The Stream Team: Celebrating Aion's 11th birthday
Aion holds a very special place in Massively OP's MJ's heart; after all, it's what brought her to MOP! So of course she wants to be on hand to celebrate this beautiful world's 11th birthday. Tune in live at 8:00 p.m. as Massively OP's Stream Team brings you a birthday celebration in Atreia. What: Aion […]
RuneScape adds new Lunar spells, launches a fresh Yak Track, and announces Golden Gnome finalists
This week in RuneScape brings yet another cornucopia of… stuff. It's another update post and it's once again all over the map, but it also has a variety of interesting adjustments and events for players to absorb. For example: The Ninjas have added four new Lunar spells that should make a number of rote tasks […]
Legends of Aria looks back at the summer PvP arena season and notes adjustments due for next season
The PvP arena is nearly closed for the summer in Legends of Aria, and so it's time to take stock of how things went for the inaugural season. A post on the game's website does just that, outlining the winners for the 1v1, 2v2, and 3v3 arena brackets and sharing an infographic that outlines the […]
League of Legends introduces Samira the Desert Rose to the roster
If you think a bit of Dante from Devil May Cry is missing in your MOBA, then you might want to consider offering a look at Samira, the latest champion added to League of Legends. Especially if you're the kind of player who likes to rack up combos. As we outlined before when she quietly […]
Massively OP Podcast Episode 289: Microsoft and Bethesda sitting in a tree
Justin and Bree discuss Microsoft's acquisition of ZeniMax and Bethsoft, Fallout 76, Conan Exiles, Elder Scrolls Online, Echo of Soul, Phantasy Star Online 2, Final Fantasy XVI, and Crowfall, with adventures in WoW and SWG Legends, plus a mailbag topic on FOMO marketing tactics in MMOs.
Pokemon Go continues Mega Events, celebrates fashion week with pokemon in top hats
Pokemon Go is embarking on the final part of the Mega September events we've previously covered, once again promoting its controversial Mega Evolution feature. Fortunately for players, the last and current event awards Mega Beedrill Energy, so if you want to participate and have a Mega Bee (or any Mega evolution) follow you around for 12 […]
Aion invites players to celebrate its 11-year anniversary through October
Hold on a moment. Eleven years of Aion? That can't be right, it was new when I started working in this field, it can't have been… oh. Oh no. Oh no. It is right, the game has been running for 11 years in North America. My life. What happened to my life? Um. Right. Anniversary […]
Shroud of the Avatar offers a sneak peek at a new adventure scene and crafting station surface decorations
It's been a couple of weeks since we looked at the newsletter updates from Shroud of the Avatar, so allow us to bundle up the past couple of highlights from the past couple of Avatar's Update missives. First up, we've got a new adventure scene offered to Episode 2 Access owners called The Well of […]
EverQuest II kicks off a prelude event for its next expansion and brings back Days of Summer for subscribers
Yup, EverQuest II is going to be expanding once again, and while players aren't getting a lot of details about this expansion yet, there is going to be some preparation to do in-game with a Haven Bound prelude event. Players are being asked to help the Luclinites reclaim the ancient city of Fordel Midst in […]
Path of Exile adjusts rogue equipment, alert levels, and chokepoints in Heist
Killing monsters no longer raises the alert level in Path of Exile as you roll through Heist content. Yes, this means that your heists will be more violent. That's how things are going now, it seems. Just go with it and enjoy all of the bliss of going in for a heist with swords blazing. […]
Star Citizen devs offer alpha 3.10 postmortem, consider nerfs and 'power triangle' tweaks
It appears that 3.10 is truly in the rearview mirror of Star Citizen, but that doesn't mean that the team at CIG hasn't learned a thing or two as a result of the features that the update added. For proof of that, we turn to a postmortem shared by the devs that outlines goals for […]
EVE Online players submitted over 41M classifications to fight COVID for CCP's latest Project Discovery initiative
What's better than a science MMO story or a feel-good MMO story? One that's both. And this one is both, as EVE Online and CCP Games have officially announced the next phase of Project Discovery, the citizen science campaign it's been waging to reward EVE players for helping in actual, real-world science projects. Having previously […]
Choose My Adventure: Wurm Online is not for me, and that's OK
Wurm Online has made me feel the most noobish I've ever felt in an MMORPG in ages even after the tutorial. A tutorial that, by the way, I did indeed do; it's literally impossible not to do the tutorial. I couldn't get in to a different island until I got through the tutorial. The tutorial was done.
Riot Games-backed afrofantasy MMO The Wagadu Chronicles just went live on Kickstarter
MMO developer Alexander Zacherl kindly put this game on our radar today, and it couldn't be more timely, given that this summer's swelling of support for Black Lives Matter initiatives prompted many people to seek out Black creators and media and games to patronize. The game's called The Wagadu Chronicles, and as presented in its […]
Interview: Final Fantasy XIV's Naoki Yoshida on home development, future villains, and the big changes in patch 5.3
The story of Final Fantasy XIV: Shadowbringers got a pretty explosive sendoff in patch 5.3, which brought several major plotlines to their conclusion and set up the next portion of the game's ongoing story. It was major, it was epic, and it was big enough that a lot of players were still left somewhat staggered […]
Star Trek Online offers players a buyout option for advancing reputations
If you're a new player in Star Trek Online, there are a lot of reputations to level up once you get to a sufficient level. If you're a veteran player who took a break, there may still be a lot of reputations for you to level just to catch up. The bright side of the […]
World of Warcraft's void cat Jenafur is found at long last, as is the currency option from the Great Vault in Shadowlands
Players in World of Warcraft sure do love their kitty cats, even the ones that periodically sprout void tendrils. That's what Jenafur does, a kitty who has long stymied the game's secret-finding community as players have searched for how to obtain Jenafur as a pet. But the secret has been uncovered, with a new video […]
Dungeons and Dragons Online postpones its level cap increase
In a year of many game and project delays, one more isn't surprising — even though it isn't welcome to hear. So bad news, Dungeons and Dragons Online players: You're not getting that level cap increase that Standing Stone Games promised earlier this year. At least, you're not getting it right now. Pointing to the […]
EVE Online's Rolling Thunder update arrives today
There's nothing worse than spending all sorts of time and resources to acquire something you think will be cool… but turns out to be a bit of a dud instead. For EVE Online players who might feel a little let down by the performance of their EDENCOM ships, they should be pleased to hear that […]
The Daily Grind: What location in your favorite MMO have you only recently discovered?
Until last week, somehow I had heard of the Agrilat Swamp but never actually visited it in Star Wars Galaxies. SWG Legends' @RoarAshley tweeted an image of it last week and my jaw dropped. How in the heck have I been playing this game the better part of my whole adult life without ever noticing […]
The Stream Team: Pulling off a Path of Exile Heist
Last time, Massively OP's MJ prepared for her first heist in Heist by leveling up a new chaos-centered Witch in Path of Exile. Now, it's time to pull it off! She's about to set off for Rogue Harbor to find a job and gather some hirelings. Join us live at 8:00 p.m. to see if […]
Pixel art 2-D MMORPG Naïca kicks off open beta on November 10
We've been peering in on the progress of Naïca on a couple of occasions now in our usual roundup of obscure MMOs, noting the 2-D MMORPG's variety of features like PvE and PvP content, "adaptive" classes, and cross-platform play on PC, iOS, and Android. If any of those reports have stoked curiosity, then you'll have […]
Shadow Arena introduces a team deathmatch mode and a Rookie Battle Pass on PC
The primary point of playing Shadow Arena is, presumably, to get some fantastical battle royale gaming in. But then Pearl Abyss stopped and said "What about deathmatch?" So with the latest update on PC, that's just what players have gotten: team deathmatch mode. This really is about as simple as it gets in terms of […]
Sea of Thieves summarizes practically every feature available to players in 2020
It's been a long couple of years since Sea of Thieves, Rare's foray into the online multiplayer world, arrived. Naturally, there's been quite a few changes and updates since then, so the devs have released a handy little summary video detailing what awaits. And what awaits is enough to fill about 18 minutes of video. […]
Warframe begins the Great Ensmallening, adjusts Xaku on PC, talks future updates
Oh look, there's another bundle of Warframe things going on. Let's hop in! Players on PC are now able to enjoy a fresh update that, among other things, begins the process of "ensmallening," makes some tweaks to the Xaku frame, adds some snakeskin cosmetics to the Necramech and Voidrig among a variety of other skins, and […]
Blizzard outlines World of Warcraft Shadowlands prepatch changes, announces BlizzConline for February 2021
The one thing that basically everyone playing World of Warcraft wants to know right now is when the prepatch for Shadowlands will arrive. Thus, it makes perfect sense that the latest update from Blizzard is lacking exactly that information. Instead, players will just have to guess that "soon" means "next week or the week after," since most of the […]
Path of Exile's first week of Heist content went pretty well
The first week of running away like you stole something in Path of Exile has gone pretty well! It turns out that the Heist launch was largely successful, with just a couple of minor hotfix patches along the way. Console players will thus be happy to know that the update is arriving on September 23rd for […]
Destiny 2 outlines customizable Ghost boons arriving with Beyond Light
Most Destiny 2 players are familiar with their Ghost, the helpful little robot friend that mostly helps players respawn when they die and sometimes needs to be protected from enemy waves while scanning a macguffin. When the Beyond Light expansion arrives, Ghosts will be capable of a lot more thanks to some new customization features. […]
Conan Exiles adds a bunch of new servers for Asia and Europe to meet Isle of Siptah demand
Even though the Isle of Siptah expansion is only in early access, and for only about a week at that, it's still garnering a whole lot of interest from players of the survival sandbox, especially in Asia and Europe. As a result of this interest, Funcom has announced that several new servers are opening for […]
Titan Reach patches in combat stances and a map as its crowdfunding continues
The earliest chunk of money in any Kickstarter is always the hardest. (Trust us, we know.) Titan Reach, which you may recall is promising a modern take on an old-school MMORPG, has passed just over the $80,000 mark on a total ask around $430,000 (we're converting here from Australian dollars, so the numbers are more even […]
World of Warcraft raises a mug to Brewfest 2020
October, as we all well know, is home to one of the greatest MMO holidays of all time. No, not that silly one with bats and witches; the one with hearty ALE and lowered INHIBITIONS. We're talking Brewfest, baby. World of Warcraft's ode to Oktoberfest has arrived in the game world, giving players a couple […]
Fight or Kite: Spellbreak's epic combat and classes set it far apart from the battle royale pack
Another week, another battle royale arrives at my doorstep, this time with a subtle but sweet note attached: Please kind sir, take it in, and treat it like family. I must admit I've never been one for tending to young 'uns, but this one here seems to have caught my attention. Maybe I'm getting old, maybe […]
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts says the game's economy simulation tech is still a ways off
Star Citizen's Chris Roberts, bleary-eyed and exhausted from the self-reported "running a company of 630 people spread around the globe, while directing two projects [which] already takes way more than 40 hours a week," thought to himself, "What if I open an AMA but I only answer one question that others vote up and as […]
Wisdom of Nym: So… what if our last expansion is Final Fantasy XIV: Nextpack?
Oh, yes, that's confirmed. The next Final Fantasy XIV expansion is entitled Nextpack, leading players to adventures in Land Mass, encountering the beast tribes First Animal and Second Animal, fighting the primals Series Reference and New Character with the help of new jobs Healer and Magical DPS Or Melee DPS. I'm looking forward to our showdown with […]
Sony admits PlayStation 5 pre-orders 'could have been smoother,' promises more consoles through year's end
If you were among those who took part in the pre-order blitz for the PlayStation 5 and found things far from well handled, then perhaps it's reassuring to note that Sony agrees with you. But more importantly, the company promises that it will be releasing more PS5 consoles to retailers for pre-order in the next […]
Epic ends support for Fortnite: Save the World on Mac because Apple won't sign patch updates
The saga of Epic and Apple's legal spat has once more applied a ripple effect to players, this time to Fortnite's PvE mode Save the World. According to a post this past Thursday, Apple is preventing Epic Games from signing updates and releasing fixes when applying the game's latest update, and so Epic is ending […]
Microsoft just bought ZeniMax, Bethsoft, and Elder Scrolls Online's ZOS for $7.5B
Here's your Monday bombshell: Microsoft announced this morning that it has acquired ZeniMax Media – and therefore Bethesda Softworks and ZeniMax Online Studios and all its franchises and games, including the ones near and dear to us, Elder Scrolls Online and Fallout 76. "Today is a special day, as we welcome some of the most […]
Lord of the Rings Online celebrates Bilbo's Birthday, hedges on mini-expansion specifics
Tomorrow is September 22nd, which is a significant date for Lord of the Rings Online players. It's the date of both Bilbo and Frodo Baggins' birthday, which is the event that kicks off the book trilogy. In the MMO itself, the birthday is a small but fun event that involves solving riddles and getting a […]
The Daily Grind: What's your 'palate cleanser' MMO or MMO zone?
A few weeks back, Justin said something on the MOP Podcast that stuck with me. He was talking about how he liked to go back to Hoth on Star Wars: The Old Republic because it was like a visual palate cleanser. Instead of seeming bleak or empty, instead it made him feel calm after other […]
MMO Week in Review: Final Fantasy XVI's sweet sixteen
Square-Enix raised eyebrows this week with the announcement of Final Fantasy XVI – and the revelation that FFXIV's Naoki Yoshida will be attempting to work on both games. Of course, we don't know whether the new game is an MMO just yet, but that just makes room for lots of speculation in the meantime. Meanwhile, […]
Voxelbox MMO Elteria Adventures provides a roadmap of its next four 'mega patches'
Elteria Adventures, the cutesy voxelbox MMO of "creative freedom," has offered up a look ahead to its next major content updates, aka mega patches, each bringing new areas, items, and more for players to explore. The first patch, Faldaren Renewed, introduces a new tutorial chapter and a refreshed first story chapter, as well as hammer, […]
The MOP Up: Razer accidentally exposes 100,000 consumer accounts
Razer, a popular provider of gaming hardware, joined the notorious list of companies that accidentally exposed their consumer's personal information to the world. While credit card info and passwords were not shared, 100,000 customers had other details revealed. "Names, phone numbers, e-mail addresses, billing addresses, shipping addresses, and details on what people bought were all […]
MMOs You've Never Heard Of: LiteBringer, SamuTale, IcarusM, Stellar Warfare, Primordials of Amyrion, A3, Raid Shadow Legends, Second Extinction
Welcome back to another roundup of MMOs and MMO-adjacent games you've probably never heard of (or have entirely forgotten about). LiteBringer: Tibia fans who aren't opposed to BitCoin titles might want to take a peek at LiteBringer, a CipSoft MMO with a Tibia-development pedigree. This online RPG's built with an "unapologetic" (their word) use of […]
Jukebox Heroes: LOTRO's Great Wedding soundtrack
One reason why I keep highlighting Lord of the Rings Online patch soundtracks in this space is that the studio actually makes an effort to post its music out there. That's fairly rare in the MMO space, much to my annoyance, considering how much excellent work is done by composers for new updates to these […]
Phantasy Star Online 2 to reveal New Genesis info and footage next week
With the Tokyo Game Show preparing to fill up our feeds next week, SEGA is eager to get as many eyeballs as possible on the next iteration of Phantasy Star Online 2. The studio announced that it's going to be revealing details about the New Genesis revamp at the show and officially introducing it to […]
One Shots: Unholy abominations
We may view them as horrible monsters who are standing between us and our precious loot, but have you ever considered life — such as it is — from their perspective? Nobody finds them desirable, they're forced to live in dank places, and imminent death comes rushing at them from every corner. Have pity on […]
The Daily Grind: Is personal challenge or group challenge more important to you in an MMO?
In any kind of MMO, there are a lot of different challenges to endure. They do, however, tend to split a fair bit between personal challenge or group challenge, regardless of whether the content is done in a group or solo. A personal challenge means that the difficulty and the penalty entirely falls on you; for example, if […]
Make My MMO: Titan Reach and Ilysia head to Kickstarter
This week in MMO crowdfunding, Titan Reach kicked off its Kickstarter, seeking $428,000 US to fund a modern take on an "old-school" MMO set in a skill-centric, massive fantasy world. It's actually pulled in around $80,000 already, with 26 days yet to go. It's also sweetened some of its reward tiers. Meanwhile, Camelot Unchained resumed […]
Battle Bards Episode 177: Gone with the wind
As the weather howls and gusts around us, the Battle Bards stand in the middle of it all with their heads lifted up, listening to the music that rides on the breeze. In this episode, Syl, Steff, and Syp examine wind-themed tracks from MMORPGs. Will they find all of the wind's colors? Probably not, but […]
Star Wars: The Old Republic will be adding a new tier of augments with its next update
The tippy-top end of power in Star Wars: The Old Republic is due to change with the release of update 6.1.4 according to an announcement post made by design director Chris Schmidt, which explains that there will soon be a new tier of augments for players to chase. These new augments will require materials from […]
