Betawatch: Torchlight III does its final pre-launch wipe
Gosh, what a strange road it has been for Torchlight III. Like… at one point that wasn't even its name. But the important thing is that the game has just had its last major update and character wipe that's expected before the game's full launch, which means that launch is probably not too far off. […]
MMO Business Roundup: GDC 2021, Netmarble, NYCC, voice actors, Gamescom, Steam's autumn festival
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and MMO-adjacent industry news! GDC 2021: Fresh off the digital GDC Summer 2020, Informa Tech announced that its 2021 event will be a hybrid event, offering in-person content in San Francisco and online content too, from July 19th through July 23rd. It looks as if this will be […]
Atlas adds Warehouses to store all of your Farmhouse resources
Picture this: A pirate in full piratical garb is marching across a sandy beach with armfuls of wheat, slipping along the sand as he stumbles toward a storage facility. Tripping on a crab, he falls over and sends wheat scattering everywhere, then looks at the camera in exasperation and says, "There's got to be a […]
Black Desert's Shadow Arena unlocks all heroes this month and adds a new one
"A new warrior eyes the battlefield, wielding her battle axe and shield of revenge." While we here at Massively OP only have battle axes of indigestion and shields of Netflix binging, Black Desert's Shadow Arena spin-off is bringing a fierce new fighter into the fray. Her name is Igrid, and she will end you. By […]
Elite Dangerous adjusts overlapping hotspots and tritium performance
Fleet carriers are big and they cause balance issues in Elite Dangerous. Not unfixable ones, mind you; just ones that have to be adjusted over time. For example, one of the existing problems in place was that overlapping hotspots for resources were overwhelmingly powerful, so that was patched to no longer be the case and […]
Pagan Online rebrands as Pagan: Absent Gods after jettisoning multiplayer
If it escaped your attention last month, Pagan Online is, well, no longer online. Studio Mad Head said that the multiplayer servers were "not sustainable" and that it didn't have plans to add more content in any case, especially once it was cut loose from Wargaming's publishing arm. Now, Mad Head has rebranded the action […]
Red Dead Online opens up two new legendary coyotes for players to hunt
Inside of you there are two wolves. Inside of Red Dead Online there are two legendary coyotes. What you should do is get the two wolves inside of you to fight the two legendary coyotes because that would be kind of awesome, but what you can actually do is work to track down the Red […]
Leaderboard: Why do you 'work' in MMORPGs?
A while back, WAPO put up a piece called Why do we enjoy games that make us work? Proficiency, control, fairness, escape. This is a topic I have come back to over and over through the years, a search through our database shows me. But I can't help it: There was the one about workification vs. […]
Aion outlines its balance update in the wake of Shadows of Balaurea
There is not a great deal of new content in the next patch for Aion in North America. There is some, of course; for example, players will have access to two new ultimate transformations (Tiamat and Ereshkigal) with associated collections. But most of what next Wednesday will bring involves changes to balance, like how every […]
GDC Summer 2020: Better living, climate awareness, and citizen science through games
Way back during GDC 2018, I covered several panels relating to gaming for good. Things like citizen science projects, games as medicine or for health education, charities, and more. Considering how much COVID has impacted our societies, it should be no surprise that some of this year's GDC Summer 2020 panels addressed that and other […]
When the COVID dust settles, Nexon hopes to be among entertainment's winners
Nexon CEO Owen Mahoney recently gave one whooper of an interview to GamesIndustry.biz arguing that the games industry is reaching a "major transition point" for a "new generation of major entertainment companies." To prove his point, he invokes no less than the Mouse House and the impact of COVID. "Think about it: On January 1, […]
Massively Overthinking: Jumping the shark in MMOs
I'm sure those few people out there still bearing a grudge over the Rune-keeper would disagree with me, but one of the things that attracts me to LOTRO is my sense that it's never jumped the shark and done something truly out of whack for the game. It's fantasy, but it's pretty low for fantasy, […]
Fallout 76 starts testing its One Wasteland leveling revamp
One of Fallout 76's more significant design flaws has a big fix in the works — and you can test it out right now. On the PTS, Fallout 76 is putting its One Wasteland revamp through the paces. This update will make the whole game accessible to all players. "Creature levels throughout Appalachia will now […]
Nexon's V4 plans new zones and quests August 25, web-based minigame now
MOP's Carlo has been obsessively playing one game for the last few weeks: Nexon's brand-new crossplatform MMO V4. The game rolled out toward the end of July with its flashy Unreal Engine graphics and PvPvE and nobile-friendly automated gameplay. And now, Nexon has announced the game's next content launch is on the way for August […]
Epic Games could lose almost $50M every month the Fortnite Apple/Google lawsuits go on
Yesterday, we covered the emerging legal drama between Epic Games and… well, everyone with a platform trying to take a cut from transactions inside apps. Epic implemented discounted direct payments inside its mobile apps, inciting Apple and Google to ban Fortnite from their marketplaces, which in turn allowed Epic to drop its prepared "Nineteen Eighty-Fortnite" […]
Into the Super-verse: Early impressions of Valiance Online
When I heard that Valiance Online was going to be running an open beta this week to coincide with the PlayNYC convention, I knew I had to get in and check out what this superhero MMO had going on so far. Valiance Online's always seemed like it's been trailing the other two serious City of […]
World of Warcraft shows off Shadowlands adventures, opens Classic's Ahn'Qiraj raids
Ever since mission tables were introduced in Warlords of Draenor, Blizzard has struggled to figure out what to do with World of Warcraft's offline systems. When Shadowlands comes to town, it's going to try something a little different than before as it introduces adventures. Adventures is basically an offline autobattler that lets the player set […]
Final Fantasy XIV states more housing plots are on the way for patch 5.4
Back in March, Final Fantasy XIV's developers turned off the housing demolition timers due to the ongoing global pandemic, so no one has to worry about logging on to the game to make sure a house isn't demolished. This is a good thing, and it's not changing soon. Unfortunately, it also means that inactive houses […]
The Daily Grind: Do you play MMOs with 'rested experience' in mind?
Let's talk about rested experience in online games this morning. MMOs call them all sorts of things, but World of Warcraft's has stuck the best in my brain, even if it wasn't at all "first": It's basically a way of granting boosted experience for a certain chunk of future experience, usually based on some factor […]
Epic Games is suing Apple (and probably Google too) over its payment monopoly
Epic Games is really swinging for the bleachers on this one. Earlier today, Epic revealed the Fortnite "mega drop" – a permanent discount of up to 20% on V-Bucks in the game for its console and desktop versions. "This isn't a sale," Epic assured players. As part of the deal, the company also implemented "Epic […]
Chronicles of Spellborn's rogue server makes a sizeable balance pass and adjustment update
It looks like the stewards of the rogue server for Chronicles of Spellborn have been extremely busy. In a now-deleted but digitally recovered post on the MMORPG subreddit, the devs share the patch notes for an update that makes a whole slew of changes. Among these updates are general bug fixes to quests, some improvements […]
Iron Harvest is a multiplayer RTS set in a robot-filled 1920s era, now in open beta
Developer KING Art Games and publisher Deep Silver have dared to ask, "What if the Polish-Soviet War had robots in it?" That's the general setup for Iron Harvest, a real-time strategy title that pits three factions — Polania, Saxony, and Rusviet — in a war with one another in an alternate reality 1920s setting where […]
Grand Theft Auto Online's latest update brings summer fun, Los Santos style
When you think of summer fun, do you think of armed felonies? It's kind of a thing in Grand Theft Auto Online, you know, and the new summer update is specifically the Los Santos Summer Special. That does mean players can take on new content, like new open-wheel races complete with a race track creator… […]
Path of Exile confirms that Harvest mechanics will not be coming to the base game… at least not yet
The current limited-time challenge league in Path of Exile seems to be rather popular with its more deterministic approach to crafting, so it definitely has mechanics that players like. The developers also quite like the mechanics, as it turns out… but despite that, these mechanics will not be getting added to the main game, at […]
Warframe moves Orokin Derelicts and shares details of a 'frame-eating mouth ahead of Heart of Deimos
As the Heart of Deimos update to Warframe slowly makes its way to the game, a recent update on PC has done a fair bit of foundation laying in what's being called the Derelict Shift update. This update, as its name implies, has shifted Orokin Derelict Nodes, moving them in orbit around Mars. Furthermore, accessing […]
Pearl Abyss Q2 2020: EVE Online is doing great, NA/EU drives 48% of company revenues
Pearl Abyss dropped its second quarter financial report today: The South Korean MMO company saw its revenues decline ever so slightly, down to 131.7 billion KRW (111 million USD), representing a drop of 1.1% since last quarter and 8.4% since last year. But of course, as we noted last quarter, last year saw the launch […]
GDC Summer 2020: Creating kinder digital communities outside of online games
I don't know about the rest of you, but I've found that being familiar with online communities and tech has really helped me survive our COVID situation. As I'd developed fewer digital habits in recent years, the outbreak felt like a very personal blow. I felt as if I'd made a lot of progress only […]
The Elder Scrolls Online offers an in-depth peek at the Stone Garden dungeon
Alchemists. Can't live with 'em, can't have a slightly unsettling dungeon crawl without 'em. There's something about this particular line of fantastical scientific inquiry that breeds madmen, and the Stone Garden dungeon arriving as part of The Elder Scrolls Online's Stonethorn DLC continues the trend as evidenced by the most recent preview. Unlike the last […]
NCsoft Q2 2020: Lineage 2M drives revenue as Aion and Lineage flag and Guild Wars 2 rebounds
MMO readers will recall that NCsoft has been having a big year for revenue, doubling its revenue in the first quarter of this year largely thanks to the success of the mobile Lineage 2M during the pandemic. The company released its second quarter earnings today, and the numbers aren't quite as wild, though still better […]
Star Citizen is on track to breaking sales records in 2020 as it passes last year's $47.7M
As of right now, funding for Star Citizen just ain't slowing down. A graph shared on the game's subreddit illustrates that 2020 has already been a banner year for funding CIG's efforts, bypassing last year's $47.7 million. The graph helps to visualize each month's spike up to this point, with considerable funding surges shown in […]
Vague Patch Notes: Balance in MMOs is overrated
Earlier this week, we did a post all about balance in Crucible. It was a detailed post explaining all of the ways that the team looks at data, at the title's metagame, at what is and is not competitive. All important to balance, all very vital, and all things that show that the developers have […]
Guild Wars 2 struggles with high latency but improves World Boss Rush
Today's Guild Wars 2 story is a little bit of bad news, good news. Let's get the bad news out of the way first: The MMO is struggling with latency spikes for some players and there's no simple fix for it. ArenaNet admitted on the forums that it's seen "ongoing gameplay performance issues" due to […]
Razer is launching an improved left-handed Naga MMO mouse
Did you know that today is International Left Handers Day? It is indeed, which makes it the perfect day to announce gear for lefties, right? Enter Razer, which is doing just that with its incredibly popular Naga series. Yep, it's launching a new and improved lefty Naga specifically for MMO and online gamers, in spite of […]
CCP and Netease's mobile MMORPG EVE Echoes is officially live on Android and iOS
We hope you got your preloading done overnight because EVE Online mobile MMO EVE Echoes is officially live, offered up by CCP Games and Netease as an "authentic" version of EVE that works on both Android and iOS mobile devices, though it'll run on separate servers from those used by PC players. "Global games developer NetEase […]
Bless Unleashed is heading to PlayStation 4 with a closed beta already planned for next week
You could be forgiven for assuming that Bless Unleashed would have no truck with any sort of successful reception, given its pedigree. But expanding to be playable on the PlayStation 4 certainly seems like a mark of at least moderate success; you don't port these things over unless you expect to find at least a […]
ArcheAge's Ipnysh Sanctuary is live today for Garden of the Gods players
ArcheAge's latest content update from Gamigo has arrived today, and the good news here is that unlike Garden of the Gods itself, this isn't a separate paid DLC that's going to cause a ruckus among the community. It's a fully free update for free-to-play ArcheAge players, and it's actually an addon to Garden of the […]
City of Heroes Homecoming confirms NCsoft talks continue, plans new name, domain, and launcher
Of all the City of Heroes rogue servers to spring up over the last year in the wake of the 2019 reveal that the game's code was out in the wild, the one that's attracted the most attention and players is surely Homecoming. And a large part of the reason was the fact that its […]
The Daily Grind: What moments do you feel people have missed if they haven't played your favorite MMOs?
When we try to sell people on MMOs, we naturally talk about systems or mechanics. If I wanted to convince someone to play World of Warcraft, I'd probably talk about classes or race options or quest design. What I would not talk about are years of roleplaying history or the electric feeling of logging in […]
EVE Echoes launches early tomorrow morning – here's how to install it now
CCP Games and Netease are about to embark on a joint venture that will hopefully do what no other EVE Online spin-off has done to date: actually succeed. EVE Echoes is that venture, and if you're up at 4 a.m. EDT tomorrow morning, you'll be able to log into the game right from the comfort […]
SMITE introduces the Japanese moon god Tsukuyomi in the latest update
Yesterday has seen the moon shine over SMITE as the Japanese moon god Tsukuyomi has officially landed to the game. This new character is described as having a "bold, sharp Assassin playstyle" with a pair of bladed tonfas, Shingetsu and Mangetsu, that both get individual buffs with every attack and are used in a variety […]
Halo Infinite will be pushing back its launch to sometime in 2021
If you were among those eager for the rumored free-to-play multiplayer or just the open world single-player of Halo Infinite, then 343 Industries studio head Chris Lee has some bad news for you: The upcoming shooter will be delaying its launch to some point in 2021. "The decision to shift our release is the result […]
Black Desert revamps Padix Island, brings out a Glimmering Earring, and starts a beach party for beer
It's Wednesday, and that means it's patch day for Black Desert, and in this case that also means you can head down to Terrmian Beach to get plastered. Yes, that's one of the new events this month, running until August 26th. Players head on down there, visit Gioro, and get a quest to deliver beer […]
Final Fantasy XIV kicks off the Moonfire Faire and plans for more Yo-kai Watch crossover fun
It feels like just yesterday that Final Fantasy XIV had a major update full of things for players to do… probably because it was just yesterday. But a new in-game event arrives today with the kickoff of the Moonfire Faire, running from now until August 26th. Get yourself some summer beachwear and a new dance. […]
TERA PC brings its 64-bit client and new content online, console adds Quick Signals and offers charity bundles
TERA players on all platforms have a little something to look forward to this week. As of yesterday, PC players have a new client to install that seeks to address several technical matters as well as some new content, while console players can get emotive with a new quick chat feature and purchase bundles for […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 celebrates one million players with Persona collab and bonus week
Since its western release earlier this year, Phantasy Star Online 2 is fast becoming known for two things: surprise announcements and weird crossovers. We've got both today, as SEGA revealed that it's got another collab launching, this one with the Persona franchise. "Starting today, costumes, hair styles, paint, accessories, room items, music and more from […]
GDC Summer 2020: Accessibility shouldn't be a dirty word in online gaming
I don't know about you readers, but one of the first things I always do when starting a game with voice acting (or movie) is turn on the subtitles. I'm not hard of hearing, but between noise and a reading bias, subtitles just make everything better for me. I say this because even though accessibility […]
Magic: Legends unveils the mechanics and design of the Necromancer class
What is a necromancer to you, aside from "a healer who shows up very late to the party"? If you're familiar with Magic: the Gathering, you probably associate necromancers with black mana, and Magic: Legends is leaning in on that with the newly unveiled Necromancer class and all of its malicious intent. And just like […]
Ship of Heroes is gearing up to test its 'big battle capabilities' this weekend
Valiance Online isn't the only superhero MMORPG in full testing mode right now: Ship of Heroes is also rearing its head this week for a big new event where players will be fighting massive waves of AI enemies as devs scattered across the globe monitor the game's performance. "On Saturday we will have the first […]
ArtCraft says 'the purpose of Crowfall is to destroy' the themepark model
Crowfall is in beta. If that statement reads a bit reverently, that is perhaps one's cynicism that a crowdfunded anything can reach a finish line, let alone a milestone, and it's an event that has caused creative director J. Todd Coleman to wax poetic and philosophical about the game's latest step forward. "The process is […]
Tamriel Infinium: Six more things to love about The Elder Scrolls Online
When I think back to my earliest days of gaming, sitting in front of a tiny TV set with the non-ergonomic 80s beauty of an Atari joystick in hand, I recall the relative simplicity of that time. Back then, we didn't need to concern ourselves with things like cash grabs, the working conditions of developers, […]
