. It’s that third job that I...
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The Soapbox: Single-player open worlds will never equal those of MMORPGs
These days it seems like sprawling open worlds are becoming an ever more popular choice for single-player games, from the newer Assassin’s Creed titles to the upcoming Horizon Forbidden West. Despite...
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The Soapbox: SWTOR’s Legacy of the Sith is bad, but not for the reasons...
I’ve never been a big Star Wars fan, but I am a big BioWare fan, and after many failed attempts to get into the game, Star Wars: The Old Republic finally won me over after Knights of the Fallen Empire...
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From the Depths: Everything we know about Wargaming’s exit from Russia
Mixing gaming and politics is rough. Think back to the Blitzchung fiasco for Blizzard back in 2019. Or when Daybreak was (and then wasn’t) owned by Columbus Nova, which itself was owned (and then...
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The Soapbox: Are modern games more disposable than ever?
Atlas Rogues went out not with a bang but a whimper. I forgot it even existed. And after it closes July 5th, it’s gone. Of course there’s always hope that a dedicated fan will do the legwork to get...
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The Soapbox: Fallout 76 absolutely needs better social tools to thrive
Unpopular opinion time: I have to say that Fallout 76… is kind of a great game right now. I know that the launch and ensuing year(s) of disastrous responses on the part of Bethesda burned all sorts of...
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