Subscription-based multiplayers are becoming a thing of the past.  A few holdouts still linger, but nearly every major MMO has gone free to play (F2P), marking a huge shift in the gaming market from premium play to freemium. Last month, one of the most venerable games in the MMO role...

The term “massive multiplayer online” (MMO) has meant a lot of things since its inception in the 1990s.  Today, one genre of MMO are social games that include real-time or near-real-time play aspects into their models.  While most social games, such as Zynga’s...

A large number of dedicated Lord of the Rings Online players are big player vs player fans, getting their freep on regularly.  Others are lovers of the creep culture that comes with PvP and the ability to warg out or orc it all on the freeps in the zone.  The Ettenmoors is one of...

Since 2008, the number of people playing video games in the United States has risen by 241%, says a new study from Parks Associates.  The Trends in Digital Gaming: Free-to-Play, Social, and Mobile Games study claims that 135 million people play at least one hour per month, up from 56...

It’s not uncommon for the latest and greatest Hollywood blockbuster to begin circulating around gamer forums and blogs as a backdrop for the next great MMO.  This tendency comes from the premise that most great MMOs are based on movies, despite the fact that they really...

The Lord of the Rings Online (LOTRO) updates coming this spring are huge.  When Riders of Rohan releases, it will include massive changes to the way the game is played, including adding mounted combat and a promised monthly update model from Turbine. The Great River is the newest region...

Anyone who’s been around long enough to remember the very beginning of computer games, as I have, knows that things have developed rapidly, but not always for the better.  Twenty years ago, the text-based multi-user dungeon (MUD) was king.  These games were based on well-written...

Update 22, dubbed Death Incarnate, will be coming soon to City of Heroes promises Paragon Studios and NCSoft.  This update includes a host of content changes and additions as well as new powers, costumes, VIP content, and end game trials. Players level 50 or higher will have access to...

Last year was an eventful one for the MMO genre.  Games come and go all the time, some are better than others, and some deserve (and some don’t) the fates that await them.  Here are the games that died in 2011. Star Wars Galaxies - this game had a hard-core fan base and will...

Having released about a week ago, Star Wars: The Old Republic is flying pretty high right now.  Reports are that player numbers are through the roof, it’s all the buzz on blogs and forums, and SWTOR seems like it’s only going to keep growing. But how will that luster shine in...

Star Wars: The Old Republic has officially launched today and players are about to experience something that’s been relatively unusual in sci-fi MMO RPGs: space combat.  The SWTOR system for combat in the wild black yonder is focused on pure Star Wars action – as it should...

NCSoft has announced that their flagship MMO, Aion, will be going free to play (F2P) in February, 2012.  The game is in North America through publishing rights partnered with NCWest (a subsidiary of NCSoft) while NCSoft is parntered with Gameforge in Europe for games there. The move to...