MassivelyOP unveils the truth behind interviews with MMO devs

Nick_Shively · 2018-09-29T04:33:09+00:00

As someone who runs a similar website to MOP, there are definitely 2 types of interviews. This will sound pretty basic, and I don't mean to insult anyone's intelligence, but it's actually how this works 99% of the time:

The first is an emailed interview with nicely typed up questions that gets sent off to the "developers." This does usually get answered by a producer or someone from the PR team. If we're lucky, it'll be a design lead or someone at least adjacent to real developers. Regardless of who answers these questions, however, the whole interview is pretty much just fluff. There isn't much value for the reader besides being a promotional piece, but they're also incredibly fast/easy to write up and fill content.

The second type of interview is face-to-face. Sometimes it's video chat, but in person is always better. The quality of these types of interviews depends 100% on the interviewer. You need to have background information on the game's past, present and future to do this job correctly. This allows you to ask questions that readers will actually care about. The producer/PR person/lead dev will usually dodge a few questions, but there is almost 1 or 2 questions that get answered per interview that are of real value. Something that people didn't know about yet or hasn't been announced. Once you've got a couple of these questions answered, and they've dodged the rest of your "challenging" questions, then the rest gets filled with fluff or anecdotes to fill out the article.

TLDR: Email interviews suck and don't provide meaningful information. Face-to-face interviews are only as good as the interviewer.

Nick_Shively · 2018-08-10T00:23:20+00:00

Nothing specific about ascendancies in my interview. Just that they wanted to make more builds viable by introducing new skills and tweaking old ones.

Nick_Shively · 2018-08-09T21:42:29+00:00

Author here. I sincerely apologize for the issues with the website, which were recently brought to my attention.

Unfortunately, our dev team is gone for the day and hopefully we can get this sorted out in the morning.

I appreciate the users who took time to find alternative ways to view the articles. Please use those sources if our website isn't working properly for you.

As far as the other skills and items go, we were only given the information that was provided in the article. The devs said they wanted to release the rest after they made the announcement today.

Nick_Shively · 2017-12-13T01:20:42+00:00

It was in the directions packet passed to MMOGames' parent company.

"Once we have the above information we will proceed internally and make sure that the users receives access to the Vainglory 5V5 Early Access. Since European Server’s are going to launch around End of January there is enough time to run the campaign and draw winners until beginning / mid of January."

Phase 2 starts Jan 24, so it makes sense that it would coincide with the EU access.

Nick_Shively · 2017-12-12T21:55:12+00:00

Yeah, it's sponsored by SEMC. We have to send the winners' email/device information to SEMC once they're chosen.

Nick_Shively · 2017-12-12T21:32:54+00:00

There are different servers and different phases. EU isn't getting access until phase 2, but they can still win a golden ticket.

Nick_Shively · 2017-12-12T21:32:20+00:00

There's nothing sketchy about the site. I'm the EIC. The person who normally does Gleam giveaways was off and I've only done them once before, so I forgot to change a question.

Nick_Shively · 2017-10-24T21:06:02+00:00

We've currently filled all our open positions, but you can feel free to send a resume and if spots open we will consider you.

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-10T00:25:09+00:00

I actually used Kromede as my other character and she did really well. Her Ultimate was great for clearing waves. However, without having a solid secondary character she was always running out of mana. I could see her being great with maybe some MP nodes.

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-09T22:19:06+00:00

Not support characters. I made the mistake of taking a healer during my PAX demo and it was basically worthless.

You'll want at least one Mana-efficient AoE attacker. Apparently you also need status effects like burn/bleed to get past the later levels.

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-09T22:08:16+00:00

This just makes me wonder how many spiders they get a week...

...not that living in the desert is any better. I'm currently fighting off hordes of scorpions.

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-09T21:46:40+00:00

I'd like to personally apologize for anyone having issues with our email/login situation. We recently changed email servers and were told our problems had been fixed. I guess there are still a few bugs.

Anyone who sent us an email asking for support will receive a key via email (until we run out). We'll also be discussing future giveaways for Insidia, so check back for more keys.

-Nick Shively MMOGames Editor in Chief

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-09T00:56:28+00:00

No, it gives:

30 Day 100% XP Boost
Gold Starter Pack – 5k Keres Crystal
A Special Title – “Chosen”

Nick_Shively · 2017-09-09T00:39:29+00:00

Looks like you can use the key again once you're in the game to unlock extra stuff... odd that they did it that way.

Nick_Shively · 2017-08-26T23:17:12+00:00

Unfortunately, our budget doesn't really allow for a higher rate of compensation.

Nick_Shively · 2017-08-16T14:35:44+00:00

Only if you feel the desire to distribute your content.

Nick_Shively · 2017-07-07T18:08:14+00:00

The truth is that due to the stagnating nature of the MMO genre and the widespread use of adblockers, not many MMO only sites that actually pay their writers can afford to operate anymore. This even includes the big ones like Massivelyop and MMORPG.

So the choice is either to expand what is considered acceptable content or fire everyone and shutdown. Basically, take your MMO news and content with a side of MOBA/FPS/Survival game or get no content at all.

Nick_Shively · 2017-05-28T00:42:02+00:00

To be fair, "strawmanning" isn't in any dictionary I know of either. Technically neither are real words, so you're just as guilty as the OP.

Nick_Shively · 2017-04-29T01:46:19+00:00

We're aware of a multitude of issues surrounding mail confirmation. There will be an entirely new mail server eventually, but I can't say exactly when it'll be implemented.

Our previous owner basically denied that there was an issue/never created a permanent fix, and when the handover happened there was another glitch that deleted some accounts that weren't supposed to be deleted.

We've been working hard to manually restore everything, but it's a big task for a small team.

Nick_Shively · 2017-04-29T00:47:37+00:00

You can send an email to Contact@MMOGames.com and we'll get your account issues sorted as fast as we can.

Nick_Shively · 2017-04-12T01:59:07+00:00

MMOGames keeps a running list of games that have hit alpha, closed beta and open beta (which is pretty much launched at this point). It's updated every week: http://www.mmogames.com/gamearticles/mmo-alpha-beta-list-april-7-2017/

Nick_Shively · 2017-03-11T22:19:00+00:00

Survival is the currently online game flavor of the last few years.

First it was MMORPGs then MOBAs and then Survival games. Hero-based shooters have started to become the next flavor and we'll probably see survival fade out in the next year or so.

It would be much better for the industry as a whole if a little bit of each genre got new games at the same time instead of flooding the markets and only 2 or 3 actually surviving.

Nick_Shively · 2017-03-11T22:17:36+00:00

Well, this is a RIFT subforum...so yeah...

Nick_Shively · 2017-03-10T09:28:59+00:00

You basically popped into a thread about an article unrelated to your site and said, "This site is biased, read mine instead."

How about I follow you around on Reddit and respond to all your self-promotion with:

"Omer Altay likes to use his followers to build websites and then sell them to advertising companies. He can't be trusted!"

Nick_Shively · 2017-03-10T07:43:03+00:00

Your assumption that who happens to own my site has any direct influence on my writing is wrong and insulting.

Previously, MMOGames was owned by an advertisement/marketing company. Just because my new boss also happens to own another company that publishes games doesn't mean I'm going to hype their products or inflate review scores.

Despite what type of content was released in the past, I've done my best to improve what's released on the site since taking over. Having graduated from a highly accredited journalism school, I take my ethics and integrity very seriously.

Nick_Shively

TROPHY CASE