Star Wars: The Old Republic gives Shae Vizla away to subscribers and a Steam portrait ring to everyone
Mandalorians. Who doesn't love them? Certainly not designers; since they're half-defined by an iconic look, you can just put all sorts of people behind the helmet and still evoke fond memories. Shae Vizla hasn't done a whole heck of a lot in Star Wars: The Old Republic, but she's being offered as a free companion […]
Get a crash course in the history of MMOs
Despite what your game's general chat might argue, World of Warcraft wasn't the first MMO and online games didn't magically become a thing with Ultima Online. The real history goes back much further and is more complex than that. If you only have a few spare minutes to get a handle on the vast history […]
Classic EverQuest patches in Necro changes, quest tweaks, and bug fixes
So it became a bit of a running gag in the Massively OP office this week that we became obsessed with August's EverQuest patch. A few days ago, Daybreak put out a notice that the patch was coming, so we started waiting for it, and soon enough it became an internal meme to burst into […]
World of Warcraft has begun testing Shadowlands' endgame
While you tread water at Battle for Azeroth's current endgame, World of Warcraft is testing the endgame you'll be experiencing when you arrive there in 2021. Or 2022 – we won't judge your pokey leveling. Over on the public test realm, Blizzard opened up testing for Shadowlands' endgame. Primarily, this test is for the repeatable […]
Did Amazon just sign on to be Lost Ark's western publisher?
Last night, Amazon announced that it's signed on to an exclusive publishing agreement in North America and Europe with Smilegate, specifically to publish a game from the Korean MMO developer next year. The game isn't actually named; in fact, the only game specifically mentioned in the whole press release is Crossfire, which already has a […]
The Daily Grind: Have you ever dreamed about an MMO?
At least two or three times a year, I have the World of Warcraft expansion dream. It's usually really nice. There are new systems in this new expansion, which has a title I can't recall. It features a lot of the aesthetics I like. It's not about beating up the latest super-powerful maniac to threaten […]
Blade & Soul Midnight Reborn update is now live
The update for Blade & Soul is happening now, but the real fun starts at midnight. Specifically, it starts in the revamped version of the Midnight Skypetal Plains, which is being made more challenging while also providing players with improved reward options. That does not mean you're only eligible to go there with a raid […]
Gloria Victis Siege's free prologue version is live on Steam
Back in March, Black Eye Games surprised Gloria Victis players and everyone else by announcing Gloria Victis: Siege, a survival and resource management game set in the world of Gloria Victis and co-developed by Fish Tank Studio. Players had a chance to check it out back in June, when its demo was free during the […]
Lineage II rolls out Tales Untold content update for both core and Classic versions of the game
Blade & Soul isn't the only NCsoft MMORPG getting love this week: NCsoft West and 4game are dropping a major patch on Lineage II players across the west today too, and the best part is that it includes content for both core L2 players and Classic fans. The patch, dubbed Tales Untold, has offered up […]
New World's preview event next week comes with a shiny new client
The New World preview event (yes, they're calling it a preview event this round, not a beta or density test) is coming up on us next week, and while Amazon hasn't dropped full details yet – those are coming tomorrow – it has clarified where exactly we'll all be testing come Tuesday. "In an effort […]
Elder Scrolls Online previews the scripted pathing housing tool launching next week
Elder Scrolls Online's Stonethorn DLC is just a week away from its PC launch now, but if you're not enthused about the pair of dungeons it's bringing, you should at least be welcoming its ride-along free update and the brilliant new content it's launching in Tamriel – most importantly, the scripted character pathing inside player […]
Chronicles of Elyria fans have filed the pre-litigation paperwork necessary to sue Soulbound Studios
If you were one of the people who really believed in the goals that Chronicles of Elyria's development team advocated and were hopeful to see the game actually launch, we're sorry for your loss, but we're happy to say that legal action for restitution is moving forward according to the Discord channel tracking the litigation. […]
Crowfall is getting close to inviting all its registered players into the beta
Kickstarted MMORPG Crowfall dropped into beta last week, free of NDAs and full of content, but not everyone who's ever signed up for the game's testing has been invited. That'll be changing probably sooner than you might've thought. "Beta to us is not about starting a particular version," ArtCraft's Todd Coleman explains. "It's about getting […]
CIG basically just released a preview of Squadron 42's roadmap progress
OK, OK, you can put your pitchforks down – or maybe just set them to the side for a while as you read the Squadron 42 dev blog that Cloud Imperium put out today. The publish comes after weeks of justified complaining from the Star Citizen community over the fact that real news on S42, […]
EVE Echoes approaches 20K reviews, drops patch, and adds notifications to your watch
So how is EVE Echoes doing out in the wild? It's hard to know hard numbers from CCP and Netease, but since its launch last week, the game's seen almost 17,000 reviews on Android and over a thousand more on iOS, along with a tidy boom in Reddit participation. The reviews seem relatively fair so […]
Perfect Ten: 10 great tropical areas to visit in MMOs
Probably a lot of us aren't getting that fantastic summer beach vacation that we had hoped to get this year. But instead of getting bummed out by that, why not visit a tropical resort or two in MMORPGs? Tropical zones are among my favorite zones in MMOs because they're so peaceful and serene, even if […]
Grab a Bless Unleashed beta key to test the game on PlayStation 4 this weekend
Bandai Namco and Neowiz are making more moves with Bless Unleashed, as we noted last week, pushing the Xbox One game next to PlayStation 4 with a beta set for tomorrowday. And now the companies granted Massively OP a stack of keys for that beta, which begins Thursday, so our readers can check it out […]
The Soapbox: Stubborn MMO players are sleeping on autoplay mechanics
Autoplay, huh. What is it good for? Absolutely something! I'll say it again: There is value in autoplay. It's got such a bad reputation in the western MMO community. From our perspective, anyone who plays it is either a sucker, a lazy whale, or both. But does that really justify an instant-uninstall, or is our […]
WoW Classic's permadeath community is absolutely hardcore
World of Warcraft Classic isn't exactly a walk around the block, especially if you're coming at it from modern MMOs. Of course, that's part of the strange appeal of the game: to go back to a time where leveling up in WoW was a struggle. But for those who think it's still too easy, there […]
Black Desert drops class balancing patch on PC, plans Hashashin pre-creation next week
While it's been relatively quiet over in the Black Desert console versions, PC and mobile are hopping today. On the PC side, you're either going to be super enthused about the patch – or over on Reddit griping about it. Why? It's a class balancing patch. "This week we bring you a special patch which […]
Oculus now demands you connect via Facebook for VR
While it doesn't seem like the virtual reality headset revolution truly swept the land as industry experts were expertly expecting a few years ago, there are certainly plenty of gamers who made the jump to VR. Unfortunately, if you're one of those who did purchase a VR headset and decided that the Oculus Rift or […]
Lord of the Rings Online's merged Farmer's Faire and Summer Festival are live today
With the addition of the Midsummer Festival a little while back, Lord of the Rings Online's summer season got more than a little full with a total of three events. To keep things more sane, Standing Stone Games has decided to merge the two older festivals into one with today's update. Update 27.3 brings the […]
Untitled Goose Game goes from antisocial to social with multiplayer
Honk honk honk honk honk! Honk honk? Honk. Honking honk honk, honk honk honk multiplayer (honk honk). Honk honk; honk honk honk. Honk! Last year's bizarre viral hit is about to become this year's weird buddy comedy. House House's Untitled Goose Game, which put players in the flippers of a very irate gander, is adding […]
Activision takes heat for poor female representation in its games over the last decade
If for some reason you're not already annoyed enough with Activision-Blizzard right now, GIbiz has a new piece up that digs into problems that faced Activision 10 years ago – specifically, sexism – and attempts to determine whether the company has improved in the ensuing years. Back then, the company was under fire for allegedly […]
The Daily Grind: How successful do you think Crowfall will be?
When Crowfall went into beta recently, I felt like my interest in this game was awakening from a long slumber. Some of these Kickstarted MMOs are in development for so long that it becomes pretty easy to forget about them or to let one's hype die down to a faint murmur in the back of […]
Star Trek Online previews a set of new support carriers for all of the game's factions
Players will have some new options for carrying support ships into battle in Star Trek Online on August 20th. The game is releasing four new carriers as Tier 6 Support Carriers in both fleet versions and in the game's cash shop, with two of them serving as upgrades of existing vessels and two new ones […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 drops a new urgent quest to cap off your August
Phantasy Star Online 2 has a wee bit of new content in store for players of the western version in the form of its latest urgent quest. No really, that's what these content drops are literally called. In all caps, to boot. "An ARKS Operative is never quite off duty, as there always exists the […]
Sea of Thieves delays bigger patch features and fights toxicity
Sea of Thieves' August update is going to be a mite bit skimpier than players were previously led to believe. This is because Rare said that it made the decision to hold back some of the patch's bigger features until September in order to make sure these systems are on the up-and-up. "Since we started […]
Fractured outlines its plans for meaningful city selection in its next alpha test
In the most recent Fractured test, your goal for selecting a player-run city spot was just picking out a place you liked. That was it. But the next alpha test wants to make your location matter, and the key to that is placing resources there. Yes, that's the big change coming with the next major […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 284: Mommy, don't let them take my Fortnite away
Justin and Bree discuss Final Fantasy XIV 5.3, City of Heroes Homecoming, Daybreak buying Cold Iron, WoW Shadowlands' prepatch, EVE Echoes' launch, Epic's lawsuit, and the passing of Meridian 59's Brian Grene, with adventures in Valiance Online, LOTRO, and The Sims 4, plus a mailbag topic on industry stress for devs.
Neverwinter kicks off a special new sort of campaign with the Redeemed Citadel today
The latest patch for Neverwinter is delivering a different sort of content for players to take part in. It's a campaign, of sorts, but it isn't approached via the usual campaign interface or with the usual personal progress. Instead, this campaign is all about the entire server coming together in order to work on the […]
Guild Wars 2 has a bunch of sweet anniversary gifts in store for MMO players next week
It's hard to believe Guild Wars 2 is going on eight years old, but we'll roll with it if it means a pile of anniversary and birthday presents for super old toons, and it most certainly does! ArenaNet posted a full list of the gifts we can expect this year; for accounts, we're looking at… […]
Blade & Soul shows off a plethora of summer events starting August 19
There are swimsuits. There will always be swimsuits. Did you think that Blade & Soul, a game with lady characters who are 60% leg by volume and wherein everyone appears to have a layer of oil helpfully applied at all times, would run out of swimsuits? Of course there are swimsuits with the new Summer […]
Torchlight III confirms fall launch window – and Nintendo Switch release
We've been wondering when exactly Torchlight III would launch, especially given its de-MMO-ification and multiple delays throughout development. And technically, we still don't have a hard date, even now that the game's last big test patch and early access wipe are behind us. But today, PWE and Echtra Games have re-confirmed a fall launch, on […]
MMO Business Roundup: Gamers have launched a new class action gambling lawsuit against EA
Welcome back to another roundup of MMO and online games industry news. There's a new class action in town, and EA is the target. Plaintiff Kevin Ramirez's suit claims that the Ultima Team Packs in the FIFA and Madden franchise titles are "predatory and designed to entice gamers to gamble" and "nothing more than a […]
Path of Exile's newest patch finally turns down the bloom (and lets you turn it down further)
Depending on your personal experiences with Path of Exile, the newest patch either adds a largely irrelevant bit of graphical change or will finally provide some sweet, sweet relief from that eye-bleeding syndrome that seems to be everywhere there's bright colors and flashes of random light. Yes, the game's designers have pushed a patch that […]
Global Chat: Getting an early look at Crowfall's beta
Now that Crowfall's beta is on the scene, plenty of curious gamers are streaming in to see what ArtCraft's ambitious PvP title has to offer. Among those looky-loos is Stargrace at Nomadic Gamers, who found herself "pleasantly surprised" at what the initially encountered. "It has been MANY years since I delved into a new-to-me traditional […]
Elite Dangerous previews Odyssey's atmospheric planets in new dev video
Back at the top of June, Frontier announced that the massive Elite Dangerous expansion it's been working on for ages is called Odyssey, coming in early 2021. The expansion's headline feature is a form of "space legs" that allows players to touch down on the surfaces of the planets they've already been touring with their […]
Steam's new TOS cracks down on devs using it to promote other platforms
Point your eyeballs at what Valve is up to with Steam: It's apparently trying to bar developers from using Steam to advertise, for example, their entry on the Epic Games Store, but the new policy actually seems to include much more than that. "In the game you ship via Steam, and in communications on Steam, […]
New World is already gearing up for its 'preview event' next week
As August marches onward, New World fans are eagerly anticipating the promised preview event launching on August 25th, which will let in all the folks who've signed up for the beta, participated in past alphas, or pre-ordered the game. August 25th, of course, was meant to be the game's launch date this summer, but Amazon […]
Apple's retaliatory measures against Epic Games threaten Unreal Engine, not just Fortnite
As we've been covering, Epic Games is suing Apple and Google for "unfair and anti-competitive actions" as to their payment markets, over which Apple and Google banned Fortnite when Epic tried to implement its own payment system. Epic sought injunctive relief from the courts, not monetary damages, in an apparent attempt to force movement on […]
EVE Online's weeks-long player war has cost players over $112,000 so far
For over six weeks now, one of EVE Online's largest and bloodiest battles has been waging across the game's galaxy. World War Bee is shaping up to be one for the record books, with "upwards of 130,000 players" participating and $112,000 of virtual assets reduced to space dust. One reason for the high price tag […]
Closers Online's developer is taking over operation following En Masse's collapse
Following the shocking announcement yesterday that MMO developer and publisher En Masse Entertainment is closing its doors, it's only natural to wonder what will become of its games. This morning, we have word that one title — Closers Online — is going to be just fine. On Closers' site, the team announced that the game's […]
The Daily Grind: What's the most annoying travel system in an MMO?
A while back, I finally talked my husband into buying his Elf Warden a basic Hobbit house in Lord of the Rings Online. He did not actually want a house, and so far as I know, he hasn't actually ventured inside or put down a single piece of deco. No, what helped me convince him […]
The Dawngate revival project Kickstarter has funded
We realize this one might be a slightly controversial statement, but we're going to say it anyhow: 2020 has been a weird year. It's been so weird that the fact that a revival Kickstarter for a shuttered MOBA funding successfully may not even break the top 10 for weirdness in this particular year. All of […]
RuneScape takes its community award show online
Considering that RuneFest isn't going to happen this year, Jagex has been looking at other ways to celebrate RuneScape's community. To wit, the studio is taking its community award show completely online this year — and is looking for nominations for the best content creators. "Obviously in this era of COVID-19, things will be a […]
Mad World says it's still on track for a 2020 release
As we noticed back in May, promotion and public updates for Jandisoft's Mad World has all but slowed down to a standstill. This is especially curious considering that the studio had previously said that the grimdark MMO was going to release in 2020, already a delay from its initial 2018 planned launch. So what's the […]
Starbase previews fleet PvP tourney video, works on player progression and exploration design
It's been months since we checked in on Starbase directly rather in our weekly roundup, so we're going to do just that today and bump it back up to the attention of our readers. First announced last year by Finnish studio Frozenbyte, Starbase is the upcoming "massively multiplayer online game with gameplay focused on building […]
Dark Age of Camelot prepares to repossess a lot of abandoned houses
If you've got some property in Dark Age of Camelot that you haven't visited in a while, you might want to make a trip back home to keep it from being taken away from you. Broadsword is preparing a massive repossession of abandoned houses in DAoC come Patch 1.127, which is currently in testing. This […]
TERA and Closers studio En Masse Entertainment is closing its doors (but the games will survive)
I kinda can't believe I'm typing this, but it appears that En Masse Entertainment, which has run TERA here in North America for the last eight years and has been a going concern for the last 11, just announced that it's closing its studio doors. "Today, it is with a heavy heart that we begin […]
