Not-So-Massively games are online games that share some but not all mechanics in common with traditional MMORPGs. Generally, their “massive” nature is contested. They frequently include games from subgenres like battle royale, OARPG, MMOFPS, MMORTS, MOBA, lootershooter, mobile, and other pseudo-MMOs that provide single-player, offline, or custom-server support. The Not So Massively column is now written by Tyler Edwards. [Follow this column’s RSS feed]
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Not So Massively: Magic Legends had all the right ideas and all the wrong choices
This is the worst kind of column to write. Not only am I reporting on the closure of a game, but it's a game...
Not So Massively: First impressions of Dungeons & Dragons Dark Alliance
I'll admit I had low expectations for the new co-op action game Dungeons and Dragons: Dark Alliance. The graphics looked a bit dated, and...
Not So Massively: Iron Harvest’s Operation Eagle expansion soars high
The lead-up to the release of Iron Harvest 1920's first expansion was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster for me (insomuch as you can...
Not So Massively: Magic Legends has already made big changes, but there’s more to do
Even as someone who enjoys the game, I have to admit that Magic: Legends had a very rough launch, with numerous polish issues and...
Not So Massively: Checking up on multiplayer RTS Iron Harvest 1920
Last fall, this column covered Iron Harvest 1920, an alternate history RTS with a strong multiplayer emphasis and surprisingly poignant story-telling. Once I got...
Not So Massively: Four things I wish I’d known when I started Magic Legends
Inevitably after a couple weeks in a new game, you've learned a few things that you wish you'd known from the start. For me...
Not So Massively: Magic Legends is messy, deep, and more of an MMO than you think
I can't remember the last time I struggled so much deciding whether I like a game or not. I'm a fan of ARPGs, and...
Not So Massively: Checking the pulse of Star Wars Battlefront II
As I am someone who is at best lukewarm to the Star Wars franchise, nearly as ambivalent toward shooters, and almost entirely uninterested in...
Not So Massively: Outriders’ demo teases a decent but unremarkable looter-shooter
Outriders, the new co-op shooter from publisher Square Enix, is not a game I've followed super closely, but with Anthem consigned to eternal purgatory,...
Not So Massively: A eulogy for Anthem and Defiance
Last week was a bloodbath. In a single day, we saw Electronic Arts consign one game to eternal maintenance mode, and Gamigo announced closures...
Not So Massively: Torchlight III is less than the sum of its parts
Last summer in this very column, I argued that ARPGs are the pizza of gaming: Even when they're bad, they're still pretty good.
The Torchlight...
Not So Massively: First impressions of Century Age of Ashes
Dragons are ubiquitous to the point of over-exposure in gaming these days. And yet for all that, there are still very few games that...
Not So Massively: Wolcen’s Bloodtrail is worth coming back for
I've been a fan of Wolcen: Lords of Mayhem from the start, but with how long things went quiet after the initial post-launch updates,...
Not So Massively: Haven is a noble but failed experiment in couples’ gaming
This is purely anecdotal, but it has been my experience that most people who play games with other people tend to spend most of...
Not So Massively: Drake Hollow is the wholesome survival game we need right now
I've talked in the past about liking survival mechanics in games, but not so much survival games themselves. There are a couple of reasons...
Not So Massively: Looking back at 2020 and ahead to 2021 in the realm of not-so-massively games
So another year comes, and the last one's gone, and we dig deep just to carry on. Musical allusions notwithstanding, I thought it might...
Not So Massively: StarCraft II’s maintenance mode doesn’t mean game over
Earlier this month, we learned that Blizzard was effectively putting StarCraft II into maintenance mode. Considering what a massive fan of StarCraft II I...
Not So Massively: Reflections on Blizzard, one year after the Hong Kong fiasco
Almost exactly a year ago, I declared that the Blizzard I loved is dead, in reaction to the Blitzchung/Hearthstone/Hong Kong fiasco.
Twelve months later, that...
Not So Massively: The dos and don’ts of stealing from single-player games
In my last Not So Massively column, I looked at the right and wrong ways for other genres to steal from MMOs. But in...
Not So Massively: The dos and don’ts of stealing from MMOs
Recently I played through the new PC port of the open world RPG Horizon Zero Dawn. While playing it, I was struck by how...
