Remembering Everquest: Next

Originally posted on The Errant Penman:
It’s a funny title to write. The game isn’t really officially dead, after all. Hell, I’m not even sure that it could ever really have been considered alive, but here we are, entering into 2016, and it seems that all hope has been truly abandoned. Most notable among those…

The Massive Identity Crisis

I often hear complaints about the ever expanding definition of an MMO, with sites like Massively using the term so loosely as to include basically any game with online multiplayer. Now I’m not overly concerned with what Massively chooses to call an MMO. From their perspective, the more they can cover, the better, and that…

Social Features and the Future of Landmark

Having finally gotten some experience with Landmark, I have to say I’m quite impressed with how much fun I’ve been having while playing it. I’m not even particularly interested in building games; in fact, this is my first foray into one. I’m one of the many MMO players who ventured into Landmark looking for a taste of Everquest: Next, only to be unwittingly tricked into enjoying myself along the way.

Taking Progression to the Next Level

Arguably the backbone of the Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing Game genre, paradigms for progression have seen a huge shift as the years have progressed. At the genre’s roots, leveling was an important part of progression, and reaching the level cap was an arduous and distant eventuality; Asheron’s Call, which was released in 1999, featured a logarithmic leveling system with a leveling process so lengthy it took the first player to achieve it several years to do so.