Why MMO Cosmetics Matter

There’s a popular conception among the MMO cognoscenti that irrespective of circumstance, monetization involving cosmetics is never a problem. There isn’t a fundamental issue with that line of thinking – I would expect everyone could agree on a general tiering of monetization egregiousness with competitive pay-to-win as a capstone and a variety of other methodologies cascading into generally the same order with only a minor degree of variance – but the idea that this lesser evil can never be problematic isn’t one I can fully agree with.

What is Interdependence in MMOs?

It seems like anywhere you turn these days, you’ll find the creators of some up and coming MMO extolling the virtues of player interdependence in MMOs and how it’s making a comeback in their game. Titles like Crowfall, Saga of Lucimia, and Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen are touting the concept as something of a core design principle, promising that with it as a development objective, their game will usher in a return to the golden age of MMORPG communities.

What Makes an MMO Unappealing to you?

Hello and welcome to today’s edition of Isarii wrote a really long Reddit response and decided it would make a good blog post. Today’s post comes courtesy of the r/MMORPG subreddit where a user posed the titular question: what makes an MMO unappealing to you?

There are few things I enjoy more than complaining about MMOs, so I jumped right in.

MMO Monetization Gone Wild

Not this again! I know, I know – there’s nothing the MMO blogosphere likes to talk about more than MMO monetization, and while a lot has been said on the topic, I think there’s still value in adding to the cacophony of public opinion. MMO Monetization used to be so simple. At first we had subscription…

Why MMOs Should Move Past the Trinity

I’ve started writing for MMOGames, because as the oft-quoted Joker once said, if you’re good at something, never do it for free. For my debut article, I decided to weigh in on recent discussions of whether or not the trinity is good for MMOs; you can probably guess my stance based on the title.
The topic of the trinity is one of the oldest debates we have in the MMO community, and while opinions on it are ubiquitous, I don’t think the subject is ever approached with quite enough respect for the complexity of the issue. Focusing on the roles themselves misses the point entirely; the trinity is fundamentally an approach to encounter design, and that is how I choose to address it.

PvE in the Dying Worlds

I recently participated in a thread on the official Crowfall forums polling the community about their hopes for PvE in the game, and while I did share some of my thoughts in that thread, I found the topic interesting enough to bear revisiting in greater detail. Much has been made of Crowfall‘s PvP focus, but very little has been…