MMO Week in Review: Shadowlands in two months, Cantha next year
It was one helluva week for MMORPGs: World of Warcraft announced Shadowlands' launch date, Guild Wars 2 confirmed that Cantha-themed End of Dragons launches in 2021, we checked out New World during its open preview, and Elder Scrolls Online released its Stonethorn DLC. And just for old times' sake, we had a big ol' sub […]
RuneScape and Old School RuneScape preview fall plans, discuss endgame content
It's a double dose of Jagex developer heads talking about game stuff! Two whole hours of conversational content! And craziest of all, it's absolutely free so long as you're paying for internet service!. Prepare to wear down the edge of your seat as RuneScape and Old School RuneScape both talk about what's coming next! All […]
The MOP Up: Legends of Runeterra unwraps a new expansion
Riot Games' digital card game Legends of Runeterra made a big splash this past week as it released its first big expansion. "The Call of the Mountain expansion arrives with a new region—Targon—as well as 89 collectible cards, seven champions, and a variety of new features & content across the game. Try out new champions […]
Champions Online wraps up its current story arc with The Midnight Depths
Some new content is always better than no new content, and so Champions Online players have not complained to be finally receiving new story arcs over the past year. The current questline is due to be completed "very soon," and Cryptic gave a quick preview as to what it will entail. "What began with rampaging […]
Jukebox Heroes: The best of Blade & Soul's soundtrack
Pretty game, strong story focus, really not for me. That's the impression I got from dipping into Blade & Soul a few months back. It's certainly a game with a whole lot of eye candy, but it's also got a lot of ear candy too. Ear candy — is that a thing? Are we all […]
Apple officially terminates Epic's dev account, cutting Fortnite iOS and Mac players from future updates
This past Friday, Apple made good on its threat to terminate Epic Games' developer accounts on iOS and Mac, which now effectively cuts off players of Epic's titles on the platforms from seeing future updates including Fortnite, ie the game that was the reason for this whole sordid mess. And for an extra twinge of […]
One Shots: Chilla with my gorilla
It's always a parade of fluffy, furry, and feathery friends when One Shots asks readers to share their favorite pets, and today is no different! We'll start this week with a striking picture from Toy Clown, who features a beast that you really wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley — or a well-lit […]
The Daily Grind: What was a great idea you saw in an otherwise unsuccessful MMO?
If you're familiar with tabletop roleplaying games, you are probably familiar with the concept of the fantasy heartbreaker. To summarize it very quickly for those who aren't, it's a game that is clearly trying to copy Dungeons & Dragons… but usually with one or two really neat ideas that don't matter, because it's not going […]
Make My MMO: Dual Universe's beta – its 'fully playable version' – is up and away
This week in MMO crowdfunding, Dual Universe hit true beta, dropping its NDA and swelling its ranks far past the 20,000 testers who were already playing alpha. "We've met each one of our milestone goals since unveiling the updated roadmap late last year, and we're now releasing what we think is a fully-playable version of […]
Final Fantasy XI's Autumn Power Up Campaign gives you more stuff in a variety of content
The current new story content for Final Fantasy XI is titled The Voracious Resurgence, but you know who has always been pretty voracious? The players. They want stuff. Sure, new content is also good, but they also want new stuff. And when September 11th rolls around, the Autumn Power Up Campaign is going to provide […]
Ashes of Creation's latest stream homes in on castle sieges and hybrid combat
Ashes of Creation's latest livestream is a wide-ranging one, covering the game's hybrid combat system, castle sieges, context expectations for beta, and the probability that Ashes of Creation will eventually move to Unreal Engine 5. Intrepid also said that it's not going to move into its new studio until next year: "In regards to our […]
World of Warcraft players are digging in to an 11 month-old secret battle pet unlock
Secret hunters in World of Warcraft are deep in the chase after a battle pet that's been hiding for 11 months now — a big fluffy cat by the name of Jenafur. As of right now, players have uncovered the first two steps involving a couple of NPCs and a line of kibble that points […]
LOTRO Legendarium: Ranking LOTRO's expansions from worst to best
Every once in a while, it's a lot of fun to sit down and rank things in your favorite geeky franchises. A while back, I did a ranked list of Lord of the Rings Online's festivals, a list that is now obsolete due to the addition of a new festival and the merging of two […]
The Stream Team: It's raining invasions in Ship of Heroes
What is Ship of Heroes up to these days? Invasions! Today the devs are doing a special event for players (backers or not!), tossing invasions with varying difficulty levels at folks. All in the name of testing, of course. Massively OP's MJ is eager to be a guinea pig, so even though crashes could happen, […]
WRUP: The power of superheroes edition
The obvious thing to say about superheroes is that they are a power fantasy. This is mostly true, but it isn't the whole story, because most superheroes aren't about simply about having power but about how you choose to use it. In every superhero story, the hero is matched against someone who either has more […]
Champions Online and David Brevik pay their respects to Chadwick Boseman
You've no doubt seen the tragic news that Black Panther star Chadwick Boseman passed away on Friday at the age of 43 due to colon cancer. His family posted a statement thanking fans for their love and support, saying that Boseman had been battling cancer quietly since 2016 while continuing to film various projects. Marvel […]
The Daily Grind: How much does an MMO's environment affect your mood?
As we talked about on the podcast this past week, in-game environments can have a huge affect on moods, depending on the person. I'm more sensitive in this regard, feeling my emotions lift when I'm adventuring through a beautiful or evocative land while falling into a funk if I have to spend too much time […]
The Stream Team: Celebrating Guild Wars 2's 8th birthday with underwater mounts
A birthday and underwater mounts? Well this sounds like the perfect kind of party of Massively OP's MJ! Guild Wars 2 has turned eight years old today, and just this week introduced a new ability for skimmers to swim under the water instead of skimming above. So, are they now skwimmers? Join us live at […]
Betawatch: Bless Unleashed plans for a PC beta test
Darn it! I said ages ago that I would be much more interested in Bless Unleashed if it were releasing on platforms I actually own. That was easy to say when it was on the Xbox One. Sure, I could pretend that my PlayStation 4 has other things to do, but now with a PC […]
Minecraft-built MMO Hegemony releases the Traders from the East expansion on September 6
Hegemony, the self-described "classic" sandbox MMORPG built upon the framework of Minecraft, is expanding. As in literally releasing an expansion. Or at least an expansion-sized update. Whatever you want to call it, just be sure to refer to it by name: Traders from the East. This large-scale update will introduce a variety of new things […]
PvPvE survival battle royale shooter The Cycle is leaving early access and releasing on Steam in Q4 2020
Well, here's some good news for those who are looking for yet another alternative option in the battle royale subgenre: The Cycle is going to exit its early access period at some point in the fourth quarter of this year and will release on both EGS and for the first time ever on Steam. For […]
Shroud of the Avatar's Release 81 adds a new town, new lava fish, and flexible block building features
Release 81 for Shroud of the Avatar is out this week and it's got some new goodies for pretty much everyone in the game, whether you're someone who enjoys building things with blocks, someone who enjoys fishing things from lava(!), or someone who has Episode 2 Access and is ready for a new town to […]
PSA: OK procrastinators, you're running out of time to get your free LOTRO and DDO stuff
Last spring, when the pandemic was ramping up here in the US and states were closing down everything in a panic, MMO studios around the world responded by throwing open their virtual doors and offering respite. One of them was Standing Stone Games, which made a huge chunk of content in Lord of the Rings […]
A new interview reveals how Naoki Yoshida leveraged charisma and spreadsheets to make Final Fantasy XIV happen
We all know that Final Fantasy XIV is a big success story. So what's the secret behind Naoki Yoshida taking the game from zero to hit? According to a new interview over on PC Gamer, it's all about charisma and spreadsheets. Yes, spreadsheets. One of Yoshida's big tricks when he took on the project was […]
The Stream Team: Dual Universe's NDA is down, and we're going in!
Massively OP's MJ has been waiting for the day she can finally take ya'll for a spin in the big Landmark-esque space sandbox Dual Universe. And that day is finally here! She's very excited to hop in and start in the newly released, sans-NDA beta. Tune in live at 2:00 p.m. to start the weekend […]
ArcheAge Unchained is free-to-play this weekend with the SUMMERTRIAL code
If you've been eyeing ArcheAge Unchained over the last year but hadn't wanted to pull the trigger on a buy-to-play experience, especially after the business model rather severely changed course in 2020, then this weekend's free-play event is probably for you. "Players are able to explore the wondrous online worlds of ArcheAge: Unchained free of […]
Check out this fan-made interactive map of New World to help your testing
So you're out in the field in New World, and you're not lost per se, but you're frustrated. All you want is a lynx! You need some lynx! But you keep not finding them. Where can you go to find a lynx? Perhaps this new interactive map made by fans and for fans at Newworld-map.com […]
Torchlight III delays its next early access patch to at least September 8
You know, if there's one constant in Torchlight III's development, stretching all the way back into when it was an MMO called Torchlight Frontiers, it's that stuff gets announced and then stuff gets delayed. Ahead of the fall launch – and no we still don't have a hard date – Echtra Games and PWE had […]
Global Chat: Is MMO crafting obsolete?
Tipa over at Chasing Dings recently posed an intriguing question to her friends and readers: Does crafting have any place in the modern MMO? Before you have a kneejerk response to that, read her piece and consider crafting from a new angle. "In real life, crafting is an outlet for explosive creativity," she said. "Crafty […]
Star Citizen shows off gas cloud generators and knocks players and NPCs around
CIG is playing around with the forces of nature in the latest episode of Star Citizen's weekly video digest. The video first opens up with a look at more gas cloud generation tech, showing off the "parent" gas cloud and a couple of smaller "children" gas clouds within, as well as giving a look at […]
WoW Factor: World of Warcraft has no good excuses for not having housing
We are past 15 years on now, and World of Warcraft still lacks housing. This is, frankly, really dumb. And it comes up a lot, and you always have the people working hard in the Fanboy Mines who fire back with the same set of defenses: that housing wouldn't work in the game, that no […]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen shares 30 minutes of pre-alpha 5 shakeout gameplay
As reported earlier, Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen is going to be having a pre-alpha 5 "shakeout" test next weekend between September 5th and 6th, but before that, the devs at Visionary Realms wanted to offer a look at just what testers will be getting in to. The shakeout region will be a greyboxed version […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online's getting shifty with the Shifter
Dungeons and Dragons Online's newest race is going through the paces on the test server right now, which means that before long, players will have another option for the MMO's already robust character creation screen. Shifters might best be described as half-hearted werewolves that can spec to be tanks or casters, depending on the player's […]
Gamescom 2020: Dual Universe gives you five minutes in heaven
Cinematic trailers are all well and good, but when it comes to getting a handle on how a title actually functions, there's nothing quite like a gameplay video to establish expectations. At Gamescom this week, Dual Universe is pulling out the stops to get noticed for its innovative design, and it's this design that you […]
Final Fantasy XIV confirms new housing coming in patch 5.35 along with how new Skybuilder titles will work
Yes, you saw that right, and if you play Final Fantasy XIV, you're probably excited. New housing day arrives when patch 5.35 does, and it brings with it three new wards for each of the housing districts. This might sound like it's not a whole lot, but that's three new wards with three subdivisions each […]
The Daily Grind: What's your most embarrassing MMO fail story?
A while back my husband was playing Overwatch when he was in a match with two guys who obviously knew each other and both had poop-related names. At the end of the match, after my husband's team had lost and the poop team had won, the pair of them cheerfully shouted, "YEAH, GET POOPED ON!" […]
The Stream Team: The sky pirates are the limit in Neverwinter
So long werewolves, hello sky pirates! Or, should we say, crocodiles! Massively OP's MJ and her D&D crew are embarking on their next Neverwinter adventure: Pirates' Skyhold. And yes, they have to take a flying ship to get there. (But no, they can't pilot their own!) Giant humanoid crocs await their arrival, and not in […]
Massively Overthinking: The MMOs we intentionally avoid
A few weeks back, I read a Twitter thread about people who avoid specific games and types of games, and the folks chiming in were all over the map. Some people avoid games that trigger their various addictions; others avoid games that take up too much time, or require too much mousing, or demand voice […]
CCP Games CEO Hilmar Petursson wants the company to expand further into mobile gaming and new regions
You don't get too far in business without having aspirations, I suppose, and CCP Games CEO Hilmar Petursson is certainly not lacking for those for his studio. In an interview with Newsweek, Petursson talks about how both the company and EVE Online have grown, how the pandemic has affected business, and the general growth of […]
The Elder Scrolls Online celebrates the Imperial City with bonus PvP and PvE rewards
The Elder Scrolls Online is apparently going to celebrate the Imperial City of the game's fiction by having people fight Daedra and one another. That's kind of a weird way to celebrate things, but it's not weird enough to stop the creation of a special event that offers extra rewards for taking Imperial City-themed challenges […]
ArcheAge is offering a monthly progress report that tracks kills, deaths, gold earnings, and other stats
My favorite part of any game is the part where I'm shown in a spreadsheet how crappy I am compared to everyone else I'm playing with. It's just the best feeling. However, if you're someone who is already inured to that information and you happen to play ArcheAge a lot, then you might be interested […]
Albion Online players have accessed corrupted dungeons 1M times since Rise of Avalon launched
It's been only a few weeks since Albion Online's massive Rise of Avalon patch graced the live servers, but Sandbox Interactive has apparently spent that time observing what players actually do with the content in the wild. A lot of players, in fact: The studio says y'all have gone into corrupted dungeons over a million […]
Fallout 76 previews the worldwide level scaling coming with One Wasteland
This is my wasteland, This is your wasteland, We group and we fight mutants and beasts, friend, With level scaling you won't be flailing – This waste was made for you and me. Also the update comes for free. It turns out that there's at least a little more to be said about how Fallout […]
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands is launching on October 27
And we have a launch date, fam! It's been announced at the start of gamescom's digital incarnation this year that World of Warcraft: Shadowlands will be launching on October 27th, which means that we will just be looking at ten months since the last major content update before any new stuff in the game. This […]
Game preservation champion The Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment has closed its doors
VentureBeat is reporting today that MADE, aka the Museum of Art and Digital Entertainment, is closing down its Oakland, California, base. It had already been closed since March in the wake of the pandemic, but now curators say that its management nonprofit decided to pull the plug and put all its artifacts in storage using […]
Six years after planning a Steam launch, Ultima Online might finally be launching there
Ultima Online studio Broadsword has been teasing all year that it had a big announcement coming for the game this year after publish 109, something that would bring the game to the "largest audience ever." Well, publish 109 launched last month, and Broadsword has announced… an announcement. "Earlier this year we talked about a major […]
Gamescom 2020: WoW Shadowlands' launch date, Star Wars Squadrons' new trailer
We're updating this post at the bottom – scroll on down for the latest! Forced to go digital thanks to the global pandemic, Gamescom 2020 is finally upon us, this time broadcast to the whole world instead of being the funtimes trawling grounds of just those who can make it to Cologne. The pre-show for […]
PlanetSide 2 announces Shattered Warpgate content campaign
Just a day or two ago I was chatting with an MOP commenter about how PlanetSide 2 really took off this year, getting more love than almost any other Daybreak property with the possible exception of DCUO. I love being proven right: Today, Daybreak's Rogue Planet substudio announced The Shattered Warpgate, a brand-new content wave […]
Atlas, still in early access, addresses reviving PvP and buffing the core game
Atlas has had a long journey since its stumbly early access rollout in 2018, back when it was still promising to be an "MMO on the grandest scale" with 40,000 players on the same globe simultaneously. It can't do that even now, and in fact even if it could, it doesn't have the players to […]
Massively on the Go: Everything we know about Pokemon Go's new mega evolutions
In another new twist, Pokemon Go has just released Generation 6's big feature, Mega Evolutions, before Generation 6 pokemon themselves. While we've had mega hints coming at us for a while, and dataminers on Silph Road gave us some big hints on the feature, we've finally gotten some solid details from Niantic on how it's […]
