Gruesome crossword puzzle clue

Ever find yourself complaining that all of the PvE content in your MMO is nothing but shooting something in the face or chopping down a tree (in its face)? That mindless combat can be relaxing and emotionally satisfying, but sometimes you want content to challenge your brain. When that happens, we turn to a rarity in the MMO space: Games that place a strong emphasis on puzzles and riddles. Sure, many MMOs will pepper in a puzzle here or there, but it’s often the exception born from a smidgen of developer free time. The actual pool of titles that access your logic and problem-solving centers of your brain is much smaller, so much so that this list is going to have to strain credulity just to make it to 10 (but we did it, because we’re professionals who need that nice round number). If you’re looking for brain-benders, environmental challenges, and ridiculous riddles, these are the 10 MMOs to check out! The adventure game genre has a long-standing tradition of … [Read more...] about Perfect Ten: MMOs for puzzle lovers

Can we make ourselves any smarter? The answer to that particular question is still a puzzle, trying to be solved by scientists all over the world. The most common measure of how smart a person boils down to a simple calculation, known as the Intelligence Quotient or IQ. While there have been papers published stating how brain exercises could help people improve their IQ’s, there has also been researched papers published opposing the said notion. A study published in 2008, led by Susanne Jaeggi, now a professor at The University of California at Irvine, conducted tests which reflected on how ‘fluid intelligence’ or the ability to solve novel problems works. The test sample was divided into two groups each, one training and one control group. The training group showed significant improvements in the reasoning ability test, where the control group lagged behind. This scientific study and a few others (Roche, Cassidy, et al. 2013), published evidence to the fact that … [Read more...] about 8 Brain Exercises To Improve your IQ Score

I recently went on a rant about gaming, but it wasn’t directed at gaming. It was in defense of gaming. I am so weary of our pastime getting slammed as wrong, evil, or equated as an automatic addiction. Games are bad! Gamers are bad! It is what the mainstream media portrays, it’s what politicians portray, and it is what those with an agenda want John Q. Public to believe. I have been seeing this media-fueled fallacy more and more often coming from good people and it drives me bonkers. So after a slew of comments of that sort happened in a very diverse group I am a part of, I felt I needed to educate some of these otherwise wonderful folks about the topic. While I have no desire to tell folks what they can or can’t do in their own home or when raising their family, I really wish people would stop vilifying video games and gamers. I feel it is important to combat misinformation that leads to misjudgment. It struck me how often we as gamers need to have this conversation, … [Read more...] about The Soapbox: Six responses to the ‘gaming is wrong/evil/an addiction’ argument

Welcome back to our ongoing exploration of Rachel Kowert and Thorsten Quandt’s book The Video Game Debate. As you can guess, the book itself focuses on games in general, not just MMOs and online games, so I was able to apply today’s chapter on moral panic to recent trending indie RPG Undertale. I’ve argued to educators that not only is there evidence that games can positively affect morals, but that part of Undertale’s charm is that we know we can do bad things yet are emotionally rewarded for acting in a peaceful manner. In fact, the game actively discourages you from committing violence by constantly trying to include you with its cast of characters. Then someone on Reddit stepped into a conversation and asked, “What about all the griefing in sandbox games”? It’s a great question, and one addressed in this chapter. Game history of violence… and stories Before we get into morality, we need to talk … [Read more...] about Exploring ‘The Video Game Debate’: Moral panic and online griefing

Doesn’t it seem as if BlizzCon was weeks ago? Nope, just one week. So over the last seven days, the gaming community has been mulling over the convention and where it went wrong. Probably not from their phones. Investors didn’t seem too pleased with the Diablo Immortal reaction or the company’s third quarter financials either. Meanwhile, MMORPG Lord of the Rings Online successfully launched its first-ever progression server, seeing so much demand on day one that Standing Stone rolled out a second. Read on to catch up with the very best of this week’s MMO news and opinions today as every Sunday in Massively Overpowered’s Week in Review! THIS WEEK’S TOP STORIES BlizzCon 2018: What the heck happened? - Every year, I cover BlizzCon for Massively Overpowered. This is not new information; you've all seen my liveblogs running every year for quite some time. And the reception of any… Lord of the Rings Online opens the doors to its first … [Read more...] about MMO Week in Review: BlizzCon aftermath, LOTRO’s next big thing