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, […]
Torchlight III just got its last big update before its official launch
Torchlight III testers got absolutely wiped this week – literally. PWE and Echtra Games dropped part one of what it's dubbed the "mainline" patch yesterday, with a complete character and account wipe, more skill slots, new dungeon areas, fort deco, and controller support. The highlight feature, however, is the relic system becoming a "full-blown subclass," […]
DDO Wayfinder players are getting even more boosts and refunds following three-week rollback
Last week, Dungeons and Dragons Online players were dismayed to learn that they hadn't quite escaped all the horrors of the LOTRO downtime last month after all: In fact, one of the DDO servers, Wayfinder, suffered a catastrophic bout of data loss, resulting in a rollback for the server and all of its recent players […]
Albion Online's Rise of Avalon is live with its unique new (and deadly!) roads network
Albion Online's long-awaited Rise of Avalon update is live for all players today, and I promise I won't make the joke about not needing roads this time – besides, you're definitely going to want the roads added in this patch. "This update brings numerous new features and improvements to the world of Albion. Foremost among […]
Red Dead Online's 1.21 update introduces dancing corpses, alligator rains, ghost towns, and horse glitches
Boy oh boy have things been going all sorts of crazy in Red Dead Online. The most recent update to the online multiplayer sandbox has hitched its wagon to a whole host of hilarious and alarming bugs, glitches, and problems. Corpses inexplicably dancing their asses off? It's happening. Trains appearing out of nowhere? Yes sir, […]
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands pre-patch hits the test realm
Could World of Warcraft's Patch 9.0 be arriving soon? The Shadowlands "pre-patch," as this game's strange terminology goes, just arrived on the public test realm, signalling that it's making its way to the live servers in the near future. Or the far future. This is Blizzard, after all, and speed is never one of the […]
Meridian 59 and Storybricks' Brian Green has passed away at only 46
It's with a very heavy heart today that we report that Brian "Psychochild" Green has passed away at a relatively young age. Green was an MMO developer who was deeply involved with Meridian 59, a frequent blogger, and a co-creator of Storybricks, the software that EverQuest Next purchased for its development. "Sad to share the […]
The Daily Grind: Do MMOs need to jump onto bandwagons to stay relevant?
We've been watching TERA's latest move into — of all things — MOBAs with a quirked eyebrow and a quizzical expression. We're never quite sure why developers do the wacky things they do with their MMOs, but a lot of times it feels like experiments such as the above are a way to jump onto […]
Path of Exile plans another bug-fixing patch in the next couple of weeks
Just because Path of Exile has started the process of working on its next League doesn't mean the bug fixes for the current game version stop, no siree bob. Consider patch 3.11.1F, which had some of its patch notes previewed yesterday. As the headline alluded to, most of this patch is focused on bug fixing, […]
War Thunder kicks off Operation S.U.M.M.E.R. 2020, World of Tanks Console had a collab event with WWE
What goes best with driving heavily armed and armored military vehicles around? Summertime! Also, apparently, professional wrestling! The summer season arrived to both War Thunder and World of Tanks on console, just in two decidedly different ways. War Thunder players can enjoy Operation S.U.M.M.E.R. between now and August 31st, which has players trying to earn […]
Seed's Klang Games answers player questions about gameplay mechanics
A broad variety of player questions regarding gameplay and mechanics were picked up and answered in what can be best described as a sort of video AMA from Klang Games, the developers of the colonization MMO Seed, with a few details about a number of systems. One of the questions confirmed that player colonies can […]
Crucible's designers explain how the game's balance is achieved
So, how does balance work in Crucible? As in any competitive game, balance is important, but it's kind of a vague and nebulous concept at the best of times. The most recent dispatch from the Amazon Game Studios development team may or may not assuage this, since it's a quick overview of the high-end concepts […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 283: TennoConversations
Justin, Bree, and MJ discuss Warframe and TennoCon 2020, Crowfall's beta, LOTRO's Rohan housing, DDO's nasty rollback, Blizzard's latest mess, and Guild Wars 2's underwater mounts, with a special edition of the Daily Grind Blitz.
Dynamight Studios' CEO discusses Fractured's gameplay mechanics and features in an interview
This past Wednesday, the CEO of Dynamight Studios Jacopo Gallelli joined streamer and YouTuber Morrolan for an interview about practically all things Fractured, answering questions about the game's mechanics, systems, and development timetable among other things. One of the first questions was regarding solo players and whether living like an in-game hermit is possible. Gallelli […]
Wild Terra 2 details development progress on Central City, new locations, agriculture, and bags
What's going on with Juvty Worlds' Wild Terra 2? Quite a bit according to information we've gotten from the devs, as progress is being made on several fronts for the sandbox MMORPG. The devs have been hard at work making bags, which sounds a bit weird on the face of it until you consider that […]
Cyberpunk 2077 details character life paths and a variety of weapons in new trailers
Cyberpunk 2077, the upcoming RPG from CD Projekt Red, had another Night City Wire video digest full of additional gameplay details. In this episode, the devs took a closer look at how character origins steer the game, offered a peek at several weapons in action, and took a moment to discuss bringing an in-game band […]
Guild Wars 2's Festival of the Four Winds is live, along with WvW quality-of-life enhancements
Guild Wars 2 is having a pretty packed summer, with the recent arrival of Jormag Rising and a special update for underwater skimmers coming in just two weeks. But if you need something new to keep you busy until then, you'll want to dip in to the Festival of the Four Winds, which is live […]
Choose My Adventure: Shopping for classes in AdventureQuest 3D
So as it turns out, through information granted by a couple of commenters and by the inimitable MJ, the Moglomancer class in AdventureQuest 3D is pretty much a pure support class and isn't really intended to be played solo. Whoops. I tried to make it happen, I really did, but the revelation of what the […]
Legends of Runeterra prepares the Call of the Mountain card set
Riot Games' Runeterra is steaming ahead with an ambitious roadmap and a sizable content release later this month. On August 26th, the digital card game will release its Call of the Mountain expansion, which will add 89 cards, seven champions, and a new ranked season. The studio gave a bit of flavor text to the […]
Flameseeker Chronicles: How Guild Wars 2 can improve underwater combat
Way back in the lead up to Guild Wars 2's launch in 2012, I remember the community being all abuzz about the addition of aquatic combat to a franchise where players had previously been landlocked. After the game launched, players quickly became disillusioned with moving and fighting underwater, and, for the most part, new content […]
Shocking almost no one, Dragon's Prophet was yeeted off Steam
So, we have some good news and some bad news. The good news is that there's a Dragon's Prophet emulator out there that's been running for several years, so if you're really desperate to play the Runewaker MMO that first Daybreak and then Gamigo sunsetted, that option remains available to you. The bad news is […]
Fallout 76 dials back the amount of concrete needed in the ATLAS fortification community goal
Could the Fallout 76 community have gotten 150 million units of in-game concrete to ATLAS? Probably not, so it's a good job that Bethesda has tuned down the requirement, which now sits at a sizeable but much more manageable 15 million units. The search for concrete has been the second step in the community goal […]
Final Fantasy XIV patch 5.3, Reflections in Crystal, is live today
It's been a long wait for players (two months more than expected, even), but the latest Final Fantasy XIV patch is finally live today. You know we've talked about it a lot lately, of course, but there are even the real no-fooling full patch notes out now. Assuming, of course, that you're not already in […]
ArtCraft on Crowfall's beta release today, Eternal Kingdoms, the newbie experience, and much more
Crowfall, the PvP-centered MMORPG originally Kickstarted back in 2015, announced last week that it had finally arrived at its beta milestone and would begin opening up the game not only to backers but also to registered players this week. This major milestone is something the game's alpha playerbase have been eagerly anticipating, and it's reaching […]
Daybreak has acquired Cold Iron Studios and its Alien MMOFPS [Updated]
We've updated the end of this post with the confirmation and press release; we've left the original reporting intact. For the last year, it seems that Daybreak has registered more trademarks and domain names and social media accounts than it has produced actual content for its MMO. MMO readers will recall that in earlier this […]
After a brief delay yesterday, Valiance Online has kicked off its one-week open beta
Do you want a taste of the next generation of superhero MMORPGs? From now through August 16th, anyone who would like to see what the Valiance Online team has been cooking up over the last few years can hop into this superhero title and explore this brightly colored new world. Installation simply requires a 1.7 […]
The Daily Grind: What's your most embarrassing MMO character name?
By chance, MOP's Carlo struck up a conversation among our team a week ago all about embarrassing character names and gaming handles. Apparently he was teasing a friend for his "xxXLegolasXxx"-style name, when his wife slammed him hard by teasing him for his old handle: TWISTING FANGS. It's a Guild Wars skill name, but he […]
Social scientists study Minecraft and One Hour One Life communities
You might think scientists would balk at the idea of using online gaming communities as a test bed for study, given those communities'… strong personalities. However, some social scientists from the CogSci 2020 Workshop website have used the sandboxes One Hour One Life and Minecraft to offer some study results about social interaction. In the […]
Wizard101 talks up the arrival of Karamelle, Pirate101 collects community guides
The August 2020 newsletters for both Pirate101 and Wizard101 are both live, each with their own little tidbits of information and community goodness for those following along with either game. Or even following both games. You can totally be a fan of both games. For Wizard101's newsletter, it's mostly all about the recently released summer […]
Legends of Aria's Shifting Sands update is live with new PvE and PvP content
Legends of Aria is marching forward with today's release of Season 4: The Shifting Sands as promised, with new dynamic PvE encounters for players to contend with in the Barren Lands and new PvP challenges in the Flat Wilds Chaos Zone. "Journey throughout the Withering Sands and Flat Wilds to discover new dynamic monster spawns. […]
Ultima Online talks up the Treasures of Deceit system, new event tools, and dynamic quests
In the latest newsletter from Ultima Online, players are treated to a number of advance plans written by Broadsword's Bonnie Armstrong, chiefly looking forward to what's next now that Publish 109 fully released in July. One of the first talking points is regarding the treasure system as part of Treasures of Deceit, which lets players […]
Past Fate shows where players go when they die as crowdfunding continues to crawl forward
Over the past few weeks we've been following along with Past Fate, the sandbox MMORPG that is having another go at getting crowdfunded. This week, the devs are talking about death. Or, more specifically, what happens to players when their characters die. Dead players are transported to the Underworld zone, an area where players can […]
Electronic Arts' EA Access plan is heading to Steam in late summer
Electronic Arts is continuing its gradual return to Steam with a newly opened page talking up the arrival of the EA Access plan, as well as offering a button that users of Steam can press to be notified of when the service goes live. All of the benefits of the EA Access plan that was […]
Amazon just rebranded Twitch Prime as Amazon Gaming, not much else is changing though
Amazon is apparently retooling Twitch a bit today as it's just announced Prime Gaming, which is basically the same as the Twitch Prime, with its suite of free stuff and drops and access specific to gaming that comes along as part of the Amazon Prime membership. "With today's launch of Prime Gaming, Amazon Prime members […]
Star Citizen shows off the creation of FPS weapons in a developer livestream
Whether in a ship or on foot in FPS combat, players and NPCs in Star Citizen will get shot at with a variety of fascinating weapons. Handheld weaponry was the focus of the latest developer livestream, which brought on members of the game's weapons content team to talk about how they realize the variety of […]
Hood: Outlaws & Legends is a team-based PvPvE game of medieval-styled thievery
Developer Sumo Newcastle and publisher Focus Home Interactive offered up what it hopes is a unique spin on the team-based PvPvE game during the recent PS5 State of Play event. It's called Hood: Outlaws & Legends, a game set in a medieval time where thieves seek to take riches from an oppressive authority as well […]
EA shareholders overwhelmingly reject excessive executive pay in latest vote
Remember back in June when investment accountability group CtW was agitating against Activision-Blizzard's corporate finances, arguing that Bobby Kotick is grossly overpaid and urging shareholders to vote down the company management's Say-on-Pay policy? That vote wasn't successful by the numbers; 43.2% of shareholders voted against, a surprisingly large number but not quite enough to put […]
Superhero MMO Valiance Online's beta is opening up for PlayNYC this week
City of Heroes-inspired superhero MMORPG Valiance Online surprised everyone when it announced a few weeks back that it'd be opening up its beta for a week in conjunction with the PlayNYC con in August. But now that time has arrived, as the con is expected to begin its online opening ceremonies this evening, and would-be […]
Wisdom of Nym: Just before patch 5.3 for Final Fantasy XIV
Is it too late to hope this patch ends with a bunch of NPCs from the First watching everyone walk back to the Source before someone says, "Truly, they were… Shadowbringers" in what would no doubt be the stupidest possible ending to the quest line? Yes. It is both too late and a bad idea. […]
