Kritika Online launched in the West through En Masse Entertainment, the company best known for publishing Tera. Despite the game’s hype gameplay trailers and other videos the game was largely meh. It wasn’t terrible but it wasn’t anything special. The core gameplay is almost exactly like Dungeon Fighter Online and Twilight Spirits or any of those instanced dungeons / persistent town games. Whoever invented this genre really did the MMO industry a giant favor as its inspired SO many games. These games all tend to be action MMORPGs with stylish c ..read more

Given the dizzying pace of new PC MMORPG releases from Asia (Companies like X-Legend release a new MMORPG every year, think Twin Saga and LaPlace), you’d think Western game developers would be releasing games too, but most Western MMORPGs seem to be hitting roadblocks. Triple-A developers like Activision Blizzard and Electronic Arts seem to be hesitant in investing in an MMORPG as MMO development costs seem to have spiraled out of control. This leaves the Western MMORPG scene limited to smaller indie studios which are relying more and more on crowd funding. Crowd funded MMORPGs though seem to ..read more

Kill 10 rats. Slay the Dragon. Save the Princess. Its no secret that the MMORPG genre is dominated by the classic medieval fantasy setting. Many of the early quest lines from MMORPGs have become a trope used against the entire genre. Many gamers today consider the MMO genre to be tired, repetitive, and just plain played out.  But what many of these critics miss is the explosive growth of smaller, free to play MMOs and MMORPGs that offer some radically different playstyles and settings. So let’s put aside WoW, Dungeons & Dragons, and all the other cliche fantasy games and take a look ..read more

Every time I see an MMORPG label and market itself as an “Action MMORPG” I get excited for some reason. We've all played countless point and click tab targeted MMORPGs like Asta Online and Rohan: Blood Feud. This is your typical MMORPG – generic fantasy environments, point and click gameplay, the works. Combat in these games is usually secondary to character customization (builds/skill choice wise), as combat involves walking up to an enemy and mashing your skills as they come off cooldown. Action MMORPGs on the other hand require players to aim their individual attacks and dodge opponents. Th ..read more

Blade & Soul is officially here. It's an MMORPG i've been waiting for ever since it was originally revealed nearly 5 years ago in South Korea. The game launched over there back in 2012 and those of us in the West had to wait over 3 years to get a chance to play it. NCSoft launched the game on January 19th, 2016 but I didn't get a chance to play it until today (mainly since I've been busy at work). The game is a cool ~24 GB in size, so it took me a couple of hours to download it. I had a chance to read Sean Sullivan's Blade and Soul review on MMOs.com while downloading it, which only got me ..read more

After looking at MMOs.com's and MMORPG.com's 2015 game of the year awards, I think it's fair to say that 2015 was an absolute bust as far as free to play MMOs are concerned. Both sites awarded games like Skyforge and Elder Scrolls Online as the best MMORPGs of 2015. I've personally played both and can safely say that neither game was particularly good. I mean, they weren't awful, but the fact that these games are considered “game of the year” material, it means that 2015 didn't have a lot of good games. I actually enjoyed Blade and Soul a bit, but n ..read more

Black Desert Online (BDO) is officially launching in the West in early 2016. The only problem is that it's going to be buy to play. The decision by DaumGames to make Black Desert Online buy to play in North America and Europe is certainly an odd one, as the Russian and South Korean versions launched as and remain free to play. They aren't even adding anything new to the buy to play version. I mean if they added some new features, it might be worth it. One simple think they could add is Mac compatibility, as A LOT of Westerners use Macs now and there aren't very many Mac MMORPGs  ..read more

Despite my cynical nature and overall pessimistic attitude, there are a handful of games launching later this year that I'm excited about. Not so excited that I'm setting myself up for failure, but more so cautiously optimistic. One game I've been eager to try since it was first announced is Ghost in the Shell Online from Nexon, which was recently renamed to First Assault. As a big fan of Ghost in the Shell, it's sad to see Nexon drop the anime's name from the title, but I suspect they did it to create a more streamlined title; as "Ghost in the Shell Online" could literally mean anything ..read more

Inspirit Online, also known as Elite Lord of Alliance (ELOA) in Korea, is a global MMORPG developed in Korea by NPICSoft and published overseas by Game Release Entertainment inspired by anime and fantasy titles. Inspirit Online has a core set of features established with the goal of being simple, approachable and fleshed out. In this Korean title, unlike some others, there are plenty of customization options. You start by choosing one of 4 playable classes (Knight, Mage, Gunner, and Psychic) and one of 3 races (Kartu, Liru, and Sapiens). Inspirit Online features a unique 3 weapon s ..read more

If you’ve seen the infamous South Park parody of the popular online game World of Warcraft than you’re image of MMORPG players is likely to be that of greasy, overweight basement dwellers. Of course this popular stereotype couldn’t be further from the truth. It’s not just the nongaming public that holds this view. Even many gamers may have false notions of what kind of people make up the broad spectrum of MMORPG players. Research by such reputable organizations as Nielsen (a global compiler of TV and other media ratings) show that the male/female ratio in the high ..read more