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 […]
Black Desert celebrates the 2020 Termian Water Park grand opening with an in-game event
Few things say "summertime" quite like a water park, and seeing as how the pandemic is kind of killing the joy a real-life water park's opening would bring this season, the GM's of Black Desert are doing the next best thing: hosting an in-game grand opening event for the Termian Water Park. The event will […]
WRUP: Eliot's power is still kaput, so behold, I am Eliot now
The part of Eliot in today's WRUP will be played by Bree. Unfortunately, Bree is not nearly as funny as Eliot and is very bad at writing bizarre and unexpected WRUP introductions, so you can go into the comments down below and leave Eliot a message about how much you hope his annoying city fixes […]
The Daily Grind: What older MMO feature deserves some dev love?
Lately I've been enjoying myself a big ol' dose of Star Wars: The Old Republic. I don't do boosts in that game, so I started over with a new Bounty Hunter to enjoy the class story all over again. And as I am going through this journey, I'm reminded of what a missed opportunity these […]
The Stream Team: The Shroud of SWTOR
Massively OP's Larry thinks MJ could do with some more chaos in her life, so he's introducing her to The Shroud in SWTOR (who just happens to be a technological agent of chaos!). Since the Empire cannot figure out what he wants, it's up to these two to solve his puzzles and discover where he's […]
Betawatch: Here comes Crowfall's beta
Five years since its Kickstarter, Crowfall is finally entering beta next week! That's good news for backers and even better for MMO PvP fans looking for something to keep them occupied for the rest of the summer. Elsewhere in beta-land… Star Citizen moved into alpha 3.10. EverQuest II launched its open beta for Reignite the Flames. […]
Destiny 2's Solstice of Heroes late summer event returns next week
If you're still sulking because Bungie delayed Destiny 2's Beyond Light expansion from September to November, well, there's a little something you can do in the meantime as Solstice of Heroes returns next week to cap off the summer. "With the Solstice of Heroes returns the European Aerial Zone (EAZ), where Guardians will take on […]
OrbusVR uncaps Explore the Realm event totals, is adding long-term missions and temporary bracers
Virtual reality MMO OrbusVR is introducing a couple of new things to the game world according to a rcent newsletter. Most recently, the Explore the Realm event will see the weekly resource and monster totals remove their caps, meaning players can harvest as many resources and slay as many critters as they want to facilitate […]
Guild Wars 2 is adding new underwater functionality for Skimmer mounts August 25
If you ever thought Guild Wars 2's graceful water-based mount, the Skimmer, looked more like something that should be flitting about under the ocean than hovering over it, you aren't alone. However, it appears that is set to change on August 25th, when ArenaNet will be adding a new mastery to the Skimmer that will […]
Co-op RPG Swords 'n Magic and Stuff arrives to Steam Early Access on September 8
Are you prepared for low-poly adorable adventure? You should be when Swords 'n Magic and Stuff makes its way to Steam Early Access about a month from now on Tuesday, September 8th, an announcement that was shared with a new trailer. The trailer provides a look at the whimsical fantasy world of the game, highlighting […]
Grand Theft Auto Online gets new missions, new vehicles, new racing events, and a racing event editor on August 11
Well, it looks like Rockstar Games has stopped being vague about what's next for Grand Theft Auto Online. Tuesday, August 11th, will see the Los Santos Summer Special arrive to the multiplayer open world, bringing along with it a whole bunch of activities for players to take part in. For those who own the Galaxy […]
GDC Summer 2020: Gachapon reward models in (mostly) free-to-play games
Let's be real: Some of the panel titles at GDC Summer 2020 are unintentionally misleading. For example, the "Evolution of Gacha Systems in Mobile Free to Play Games" panel by indie game designer and psychology-specced Dr. Jakub Remiar talked less about the history of gacha systems and more about the various models of gachapon rewards. […]
Star Trek Online gives out free Lower Decks duty officers, starts summer event
This week, Star Trek's newest TV series debuted. But instead of it being a serious, live-action show, Star Trek: Lower Decks is an animated comedy that looks at the antics of second-shift crew on a second-tier starship. It's also an opportunity for Star Trek Online, which has to be giddy with all the potential crossovers […]
GDC Summer 2020: Pokemon Go's Niantic offers augmented reality design advice
I was really looking forward to Niantic's AR Game Design 101 panel at GDC Summer 2020 this week because for all my criticisms of the company and its games, I really do respect the fact that there's at least one big company to point to in the augmented reality field. Especially with COVID keeping people […]
Star Citizen espouses the virtues of PTU testing, takes a look at cargo deck progress, new weapons, and fires
The weekly video from Star Citizen is online with another bundle of new details for fans to digest. At least, the second half of the video does; the first part is mostly talking about how PTU feedback helps development of the game overall and alpha 3.10 in specific. Which is nice to hear, but also […]
GDC Summer 2020: What online gaming can (and should) learn from social media's trainwrecks
The circle is now complete: Social media has mastered skills MMOs and online games haven't, not that social media was paying much attention to the fact many of its problems were problems from MMOs, MUDs, and other online games first. That doesn't mean it's too late for game devs, though. Daniel Kelley, the Associate Director […]
Final Fantasy XI's Voracious Resurgence arc is live as Square teases the Sunbreeze Festival
The devs of Final Fantasy XI don't seem to really appreciate what "maintenance mode" is understood to mean, judging by the new pieces of content arriving to the game. First off is some patch notes for the latest version update, which saw the opening step of The Voracious Resurgence story arc yesterday while the rest […]
Guild Wars 2 is planning some quality-of-life changes for Drizzlewood Coast next week
The Drizzlewood Coast map and its associated metas have been the subject of chatter in the Guild Wars 2 for months now, as players have stumbled trying to effectively complete the events crowning the pair of episodes that added them. Fortunately, ArenaNet has been listening and is taking action on one of the sticking points. […]
Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen offers dates and details of a systems test ahead of pre-alpha
A pre-test "shakeout" before the next pre-alpha is happening in Pantheon: Rise of the Fallen, which seems redundant, but it's better than not having things ready to go before the full-scale pre-alpha. At least, that's the reasoning given by the devs, which explains that show stopper features of pre-alpha 5 need to be tested to […]
Kickstarted PvP MMORPG Crowfall just announced it's launching beta next week
Big news coming out of Crowfall this morning, as ArtCraft has just announced that it's marching right up to its next milestone, with a beta planned to open up on August 11th. The studio says that's when "the first invites will be sent to those in the early Beta groups," referring to backers. Yes, folks, […]
Temtem is headed to PS5, XBXS, and the Switch, not just PC, when it launches next year
Still got your eye on Temtem? The totally-not-Pokemon MMO hit early access earlier this year, with plans to formally launch next summer, and as of yesterday, Spanish studio Crema Games revealed that it's got plans even bigger than just a PC launch. "Today, at the Sony State of Play event, Humble Games and Crema announced […]
LOTRO and DDO re-enables character transfers, Wayfinder suffers three-week rollback [Updated]
We've got a bit of good news, bad news, and really bad news for those looking to hop servers in Lord of the Rings Online and Dungeons and Dragons Online. Yes, you can once again pay to move your character between active servers, but no, your characters on dead worlds are still in virtual limbo. […]
The Daily Grind: What MMO offered the best beta experience?
This week, MMO players have been talking about a game – and also not talking about a game. New World's beta weekend has been keeping us buzzing all week, but since this latest version is under NDA, most of the first-hand experiences being posted in public (even the good ones) are being made anonymously to […]
