Articles

Top 10 Best Action MMOs on Steam

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Steam has arguably become the most popular virtual distributor of PC games. Whether you need a hardcore first person shooter or just fancy a decent puzzle game, steam has an option for you.

Eight of Gaming’s Most Excellent Final Bosses

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One of the most important elements of any video game is arguably that it ends in a strong fashion – a memorable final boss is just one way of doing this.

Yeah, it’s a bit of a cliche topic, but I’ve been on a bit of a Dark Souls trip lately, and the final encounter got me to thinking – the most memorable aspect of a game is how it ends, isn’t it? I mean, everything in the game’s been building to it: at this point, all the chips are down, and you’re throwing everything you’ve got at your foe in a desperate effort to achieve victory. That’s how it should be, anyway. Today, I’d like to take a look at a few of my personal favorites – a few of the best final bosses in video game history.

Critical Thinking: Creative Control in Game Development

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The controversy over Mass Effect 3’s ending is long-since dead and gone, but the lessons learned from it – both by fans and by developers – still resonate within the community even now, more than a full year after the fact. For those of you who need a bit of a refresher, things kind of went something like this: Mass Effect 3’s ending was rushed and awful. Fans expressed outrage that it was rushed and awful, and demanded that Bioware changed it. After one of the biggest media frenzies seen in the games industry, Bioware eventually acceded to its players.

Making A Pokemon MMORPG – Professions

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The most requested title to transition to an MMORPG comes from fans of the increasingly popular series, Pokemon. Is there any reason why Nintendo would want to restrict such a successful franchise from expanding even further? This series delves into why Nintendo needs to make Pokemon an MMORPG.

Critical Thinking: Player Agency and the Illusion of Choice

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Last week, I examined the concept of branching narrative in the context of gaming. Working from an interview with TellTale Games and using The Walking Dead as an example, I came to the conclusion that, ultimately, the choices themselves don’t matter. What’s truly important is that you make your players invest themselves in the dilemmas you’ve presented them; make them think and feel and agonize over which choice is the right one. If you can’t do this, it doesn’t matter how many different paths your story gives the players – they aren’t going to care.

Emotional investment is only part of the equation, however. Once you’ve got the players caring about their choices, you have to show them that those choices actually made a difference. Perhaps even more vital to any good narrative is player agency: essentially, allowing the player’s actions to have a real, noticeable impact on the world around them – and demonstrating to them that impact.

Top 10 Best Superhero MMOs

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Majority of cosplay are superheroes from DC and Marvel comics. With Ironman 3 being released in under a month a Injustice: Gods Among Us hitting stores in just a week; what could be more fitting then ranking the 10 best superhero games in the MMO genre?

Visit to WonderCon: Anaheim 2013

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MMO Attack was busy last weekend. Kirk traveled to cover GDC 2013 in San Francisco. Another popular event originating in that area is the anime and comic, geek fest known as WonderCon. After 25 years the event became so popular that the company started to hold two conventions, one in San Francisco and one in Anaheim. With @Atticon40 busy up north, we were lucky enough to have @ReinaScully on scene for WonderCon Anaheim 2013.

Critical Thinking: On Branching Narrative

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Last time, I mused a bit on the concept of linearity versus openness in gaming. Today, I’d like to continue that line of thought, with a look at narrative paths in game design. See, I was reading an article the other day – an interview with TellTale Games – where it was revealed that they almost cut Clementine from The Walking Dead. If you’re among those who’ve played the game, I’m sure you’ll agree that it would have been a catastrophic choice which would have resulted in one of the best features of the game – one of the game’s sole driving factors – being absent.

Today’s piece is all about meaning.

Five of the Most Promising Titles on Steam Greenlight

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Greenlight’s concept was brilliant: rather than having each and every game proposal go through the Valve offices, why not just let the users decide which games were worth making? Valve staff would be freed up to develop more titles, indie studios could establish an open discourse (and strong relationship) with their users, and gamers would be able to contribute to the development process in a very concrete way.

So far, I’d say Greenlight has worked swimmingly. Sure, there are a few bum titles – there are always going to be a couple hucksters who try to game the system – but all in all, we’ve seen some incredible, unique, and downright beautiful games hit the Steam store of late. Today, I’d like to take a look through Greenlight, and showcase a few games which I feel could end up being the next big thing.