Massively^™

Massively is the one-stop shopping destination for MMO news that I always wanted. I'm interested in what's going on with the genre, but it's pointless to try to keep up with blogs about this game or that game when what was really needed was an aggregator. So thanks bunches. On to the other stuff...

I appreciate that the writer(s) of some of the columns interact with posters, but feeding the trolls just serves to add bloat. It doesn't happen often, but when I see that something was commented on thirty times I am a little disappointed when most/all of those posts were between two people or some such madness.

It's a personal taste, but I wouldn't mind seeing more articles involving in-game drama. Seriously, why do we play MMO's? It's because there are lots of people, some of them are absolutely squirrel bait, and they do crazy shit. If there is some epic drama involving one of the top three raiding/pvp guilds in WoW like they just imploded and someone posted all of their dirty laundry then it would be cool to see that.

One of my dreams is to turn on the TV one day and see a thirty minute news show about MMO's where they interview a guy that ninja looted some crap in an MMO after he pretended to be a woman for six months to gain the confidence of his e-boyfriend who was the guild leader. Jerry...Jerry...Jerry.

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It's on my hotbar, check it daily, usually more than once.

Love the Oneshots the most.

Hate the daily SecondLife/WoW news.

Wish there was a settings config where we could log in and select what news we don't want to see or want to see on the front page. Right now I have to muster the strength to scroll past them. I don't know how much longer I can keep doing it! haha

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I read all Second Life postings, and I read them only.

I'm fine with the Second Life category (I'm using a feed aggregator).

I'm on Twitter, but I don't follow http://twitter.com/massively because I'm interested in SL posts only.

I'd like to read even more technical articles. The ones Tateru Nino writes about SL are almost the best ones you could read about these topics.

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If I could do one thing with Massively, it would be a daily news podcast. Gather up a group of people, talk about daily stuff, upload it.

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I dislike having to wade through the second life stuff, but I love the coverage on the other games...even ones I don't play. I don't think that Massively has a large community just yet (I go to wowinsider and there's 3 pages of comments on each post and rarely comments on any of the posts here), but I check massively several times a day while at work.

I don't care much for the videos (at work, can't watch) and while I don't usually check the site on the weekends, it's nice to keep me busy.

I wish that there were some more articles, more interviews with developers, and some better reviews. Instead of reviewing from one person's POV, have several different reporters blog about a game or an expansion.

As for another suggestion, maybe put up a filter that will let us see only what we want (no more SL! It's not a game!)

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I stopped listening to the podcast half way through the third one. I just didn't find anything unique, entertaining, or interesting in them. They kinda felt like a repeat of what had been posted on the site over the last week.

Outside the podcast, the site is great. All sorts of good news that I don't find anywhere else about things I actually would like to know about!

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Well, I only check the RSS feed of Second Life, actually. No real suprise there.

The _only_ real thing that would make me more of a Massively follower is if you recognized the differences in VWs and Online Games, maybe separating it into two different channels. One for the gaming stuff and one for the virtual worlds environment.
With all their shortcomings compared to SL, I am still interested in hearing at least some news regarding Twinity, Kaneva, There.com, not to mention the Open Sim projects going on, etc, etc, etc.
As it is now, I unfortunately get more relevant news regarding VWs through Twitter than this site, which I think is a pity.
I think you may have a potential, knowing how talented your VW staff is, and I would love to see you exploit it more.

As for the separating part, come on, chaps, it really can't be that hard. Yes, the border is fleeting, it is to some extent a matter of personal flavour. Sure, you can percieve VWs as games, because they have their potential in it. But there is no way WoW, Lord of the Rings whatever the correct name, nor the Conan game can ever be considered true VWs.

I think someone once said "A compromise is a solution that leaves both parties unsatisfied."
If you only dare to do it, I think you can provide a satisfying solution for both parties, game players and virtual worlders alike. :)

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"One of my dreams is to turn on the TV one day and see a thirty minute news show about MMO's"

Good lord, you just gave me a horrible "Portal" flashback. If anyone else ever saw that on G4.

Generally speaking I'm pretty happy with Massive these days. I access via RSS feed so skipping Second Life stuff is easy for me, but I do appreciate that you've toned down the coverage a bit. I don't miss that daily money post, for instance.

I've had some pretty interesting discussions with a few of your bloggers in comments. I don't think its inherently bad for there to be a long string of comments that is a back-and-forth between two people, as long as the comments have actual content.

My biggest "gripe" is when a post seems to be deliberately inflammatory, because the cynic in me just assumes the blogger wants to get a lot of comments. There's enough information on the web about how you all get paid that anyone who does some research can understand my cynicism.

But aside from picking out a few posts I don't think were worth posting, I'm pretty pleased with the site and check it frequently throughout the day. You've been a bit "breathlessly enthusiastic" about Age of Conan, but I guess that's part of the job. I guess I'd rather you give it a chance than slam it before it launches.

Some stuff I don't bother with, like most of the machinima posts, but that's ok; not everyone can like everything. I don't really get what TurpsterVision is and have never read one of those, and there's some comic-thing that I've always skipped.

I know I've been a thorn in the side of a few of your bloggers, and I hope they understand it isn't personal. If I read something that I perceive as mis-information I can't help but try to correct it; sometimes I've been proven wrong (which is great -- it means I've learned something) and sometimes not. The nice thing is, to the best of my knowledge you've never deleted a comment.

The commenting system itself is pretty crap, but that's not a Massively issue, that's a BlogSmith problem. Sometimes comments just don't go through. Sometimes replies don't end up being replies... but again, that's no fault of the bloggers here.

Keep up the good work and I'll keep reading. And thanks for mentioning your twitter account. I've started following you as of this am.

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I love the site - thanks for all the great work.

My only suggestion would be to please add some kind of indication as to what platform/s a game is available for. Perhaps small icons that would let the user know at a glance whether the game is available for PC, Mac, Xbox, etc.

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Jeni: We just put up a producer interview today, with another coming tomorrow, and I'm about to start a series called 'Indievelopment', where I interview devs from the more fringe MMO universe, like Star Wars Combine and Pokemon World Online. We're on it!

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I've been vocal with massively as a whole since day 1 (too vocal? lol) and I finally have nothing left to say =) Thats why I haven't been commenting as much recently, I don't think you need my input anymore. All the changes since the last time you asked how you're doing really worked. The site is much more fun and exciting!

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I do believe splitting out mmogs and VW's into seperate sections may be sensible.

Understandably game world folk may get bored by the general virtual world news SL generates, and the editorial style it requires. Similarly I think VW interested folk (of which SL is the behemoth at the moment) would benefit from a bit more Kaneva, There, and other related coverage with their SL news. VW coverage tends to get lost in the rest of the MMOG material as it's 90% SL (which folk filter for) or something else in amongst the gamer stuff, and falls off the radar.

MMOGS and VW's are related but very different things, and I can see a day coming soon when SL isnt the only game in town. Expanding SL to be a more general VW area (with tags of course) allows for crossover into virtual world aspects of mmogs to be covered (Entropia' aspects which verge on general purpose vw's for example may be of interest to SL users). Anyway I think giving some seperation in the site between mmog and VW areas would serve both communities.

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One of the first sites I come to in the morning, keep the Second Life Daily News, great one stop place for quick information. I don't think i would taken anything away, I enjoy the diversity.
Things I would like to see:
1. Not necessarily more internal drama, but perhaps information/story on changes in the business world, ie. major club or retailer selling their business, adding a partner, expanding, collapsing, trends developing that are more than just fashion related.
2. Maybe some product or gadget (both in-world and out) that might be useful in a general way could be mentioned; not sure if i mean a review type section, I know this could get overwhelming and you don't want to turn this site into some extended commercial blog.
3. Information on open source work others are doing. I found the Nicholaz edition through your blog.
4. Also links or columns on work/research being done on virtual worlds and MMOG through universities and business, which look at the social, psychological, economic, cultural and philosophical meaning of this new reality.
5. Technical information is always needed, especially for us almost tech savvy who can be more dangerous when problems or advancements arise, because we just don't quite understand the complexity of the problem.
Thanks for all the great work and writing

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Yours is the one site I check daily for Second Life news. As for suggestions, I'm drawing a blank because your coverage is superb. Tateru Nino's articles are thoughtful and thorough; I wish the RL news sites I read all had writers of her caliber.

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Less news on games and more on Second Life... Maybe even give the Second Life section a nice clean white design with far less game ads and guff.

Hmmm.... something like SL Insider?

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I read this blog mainly for Second Life news as well. Since I'm a gamer at heart, I do pay interest to the rest of the coverage. It does feel like Massively's marriage with gamers and Second Life's news is a bit forced. People like me who enjoys Second Life news along side with regular gamer news are probably not be majority.

However, Second Life posts especially the ones by Tateru Nino is the meat of my daily massively diet =] I too vote for an author based RSS! It pains me to miss a Tateru post.

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