https://massivelyop.com MMORPG news and opinions Fri, 29 Dec 2023 14:50:39 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.1.1 https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/29/wow-factor-what-world-of-warcraft-needs-to-accomplish-in-2024/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/29/wow-factor-what-world-of-warcraft-needs-to-accomplish-in-2024/#comments Fri, 29 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=473493 On October 12th, 2023, the YouTuber SuperEyepatchWolf put out a video running just over one hour nine minutes titled “The Simpsons Is Good Again.” This was not his first video about the show; he’d done two prior videos, one of which examined how the show sank into the era that it has now existed within […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/29/wow-factor-what-world-of-warcraft-needs-to-accomplish-in-2024/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/22/wow-factor-evaluating-world-of-warcrafts-2023-progress-and-performance/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/22/wow-factor-evaluating-world-of-warcrafts-2023-progress-and-performance/#comments Fri, 22 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=472963 So 2023 is not completely in the rear view yet, but at least in terms of major developments for World of Warcraft we can feel reasonably confident putting this particular year in the past tense. My guess about how WoW would look over the course of 2023 was in our overall roundup for our predictions, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/22/wow-factor-evaluating-world-of-warcrafts-2023-progress-and-performance/feed/ 24 https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/15/wow-factor-the-real-reason-world-of-warcrafts-cataclysm-world-revamp-was-awful/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/15/wow-factor-the-real-reason-world-of-warcrafts-cataclysm-world-revamp-was-awful/#comments Fri, 15 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=471943 ‘Tis the season for all of us, once again, to talk about the deeply unpleasant and disappointing expansion that was World of Warcraft: Cataclysm, which will soon be upon us once again. There seem to basically be three stances around this upcoming expansion for WoW Classic. The first is to posit that maybe some re-evaluation […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/15/wow-factor-the-real-reason-world-of-warcrafts-cataclysm-world-revamp-was-awful/feed/ 48 https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/08/wow-factor-the-content-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-in-the-war-within/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/08/wow-factor-the-content-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-in-the-war-within/#comments Fri, 08 Dec 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=470896 Last week, I talked about the story issues that World of Warcraft really needs to address in some form as we move forward into The War Within, but you probably guessed that this was coming, too. I mean, I did pretty much say as much in the introduction to last week’s column, so it doesn’t […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/12/08/wow-factor-the-content-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-in-the-war-within/feed/ 39 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/30/wow-factor-the-story-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-going-into-the-war-within/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/30/wow-factor-the-story-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-going-into-the-war-within/#comments Thu, 30 Nov 2023 18:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=469630 It’s telling that we’re now very much in the back nine for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, and the general consensus has not shifted much beyond “it was fine, I guess.” It’s telling, in fact, because Dragonflight’s main problem has not been that there’s nothing good within it but rather that it neither excises all of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/30/wow-factor-the-story-issues-world-of-warcraft-must-address-going-into-the-war-within/feed/ 35 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/24/wow-factor-fine-lets-talk-about-blizzard-being-dumb-with-early-access/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/24/wow-factor-fine-lets-talk-about-blizzard-being-dumb-with-early-access/#comments Fri, 24 Nov 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=468704 All right, let’s get it over with. I didn’t really want to write this column, not because I didn’t think there was anything to talk about here but just because it seemed so self-evident that it was kind of a waste of time. You should not need me to tell you that Blizzard’s three-day headstart […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/24/wow-factor-fine-lets-talk-about-blizzard-being-dumb-with-early-access/feed/ 48 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/16/wow-factor-just-by-existing-the-worldsoul-saga-delivers-something-world-of-warcraft-desperately-needed/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/16/wow-factor-just-by-existing-the-worldsoul-saga-delivers-something-world-of-warcraft-desperately-needed/#comments Thu, 16 Nov 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=467663 Last week, I argued that a lot of the elements of World of Warcraft: The War Within that at least sound good on paper. Apparently I missed the fact that the cinematic having Anduin show emotions angers some of the most toxic awful fans of this game, so that’s another mark in its favor. But […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/16/wow-factor-just-by-existing-the-worldsoul-saga-delivers-something-world-of-warcraft-desperately-needed/feed/ 30 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/09/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-the-war-within-actually-sounds-promising-on-paper/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/09/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-the-war-within-actually-sounds-promising-on-paper/#comments Thu, 09 Nov 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=466545 So now we know what’s coming next. World of Warcraft: The War Within is our next expansion, and… you know, that’s not really a great title. It’s not an atrocious one, by any means, but it’s not what I’d call a slam dunk either. That’s neither here nor there, really, but it just kinda sticks […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/09/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-the-war-within-actually-sounds-promising-on-paper/feed/ 61 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/03/blizzcon-2023-everything-we-learned-about-the-war-within-in-world-of-warcrafts-whats-next-panel/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/03/blizzcon-2023-everything-we-learned-about-the-war-within-in-world-of-warcrafts-whats-next-panel/#comments Fri, 03 Nov 2023 23:10:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=465390 This year’s opening ceremony for BlizzCon did not feature the usual kickoff of a new major World of Warcraft reveal followed by a lengthy explanation; instead, the explainer was offloaded to the first panel after the opening ceremony diving into what’s next for WoW. Of course, we know the broad strokes as this is the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/03/blizzcon-2023-everything-we-learned-about-the-war-within-in-world-of-warcrafts-whats-next-panel/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/02/wow-factor-what-im-hoping-to-see-in-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/02/wow-factor-what-im-hoping-to-see-in-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/#comments Thu, 02 Nov 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=464942 Here in WoW Factor, I haven’t held back about the fact that the upcoming BlizzCon is not a good idea or the fact that World of Warcraft’s designers have generally not given anyone much faith that they are cognizant of their design failures and will actually improve. But this does not mean I am made […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/11/02/wow-factor-what-im-hoping-to-see-in-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/26/wow-factor-the-dungeon-finder-really-did-muck-up-world-of-warcrafts-leveling-but-not-the-way-youre-thinking/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/26/wow-factor-the-dungeon-finder-really-did-muck-up-world-of-warcrafts-leveling-but-not-the-way-youre-thinking/#comments Thu, 26 Oct 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=463588 So if you missed Justin’s recent column, he mentioned how bad leveling feels these days in World of Warcraft and some of the reasons that it can be a better experience in WoW Classic. I’m not going to summarize his whole column here, but he cites a number of things that the game has done […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/26/wow-factor-the-dungeon-finder-really-did-muck-up-world-of-warcrafts-leveling-but-not-the-way-youre-thinking/feed/ 34 https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/20/wow-factor-this-time-will-not-be-different/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/20/wow-factor-this-time-will-not-be-different/#comments Fri, 20 Oct 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=463091 The other day, I got a nasty email from a World of Warcraft fan. This is not inherently unusual; it happens a couple of times a month, I’d say. And it was almost certainly the exact rant you’re imagining just from that premise, full of a very predictable apologia for how it’s Actually Very Good […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/20/wow-factor-this-time-will-not-be-different/feed/ 48 https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/13/wow-factor-no-selling-blizzcon/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/13/wow-factor-no-selling-blizzcon/#comments Fri, 13 Oct 2023 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=461993 On May 4th, 2019, tickets for BlizzCon 2019 went on sale. This was not in and of itself a surprise, with the event happening on November 1st of that same year. It was four days later that the official Twitter account for the company announced that tickets had sold out, which also was not a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/13/wow-factor-no-selling-blizzcon/feed/ 43 https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/06/wow-factor-for-khaz-algar/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/06/wow-factor-for-khaz-algar/#comments Fri, 06 Oct 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=460950 This is not really a column about Khaz Algar in World of Warcraft, or at least not in the sense that you might expect it to be. That’s because there’s not much to know about Khaz Algar at this point. We know it exists solely from a bit of lore text in the revamped Uldaman, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/10/06/wow-factor-for-khaz-algar/feed/ 5 https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/29/wow-factor-if-this-is-the-state-of-world-of-warcraft-why-talk-about-it/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/29/wow-factor-if-this-is-the-state-of-world-of-warcraft-why-talk-about-it/#comments Fri, 29 Sep 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=459879 The other day, I was talking with a friend about another MMO altogether. It doesn’t actually matter which one it was because the important takeaway is something that I said to her mid-conversation when I noted that there was a certain amount of fan complaining was just kind of pointless. If you’re complaining about things […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/29/wow-factor-if-this-is-the-state-of-world-of-warcraft-why-talk-about-it/feed/ 50 https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/21/wow-factor-so-blizzard-backtracked-on-wow-classics-dungeon-finder/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/21/wow-factor-so-blizzard-backtracked-on-wow-classics-dungeon-finder/#comments Thu, 21 Sep 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=458635 So in April last year, I wrote a whole article about how World of Warcraft’s development team was taking a gigantic misstep when it came to its plan to completely avoid having the dungeon finder in WoW Classic. Some people were angry about that choice, some people were happy that gatekeeping would live on, and […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/21/wow-factor-so-blizzard-backtracked-on-wow-classics-dungeon-finder/feed/ 106 https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/15/wow-factor-mmo-raid-design-and-the-antagonistic-gm/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/15/wow-factor-mmo-raid-design-and-the-antagonistic-gm/#comments Fri, 15 Sep 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=457811 Last week’s column about World of Warcraft prompted some really interesting comments that I think are worth talking about; in fact, I very nearly wrote an entire column about one of them. But instead, I wanted to talk about another thought that occurred to me when it comes to WoW’s raiding focus because it’s something […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/15/wow-factor-mmo-raid-design-and-the-antagonistic-gm/feed/ 44 https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/08/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-exhausting-constant-hype-cycle/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/08/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-exhausting-constant-hype-cycle/#comments Fri, 08 Sep 2023 15:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=456904 When I saw that there was an event happening on Thursday for World of Warcraft’s next patch, I had to do a double-take. I was sure that the most recent patch had been on Tuesday, but… that was insane. That would mean that the developers chilled two whole days before saying “forget about that patch, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/08/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-exhausting-constant-hype-cycle/feed/ 60 https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/01/wow-factor-what-would-world-of-warcraft-classic-plus-even-look-like/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/01/wow-factor-what-would-world-of-warcraft-classic-plus-even-look-like/#comments Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=456085 So before I start this column, I want to make something very clear: I do not for one moment, in my heart of hearts, believe that Blizzard is ever going to make any form of “Classic Plus” into a reality. I’ve done columns before talking about how WoW Classic is clearly a palimpsest for people […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/09/01/wow-factor-what-would-world-of-warcraft-classic-plus-even-look-like/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/25/wow-factor-so-what-is-mike-ybarra-teasing-for-the-future-of-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/25/wow-factor-so-what-is-mike-ybarra-teasing-for-the-future-of-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 25 Aug 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=454957 As we are all waiting for Twitter to finish imploding under its current ownership (because nothing is more fun than rich idiots buying things they don’t understand just to break them in predictable fashions), we all are at least still getting a little more information out of it. For example, earlier this month there was […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/25/wow-factor-so-what-is-mike-ybarra-teasing-for-the-future-of-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 33 https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/23/wow-factor-long-shot-potential-additions-for-world-of-warcrafts-next-expansion/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/23/wow-factor-long-shot-potential-additions-for-world-of-warcrafts-next-expansion/#comments Wed, 23 Aug 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=454527 Last time we were here, I wound up just talking about potential class and race additions for the next World of Warcraft expansion. As I said then, it’s not really a question that the expansion will add new zones or new quests or whatever; that’s just normal. It’s like asking if a new Star Trek […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/23/wow-factor-long-shot-potential-additions-for-world-of-warcrafts-next-expansion/feed/ 9 https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/18/wow-factor-potential-features-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/18/wow-factor-potential-features-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/#comments Fri, 18 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=453777 Last week I talked about potential destinations for the next World of Warcraft expansion, which is actually a pretty short list when you think about it. But this week I want to talk about the feature list of the next expansion, which… well, there are a lot of possibilities – and not in the sense […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/18/wow-factor-potential-features-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/11/wow-factor-potential-destinations-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/11/wow-factor-potential-destinations-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/#comments Fri, 11 Aug 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=452783 We have a BlizzCon coming up in November. This strikes me as a phenomenally bad idea, like someone proposed it in a meeting to win back the crowd and no one mentioned that it sounded like “hand me a match, I need to see if this gas tank is full” or “I know there’s a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/08/11/wow-factor-potential-destinations-for-the-next-world-of-warcraft-expansion/feed/ 33 https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/28/wow-factor-the-future-of-blizzard-is-bleak/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/28/wow-factor-the-future-of-blizzard-is-bleak/#comments Fri, 28 Jul 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=450702 So yesterday our Massively Overthinking roundtable asked everyone to sound off on the future of Blizzard because… well, the studio had a plan to weather all of its controversies and basically reclaim the conversation completely, and it did not work. This is probably a good thing, partly because the conversations the studio was trying to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/28/wow-factor-the-future-of-blizzard-is-bleak/feed/ 69 https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/21/wow-factor-overwatch-2s-failure-offers-a-lesson-for-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/21/wow-factor-overwatch-2s-failure-offers-a-lesson-for-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 21 Jul 2023 14:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=449746 The weird thing about my current position is that for the first time in at least a little while, there isn’t a new disaster to talk about when it comes to World of Warcraft. Don’t get me wrong, the game still has a plethora of problems, but all of them are problems I’ve discussed extensively […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/21/wow-factor-overwatch-2s-failure-offers-a-lesson-for-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 26 https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/14/wow-factor-infinite-dragonflight-frustration-and-the-time-travel-problem-in-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/14/wow-factor-infinite-dragonflight-frustration-and-the-time-travel-problem-in-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 14 Jul 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=448786 Sometimes, you just gotta rant about lore. And that’s the case this week because World of Warcraft has finally wrapped up the long-standing plot where Nozdormu was eventually going to become Murozond… maybe. Nope, not happening. But this plot has always bugged the living heck out of me because either we always knew this was […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/14/wow-factor-infinite-dragonflight-frustration-and-the-time-travel-problem-in-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 14 https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/07/wow-factor-and-now-we-ruin-the-trading-post/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/07/wow-factor-and-now-we-ruin-the-trading-post/#comments Fri, 07 Jul 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=447780 Those of you who have read my work in WoW Factor for a while will know that I tend to be very cards-on-the-table about my predictions. I make my guesses, I rate my overall accuracy around 65% (better than a coin flip, but not uncanny), and I stand by them. This is why I’m just […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/07/07/wow-factor-and-now-we-ruin-the-trading-post/feed/ 20 https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/29/wow-factor-hardcore-progression-speedrunning-and-closed-environments/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/29/wow-factor-hardcore-progression-speedrunning-and-closed-environments/#comments Thu, 29 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=446799 So in one of the least surprising surprises ever, we’re getting official support for hardcore realms in WoW Classic. That’s not a bad thing, mind you. While I say that it’s not surprising, that’s because all of this had been teased and datamined beforehand, so it was really a question of when rather than whether, […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/29/wow-factor-hardcore-progression-speedrunning-and-closed-environments/feed/ 2 https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/23/wow-factor-speculating-on-compelling-future-world-of-warcraft-class-specs/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/23/wow-factor-speculating-on-compelling-future-world-of-warcraft-class-specs/#comments Fri, 23 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=445950 With the release of patch 10.1.5, World of Warcraft’s Evokers will become the second class to get a new spec added after its introduction – and the first one where the new spec isn’t just admitting that the previous spec was way too flexible allowing for two different roles at once. (Remember when Feral let […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/23/wow-factor-speculating-on-compelling-future-world-of-warcraft-class-specs/feed/ 22 https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/16/wow-factor-age-vs-world-of-warcraft-vs-player-retention/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/16/wow-factor-age-vs-world-of-warcraft-vs-player-retention/#comments Fri, 16 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=444999 In my time, I have gone from being a young man to an old man on the interwebs. I have gone from being a hyper-enthusiastic 13-year-old scraping time on the internet computers at the local library and sending email which I was not allowed to do on those computers (long story) to a 40-year-old who […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/16/wow-factor-age-vs-world-of-warcraft-vs-player-retention/feed/ 53 https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/09/wow-factor-the-wow-token-selling-gold-and-institutional-power/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/09/wow-factor-the-wow-token-selling-gold-and-institutional-power/#comments Fri, 09 Jun 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=443871 Last week, I wrote about the addition of the WoW Token to the classic version of World of Warcraft, and I noted at the start of that section that I originally didn’t even think I had anything else to say about it. As it happened, though, I did. And then this week again I found […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/06/09/wow-factor-the-wow-token-selling-gold-and-institutional-power/feed/ 37 https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/26/wow-factor-blizzards-week-of-bad-decisions/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/26/wow-factor-blizzards-week-of-bad-decisions/#comments Fri, 26 May 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=441901 First of all, before you clever clogs start in down in the comments, yes, I realize that almost any given week in World of Warcraft could use that title for the past four years or so at a bare minimum. But this week has had a couple of really terrible decisions that are just, like… […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/26/wow-factor-blizzards-week-of-bad-decisions/feed/ 71 https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/18/wow-factor-tarisland-and-the-cargo-cult-of-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/18/wow-factor-tarisland-and-the-cargo-cult-of-world-of-warcraft/#comments Thu, 18 May 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=440511 We’ve all made jokes about Tarisland being “we have World of Warcraft at home.” That’s just a fun thing to make jokes about, and that’s all well and good. But then this week we got a trailer for the game, and… all right, Tencent, you did realize that was a joke before, right? Seriously, watching […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/18/wow-factor-tarisland-and-the-cargo-cult-of-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 35 https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/04/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-content-problems-arent-about-quantity/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/04/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-content-problems-arent-about-quantity/#comments Thu, 04 May 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=438486 So recently, we asked about what World of Warcraft could do to draw back players that it had lost. To be clear, that’s a lot of players. The game has lost more players than most MMOs ever get. Inevitably, when we discuss this topic, someone will reply with something to the effect of, “I don’t […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/05/04/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-content-problems-arent-about-quantity/feed/ 231 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/28/wow-factor-dragonflight-wasnt-a-hit-so-now-what/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/28/wow-factor-dragonflight-wasnt-a-hit-so-now-what/#comments Fri, 28 Apr 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=437540 All right, let’s be real and acknowledge that the recent Activision-Blizzard earning report did not say outright that World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was an out-and-out dud. But it doesn’t have to be said explicitly. It’s obvious enough from context, just as it’s obvious that the investor information being released early was an attempt to control the […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/28/wow-factor-dragonflight-wasnt-a-hit-so-now-what/feed/ 181 https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/#comments Mon, 10 Apr 2023 16:30:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=434658 “Just one more hour of WoW Classic. One more hour, then I’ll go and play something serious. Or be a productive member of society. Promise.” I’ve been saying a lot of this over the past few weeks as time and time again, I’ve been logging into WoW Classic to play the community’s highly addictive hardcore […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/04/10/casually-classic-20-tips-for-surviving-the-wow-classic-communitys-hardcore-mode/feed/ 16 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/#comments Thu, 23 Mar 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=432214 While I don’t have any hard data on the subject, just observing the World of Warcraft Classic scene (and ABK’s financials) over the past couple years leads me to the conclusion that this massive phenomenon from 2019 to 2021 has started to slow. Enthusiasm is down, engagement seems to be following the law of diminishing […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/23/casually-classic-how-permadeath-runs-are-revitalizing-wow-classic/feed/ 24 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 17 Mar 2023 15:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=431213 As I implied in a recent post about the most recent Ion Hazzikostas interview, the line about making sure that there was a narrative justification for adding “missing” class/race combinations in World of Warcraft irked me. Part of this is because it’s not like we had some important narrative justification for making Gnomes able to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/17/wow-factor-narrative-justification-for-every-missing-class-race-combo-in-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 15 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/#comments Fri, 10 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=430207 So at this point, we actually have a remarkably clear picture of what’s going to be in the first major content patch for World of Warcraft: Dragonflight. Well… it’s actually being pushed as the third patch, and it is the third patch this year, but we’re probably not getting this until May, which is a […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/10/wow-factor-everything-we-know-about-embers-of-neltharion-so-far/feed/ 7 https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/#comments Thu, 02 Mar 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=429078 In November 1994, Marvel Comics launched a new comic book spin-off from the main X-Men series. Generation X, written by Scott Lobdell, was in many ways a return to a more foundational point in the franchise, with the team being a group of students under teachers Sean Cassidy and Emma Frost learning to use their […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/03/02/wow-factor-world-of-warcraft-is-just-coasting-down-the-mountain/feed/ 49 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/#comments Fri, 24 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=428156 So how many classes are there in World of Warcraft? There are wrong answers, but there’s more than one right answer. If your answer was “13,” you are right. There were nine base classes when the game launched in 2004, and in the intervening 19 years we have received… four more. That’s an average of […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/24/wow-factor-does-world-of-warcraft-need-more-classes/feed/ 57 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/#comments Fri, 10 Feb 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=426204 On one level, the most interesting thing that came out of the most recent earnings call for Activision-Blizzard was how much stuff the company stayed silent about. It’s perhaps not surprising when you consider that by the report’s own admission the studios are happy to keep things kind of low-key while hoping that the Microsoft […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/10/wow-factor-blizzards-latest-earnings-report-was-mixed-news-for-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 40 https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/#comments Thu, 02 Feb 2023 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=424985 On Monday, I talked with MOP’s Bree about the idea of doing a piece this week about how World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was doing after two months of release. It’s ahead of the first post-Dragonflight financial release, but it seems like a useful thing to consider when we’ve gotten the first significant patch and have […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/02/02/wow-factor-the-state-of-world-of-warcrafts-dragonflight-two-months-in/feed/ 46 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/#comments Thu, 26 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=423975 Talking about this company is always so exhausting, but let’s do a quick recap: Brian Birmingham was, up until recently, one of the top software engineers at Blizzard working on the classic version of World of Warcraft as its technical lead. He was pretty well liked, which means somehow people had apparently forgotten his responses to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/26/wow-factor-brian-birminghams-ousting-and-the-ever-deepening-rot-at-blizzard/feed/ 29 https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/ https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2023 16:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=421315 For a long time, World of Warcraft has suffered in the crafting department. Basically every single expansion for the game has promised overhauls and restorations of crafting to a position of utility and prominence, and none of them has gone over (with crafters) well. And you can tell with Dragonflight that the designers sat down […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2023/01/06/wow-factor-why-is-dragonflights-crafting-not-going-over-well/feed/ 57 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/#comments Thu, 29 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=420586 Hey gang, who wants to go explore new zones in Dragonflight? Does that sound exciting to you? That’s great, and for the past several expansions World of Warcraft has made a tradition of adding new zones for players to explore mid-expansion, so it makes perfect sense. But before we go, you’re going to have to […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/29/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-mid-expansion-endgame-zone-problem/feed/ 28 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/#comments Thu, 22 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=419962 So, last week there was a bit of unusual timing. I had finished my column about World of Warcraft’s Trading Post, and on the same day we got the announcement that Chris Metzen would be returning to Blizzard after all as a “Creative Advisor” for the Warcraft team. This was, of course, a surprise, but […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/22/wow-factor-chris-metzens-uphill-road-with-world-of-warcraft/feed/ 27 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/#comments Thu, 15 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=419062 I could, in theory, spend today’s WoW Factor talking about the launch of the first endgame season in World of Warcraft: Dragonflight, but quite frankly there’s nothing interesting there to talk about. Primal Storms are back, which are still kind of underwhelming but at least offer a path to some gear, especially if you’re willing […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/15/wow-factor-world-of-warcrafts-proposed-trading-post-actually-sounds-good-so-far/feed/ 13 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/#comments Fri, 09 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=418238 So now that first impressions are out of the way and I can focus on other things like making sure that my alts get up to Dragonflight in World of Warcraft, I realized something unusual. It was a very minor thing at first, but as I started doing a bit more planning it became clearer […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/09/wow-factor-the-curious-treatment-of-alts-in-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/feed/ 25 https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/ https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/#comments Mon, 05 Dec 2022 17:00:00 +0000 https://massivelyop.com/?p=416398 For most of 2022, World of Warcraft: Dragonflight was so far down my list of “most anticipated releases” as to be falling off the page entirely. I figured there’d be the usual undertow of hype that’d pull at me, but the focus on (sigh) dragons and the lack of a “must have” feature kept my […]]]> https://massivelyop.com/2022/12/05/five-things-that-excite-me-playing-world-of-warcraft-dragonflight/feed/ 18