World of Warcraft

Side Quest Syndrome: Designing The Road Less Traveled

A while back there was an editorial describing how side quests erode everything that makes RPGs great. Now, because we are good Druids and appreciate balance in things, we present a GameInformer feature arguing precisely the opposite. Why have side…

TrustedReviews’ 15 Best RPGs

It’s not an easy task to pick 15 best RPGs. TrustedReviews has attempted to do just that. I’ll be honest with you, RPG veterans may not be particularly fond of such a selection that omits a lot of standout games…

Nine Years in Karazhan

Richard Cobbett’s latest column for Rock, Paper, Shotgun covers the the launch of the Karazhan zone in World of Warcraft and its recent overhauled return, as part of the latest PTR patch for Blizzard’s MMO. A couple of significant excerpts:…

Why Legion Drove One Player Away from World of Warcraft

One of the editors over at Paste Magazine has editorialized about why Blizzard’s Legion expansion pack for World of Warcraft has introduced significant enough class changes that he no longer feels comfortable playing a years-old character, and therefore feels “driven…

Battle.net Rebranding Strategy Revealed

No, it’s not one of Blizzard Entertainment’s elaborate April Fools’ jokes. Instead, the company has realized that slapping the name “Battle.net” on the global network infrastructure that has served as the foundation to all of their games and other services…

MMO Jails and Virtual Porridge

The latest RPG Scrollbars weekly column from Richard Cobbett focuses on jails in MMO. Specifically, we’re talking about the jails developers have set up for players who cheat and use exploits, rather than any in-game crime system. Here’s an example…

World of Warcraft: Legion Interview

I suspect that most people who were looking forward to Blizzard’s World of Warcraft: Legion expansion pack are spending this weekend in-game, but if you can tear yourself away for a few minutes, there’s an interview with lead game designer…

Richard Cobbett on RPG Artbooks

The latest installment of Richard Cobbett’s RPG-focused weekly column for Rock, Paper, Shotgun is dedicated to artbooks. While by no means comprehensive, Cobbett offers examples of artbooks for RPG series that he has found interesting throughout the years. An excerpt…