StevenMessner

It's no secret that the model for subscription-based MMORPGs is rapidly shrinking. Where coughing up fifteen dollars a month used to be par for the course in most online games, things are shifting towards the "freemium" subscription model where the cost of entry for games is free but as soon as you step inside you're likely to be funneled down a corridor made of hands that are constantly groping you until you finally throw them your wallet just to make the awkward torture stop.

Now, Bainard is hurting both mentally and physically. She picked up a disease in the ruins, along with a few negative quirks, like agoraphobia and satanophobia that don't compliment her pre-existing mental conditions all that well. Not only that, but the stress of the excursion-gone-bad broke her, turning her into a coward.

If you want one good reason why EVE Online is unlike, and in some ways more capable than, any other MMORPG, you only need to experience the joy of the hunt. The thrill of watching your prey, biding your time until that perfect moment when they are at their weakest. That moment when the stars align and their guard slips—who would notice?—and you're there to make them bleed for that tiniest of mistakes. That is the EVE Online I love.

Few things in EVE have garnered as much attention from the outside world as the art of spying and counterintelligence. That shouldn't be all that surprising considering it is an aspect of play that is almost wholly unique to EVE Online; few other games will ever reach the depth and scale to make spying not only profitable, but downright necessary in order to succeed.

Albion Online is many things, but it certainly isn't shy about its huge grind. In fact, where most games try to hide their grind behind neatly dissected levels and gradual spoon feedings of content, Albion displays it proudly on its Destiny Board—a map that helps you chart your progress through the game. "Look at me," it says. "Look at how many countless hours you will need to spend to ever wield the best items in the game."

But as someone who never really took the time to pay much attention to Mechwarrior Online and the much larger Battletech universe, the highlight of my evening was sitting down and talking with Russ Bullock, president of Piranha Games. If one person would be able to convince me that Mechwarrior Online was a game worth playing, surely this man would be the one.

Mechwarrior Online has had a long road to get to where it is today, and the mood of the Steam launch event—where almost 200 fans have gathered alongside Piranha Games staff—couldn't reflect that any better. On one hand, the evening feels like a celebration of the milestones that Mechwarrior Online has achieved to date.

There is a huge discussion to be had with regards to EVE Online and the way it treats new pilots. I've touched on that discussion at certain points in the past, either relaying my own experiences with EVE, talking to pilots who went from nobodies to some of the biggest players in the game, and more.

Grath Telkin has a bit of a reputation. In the null-sec space of EVE Online, he is easily one of the most recognizable names, known for yelling at people and leading some of the most cutthroat players in the game. Pandemic Legion is a wrecking ball swinging from one fragile null-sec empire to the next, and their reputation for crushing their foes is, at this point, pretty well solidified.

MOBAs are the hottest new genre that it seems like every company needs to develop a game for, and NCsoft is no different. The key thing here is that Master X Master, which was announced some years ago and is expected to arrive in the latter half of 2016, isn't just another MOBA. As part of my trip to Korea to check out NCsoft's headquarters in Pangyo, South Korea, we also attended roughly a half hour of hands on time with Master X Master, including a preview of its PvE and PvP elements.

As part of my trip to South Korea, where I spent tons of time with Blade and Soul, learning about NCsoft, and a brief demo of a new NCsoft game that will be making the jump to the West, the big focus was undoubtedly on the healthy eSports scene that Blade and Soul has carved out for itself since it launched in the East four years prior. And now, after four years of building momentum, that scene is about to crack wide open as western audiences are allowed to compete.

Come this January, Blade & Soul will finally be available for North American and European audiences—a painfully long wait for those craving the masterful approach to combat in this far-eastern MMORPG. As part of a week-long event culminating in the Blade and Soul 2015 World Championships, NCsoft invited me to get an inside peek at the development of Blade and Soul, experiencing both how it intends to conquer eSports and provide an engaging online world to explore.

Meeting someone in person that you've only ever talked to online is a surreal experience. When we talk to people on the internet, they tend to exist in this space where we ascribe them certain features and characteristics that aren't really based on anything. We hear a voice, maybe see a few photos, and our brains fill in a billion blanks so that the voice we hear isn't just some detached sound filtered through thousands of miles of cables. We compensate for what we don't know about them.

The Human Protein Atlas has a problem. In its database exists over 13 million images that need mapping, and there just simply aren't enough scientists to do it. But in the coming months, EVE Online players will be able to channel their passion for science fiction into solving this problem.

My favorite moment of EVE Vegas 2015 was the swell of the crowd when the first new doomsday weapon was shown to the audience that had travelled around the world to pack themselves into the Planet Hollywood conference center. As the laser beam charged, you could sense a spike in tension that, as the beam finally exploded forward and began cleaving a path across the sky, erupted into applause and excitement as fans cheered and screamed.