Uncle giuseppes

Ever since the tone-deaf SOE proclamation that nobody wanted to play Uncle Owen in an MMORPG, contrary me has consciously fought that very stupid idea. A whole lot of people wanted to play Uncle Owen, then and now, there and elsewhere. Star Wars Galaxies was a game half full of Uncle Owens. I spent a lot of time literally becoming a moisture farmer as my own form of rebellion. And yet, as I realized while debating with my husband a few weeks ago, the person I really wanted to be was freakin’ Lando. And most MMORPGs don’t allow that either — it’s Luke or GTFO. Such is the argument made by a recent PC Gamer article, which in its own precious mainstream way argues that “MMOs need to let you be an average Joe” to get out of the clear “creative slump” they’re in. “With their scale and permanence, MMOs give us the chance to be citizens in a make-believe world we create with the help of our fellow players. When it’s … [Read more...] about Massively Overthinking: Being Uncle Owen in MMORPGs

Earlier this week, Redditor maxpower888 started an epic thread on the /r/mmorpg sub asking everyone to chime in and name his or her top five MMORPGs of all time. I thought it was a nifty thread to skim to see how many times the same games kept popping up (and the same games turned up in combination with each other). “You can tell how old people are by their lists,” one gamer objected, but I don’t think that’s necessarily true! So for this week’s Overthinking, we’re going to join in the fun, then explain our choices and puzzle out what those choices say about us — don’t forget to click the entries to expand them for explanations! You should do the same down in the comments! Andrew Ross (@dengarsw): Don’t forget to click each one for an explanation! #1: Asheron's CallI still think this is the game our genre needs to strive to return to, but in a modern way. Monthly updates with content. Developer lead but player controlled story … [Read more...] about Massively Overthinking: Our five favorite MMORPGs of all time

Time for another happy-go-lucky adventure in the sparkly rainbow fields of Bavaria or Barovia or Bermuda or whatever this is. Today’s exciting adventure will take place in and around THE BONEGRINDER, a windmill with not-at-all ominous connotations. Apparently two more kids went missing in this area, and one does start to wonder how any kids manage to reach adulthood in this country. When I first arrive, nobody is helping me, but there is a line queuing up for “dream pies” made by hags in disguise and… yeah, it’s totally cannibalism. The pies are people! People! Probably was a bit of a dead giveaway on the part of the developers that all of the peasants standing in line had weapons drawn, because I knew it was only a matter of time before they would be sent to attack me. Oh hey. It happened. Pew pew, I just slaughtered half a village of cannibals. Well, I’m going to sleep easy tonight. I kick down the door of the windmill and wade in, firing all … [Read more...] about DDO: The Old Bonegrinder

Divergence Online is the next up and coming hardcore indie sandbox, and you can go ahead and stop reading there if you are as tired of that sentence as I am. Maybe it is the four years of writing MMO Fallout that has made me jaded, but when I hear about an indie hardcore sandbox MMO, I no longer have the reaction of a child on Christmas morning. I have the reaction of his friend down the street who knows exactly what his day is going to involve: hand-me-down socks wrapped in a hand-me-down shirt, and Uncle Rob will get drunk and pass out on my bed so I’ll be sleeping on the floor again. I’ve learned a lot from throwing money at projects like Mortal Online, and the lesson is never invest in the guy who advertises his project as being great because it’s kind of like that Ultima Online game back before EA watered it down for the stupid masses. So Divergence Online came to my attention in the way that games in this genre usually do: The fans start being obnoxious, I get … [Read more...] about I Don’t Think Divergence Is A Serious Game

With Pokemon Go trying to avoid explicitly calling itself an MMO, Massively OP once again has room for a top contender in the realm of mobile MMOs. There’s just one problem: We’ve got mostly Western readers for a genre that seems to appeal much more to the East. I was given the opportunity to see top global mobile MMO Lineage 2 Revolution and up and coming dino-sandbox Durango at E3 2017. I can see the appeal of both games, but also some limitations. Let’s dig into both. Lost in translation After having lived in both the US and Japan for extended periods of time and participating heavily in both PC and mobile culture, I think it’s fair to say I know a bit about both gaming cultures. I know Western players are often confused by why mobile does so well abroad. There are two huge factors at play here: population density and public transportation. My Japanese colleagues sometimes joked that the only privacy they could get in their … [Read more...] about E3 2017: Hands-on with mobile MMOs Lineage 2 Revolution and Durango