year in review
Latest
The Nexus Telegraph: WildStar's year in review
I started this column early in December of 2012, which means that as of now I've been writing about WildStar once a week for a little over a year. It's also nearly the end of the year, which makes it an ideal time to write about the changes that we've seen to the game over the past year. So I'm just going to go ahead and ignore the slight discrepancy and use this column for both year-in-review elements. Obviously it's not exactly possible to look back at the changes to the game over the past year, since we're talking about a game still in the midst of its testing cycle. But we started the year without even knowing about one of the game's factions beyond a vague mention, much less the game's lore and classes. So let's look back at the last year of news and the last year of columns in their entirety.
Tech's biggest misfires of 2013
You can't win 'em all. The adage certainly holds in the fast-paced world of technology, where one small slip can put a damper on your entire year. Every year, among all of the celebrations of top gadgets and big news stories, we like to take a moment to acknowledge the other side of things. This time out, it's a pretty diverse list, from flubbed Kickstarter launches to massive governmental privacy breaches and yet another really lousy year for one smartphone manufacturer. But don't worry everyone; the year 2013 is nearly over.
The best of WoW Insider: October 2013
Another busy month! As you'd expect, more and more news related to BlizzCon picked up as October drew to a close, but this was also a heavy period for editorial work. We also had some of the best machinima of the year in October, and I'd like to draw some particular attention to The Phantom of the Battlegrounds. What a brilliant piece.
The best of WoW Insider: September 2013
Patch 5.4 went live on September 10th, and the month pretty much blew up from that point with an avalanche of editorials, art, predictions, and arguments. This and November were easily the busiest months of the year. The Know Your Lore column in particular went into overdrive in September analyzing what we found in the Siege of Orgrimmar raid, but this month was an embarrassment of riches no matter where you looked.
The Mog Log: 2013 in review for Final Fantasy XI and XIV
This feels as if it's been a really long year to me. Spending an entire year waiting for a game to re-release is certainly part of the reason why, but it really seems that there were a lot of things going on for both Final Fantasy XI and Final Fantasy XIV over the last 365-ish days. I didn't even do a year-in-review last year because what could be reviewed? One game shut down and was waiting for a full revamp, and the other was just hitting the numbers and moving along. This year, though, has been the big one. The fifth expansion that no one ever expected to release actually came out. The relaunch happened. A whole lot of mechanics got updated. I flew across the freaking country. It was a big year if you were a fan of online games with moogles, even if that year wound up being a lot bigger for Final Fantasy XIV than Final Fantasy XI.
The best of WoW Insider: August 2013
Patch 5.4 was gearing up to go live in early September, so it's not too surprising that August was dominated by the wait for both that and BlizzCon's approach. However, this turned out to be a very news-heavy months for a variety of reasons that had nothing to do with the patch. Also, The Burdens of Shahao was released this month. More like this, Blizz!
The best of WoW Insider: July 2013
July was a very heavy month for news on the patch 5.4 PTR, but it sparked a lot of good discussion concerning the new Proving Grounds feature and where the story would finally end in Mists of Pandaria. This was also an excellent month for the Know Your Lore column.
The best of WoW Insider: June 2013
Merry Christmas to all those who celebrate! And for everyone, stay safe out there today, particularly if you have to be out and about in bad weather. June 2013 saw an avalanche of information off the patch 5.4 PTR, announcements of several upcoming features like connected realms and flex raiding, some class introspection over action-bar bloat, and unfortunately for Mobile Armory users, a successful hacking attempt.
The best of WoW Insider: May 2013
May was all about patch 5.3 news, heroic scenarios, Battlefield: Barrens, and (strangely enough) an awful lot of debate over whether WoW was too easy or not. Where did that come from? Oh, well. We also got crochet worgen and a lot of really nifty screenshots in Around Azeroth in May.
The best of WoW Insider: April 2013
News was pretty slow in the early part of the month as everyone settled to the task of working to unlock all of the Isle of Thunder's goodies and getting to Lei Shen. Things picked up as more information rolled off the patch 5.3 PTR. There were three pretty obvious themes in April that got a lot of play: The game's gearing model and how it could be improved, the lack of tanks and healers in the Throne of Thunder LFR, and what on earth was going on with the Alliance and its major lore figures.
The best of WoW Insider: March 2013
This is the fifth year that I've done the Best of WoW Insider series, and I have rarely encountered a month in which it was harder to cut so much out in pursuit of the "best." March 2013 was embarrassingly full of riches. I mean, any month in which a major patch drops is always interesting, but this one just had a tidal wave of great commentary, screenshots, art, and machinima. I apologize to everyone and everything that I had to leave out. The end of the month did get a bit quieter. I can't tell whether that's because players settled down a little to work on the content, or if it's because Bioshock: Infinite dropped on the 26th and everyone played themselves into a state of collapse.
The best of WoW Insider: February 2013
February 2013 was largely consumed with PTR work in anticipation of patch 5.2, and I'd be remiss not to mention the insane amount of work that Matticus did to get us up-to-date and accurate information on what to expect in the Throne of Thunder. Apart from that, February saw a run of great raid and guild recruitment videos in Moviewatch (not all of which I was able to include here, regrettably) and a noticeable streak of class-based introspection.
The Best of WoW Insider: January 2013
Welcome back to the Best of WoW Insider series! If you're new to WoW Insider, every December we run a retrospective series on the best articles from the previous year and/or those pieces that most ably captured the zeitgeist of the WoW community. There'll be one retrospective post each day through December 31st, so keep checking back as we count down. We start today with January 2013, which saw patch 5.2 reach the PTR for the first time. Like other months in which the current raid content is stale and we're waiting on new PTR news, it was a very busy month for opinion pieces and the art scene. The latter in particular saw one of the year's most popular videos debut at the end of the month. For some reason, GC also popped up in the news a lot this January.
Dungeons & Dragons Online looks back at 2013 and forward to 2014
December isn't just a month for frenzied consumerism; it's almost the end of the year and time to start reflecting on what went well, what went badly, and what needs to change. So it's appropriate that the latest producer's letter for Dungeons & Dragons Online focuses on precisely that, looking back at 2013 and counting up the game's big hits and misses. The team feels that Epic Reincarnation and the Storm Horn Mountains were big wins, while the bug-plagued Mabar Festival was definitely a nadir. But there's no point in looking back if you don't look forward, and the letter does that as well. Four major content updates are planned for next year, featuring a boost of the level cap to 30, two new raids in the dwarven ruins of Thunderholme, a new set of guild airship models, and more beyond that. Take a look at the letter for an exact schedule and more discussion about the year's highs and lows.
The Tattered Notebook: Dishing out memories for EverQuest II's ninth birthday
Like its older sibling before it, EverQuest II doesn't show any signs of slipping quietly into the night as it ages. Another year has come and gone for the middle child in the EverQuest franchise, and plenty has transpired in those 52 weeks. You'd think after all the goings on of the game's eighth year that things might slow down a bit; after all, how do you top monumental occasions like going free-to-play? But no, the content train just kept rolling in. If you thought that there was already too much to do in EverQuest II when the ninth year started, I'm sorry to say that it just got worse -- or better, depending on how you look at it. That's not to say it was all rainbows and kittens and unicorns (although there were those, too!), but there were definitely plenty of positive happenings throughout the year. From demonstrations of great community spirit to updates galore, the past 12 months have been filled with things both big and small. Take a stroll with me down memory lane as we celebrate EQII's ninth anniversary.
Wings Over Atreia: Aion's anniversary marks four years
Hmmm? What's that you say -- another year has passed? Well I'll be... you're right! If you are anything like me, a large chunk of Aion's fourth year crawled by at an agonizingly slow pace as you waited through all the newsbytes and teasing for the big 4.0 expansion and its new classes. Then, once Dark Betrayal finally arrived, the last quarter of the year just zipped by with hardly a notice. And quite frankly, it doesn't really feel as if four years have passed since Atreia first opened up and welcomed eager Daevas, but it really has. So happy fourth birthday, Aion! As is customary here at Massively, on this auspicious anniversary day I'm going to dedicate this Wings Over Atreia to a reflection on the past year, looking at what has changed since our last stroll down memory lane and what has stayed the same. And you are cordially invited to join me for plenty of reminiscing... and of course, CAKE!
Chaos Theory: Reflecting on The Secret World's first year
Bring out the cake and light the candle! Exactly 365 days ago today, the MMO stork delivered a new bundle of joy to gamers, one with a modern setting, cerebral challenges, and a unique take on the genre. And now that little bundle has sprouted up, weathering its share of growing pains over the last 12 months to carve out its niche in the MMOverse. Happy first birthday, The Secret World! To commemorate this auspicious occasion, I was going to burst out in a traditional song, but then I got an even better idea. I decided to instead do that other mainstay staple that happens at the celebratory gatherings for youngsters: bring out the baby scrapbook! As both new friends and old gather together to help celebrate this milestone, join me in flipping through the the pages of TSW's memory album chronicling the ups and downs of its first year of life.
Storyboard: The way it was for three years
Roleplaying is the same as it ever was. People are still shoehorning in lore characters into backstories, someone is a sparkly magic vampire, and you can still turn a corner in a tavern to find two people with a decided lack of gear or public shame. (In Second Life, that corner is the one you turn to download the game.) But I've had three years of talking about it, so it's at least a little different than it was. I don't know if I'd go so far as to say it's better. Every year I like to take a look back at the past year, talk about what worked well, what didn't work at all, and what I'd like to do in the future. So it is for this year, complete with a nice big surprise down at the end there. Regular readers may be less surprised, but you can just bear with me.
The Mog Log: A year of columns in review
Three years is not a lot of time to do anything. I'm continually surprised by the fact that I've been writing about video games professionally for three years of my life, which is admittedly only 10% of my life to date but still seems astonishing. This also marks the start of the third year of The Mog Log, which means that I've been talking about moogles and cat-women professionally for a tenth of my life. I use thoughts like that to keep me warm at night. As always, the anniversary mark is about the time when I look back at the column thus far and see how well it's done as a whole. Last year I wanted to really switch up what I did with my coverage for Final Fantasy XIV and Final Fantasy XI, and I think that by and large it worked pretty well. So let's do the usual thing wherein I look back, you take a trip down memory lane with me, and we all walk away feeling smarter. Or, if that doesn't sound interesting, you could just go look at some cat pictures.
Captain's Log: Our Star Trek Online year in review plus a look ahead
As I took the time to really go over the past 12 months in Star Trek Online, I began to realize just how much the game had changed between this time last year and now. While some people will never be pleased, I can't say I'm one of those people. I'm utterly delighted by most of the changes in the game and am looking forward to the expansion of the reputation system into 2013. With that said, however, there are improvements that Star Trek Online still needs if it wants to quell some of the harshest (and sometimes deserved) critiques. Join me as I finish up my year in review and then touch on some of Executive Producer Daniel Stahl's answers to player questions in this month's Ask Cryptic post.
