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. […]
Riot Games' Neom esports fiasco came about because people are bad at email
At the tail end of July, Riot Games managed to piss off gamers, streamers, esports stars, and its own developers by unilaterally announcing a League of Legends esports partnership with Saudia Arabia and its controversial Neom project. The partnership was terminated within days of its announcement thanks to the uproar as Riot Games backed down […]
GDC Summer 2020: How Astroneer's crafting balances cognitive load for the player
Long time followers of Astroneer may recall that the game's early development crafting felt cute but incomplete. Despite the game already being in the wild, System Era Softworks decided it'd take player feedback and do a meaty crafting update. Yes, we've seen these kinds of things before, even for whole games, but they rarely feel successful. […]
Wurm Online devs assess the Steam launch, discuss future updates in an AMA
Several developers from Code Club AB, the team behind Wurm Online, recently took to Reddit to open up an AMA and field a variety of player questions. As one would expect, many of the questions are related to the game's arrival on Steam, which reportedly exceeded expectations in terms of new and returning player arrivals. […]
Final Fantasy XIV posts complete 5.3 patch notes as players discuss a potential GM banning overreach
If you're a regular follower of how Final Fantasy XIV does its patch notes, then you likely know the drill by now: First it's the preliminary patch notes, and then it's the full notes, the latter of which have been shared online. This set of notes offers a bit more insight into a few of […]
The Elder Scrolls Online shows off a Stonethorn gameplay trailer, goes free-to-play for a limited time
The all-digital Quakecon at Home event has come and gone for The Elder Scrolls Online, and along with all of the planned events for the game at the event, players also got to take a look at some dungeon gameplay from the upcoming Stonethorn DLC in video form. The video shows off some of the […]
World of Warcraft reveals heirloom changes, hits 1M code changes
As you are probably well aware, World of Warcraft is on the cusp of making one of its most radical changes to the leveling experience in the MMORPG's history. Levels will be squished, expansions will be chosen, and newbie zones will be noobed. But the big question on a lot of veterans' minds is what […]
The Daily Grind: What do you spend your in-game MMO money on lately?
A while back, I asked you folks whether you tried to become rich in MMOs, but that Daily Grind didn't go into detail on what we actually do with our accrued video game wealth. And sometimes I find that it's… nothing. See, I have a bad habit in real life of buying something consumable and […]
MMO Week in Review: Blizzard revenues are up, but morale is sunk
Activision-Blizzard (shareholders) had some good news this week, as its Q2 2020 revenues actually improved year-over-year for the first time in six quarters, owing largely to COVID, WoW, and COD. Not that they ever quite report it that way. Unfortunately for the corporation, that was all followed by the news that Blizzard employees specifically are […]
Mabinogi's P.E.T. Part 2 update lets players bring pets in to dungeons on August 13
Now that players of Mabinogi have helped their pets attain new levels of power, MMO logic dictates that power gets unleashed on some dungeon critters. That's just what the P.E.T. Part 2 update will let players do among other things. The update introduces the Forest of Four Seasons and Dynamic Lands dungeons that players and […]
The MOP Up: Sims Online's rogue server goes sunbathing
FreeSO, the rogue server for the late Sims Online, is getting into the spirit of the season with a whole bunch of beach- and pool-themed additions. ""Summer has finally arrived at Sunrise Crater," the team announced on August 2nd. "Your summer favourites are back and what's more, NEW OBJECTS have been added! Login today and […]
Nintendo's financials hail Animal Crossing's success while Nexon crushes it with MapleStory
More quarterly financial reports are rolling in, this time from Nintendo and Nexon, and both studios are crowing about exceptional runs. For the big N, it's all about the runaway success of Animal Crossing: New Horizons. During the quarter, the cheery online title moved 10.6 million units. This greatly helped Nintendo achieve $3.4 billion in […]
Jukebox Heroes: It's time to turn your MMO's music back on
We're going to take a detour from our tour of various MMO soundtracks to talk about one of the most common statements I hear when the discussion of in-game music comes up. Here it is: "Oh, I turned the music off a long time ago." It's downright hard to get into any good discussion about […]
One Shots: Avoid these vacation destinations
When you're planning your summer MMO vacation, there will be a lot of places bidding for your time and gold. But not every resort is vengeful spirit-free, and not every tourist trap promises that you'll come back with all of your limbs. To help you avoid the worst places in games, our readers scouted out […]
The Daily Grind: Walking in MMOs – or running?
A few weeks back, when MOP's Justin did a Daily Grind about whether folks prefer helmets on or off in MMOs, one reader took a roleplay approach to the decision. "Off in conversations," Lord Nox said. This seems like a no-brainer – pun intended! – but really, unless you're a hardcore roleplayer, when was the last […]
MMOs you've never heard of: Helbreath, Luna M, Tower of Fantasy, and Sea of Dawn
Think you've played every MMO that's out there? There are more games, Horatio, than your mind could even conceive. And that's why we have this sporadic column to highlight news and videos from the lesser-known online games. We'll kick it off today with Helbreath Olympia, which bills itself as "an old-school medieval fantasy MMORPG with […]
Shadow Arena introduces a limited-time battle pass full of in-game rewards and contest entries
Ah, the battle pass. It sure does seem to be the new microtransaction hotness, doesn't it? And now this latest trend in multiplayer gaming has made its way to Shadow Arena with an update made this past Thursday. As one would expect, this battle pass offers up a number of rewards that can be purchased […]
TERA Battle Arena walks you through how this MOBA works
Yeah, so, we are still trying to wrap our heads around the weirdness that is TERA's surprising announcement last month that it is going to add a MOBA to the client in the next content update. But how will these games actually function? Fortunately, a new post from En Masse serves to illuminate the process […]
Unpredictable aliens are invading Ship of Heroes next weekend
City of Heroes veterans no doubt fondly (or not-so-fondly) recall the numerous Rikti invasions that happened in Paragon City over the years. Ship of Heroes' developers must hold the same fondness for antagonistic aliens because they are hosting their own invasion event next weekend on August 15th with a few dozen beta testers. Seeing as […]
GDC Summer 2020: Roblox, player-generated content, and the 'metaverse'
Roblox VP of Product Deepak Chandrasekaran held a skill-building talk at GDC Summer 2020 this week titled Building the Metaverse through User Generated Content and the Cloud, but in true, the panel primarily was about Roblox. However, Chandrasekaran did bring up some good points that we can discuss in the context of the Billion Person […]
