Our latest coverage of Columns.
Square Enix is holding a series of events starting this May to make its first subscription MMORPG, Final Fantasy 11, more accessible than ever. The events are aimed at both returning veterans and new players who never got a chance to try the console/PC MMORPG first released back in 2002. A Discount Campaign kicks off on May 16 and runs [...]
Read more
The EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) has claimed another victim. Developer Uber Entertainment has announced that their MOBA/Shooter hybrid Super Monday Night Combat will be shutting down on May 23, just days before the new law takes effect. SMNC initially entered open beta on April 18, 2012 and was last updated back in 2013. While the free to play [...]
Read more
SuperData has published their monthly Worldwide Digital Games Market Report for March 2018 and it has a few surprises. League of Legends, which has graced the #1 PC spot since the inception of these reports, has finally been dethroned. The venerable MOBA has fallen to #2, usurped by Dungeon Fighter Online. While this does not necessarily indicate a decline in [...]
Read more
On April 24, 2018 an official post on the WarpPortal forums stated that all games and services to the European region will be terminated on May 25, 2018. An IP block will then be put in place to prevent EU players from accessing WarpPortal titles. Services to Russia and CIS countries (such as Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova) will continue as normal. [...]
Read more
The Battle Royale genre has taken the gaming industry by storm. Playerunknown's Battlegrounds and Fortnite were the defining titles of 2017 and both continue to increase in popularity well into 2018. They've been joined by a few new comers like Darwin Project and Radical Heights, and there's surely dozens more Battle Royale games currently in development. But does this new [...]
Read more
After months of rumors, Nexon has official confirmed that MapleStory 2 is coming to the West! The official website went live on April 16 which immediately started taking applications for a closed beta test scheduled to start on May 9th. The official launch trailer, embedded below, shows prospective players what MapleStory is all about. While the game never enjoyed the [...]
Read more
Update: It's official. MapleStory 2 English closed beta begins on May 9th, 2018! Sign up on the official website here! CBT is running from May 9th - May 16th. Signups are open until May 6th. MapleStory 2 is all but confirmed after various internet sleuths dug up Nexon's newest social media accounts. Nexon already set up a page for MapleStory [...]
Read more
MMORPGs have been called treadmills and walking simulators. These remarks come from both fans of the genre and its detractors. There is certainly some truth to these claims, many of the core gameplay loops in MMORPGs require repetition and very slow progress. The question this week is whether the genre is doomed to suffer such monotonous and meaningless gameplay, occasionally [...]
Read more
Earlier today, on April 5, 2018 Publish 99 for Ultima Online went live worldwide. The new update comes with a host of features, the most notable of which is Endless Journey -- a free to play account tier for the previously subscription-only MMORPG. Ultima Online was first released in 1997 and is credited with bringing the MMORPG genre to the [...]
Read more
The highly anticipated movie adaptation of Ready Player One hit theaters this week and while its undeniably aimed at children, it does offer the astute MMO player some food for thought. Setting aside the unbelievable timeline of the technology (life-like VR by 2045), the primary VR platform of Ready Player One, The OASIS, seems to be a single centralized service [...]
Read more