I've long been a believer in the free to play model for online games and it's been great to see games like Star Wars: The Old Republic and Tera embrace the model with enormous success. These games are making much more money as free to play games than they ever did as subscription based games. Star Wars: the Old Republic for example [...]

Free to play is currently the dominant business model in the world of MMOs with Subscription being the second biggest and buy to play being the smallest. Guild Wars popularized the buy to play model for MMOs, and despite it's benefits, it has quite a few problems. [singlepic id=18258 w=600 h=338 float=none] The Elder Scrolls Online - Another buy to Play MMORPG [...]

eSports have grown tremendously over the years, largely due to the immense popularity of MOBAs. The Dota 2 international finals aired on ESPN3 in 2014 and earlier in 2015, I remember seeing a collegiate game of Heroes of the Storm on live cable TV on ESPN2. Competitive gaming isn't anything new though. Local game stores have long held tournaments for various [...]

I personally got into gaming at a young age with Super Mario World on the SNES. My first MMORPG was Ultima Online and it wasn't exactly “kid friendly”, but it got me hooked on a genre that would become a major part of my life. I think MMOs are an incredible genre of games to expose kids. It teachers kids [...]

MMO and MMORPG Documentaries The MMO genre is unique. These games are the closest we've gotten to building alternative realities complete with their own geography, culture, and social hierarchies. Often the interactions that occur in these digital worlds have a lasting impact on the real lives of the players involved. Unfortunately, these worlds are usually closed systems that are impenetrable [...]

As a big fan of JRPGs like the Final Fantasy and Tales series, It's disappointing to see most MMORPGs put little to no effort in developing their story or lore. I think gameplay should always be the #1 focus for MMOs, as anyone looking for a good story can always read a book or play a single player RPG, but it's [...]

Let’s face it, fantasy MMORPGs are a dime a dozen. Orcs, goblins, dragons, you’ve slain them all in every hue. The traditional high fantasy setting, inspired by the Lord of the Rings and Dungeons & Dragons franchises, remains the staple in the MMORPG genre. Gamers more interested in lasers and space exploration need not despair. While certainly rarer, there are [...]

With the incredible growth of mobile gaming and the widespread proliferation of Smart Phones, it's surprising that mobile MMORPGs aren't bigger. Mobile strategy games like Game of War and Clash of Clans are minting money. RPGs like Puzzle & Dragons and Monster Strike are enormously popular too, but they aren't “MMORPGs” in the traditional sense because they don't have persistent [...]

Aeon of Strife, or AoS for short, was a custom map for the original Starcraft and was the first MOBA ever. The game featured two opposing teams, 3 lanes, minions/creeps, and RPG elements – all the basics of the modern day MOBA. A lot of people mistake the first DotA game for Warcraft 3 as the first MOBA, but they [...]

I watch YouTube videos, a lot of YouTube videos. And not because I love to support YouTube streamers (AdBlock is the first plugin I install after reformatting) but because I’m captivated by Let’s Plays. Often I prefer to watch somebody on YouTube play a game than play it myself. As soon as Google notifies me that Robbaz, Cr1t1kal, or Videogamedunkey have uploaded [...]