Blizzard Entertainment recently released World of Warcraft Patch 4.0.1, one of the major precursors to the upcoming Cataclysm expansion. This patch brought with it revisions to classes, talent trees, and the game's user interface. It will also bring about an end to the game, just like every patch since 1.0.

Continue reading Latest World of Warcraft patch will destroy the game... again.

For most modern MMOs, making money purely from monthly subscription fees is pretty old school. These days, even more and more subscription MMOs are supplementing their income with the use of microtransactions (usually relatively small charges for items you can’t get through normal gameplay).

Continue reading MMOs and Microtransactions.

Back in March, I reviewed Star Trek Online, which had been out a little more than a month at that point. I stopped playing the game shortly after I wrote my review but recently started up my subscription again. Atari and Cryptic Studios decided to have a free play "welcome back" weekend for anyone who had ever purchased a copy of the game, and I guess it had its desired effect on me since it got me to plunk down my $15 for another month. While the game is still far from perfect, it has come a long way over these last five months or so.

Continue reading Reinlisting in Starfleet.

Two years ago, the moderators of the official City of Heroes message boards announced impending changes to the forum rules and guidelines. Among these changes was the introduction of non-CoH MMO discussion to the list of forbidden topics (already on the list were religion and politics, which most know aren't things that polite people enter into conversation about anyway). There was a pretty big uproar at the time, with at least one forum moderator entering into private discussion with forum members and revealing that, even though he was "credited" with putting together the new guidelines, the call for an end to MMO discussion didn't come from the community team itself.

Continue reading City of Heroes Forum Changes Elicit Strong Responses.

In my last article, we took a look at the first six content updates (or issues) of City of Heroes and highlighted just a few of the major changes the game went through in its first 18 months. When the game was released, there was no player-versus-player combat, no player villain characters, no capes on costumes, no badges. By its sixth content update, all of these things were an important part of the game.

Continue reading City of Heroes: Through the Years Part II: Tough Times.

It was something of an aberration among MMOs. Until City of Heroes was released on April 28th, 2004, most MMOs – and nearly every one that could be considered at all "successful" – had been based in a more or less traditional fantasy genre (EVE Online is a rare exception to this). Why it was this way is a matter of some debate, but despite more and more non-fantasy MMOs in recent years, developers of new MMOs still tend to favor fantasy settings.

Continue reading City of Heroes: Through the Years Part I: From Heroes to Villains.

Well, I've never before hit the level cap in an MMO within a month of its release. The fact that this has been the case with Atari, Cryptic Studios' Star Trek Online could mean that the game's pretty easy to play, or that it's designed to get you to the bigger and better ships quickly, or that I've played it too darned much. All three of these, as it turns out, are probably true.

Continue reading Hope for the future: The good and bad of Star Trek Online.

Have you prepared some gifts for your friends or family who play MMOs? If not yet, you can follow our columnist Cecil Adkins' suggestions.

Continue reading Five MMO Holiday Gift Ideas.

I've said elsewhere that I was prepared to dismiss the latest update to City of Heroes, Issue 16: Power Spectrum, as a light, perhaps even disappointing issue. I know, I know. Powers customization is a big deal, and it's inarguably the biggest requested feature since the beginning of the Paragon Studios superhero MMO. It also required a massive amount of work to implement, some of which is detailed by a post from the lead animation developer on the official forums.

Continue reading Issue 16 Reinvigorates 5-year-old City of Heroes… or Does It?.

If you're a parent and you spend a lot of time playing MMOs, your child will inevitably become interested in them as well. There is a lot to be said about balancing quality time with your family with work and an active MMO life so that your kids don't feel neglected, but that's beyond the scope of this article. Not that I won't get around to writing about that, because I probably will, but it's not what I want to talk about this time.

Continue reading Children and MMOs.

Clockwork Symphony, the steampunk MMO being developed by a group of ambitious developers calling themselves the Clank Crew, recently released more information on the varied and exciting "paths" that players can take as they play through the game. Additionally, they've released the game's first pieces of concept art. You can see these images, done by graphic artist Kyle Vana, within this article, but to see the full size pieces, be sure to check out the official Clockwork Symphony forums.

Continue reading Clockwork Symphony Releases Path Info & Concept Art.

If you start looking into Alganon, the upcoming fantasy MMO from QuestOnline, it doesn't take long before you discover that there are a lot of things that make it unique among games of its kind. I touched on a couple of these aspects over at Examiner.com last week, but that was only the tip of the iceberg. Alganon doesn't just have a few unique features; the entire game was designed from the ground up to be a unique experience in a genre where merely improving upon what others have done before is the usual name of the game.

Continue reading Alganon Preview: Standing Out from Other Fantasy MMOs.

In my previous article, I ruffled some feathers by saying that City of Heroes had nothing to worry about concerning the impending release of Champions Online, its first competitor in the superhero MMO market. Maybe "nothing to worry about" is a little too strong. There are lots of valid reasons for the developers of City of Heroes to keep an eye on Champions Online, and I have no doubt Champions Online will do quite well for itself. While I don't believe that City of Heroes will just shrivel up and die in the wake of Champions Online's release, what follows are some of the reasons I think Champions Online could steal much of CoH's thunder.

Continue reading Why City of Heroes SHOULD Be Worried.

What about soon-to-be released Champions Online, developed by the original developers of City of Heroes and based on a popular pen-and-paper RPG? Can five-year-old City of Heroes stand up against this game, which is going to be using up-to-date technology and be available on not only for the PC but also for the Xbox 360?

Continue reading Champions Online? City of Heroes Has Nothing to Worry About.